Meet Miranda Donald (CPCC), Our Newest Team Member !

Hello! My name is Miranda and I am so thrilled to be part of the team at LeedHR! I am a leadership coach and facilitator and what I love most about what I do is cultivating connections. I’m not just talking about the relationships I build with my clients but also the deeper connections I help clients make to themselves and to the people in their lives. It lights me up when someone has that “a-ha” moment!  

Miranda Donald, Leadership Coach and Facilitator

Another way I love to cultivate connections is through connecting ideas. Since I started coaching leaders about 6 years ago, I noticed that many of the principles that coaches use to be effective can also be used in leadership development. I’d like to share three of my favourites. Let me know which ones stand out to you! 

1. The importance of co-creation. 

   
   Co-creation is just a coach word for interdependence. It refers to the idea that for coaching to be successful, whether with an individual or a group, everyone involved must be committed to and engaged in the process. Experiencing interdependence has been key to broadening my definition of leadership. I used to think “Leaders are those people, over there, in those board rooms, with the letter “C” in their title who make all the decisions.” But this view of leadership focuses on titles and power and can breed apathy or complacency. Interdependent leadership doesn’t rely on titles and power. Everyone involved in the achievement of a goal has the responsibility to use their voice and contribute to the group’s overall direction. And those with more formal authority have the responsibility to level the playing field and make space for voices with less power to be heard. This can create more complexity but has the power to produce much better results.

2. Resist the urge to give advice.  

   My job as a coach is not to give answers or advice. My job is to listen with deep curiosity and help my client make intentional, values-aligned choices. Sometimes, the less I think I know, the better. Now, I’m not saying leaders should never give advice or answers. Sometimes that is absolutely necessary. But when leaders expect themselves to meet every challenge with answers and certainty, they can create over-dependency in the team which in turn keeps them in a cycle of overwork and overwhelm. Meeting challenges with questions rather than answers leaves room for people to step up and grow into stronger leaders themselves.  

3. People are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. 

   
   This means we all have what we need to succeed. Coaching focuses on developing innate potential rather than filling in what’s missing. Let me give you a personal example of the difference. One of my strengths that allows me to be successful as a coach is empathy. But, if I over-rely on that strength, what might happen is I’ll resist holding my client accountable to their commitments because I’ll bring a lot of understanding when they explain why they didn’t follow through. But accountability is essential in effective coaching. If my manager approached a development conversation with me by trying to “fill in what’s missing”, they might direct me to people or resources that can teach me “how to hold people accountable”. I might even learn a thing or two about the topic. But what I wouldn’t necessarily learn is the strengths I have, in addition to empathy, that I could leverage to make holding people accountable more natural and sustainable for me. This is what it means to develop innate potential. So much could be possible if more leaders were equipped to approach development conversations like this!  

I hope some of these resonate with you! Is there one that stands out that you want to try or develop in your own leadership practice? Let us know in the comments or feel free to drop me a line at miranda@leedhr.com. I always love a good conversation about developing a coaching mindset!