Episode #109: Become A Rockstar Coach

A consistent issue our clients raise with us concerns effective coaching. Becoming a leader is usually the result of demonstrating your own ability to get results. We promote the performers in the hope some of the pixie dust will get sprinkled around. The outcomes are often underwhelming. For the organization to grow, it needs talent to be fostered right throughout the whole organization. The natural owners of that fostering effort are the leaders.

Coaching fails because of the poor quality of the process being applied. In many cases there is no real process at all. Here is a 7 step process which will vastly improve the coaching outcomes.

1. Identify Opportunities

The need may be obvious or circumstances may reveal a need. For busy leaders, selecting who to coach is a critical decision. The staff with the most untapped potential are probably the most attractive candidates. You can’t do everything at once, so start with the option that will create the most value. We will get to everyone over time but we need to prioritise our efforts.

2. Picture The Desired Outcome

Coaching without a clear strategy often results in sporadic efforts which ultimately lead nowhere. The Coach must work with the staff member to arrive at a clear vision of what the improved state will look like. It is hard to hit a target you haven’t nominated. Creating a word picture of the desired outcome helps to keep the efforts focused, especially when the chaos of everyday seems to conspire to ensure you get distracted.

3. Establish The Right Attitude

This sounds simple but it is not snapping your fingers and presto, brilliant attitude. Improved performance requires change and everyone agrees in principle that change is necessary but as long as it is not expected of them in practice. We need to know our people in order to understand how to communicate the change need in a way that resonates with them and they want to be part of it. Learning to talk in terms of the individuals’s personal motivations is powerful. Reality check for leaders – do you really know this level of detail about your team?

4. Provide The Resources

The most expensive and highest value resource is your time to devote to coaching. It also requires a sincere personal commitment to see the person being coached succeed. A lot of successful people climbed over the bodies to get to the top and expect that is how everyone else should do it. Their attitude to coaching is usually negative. People develop in different ways and at different times, so making ourselves the only metric of success is folly.

5. Practice And Skill Development

Make the time, identify the correct skill set needed, explain it, demonstrate it, then let them practice it. There is a balancing act going on here, where we need to let go, but keep monitoring without micromanaging them. We all learn by making mistakes and this is a fact we need to embrace. Encourage them to fail faster.

6. Reinforce Progress

Knowing and doing are sometimes related. Don’t expect because they have learnt it, they are automatically doing it. Check that there is no slipping back into the cuddly Comfort Zone, as people revert to their old, better established habits. Habit is stronger than knowledge. Keep them accountable to continue to progress.

7. Reward

What we reward gets repeated and what gets repeated becomes a new habit. Give praise which is specific, explaining exactly what they are doing that is good, rather than obtuse general statements of approbation.

None of this is complicated. Common sense though is not always common practice. Executing these steps takes commitment but the rewards are enormous. If your leadership team is coaching your key people using a solid process and your rival leaders are not, expect to win the war.

Action Steps

1. Identify Opportunities

2. Picture The Desired Outcome

3. Establish The Right Attitude

4. Provide The Resources

5. Practice And Skill Development

6. Reinforce Progress

7. Reward