Top Ten Strategies to Improve Your Workplace Coaching
Sharon Feltham, Excellerate
As a parent of a typical Kiwi kid many hours are spent on the sporting sidelines watching team’s practise and compete, and coaches coach. Irrespective of code, the good coaches produce committed players, good teams and great results. What do these coaches do on the sportsfield that we can use in the workplace to improve our frontline coaching? It’s difficult to define but personal qualities and personalities aside; I would rate the following as the Top 10 coaching strategies irrespective of team or season.
1. Analyse Performance
They constantly observe and analyse the performance of individuals and the team as a whole. They focus all their senses on collecting data. Then they translate this into precise performance feedback. They don’t generalise.
Frontline Application: Use your "logical" senses (eyes and ears) and tune into your instincts as well. Use this information to provide well-informed descriptive and precise performance feedback. “When you did this (specify) I observed...(specify)”
2. Less Talking More Doing
While they demonstrate skills and strategies initially these coaches invest much more time requiring individual players and teams to demonstrate theirs.
Frontline Application: As coaches we should talk less while asking our coachees to do and demonstrate more. Then we can provide clear specific feedback based on our observations. (See point 1)
3. Provide Clear Directions
They eliminate confusion in players by providing clear, unambiguous and direct instructions when appropriate.
Frontline Application: We are told as coaches that we should “suggest and ask” rather than "tell" coachees what to do. However, in the workplace there are times when this can cause confusion. The coachee wonders, “ What does my (manager) coach want me to do?” Provide clear instructions when appropriate.
4. Coach to Style
These coaches seldom coach by comparing the performance of one player with another, other than to reference examples of techniques. They avoid making comparisons that elevate one player above another. They focus on the unique individual strengths, style and personality of each player and adjust their style to accommodate this.
Frontline Application: Coach each team member as an individual according to his or her situation. Adjust your strategy and style. Don’t expect them to adjust theirs to fit yours.
5. Coach Potential and Strengths
While coaches identified gaps in player’s skills and the team’s performance they don’t describe this as a weakness. They build (rather than erode) confidence by identifying potential and opportunities. They reinforce the positive by coaching to a player’s strengths. Their language includes “You did that really well. Do more of...”
Frontline Application: Many coaching conversations attempt to solve problems or overcome weaknesses. There are times when we expect coachees to change things they cannot reasonably influence. By focusing on their strengths we can experience significant improvements in performance and more positive results, often more rapidly.
6. Focus on Solutions
When things go wrong (as they do) these coaches will only ask why in order to identify the cause so they can find the best solution. They spend much, much more time looking forward and focusing on “What can you do next time?” They don’t blame or criticise. And they design solutions with the player.
Frontline Application: Unfortunately when things don’t go according to plan in the workplace we can become caught in faultfinding, blame and criticism. In coaching the emphasis is on problem solving and identifying actions to move forward. Increase your line of questioning to include more of “What can you do next time?” This involves your coachee in both designing and owning the solution.
7. Focus on the Positive Eliminate the Negative
Kiwi language seems to include negative phrasing. Don’t you think? (An Australian drew my attention to this!) As I became more aware I could hear how this style influenced coaching conversations. I heard coaches say, "I don't think..." and "You shouldn't...," then compared this to those who framed their feedback more positively. For example, “Another way of doing that is..”, “Try doing more of...” The difference became increasingly obvious. The positive framing, focused on what players could do. They were less defensive and therefore more receptive to coaching suggestions.
Frontline Application: Negative phrasing sounds like criticism so we become defensive. Coaches need to keep their feedback constructive so coachees feel safe and remain open to feedback.
8. Don't Coach when you’re Cranky
The good coaches kept their cool under pressure and chose their timing carefully - in spite of the stakes. They waited until the heat of the moment had passed before giving feedback.
Frontline Application: It's so obvious but don’t coach when you are tired or upset. Don’t coach the coachee when they are tired or upset. Take time out and wait until you are both calm and focused.
9. Focus on what you Can Change
These coaches don’t allow “luck” (or anything vague or outside the players sphere of influence) to enter into the coaching conversation. They discourage players and the team from blaming bad luck for failure. Through questions and feedback they enable players and the team to understand how poor strategy or play influenced the result. Equally, they attribute success on the scoreboard to sound skills, strategy and focussed effort - not good luck
Frontline Application: In our efforts to support discouraged coachees, we may say things like, “Bad luck” or “Better luck next time” however, in doing so we avoid confronting issues that need to be addressed. The typical kiwi’s humbleness in victory (we dislike sounding as if we are “big headed”) means we can diminish our achievements by attributing the success to good luck. When we do this, we miss important insights. In coaching we must help coachees to see (either “win or lose”) how their actions contribute to results.
10. Keep it Loud and Proud
No one likes to fail. And no one benefits from being beaten over the head blow-by-blow with their mistakes. Without exception the great coaches I observed used praise generously. They coach with praise through endless training sessions, minor games and major tournaments, constantly reinforcing skills, building confidence and belief.Their feedback is targeted, frequent and consistently constructive.
While I have heard many pre game motivational pep talks, an enduring coaching insight arose from the after match debriefs. No matter how resounding the defeat these coaches always began with an unequivocal statement of faith and confidence in each of the players and their team. The analysis came later when emotions had cleared. Then lessons were taken on board to be used to good effect next time.
Frontline Application. Hold higher expectations for your coachees than they would for themselves. Communicate these clearly, along with your faith that they will meet and even exceed these. And if they fail, help them to experience this with dignity. Reinforce your belief in them. Help them to see that it is only a temporary setback, one game in a life long play. Then help them to discover their learning so they will do better – next time.
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