Category Archives: Coaching Skills

Prescriptive Solutions

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“I got my weekend reading done,” Lucas was proud. “This is the second management book this month,” he nodded.

“I encourage reading,” I replied, eyeing the bright red cover, written by a famous author. “What did you learn?”

“This guy has a recipe he says is guaranteed. If I just follow the steps, he promises the same result he had with his company.”

I smiled. “Do you respect this author? Do you believe he was successful in the problems he tackled? Do you think he had a deep understanding of his circumstances and his points of leverage?”

“Absolutely,” Lucas nodded. “The author is very well respected, with a very successful company.”

“Do you think the author has a deep understanding of the problems you face, with your company, in your market, with your team?” I wanted to know.

“Well, of course not, he doesn’t know my specific problems,” he said.

“You see, for this book to helpful, you have to understand your problems as deeply as the author understood his problems. And, they will be different. Whatever prescription he laid out is unlikely to work in your scenario. The value in the book is not the prescriptive solution, though that is what everyone skips to. The value is in the understanding of the problem, the analysis, alternative solutions. Understand your problems as deeply as the author understood his.”

Just a Parade

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“Why do they constantly make the wrong decision?” Deidra asked. “We have problems where the solution is counterintuitive. If the team follows the popular trend, they come up with a response that creates more damage than the original problem.”

“Why do you think that is?” I wanted to know.

“I don’t know. Instead of thinking through the problem, they wait and follow behind whoever has status in the group. And, of course, once that person has made a move, contributed the first idea, no one else is willing to question or challenge. Or add alternative solutions, or judge one idea more effective than another. After a while, that popular team member becomes a person of influence. One or two problems down the road and the team becomes incapable of wrestling with the root cause. And, I become the street sweeper in the elephant parade.”

“And?” I glanced sideways.

“And, what?” Deidra was frustrated. “You are looking at me like I’m the problem.”

“I just wanted to know what else?” I smiled. “Who taught them to follow someone else’s lead, instead of thinking for themselves? Who taught them to bring the problem to the street sweeper?”

Shoelaces Untied

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“It’s time for my monthly coaching session,” Manuel explained. “I have some things I need to point out to some of my team.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “Negative feedback is necessary. If my shoes are untied, I need to know so I don’t fall on my face. But tying my shoes do not make me a high performer.”

Manuel looked down at his shoes, to make sure he was not the focus.  I continued, “What kind of feedback do you need?”

“Not a lot,” he said. “I have a pretty good idea when I perform well and when I fail.”

“Most competent people do,” I nodded. “You have a good sense when you are in struggle and when you are in flow. You have internal feedback sensitivities. When you are in flow, your body generates endorphins. When you struggle, your stomach doesn’t feel right.”

Manuel smiled. “That’s me. What about my team?”

“Reality always wins,” I replied. “You biggest job is to get in touch with it.** You are about to enter a coaching session with one of your team members. Giving advice, negative feedback, corrective action may get some shoelaces tied, but your biggest impact is getting your team member in touch with their reality. And, your description doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is their perception, their perception of circumstances, their perception of intention, their perception of performance and their perception of outcome. You only have a marginal impact with advice. You have a larger impact with questions. The best managers are not those who tell people what to do, but those who ask the best questions.”
—
**Shades of Pat Murray

Yoda Says

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“I think I could give it a try,” Naomi nodded. “I think I could get my team together, go over the seven wastes, and ask them to come up with an idea.”

“Yoda says there is no try,” I smiled. “Think about what you just said.”

“I guess I was making continuous improvement a choice,” she smiled back.

“You guess?”

“I was making continuous improvement a choice. Competence is not a choice, it’s a habit,” Naomi’s smile reluctantly faced the truth.

“So, it’s not just making competence necessary for your team. It’s making competence necessary for yourself.”

To the Point of Failure

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As a manager, how do we know a team member’s highest level of capability? Capability is invisible. We can only see the output of capability. For that, there is evidence.

We test people through project work. Step one is a quick assessment of their current applied capability. Look at the fruits of their labor. This is an intuitive judgment on the part of the manager.

Step two is to marginally increase the current complexity of the task, in the form of a project, with the promise of project debrief on completion.

If the project is successful, it’s a prompt for the next project, a bit more complex, with the promise of a debrief on completion. Continue. Continue until there is failure.

When a team member reaches the point of failure, we now have a better grasp of the individual’s competence. We know where they are successful and where they fail.

Give it some time and challenge them again. And again. As long as the team member is employed by the organization, it is a continual process of challenge to the point of failure.

Leadership Trivia

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Have you ever noticed there is no game called Leadership Trivia. Oh, there might be a version with the question, “Which company featured in the Jim Collin’s book Good to Great eventually went on to file for bankruptcy,” but, that would be more of a historical question.

In issues related to leadership, there are no answers that can be posted on a card, placed in a card deck, and pulled at random to delight its players around the table. There is often no right answer to the question.

Out Loud

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Much in your life will be determined by how you think and what you think about. Unfortunately, most people don’t think with much intention related to what they think about, and have little discipline about how they think. Words are the way we organize what we think. If you don’t know what you think, translate it into words, meaning, talk it out, talk it out loud.

When you talk your thoughts out loud, you will discover what you think and how you think. Sometimes, when you talk out loud, you will find your thoughts brilliant. Other times, when you talk out loud, you will discover the awful truth of the defect in your thinking.
—
Watch Tom Foster on Chris Comeaux’s Anatomy of Leadership.

Practice

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“But, we sent him to training,” Marjorie was disappointed.

“Just exactly what did you expect him to learn from the training?” I asked.

“His role in the company requires a very specific skill set. Without this technical knowledge, our engineers will bulldoze him over.”

“Is it possible,” I wanted to know, “that your disappointment has little to do with technical knowledge and more to do with the application of that knowledge? What you are expecting may only be learned by doing. Like riding a bicycle. Most training works only on the technical knowledge part, not the application part. And, the application must be practiced, over and over, before you see progress.”

What Changed?

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“But, this has worked, over and over for the past ten years. I am not sure why this project failed,” Jordan explained.

“First of all, the idea that originated ten years ago is not the same idea that has worked all along,” I replied. “You have modified and tweaked that idea each time there was a subtle shift in its application.”

Jordan was complaining. In this case, at this time, he would rather complain than consider a new idea he didn’t like.

“Each time you tweaked the idea,” I continued, “the shift was so subtle that you hardly noticed. And, your idea worked until it didn’t. Something has changed. Something has changed internally, externally or both. What was it?”

Simple, Subtle, Effective

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Rebecca did a very smart thing. During the delegation meeting with Todd, she asked him to take the notes. As Rebecca described various elements of the delegation, Todd wrote things down. Before the meeting was over, she had Todd read back the notes.

It is simple, subtle and very effective. I meet many managers who are stressed beyond belief, thinking they have to do all the “work” in their meetings.

What dynamic changes when this responsibility is shifted to the team member? What can the manager now focus on?

It all started with Rebecca’s request, “Todd, I need to see you in fifteen minutes to go over the progress on the ABC project, and please bring a notepad. I want you to take some notes to document our meeting.”