JULY 9, 2021
COACH OTHERS EFFECTIVELY
Now that I am retired, I am able to look back and do an audit of what worked and what I needed to do in growing in my faith, with my family, and my business career. Since I am still alive and enjoying life, I realized that, in our society, we place words, (Remember, WORDS matter) labels, or titles on people without even thinking about it. Some people attained that illusive, yet highly responsible title of “Manager” and stopped. To them, they reached the pinnacle of their career and then just sat back and pulled in all of the accolades, benefits, or perks by just existing or biding their time until retirement. HOW SAD! I hope that is not any of you reading these remarks today as all of us were made for more. Those managers or coaches that possibly “earned” their position or their title, knew it was their responsibility to help others become better. That is what good leaders, coaches or team members do for one another.
Gallup, while using meta-analytics of over 100 million interviews, found that the difference between the highest engaged teams and persistently disengaged teams, all boils down to the manager. (Try coach) The leaders may drive the culture but the managers/coaches are to build on that culture in a positive manner. In other words, to make things better for everyone and not just the organization. (People over Profits) Gallup has discovered, through studying what the best managers do differently, that; “great managing is an act of coaching, not one of directing and administrating.” While you may intuitively know this is true, it is much more difficult to know exactly what to do. Here is Gallup’s advice to assist you managers and coaches in helping YOUR people in understanding and implementing an engagement process within the confines of your group:
- Accept the new “will of the world.” Gallup finds what the whole world wants; “A good job.” This is especially true for millennials and even more so for Generation Z. They actually want to learn and grow.
- Announce you are transforming your culture from administrating teams to coaching teams. This can be a huge game-changer.
- Announce a change in the actual practice of management within your organization. Get rid of all the rating forms. Define the change this way; “We lead through a habit of having one meaningful coaching conversation per week with each team member. (This can be in person, on the phone, email, zoom, at coffee or standing in the hallway. Gallup swears by the findings in changing one’s culture as we all seek to BELONG by being appreciated.
- You will often get a question by your people saying; “We love it, but what should the conversation be about?” Your answer is “Goals.” (And a Shared Vision) These conversations should be about progress on goals and winning customers.
- Then they will say; “I have never been trained to coach nor maximize the potential of an individual, let alone a team, exactly how do I do that?” Here is where Strengths Finders comes in with developing people just like a coach develops a great player in any team sport. This is done by maximizing their strengths (Talents) and minimizing their weaknesses. It is that simple.
Thanks to the Gallup organization for allowing me to share their insights into how important coaching is to an organization. We all need different coaching depending on our experience, education, and seasons of our lives. Don’t forget, those long time (“Seasoned”) employees just may have some of the answers to the idea of growing and prospering within a company. Many often make great coaches.
What are you doing to coach the members of YOUR team? If you are a leader or the head dog, look for those developers in your group that are willing to grow and improve personally, along with helping their team. It just may be the winning combination you are looking for.
Elevator Guy
Quote for the day. “Make sure that team members know they are working WITH you, not FOR you.” John Wooden