Adopting a coaching mindset can transform HR practitioners into strategic connectors who empower others while navigating complex workplace challenges.

A critical aspect of any HR practitioner’s role is to establish themselves as a trusted advisor within their organisation. This involves being recognised as collaborative, pragmatic and a connector who bridges and aligns different parts of the business.

However, this role goes beyond simply relaying information between business units. HR practitioners should serve as strategic connectors within the organisation, using coaching to guide stakeholders toward outcomes that drive business success.

In my experience working in HR for large organisations such as Accenture, Deloitte, Grant Thornton and KPMG, I often found that HR practitioners tended to lean into their technical expertise when stakeholders seek out their advice. 

HR practitioners are, by nature, highly adept at problem-solving, and there is certainly a time and place for this. However, being able to utilise a coaching approach is often a far more effective way to see the full picture and enable other stakeholders to problem solve without pulling HR into the weeds.

In my role as a course facilitator with AHRI, I am helping practitioners to develop these skills via a short course on how to enhance your growth mindset, which has been designed in line with the Australian HR Capability Framework.

Below, I’ve shared a snippet of some of the insights I share with course participants to help them incorporate coaching skills into their everyday work interactions.

A transferable skillset

By adopting a coaching mindset, HR practitioners can demonstrate their value as strategic advisors and enablers, no matter the context. Coaching skills don’t just help in HR – it’s a mindset that amplifies your impact across the entire business.

For example, consider how these skills can enhance your interactions with key stakeholders:

• Supporting line managers: When line managers face challenges with their teams, a coaching mindset helps you guide them to discover their own solutions, rather than relying solely on HR for directives. This not only fosters their growth but also reduces dependency on HR for routine problem-solving.
• Collaborating with senior leaders: Coaching skills allow you to influence effectively by understanding senior leaders’ perspectives before presenting your recommendations. By asking open-ended questions, you gather valuable insights that ensure your solutions align with their strategic goals.
• Facilitating cross-functional initiatives: Many HR practitioners are involved in projects that cut across departments, such as implementing new systems or driving cultural change. A coaching approach promotes collaboration, ensures diverse voices are heard, and helps stakeholders arrive at shared solutions.
• Driving employee development: Coaching conversations can be used to help employees identify their strengths, career aspirations and areas for growth. This is particularly powerful in performance reviews or one-on-one discussions where the goal is to empower employees to take ownership of their development.
• Conflict resolution: In situations where there’s tension between team members or departments, a coaching mindset helps uncover the root causes of the conflict. Asking open-ended questions like, “What’s important to you in resolving this?” or “What do you think is the best way forward?” can lead to constructive dialogue and resolution.

From fixing to asking

One of the first stages of developing a coaching mindset is to move away from the natural tendency to jump into fix-it mode – which can be a common default for the highly compassionate people who are drawn to the HR practice – to a more curious and open mindset.

“We need to embrace listening to learn. This requires self-awareness to recognise unhelpful listening habits and a willingness to accept that you might leave a conversation without offering any advice or solutions.”

We often default to providing solutions rather than adopting a coaching approach because of time pressures. When someone comes to you with a problem, it can feel quicker and easier to offer a solution on the spot. However, this approach doesn’t benefit anyone in the long run – least of all the HR practitioner, who becomes the go-to for solving every complex business challenge, creating a cycle of dependency.

I’m a big fan of Michael Bungay Stanier’s work in this space. Bungay Stanier encourages us to “stay curious for longer” and warns that when we jump into fix-it mode, we’re often solving the wrong issue, as we haven’t asked enough questions to first learn the true root of the issue.

To remedy this, he suggests asking a series of questions – which you can read about in this HRMOnline article – that will help you to “tame your advice-giving monster” and better understand where you can provide value to the person you’re supporting.

This approach empowers HR practitioners to position themselves differently within the business. Instead of being seen as the technical problem-solver, you’re equipping and enabling managers to come to the solutions themselves, positioning yourself as the enabler.

This isn’t to say that HR should never problem solve. In many respects, this is an important part of our job. We just need to determine when a directive approach works best versus when a coaching mindset will serve all stakeholders better.

For example, let’s consider an HR Business Partner who is working with a team leader who has flagged concerns about one of their team who has performance issues and is still within their probation period. 

A typical approach that some HRBPs might take is to launch into a checklist of items: You need to have a probation check-n several times before their probation runs out; you need to make it clear that they might not pass probation; you need to offer them to bring a support person into the meeting, etc.

If the HRBP had a coaching mindset, they would ask instead of tell. They might ask questions like:

• What are your concerns?
• How long have you felt like this?
• How has the person responded to feedback?
• What are you thinking of doing next?
  

By taking this approach, you gain a deeper understanding of the situation and, in some cases, uncover alternatives the manager might not have considered, such as redeployment within the business or offering a training or mentoring opportunity instead of termination.

Through your questioning, you might discover that the manager hasn’t conducted a check-in with the employee. Encouraging them to do so could reveal underlying issues, such as personal challenges affecting the employee’s performance. 

Addressing these issues could lead to significant improvement, allowing the employee to thrive and become a productive, valued team member.

An influencing tool

Developing your coaching skills is also highly beneficial when you need to flex your influencing muscles. 

For example, if you adopt the approach of being curious and asking questions when a senior executive comes to you with a problem, you can learn more about their context and what it is they are feeling challenged by. 

This approach involves suspending our own perspective and judgement and leaning into understanding where the senior executive is coming from and what they are grappling with. This is not easy to do, but becomes more natural with practice. 

Then when it comes time to respond, you can address the things they are concerned about, rather than assuming. By asking non-judgmental, open, curious questions you can gain data and insights that you can work with to shift how you offer feedback or communicate options with them to move things forward. 

Everyone likes to be heard, by using coaching skills you are demonstrating your interest and attention in the senior executives’ problem, which is the first step in them being open to receiving your suggestions and proposed solutions. This is key for influencing and being seen as credible. 

Listening to learn

One of the key things that we explore in my AHRI short course is different ways of listening. 

We often make the assumption that there are only two types of listening: active and passive listening. People often think that in order to be a good coach, you always need to be in active listening mode – what you think of when you imagine a psychologist conducting a session with a client.

But it’s actually more important to understand what your default listening style is. For example, do you unintentionally slip into listening to interrupt with a point as soon as it comes into our mind, or listening to respond, listening to fix, listening to move someone along?

We need to embrace listening to learn. This requires self-awareness to recognise unhelpful listening habits and a willingness to accept that you might leave a conversation without offering any advice or solutions – yet still provide significant value to the stakeholder through the interaction.

It’s also important to have a few questions in your back pocket that you can get comfortable using in your everyday interactions with stakeholders. For example, that could look like:

• Why does this feel important to you?
• What have you tried so far?
• What are you really struggling with?
• What other options can you think of?
• Which of those options feels the most appealing? Why?
• What might get in the way?
• How are you feeling about the situation now?

In today’s complex workplace, where no single solution fits all, embracing a coaching mindset equips HR practitioners to navigate challenges with empathy and insight. 

By adopting this approach, HR practitioners can empower others, drive organisational growth and redefine their roles as strategic enablers, which is an important next step for our profession.

Joanne Hood is the Executive Director of People and Culture at Empatia and an executive coach at Tolycab. She previously worked as an HR generalist for companies including Deloitte, KPMG, Accenture and Grant Thornton. She is also the facilitator of AHRI’s new short course Enhancing your Coaching Mindset.