Episode #81: The Professional Leader As The Coach

Leaders become leaders because they were the best at their job, their tasks, their function. They are promoted and then left to their own devices to become a leader. The lucky few actually get some training on what it means to be a leader. Very, very few however are ever taught how to coach others. The leader’s job is to manage processes and build people. Everyone gets the manage processes part, because that is easy to understand and we all basically know the processes of the business. The build people part however absolutely requires an ability to coach adults. This takes training to master.

Using a typical Lawson convenience store as a model, a franchise promotion website managed by Fc-convenience.com estimates that when a store’s monthly sales are fifteen million yen, then the owner ends up with four point seven million yen after paying for stock. From that they have to pay the franchise royalty fee as well as staff wages and overhead, such as utility costs. In the end their profit per month is four hundred and fifty eight thousand yen or five million four hundred and ninety six thousand yen per year, roughly fifty thousand dollars. In order to maximize income, the franchise owners adjust their personnel expenses because it is the only thing they can control. Japan’s labour shortage is making it hard to recruit staff. Convenience store workers average salary is nine hundred and seventy four yen or eight dollars seventy five per hour, which hasn't gone up since two thousand and thirteen. Most non-Japanese who work at convenience stores are on student visas and currently there are about forty thousand employed here. The Japanese government has included convenience store workers are a category for the new work visas being introduced. In other news, the majority of people under age fifty who lived in the three towns close to the site of the two thousand and eleven Fukushima nuclear disaster have no plans to return. Many former residents of Futaba, Namie, and Tomioka say they have established new lives elsewhere and that their adopted towns are more convenient. The residents of these three towns were subject to compulsory evacuation orders by the government following the crisis. Finally, police arrested two men on suspicion of trying to illegally bring fertilised eggs and sperm of wagyu cattle into China last year. Chinese authorities prevented the suspects, who traveled by ferry with the sperm and the eggs stashed in containers, from entering the country as they did not have a quarantine certificate. They were arrested when they returned to Japan. The arrests came as the Agricultural Ministry is tightening control of wagyu reproductive material amid rising popularity of the Japanese beef overseas.

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 processes being applied. In many cases there is no real process at all. Here is a seven step process which will vastly improve the coaching outcomes.

ONE - 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.

TWO - 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.

THREE - 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?

FOUR - 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 pure folly.

FIVE - 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.

SIX - 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.

SEVEN - 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