Good Coach Great

On the face of it, coaching seems easy to do.   

Anyone can have a conversation and call it coaching.  Just like kicking a football or hitting a cricket ball, basic capability is easy to attain.  But to be at a standard that we can call good let alone great, is another matter entirely.

A good coach has many attributes, but let me start with what every coach must not have:

• A vested interest—seeking their own benefit rather than yours.
• An overwhelming desire to talk effusively.
• A biased viewpoint that he/she is dying to impart.
• A commitment to the first alternative that comes into his/her head.
• The advocacy of that alternative.

Each of these factors will contaminate coaching.   

So, what is the essence of good coaching?  In my view, it is:

to stimulate crucial conversations that would otherwise not be had.

Then, what attributes does a good coach actually offer his/her client?  Here are my top 10:

1. Accountability. For the content of the coaching conversation, the coach will ask “What is the most important thing for us to discuss?”.  After discussion, and commitment to action, the coach will say: “You told me that you would ____, so describe what has happened.”
2. Acute questioning skills.  Knowing what questions to ask—and when—is the coach’s main task in the coaching conversation.  Each question is more challenging than the previous; and in pursuit of the most creative answers, you may hear “Why?” asked 3 times in succession.
3. Curiosity. The coach will treat every conversation as a learning experience—about you, your challenges and your business.  He will seek to understand the context, the logic and the emotion in the discussion and to consider all possible options before asking you to choose.
4. Emotional detachment. A leader is constantly challenged to work with both emotion and logic to make sound decisions.  This calls for crucial conversations about the forces at play—aiming for a thorough understanding by all those involved.  The good coach observes intently from afar.
5. Experience of isolation.  In every business and circumstance, you choose, as the leader, what is right over what is comfortable, you set the agenda and you have the courage to counter disagreement; persuading others to your point of view.  It’s lonely at the top.
6. Future orientation.  To dwell in the past is largely a waste of time and energy. The leader is tasked with innovation—there is a vigorous examination and creation of options, leading to exciting choices.  The coach challenges you to overturn your own status quo.
7. Independence.  The coach is open to learning from everyone and every experience, will seek first to understand the world or a given topic, will look for a truth in your situation, raise options, challenge your behaviours and your beliefs. [But you make the choices.]
8. Insight into human behaviour.  The coach will have his/her own set of highly developed values and behaviours, enhanced by formal study, self-reflection, experience and indeed, coaching. The coach will help you to see your own and others’ behaviours and to deal with them calmly.
9. Rigorous methodology.  The coach will show you an action-based methodology and demonstrate a drive for discipline to test your ideas and help you to: understand the present; acknowledge the intensely personal; form options; construct a plan; take action. Your followers will learn this too.
10. Strategic nous.  Returning to the operational is tempting, but it’s also a trap—a good coach will push you to be strategic. He/she will encourage you to lift your focus from business as usual to your purpose, vision and implementation plan for getting there.

So, if these attributes define a good coach, what if we are seeking to be, or to hire, a great coach?    

When kicking that football or hitting that cricket ball the great player needs all of these and the judgment for the best move for the circumstance—that is, precisely what to do at the right time; otherwise known as reading the play.

In coaching it means: when to ask; the right question; and when to remain silent.  While being calm, peaceful, positive at all times.  

And knowing when not to coach.

Next week:  Who’s a Keeper?

About the Author

Jeff Bell is Principal of executive consultancy ResultsWise in Perth, WA. To boost your leadership, ask Jeff about his Band of Leaders Australia (BOLA) jeff@bandofleadersaustralia.com.au and his consulting, coaching, strategy facilitation or Advanced Leadership Course jeff@resultswise.com.au Mobile 0439 988 662.