18 Coaching & Leadership Styles: Examples, Uses, Pros, Cons + Guide

Maybe you’re stepping into coaching for the first time. Maybe you’ve been leading teams for years but want to sharpen how you work with people. 

Either way, knowing your coaching and leadership style matters. It shapes how you solve problems, guide others, and get results.

Coaching and leading aren’t all that different. Both drive change. Both give people direction for their next move. 

The difference is in how you approach challenges and build relationships.

In this guide, we’ll break down 18 mentoring, coaching and leadership styles (including the collaborative “coaching leadership style”) so you can see how each one works and when to use them.

By the end, you’ll know exactly which style plays to your strengths and gets the best results for your clients. 

What Are Coaching and Leadership Styles?

A coaching style is how you guide someone toward their own breakthroughs. A leadership style is how you inspire and direct a team toward shared goals.

Both are about helping people move forward, but they show up differently depending on things like:

• Who has control over making decisions (you vs. your client)
• What goals are prioritized (external vs. internal results)
• The timeline you’re working with (quick wins or long-term change)

What differs is this:

• Coaching leans into transformation and personal growth.
• Leadership focuses on performance and delivering results.

Coaching can happen one-on-one or in a group. Leadership almost always plays out with a team.

What are coaching leadership styles?

It’s where coaching and leadership meet in the middle.

You take the heart of coaching (helping clients discover their own answers) and bring it into leadership moments where guidance is key.

Take goal-setting as an example. Instead of dictating a plan, you create space for them to reflect, refine, and step up with their own action steps. 

That’s how you grow independent thinkers, not just followers.

Coaching leadership style definition

For leaders, the coaching leadership style can be defined as “leaders acting like coaches and mentors.” 

You’ll help team members grow their abilities so they can reach their goals. This includes anything from giving constructive feedback to having multiple one-on-ones, and letting people take responsibility for their tasks.

Coaching leadership meaning

For coaches, the coaching leadership style means creating an environment where people feel supported, heard, and empowered. 

You’ll engage clients and foster trust so they will want to participate in the process. The more they want to collaborate, the more effective coaching leadership style is.

9 Coaching Leadership Style Characteristics

How do you know you’re actually applying the coaching leadership approach? Look out for these nine key characteristics:

1. Emotional intelligence: You’re coaching with empathy, understanding the needs of your clients and where they’re coming from. 
2. Good communication: You actively listen to your clients and encourage feedback. 
3. Mentor mindset: You see yourself as someone who guides, not directs or orders around.
4. Sense of accountability: You encourage your clients to do a bit of independent work and take responsibility for their personal growth.
5. Culture of trust: You have confidence that your clients will put in the effort needed for them to change.
6. Collaboration: You see coaching as a partnership, instead of taking command and control.
7. Continuous improvement: You consider what clients are saying so you can work on your coaching style and leadership approach.
8. Innovative approach: You’re open to more creativity and adaptability in the way you coach.
9. Encouragement and warmth: While you’re aiming for goals, you know how to balance keeping things on track with showing compassion and motivating clients.

Coaching leadership style advantages and disadvantages for coaches

The leadership style you use in your coaching sessions affects the way you guide clients. 

Take a peek at this advantages and disadvantages list to see if the coaching leadership style works for you:

Advantages:

1. Builds strong, long-lasting relationships and trust with clients.
2. Empowers clients to have ownership of their personal and professional growth.
3. Creates a collaborative environment where clients feel safe and supported.
4. Improves your coaching and communication skills, especially in giving feedback about strengths and weaknesses.
5. Gives individual, personalized coaching experiences where each client has their own path to success. Better for one-on-one coaching.
6. Potentially grows your reputation as a coach because you can achieve meaningful transformation with clients.

Disadvantages:

1. Takes time and commitment per client to give specific support to each of them.
2. Needs patience, especially if results take a while to appear.
3. Relies on how motivated and engaged your clients are.
4. Doesn’t work on cases where clients need fast answers and a direct step-by-step guide.
5. Can be difficult to scale, especially for group coaching without good systems or tools to help you. 

