Put Me In, Coach How developing a coaching mindset can transform how you work and live

Kasie Roberson, PhD & Jana Day, MSML, PCC

02-25-2026

Every two years, the world gets to watch the best athletes in their sport compete at the highest level at the Olympics. While few of us will ever become Olympic athletes, we can all choose to embody one of their defining qualities: a coachable mindset.

In this month’s Daniels Insights post in the Best Practices in Business Communication Series, I am joined by Jana Day, the new senior program manager in the Center for Working Well’s Hayes Leadership Coaching Institute, to discuss how coaching can help you unlock new skills and level up existing ones.

How do you become coachable?

The best athletes in the world all have coaches. Every major sports team has them. Even in individualistic sports like tennis, players still have coaches who help them level up their skills and mindset. Our question is — how do we translate that coaching mindset into how we work and live?

The number one skill you need to become coachable is a growth mindset. That means you have to be:

1. Willing to learn.
2. Open to challenging assumptions you may have.
3. Able to reflect and make changes to how you communicate or work with others.

What makes a great coach?

Coaching is less about having all the answers and more about creating an environment where you are the guide on the side, and not center stage. We’ve heard coaching described as being on a road trip. You (the coaching client) are driving the car, and you have chosen your route. You own your decisions about what route to take, how fast to get there and what stops to make. The coach is sitting in the passenger seat and will share observations while you drive. The coach is there to notice patterns, ask questions, and occasionally reflect when you slam on the brakes or speed up, when you talk about the road conditions or other drivers, or when you exit your planned route. 

What to look for in a coach?

Great coaches are trained and trained well. The gold standard of executive coaching is the International Coaching Federation (ICF), so you want to start with a coach who has been through an ICF-certified coaching program and is either working towards earning their ICF coaching certification or has already earned it. From there, you want to find the coach who is the right match for you. It needs to be someone you feel comfortable with, but also someone who will ask the important questions to unlock a new level of learning for you regarding whatever challenge or opportunity you may be facing.

What to expect from coaching?

Great coaches:

• Lead from a place of curiosity. They ask questions to get people thinking about how they might solve the problem. 
• Listen to what is being said, but also what is not being said. In coaching, words matter, but body language and pauses can tell you a lot. 
• Hold back on being the fixer. This is challenging, especially for smart and capable coaches and leaders. The goal is to help others strengthen their thinking.
• Ask thoughtful questions beyond “Yes” or “No” answers. Ask questions that create options and create insight. 
• Trust the other person’s skill set. A coaching mindset assumes people are resourceful, creative and capable. 
• Are comfortable with silence. It gives others a chance to process and get productive.

Why should coaching start in early career?

In the Daniels School of Business, we have launched the Center for Working Well’s Hayes Leadership Coaching Institute and started piloting executive coaching for undergraduate students (at no cost to them). We have done this because we believe that giving students the chance to develop a coaching mindset early in their career will not only have a positive impact on their own performance as they enter the workplace, but it will also have a positive impact on their teams and the overall organization.

Starting in Fall 2026, the institute will offer access to our pool of ICF-certified executive coaches to business professionals and companies who have partnered with us on a Working Well Journey or participated in our six-week Leadership in a Changing World online program, launching in September 2026.

We believe that to be your best in the workplace, sometimes you need a good coach to help you learn new skills or level up existing ones. Olympic athletes could not have ended up on those podiums without the one thing we all have the opportunity to possess — a coachable mindset.