Tom Newton is an executive coach with 30 years of experience. As head of Trillium Executive Coaching, he emphasizes the universal challenges of leadership and team management. “The people and the challenges are the same,” he says. “The challenges of leading a team and navigating through the complexities of changing environments are always the same.”
Newton distinguishes coaching from mentoring and consulting by focusing on open-ended questions and confidentiality, which foster both performance and responsibility. When a person takes on new or expanded responsibilities, “the challenges of navigating that new team—managing and leading—are always paramount,” he says. The pressure to perform and meet targets can be overwhelming.
Often, Newton observes, people feel they must be the solution provider for others, believing they need to have all the answers. “I like to use a metaphor: imagine walking up a mountain with a full backpack. What’s in their backpack?”
This “backpack” includes the weight of team responsibilities and individual roles within the team. Newton explains that in some company cultures, employees can become accustomed to asking their boss how to handle certain aspects of their role. “A leader might say, ‘Let me show you how to do this,’ or ‘Let me tell you how to handle this.’ That can be enticing for the boss, because they get to share their knowledge.”
However, this dynamic can lead to dependence, where the leader takes on the burden of solving problems instead of encouraging independence. Newton equates this to putting more weight back into the boss’s “backpack.”
Coaching, he explains, provides a confidential environment that, by asking those open-ended questions, can prompt individuals to reflect inwardly and help them unpack and share responsibilities.