6 Coaching leadership style benefits for leaders

You can also apply the coaching leadership style when managing a team. Here are the benefits of a coaching leadership style in the workplace:

1. Better problem-solving abilities: When you let your members handle things independently, they develop critical thinking. Not relying on your direct orders.
2. Higher team morale: Your members feel more valued and can even become more committed to their tasks when you trust them.
3. Long-term leadership development: With this style, you’re mentoring future leaders like you.
4. Open communication: Everyone has a clear picture of how things are going. Thanks to active listening, constructive feedback and open dialogues. 
5. Constructive accountability: You’re not using feedback as punishment. Instead, it’s a tool of growth, and it works. 
6. Adaptable: Changes won’t faze you and your team. By strengthening the skills of individual members, you collaborate better and achieve higher productivity.

Coaching Leadership Style Theory Vs. Practice

In theory, the coaching leadership style seems like an obvious thing to adapt. The values are pretty solid: autonomy, growth and collaboration.

But in real life, coaches can struggle with balancing these ideals and actual challenges they face. 

• Time constraints: Some client goals are time-sensitive. They might not have time for figuring things out.
• Client engagement: Not all clients have a high drive to collaborate. At least not immediately. If they aren’t engaged, you should try a more direct leadership style.
• Blend of styles: You’d find yourself using a combination of different coaching and leadership styles to adapt to what clients need the most.

Research on coaching leadership style PDF resources

Curious about what research says about coaching leadership style? Here are downloadable PDFs of key research studies about its impact:

1. Coaching leadership style: A learning process: Analyzes how the coaching leadership style can be effectively applied with the help of self-management tools and a give-culture.
2. Coaching leadership as a link between individual- and team-level strength use at work: Dives into how coaching leadership can drive the improvement of individual and team strengths.
3. Research on the Influence of Coaching Leadership on Employees’ Work Performance: Links coaching leadership and organizational identity to better employee performance.

4 Coaching leadership example case studies 

Here’s how different industry leaders applied the coaching leadership style and achieved pretty significant results:

1. Sheryl Sandberg (Meta): Instead of focusing on numbers, she worked closely with her members to identify issues, give constructive feedback and provide individual support. In the end, they not only exceeded expectations but also developed a solid team relationship.
2. Liam Austin (Entrepreneurs HQ): From workshops and courses to masterminds, he gives the all-around support coaches need to create highly scalable and highly profitable businesses. Philippa, a consultant, was blown away by the amount of content and help available to her.
3. Satya Nadella (Microsoft): During her early days as CEO, she battled stagnation by influencing her team to adopt a growth mindset. Employees became more open to ask questions, give and receive feedback and propose solutions.
4. David Morley (Allen & Overy): He used the coaching leadership style to encourage open dialogue, active listening and high-value conversations. Profits increased by 175%, and so did employee satisfaction.

4 Coach leadership style examples of practical uses

You’ve seen how coaching leadership style works in teams. How about in coaching?

Here are some sample coaching scenarios where you can practically apply this leadership style:

1. Tailor the plan: Your client just stepped into a management role and feels like they’re winging it. You pinpoint their gaps and map a 90-day plan that’s doable and motivating.
2. Boost their wins: They nailed a presentation but brushed it off. You highlight exactly what worked and set a small stretch goal for next time.
3. Let them find the fix: They hit a project snag and want answers. You drop a few “what if” prompts and let them talk it out until they find the solution.
4. Break the ice fast: First session, you skip stiff intros. You ask what they’re proud of lately and listen. Soon, they’re sharing things they “don’t usually tell people.”

How Is Coaching Leadership Different From Traditional Leadership Styles?

Coaching leadership style isn’t like traditional leadership styles. There’s more collaboration, less command and control.

• Coaching leadership styles: Focuses on empowering individuals. When a person reaches their full potential, that’s how they’ll achieve goals.
• Traditional leadership styles: Uses top-down directives. There’s a clear authority figure to follow who controls rewards and punishments and the overall direction of plans.

Pros and cons of traditional leadership styles

Let’s take a closer look at these traditional leadership styles and why they may or may not work for you:

1. Authoritarian or autocratic: You give direct commands and expect strict compliance. Works best in highly structured environments where top-down authority is needed.

