Leveraging design thinking as a leadership coach

Design thinking is a human-centered development approach that emphasizes empathy, creative problem-solving and iterative prototyping. 

In this article, I will describe some practices I use as a leadership coach in order to leverage design thinking principles to guide and support my clients.

Empathize

Before anything else, you must first be able to empathize with your leaders by understanding their unique challenges, aspirations and needs. This involves actively listening to their concerns, observing their work environment and conducting interviews or surveys to gather insights. As a coach, empathizing helps me to gain a deep understanding of their context and tailor coaching interventions accordingly. Asking open-ended questions and probing to understand clearly with examples that a leader shares is a great way to collate information. To ensure that I do not lose out, I take detailed notes and clarify my understanding.

Define

Based on the insights gathered, I collaborate with the leaders I coach to define their goals, aspirations and the areas they want to focus on to improve. Discussing in detail to define this allows them to clarify the vision, identify the skills they want to develop or hone and set specific objectives and goals. It helps to clearly articulate the desired outcomes, the process of coaching to enable this and to establish the measures to look at the progress and achievements.

Ideate

In the ideation phase, I facilitate brainstorming sessions and creative discussions to explore various strategies and solutions. It has helped to look at various situations and how the responses or reactions have been, reflecting on what happened and what could have been done. Encouraging people to think differently and generate innovative ideas which helps them to grow professionally is possible in the stage of ideation. Exploring various modes of learning and development, available learning resources and opportunities for development that align to defined goals helps people to visualize the direction they are moving as well as address specific challenges.

Prototype

Having discussed in detail the various options and post identifying the potential strategies and the solutions, we should then develop the action plans (prototypes) and check their effectiveness. Validating the effectiveness is an important step because it allows us to also break down the overall journey into smaller, more achievable milestones.  Identifying opportunities to practice the acquired skills, discuss the experience, provide feedback and change course if something does not work (and look for other alternatives) allows people a safe space to learn and adapt along this learning journey.

Test and iterate

This phase involves Implementing the action plan and beginning to gather feedback to assess the impact. Through regular check-ins and reflection sessions, I encourage people to evaluate their progress, identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments. This iterative approach ensures continuous learning, adaptation and refinement of the coaching process. During this step, it’s also interesting to see how people learn to look at alternatives when something does not work, and to see the confidence they gain slowly in their own ideas as they achieve success.  

Reflect and learn

Throughout the coaching engagement, I also encourage facilitating regular reflection sessions. This is an important step because it gives people time to consolidate their learning and insights. Exploring experiences and newfound skills aligned with their goals and aspirations aids in developing confidence and positive energy. Reflective practices, such as journaling or group discussions, encourage self-awareness, critical thinking and deeper learning.

Sustain and support

Last but not the least, ongoing support and accountability is the final step in sustaining the development journey. I encourage this through regular check-ins, coaching sessions or peer support groups. I assist in overcoming obstacles by listening and asking questions that enable my leaders to find solutions — celebrating successes when they pass each milestone and adjusting the coaching approach as needed to ensure long-term growth and transformation.

Personally, I have found that incorporating design thinking principles into coaching can create a collaborative, learner-centered environment that fosters creativity, innovation and self-directed learning. This approach allows individuals to develop the skills, mindset and resilience required to thrive in the ever-evolving industry.