#7 Learning – A coaching superpower for leading teams

Hi, we’re Helen and Cathryn. We work closely with leaders and teams, and we know that leaders face an array of challenges. We’re sharing a series of 10 coaching superpowers for leaders to experiment with. 

We’ve broken them down into two categories:

# 1 - 5 Mindset superpowers: How you think and show up.

# 6 - 10 Behavioural superpowers: What you do, your actions.

These superpowers often blend together.

⭐ Superpower 7: learning

Active learning is a collective process. Leaders who encourage reflection, feedback loops, and knowledge-sharing help their teams evolve in real-time, rather than getting stuck in old ways of working and business as usual thinking. It also means normalising failure. When mistakes become stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks, teams build resilience and agility and make far greater progress.

A few ways to encourage learning in your team and organisation:

💡 Be curious: value questions and options rather than the right answers (see superpower #2)

💡 Make mistakes learning moments: cultivate a no blame culture and ask what can we learn from this?

💡 Learning labs: schedule time to share insights and future thinking.

💡 Experiment: treat new approaches as tests and feedback loops.

💡 Unlearning and relearning: Futurist Alvin Toffler believed the key to thriving is the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Question assumptions, let go of outdated ideas, and continuously embrace new knowledge.

📌 Practical tip - leverage technology

The next time your team is discussing options, create space for shared knowledge and input. If online, use a collaborative platform (Whiteboard, Miro, Mural etc) to brainstorm, capture ideas and insights. Identify new ideas and actions.

Create a team library of collaborative thinking process and ideas to refer back to. 

Consider habits, current thinking and assumptions. What could you unlearn and relearn that would make a positive difference.

Interventions like this help you and your team become more aware of your environment. 

Stay tuned as we share more coaching superpowers. 

We’d love to hear how you are experimenting and applying these ideas.

Image: Cathryn Lloyd