• Pros: Quick decision-making, establishes clear authority
• Cons: May create fear of leadership, less engagement, discourages creativity

 2. Transactional: You use rewards and punishments to drive behavior. Best for task-focused teams with routine operations.

• Pros: Sets clear expectations, can boost motivation with rewards
• Cons: Limited focus on growth, ignores individual needs

3. Transformational: You inspire and motivate people toward big goals. Ideal for long-term growth and developing the team.

• Pros: Encourages innovation, promotes long-term vision
• Cons: Can overlook day-to-day individual needs

When is coaching leadership a good fit for you?

Coaching leadership style isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. This is how you’ll know if it suits your coaching:

• When you value collaboration, open communication, and doing better in the long run.
• When you want to build meaningful and trust-based relationships.
• When you’re a life coach focused on individual growth.
• When you feel more fulfilled in seeing others succeed than in getting them to follow a plan exactly.
• When you’re more extroverted and working closely with people recharges you.
• When you’re okay with being a little more patient, letting things happen at their own pace.

4 Types of Coaching Styles

Finding the right coaching style isn’t about following a rulebook. It’s about figuring out what works for your clients and what fits your strengths. When I started, I tried every style before settling on a mix that feels natural and gets results.

Understanding these four main styles will help you adapt your approach, connect better with different clients, and speed up their progress.

Here are the four main coaching styles you can explore:

1. Directive coaching style

Your goal is to provide immediate solutions and give clear directions. You show them the way and provide specific steps or actions they can do.

Best for: Clients who feel stuck and are overwhelmed by too many things to sort out

2. Non-directive coaching style

You’re focused on empowering clients to find their own answers. You ask them the right questions so they can get to the bottom of what they really need.

Best for: Clients ready to face themselves but need someone to guide the process

3. Supportive coaching style

You show empathy and focus on encouraging clients. You believe that when you give clients the safe space and support they need, they can grow on their own. 

Best for: Clients with shaky emotions and who struggle with self-confidence

4. Performance coaching style

You prioritize helping clients to improve specific skills and achieve measurable goals. Your role is to give concrete training plans and track their progress.

Best for: Clients focused on learning a particular ability and getting results

7 Coaching Management Styles

Coaching styles aren’t just limited to coaching clients. You can use them to improve workflows and teamwork inside organizations. 

Different areas in management call for different coaching styles. Here are seven examples:

Types of coaching styles in management

Management coaching styles guide how leaders coach within organizations. Choose a style based on how mature your team already is and what the project calls for.

1. Democratic coaching: Your role is more of a guide than a director. This way, individual members get the freedom to make decisions and solve problems.
2. Laissez-Faire coaching: This is a hands-off approach. Members have the full responsibility and accountability to make things right. But, this won’t work for members who are not self-motivated and need constant direction.
3. Mindful coaching: You help members develop self-awareness so they know what to work on. You wear the hat of a facilitator rather than a problem-solver.
4. Vision coaching: You plot a clear path with a detailed plan. Because you have a defined focus, your team can quickly get on track and get things done.

Types of coaching styles in performance management

Performance management deals with a lot of deliverables. When deciding a coaching style to use, ask yourself: “Do you want it done fast or do you want it done right?”

If your priority is doing things correctly, here are coaching styles in performance management for you: 

5. Developmental coaching: You’re thinking long term. You focus on coaching your team so that they get the skills they need and grow into their roles.
6. Corrective coaching: You address performance issues directly with clear feedback and improvement plans. 
7. Empowerment coaching: If you have a high-potential talent in your team who values autonomy, encourage them to take ownership of their work.

7 Leadership Coaching Styles

If leaders are superheroes in the workplace, leadership coaches are their trusty assistants, making sure they have a solid plan to save the day.

To do this, every leadership coach adapts their own coaching style. Leaders need someone who’ll understand their unique position and help them develop leadership skills.

Let’s look at what popular leadership coaches do and other styles that blend coaching and mentoring.

The coaching style of popular leadership coaches

Learn how the most well-known executive and leadership coaches do it. Here are different leadership styles to explore:

1. Stakeholder-centered coaching: Marshall Goldsmith focuses on behavioral change that members of the organization can observe. He gathers feedback and sets leadership goals based on what his clients want for their business.
2. Compassionate leadership coaching: Brené Brown advocates for being vulnerable and authentic so that leaders can drive open communication and positive change.
3. Transformational and holistic coaching: John Mattone helps leaders make changes that matter, not just a spike in performance. He brings out the best in their character.

Coaching and mentoring leadership style

Leadership coaches also use a blend of coaching and mentoring to gently guide clients towards the right direction. 

With coaching and mentoring leadership styles, it’s all about support and encouragement. Here are some examples:

4. Facilitative style: You guide your clients as they reflect using powerful questions. Good for guiding experienced leaders who already have the answers within them but just need a bit of guidance.
5. Mentor style: You draw from your personal experience to give advice. This works if you’re going for more casual guidance and hope to build a deeper connection.
6. Collaborative style: You and your client work together as partners. This also works for peer coaching, where members of a team share ideas and set goals together.
7. Situational style: As a coach, you’ll adapt based on you’re client’s experience, their confidence level, and the challenge they’re facing. This is where you switch styles from directive, facilitative, or hands-off.

Your leadership coaching style is just one of the factors clients consider when hiring a coach. Look at other ways you can get a client as a leadership coach with this guide.

Is Coaching a Leadership Style?

Yes. Coaching is a leadership style focused on guiding and empowering people to succeed, instead of commanding or controlling them.

When organizations want to create a supportive culture, they empower leaders to adopt a coaching mindset. This means they don’t just look at short-term goals and productivity. They encourage nurturing talents for future success. 

What’s the difference between coaching vs. managing?

Coaching is all about providing feedback and supporting growth. Meanwhile, managing focuses on directing tasks, making sure people comply, and meeting set objectives. 

• The coaching approach tends to be like a journey. It’s developing people over time.
• Managing maintains team performance. It’s about meeting high standards and improving overall productivity.

Which leadership style is most effective and why?

That depends. But from a life coaching perspective, you can consider the coaching leadership as a top candidate.

It guides people to do the inner work and be accountable for what they do. That’s the key to sustainable success. 

Learn more about starting a life coaching business with this guide.

8 Steps to Become a Coaching Leader

It takes so much more than just a good coaching and leadership style to become a coaching leader. The kind of someone who actually gets results and makes a difference.

But it’s not complicated either, especially if you’re just starting a coaching business. Here are nine actionable steps you can take to be a successful and recognized coach:

1. Master basic coaching skills: Build a strong foundation for your coaching business by developing emotional intelligence and active listening skills.
2. Buff up your coaching knowledge: Get formal training or study up on frameworks and approaches you can use. Consider a certification (like one from the Center of Creative Leadership if you’re a leadership coach).
3. Define your coaching philosophy: Your philosophy is the heart of your coaching. Know the values you stand for and the unique transformation you offer.
4. Create a strong brand: You’re a person first before you’re a coach. Help people get to know you better and trust you by telling a compelling story they can connect to.
5. Reach out to your audience: If your ideal clients are online, create an online presence. Build a website and social media accounts, essentially places where they can easily message you.
6. Show off your client success: People love reviews. They provide social proof that you’re someone they can trust with their personal and professional goals. Posting testimonials are one of the ways you get coaching clients.
7. Constantly improve: Reflect regularly on your leadership style and get feedback.
8. Get business support: It’s not just about coaching. You need tools and approaches to make sure your business takes off. Think sales, marketing, and operations strategies.

Lead Your Coaching Business to Success

Part of growing a successful coaching business is finding the coaching and leadership styles that suit you best.

One style you could explore is the coaching leadership style. Embracing this requires more time and energy. But the rewards lead you down the path of sustainable growth.

So, keep sharpening your edge. Because success isn’t about luck. It’s about having a clear plan that works.

My 3-Step Blueprint shows you how to build a high-ticket funnel that brings in paying clients consistently.

If you’re done guessing and ready to get results, this is the way. No gimmicks. Just clear steps to grow your coaching business.

Grab your free copy of the Highly-Paid Coach Blueprint and take control of your coaching career today.