term definition introduced in · 2017-12-07 · term definition introduced in coaching to influence...

Coaching Skills: Beyond the Basics Key Terms

Term Definition Introduced In

Coaching

To influence others using strategies designed to meet individual's needs in order to enhance their

performance toward a specific goal and overall mission. Coaching as a leadership strategy is utilized

for individuals with high attitude, but low to moderate skill. Module 1

Counseling

An interpersonal communication strategy implemented for the purpose of accountability as a

disciplinary measure for individuals who have demonstrated low to moderate attitude and low skill that

falls below established and consistently applied expectations. Module 2

Empower To give someone a sense of ownership by giving them the freedom to make their own decisions. Module 2

Ex-Dem-Pra

An interpersonal communication strategy for coaching using the methods of explaining, demonstrating

and then allowing individuals to practice in order to teach skills, build self-esteem and assess attitudes

and skill level of each player. Module 3

Maslow's Hierarchy of

Needs

A theory of psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow to describe human growth and development and

utilized to explain human motivation. Expressed as a visual pyramid, Maslow's theory shows the levels

of achievement as interdependent, with the highest level of self-actualization as the goal that cannot be

achieved without meeting the foundation needs at each level of the pyramid. Module 3

Mission Statement

A statement comprised of the infinitive verb "to" followed by an action verb and a target of the action

that reflects the values of an organization, department or individual. Departmental and coaches

missions are aligned with this overall value statement that drives actions. Module 1

Physiological NeedsBasic physical needs such as air, food, and water that are the foundation of human growth and

development. Module 3

Self-ActualizationA psychological term referring to the highest expression of self--to become everything that one is

capable of being. Module 3

Self-Esteem

The fundamental evaluation of one's own worth. There are two types of esteem: 1. Self-esteem –

results from competence or mastery of a task. 2. Attention/recognition from others – wanting

admiration has to do with a need for power. Module 3

COACHING SKILLS: BEYOND BASIC SUPERVISION MODULE ONE – DEVELOP YOUR COACHING PHILOSOPHY

Module 1: Develop Your Coaching Philosophy

Coaching is not about title, position, or hierarchy; coaching is really a leadership

skill. Leadership is defined as the ability to influence others. The person with influence

is the person with power. In today’s workplace, traditional hierarchical models of

leadership have given way to a workplace where individuals often work together toward

achievement as a team. The model is also flatter. The hierarchical model of

leadership has given way to this new collaborative, team driven model.

Top down influence associated with position on the organizational chart is no

longer the leadership way. Successful teams are led by coaches who have the ability to

harness their own energy, to orchestrate the energy of those around them. So first, how

is your energy? Do you start each day setting an intention for the day?

Brian Tracy, author of The Psychology of Achievement explores several of the

laws that are critical to having a mindset for success as a coach. The Law of Belief is

one of those laws. The Law of Belief states that what we believe with feeling becomes

our reality.

What do you believe with feeling about yourself? Your ability? Your role as

coach? Have you been speaking the language of empowerment first? Or stuck in

disempowering language of limitation?

Language such as I can’t, I don’t have the tools I need, the organization will not

invest; or I can’t get buy-in, cancel that. Coaching is about moving beyond goal setting

to personally possessing an energy that flows from your mindset that you utilize to

harness the energy of others toward your desired outcome.

So begin by checking yourself and develop a plan for checking your energy and

intentions daily as you approach coaching tasks.

Today we will explore some specific coaching strategies. A coach can develop a

successful playbook, or even be handed a playbook of strategies that have led another

team to past success. However, coaching is part science and part art. The art of

coaching is about the mindset of a coach. Coaching beyond the basics of coaching

strategies includes developing this coaching psychology of achievement.

Brian Tracy in The Psychology of Achievement also explores the Law of

Expectation. And he says “what we expect with confidence, positive and negative,

becomes reality”. The thoughts that become your beliefs about the players on your

team, or even biases you may unconsciously hold about employees with certain

characteristics are impediments to your success as a coach. If I believe, as a woman in

leadership, that working with a team of women is just difficult and will be full of drama –

that is certain to show up to affirm my expectations as coach. Ultimately, you will be

measured by results, therefore to generate results as coach begin by assessing your

perceptions of the players. Tell the deep down gritty truth you need to address in order

to move forward.

People from these backgrounds will behave in this way; employees who don’t

earn much money will not be motivated to achieve. Have you been holding negative

thoughts about current employees that are holding them, you, and the team back?

Have you been holding negative thoughts about the organization? John is always late,

he obviously doesn’t care about this job. Employees are just here for a paycheck.

Young employees don’t care, its’ not like the good old days when people took pride in

their jobs. What you think about, you will bring about. And no matter the talent within

each player on your team, these beliefs will become reality.

So as coach, understand that your role first and foremost as leader is to take

charge of your own energy, and then help to orchestrate the energy of those around

you.

So it’s important that you exercise the Law of Expectation and adhere to the new

coach’s credo: Everybody has greatness within them, as a coach it is my privilege to

assist individuals to unlock their greatness and to release it for their career success.

This new credo moves you into practicing the Law of Expectation.

What is your game plan? A mission statement is about what you do, right now,

today. Before you develop a strategy, you need to be clear about mission. Mission is a

clear, concise, short statement that answers the why. What is your core purpose for

existence? A strong mission statement begins with the infinitive verb 2; and is followed

by an action verb. For example: to provide, to empower, to encourage, to deliver. Then

you will need to answer who or what. This is the target of the action. Finally, your

mission statement ends with the desired outcome. Are you attempting to lead, that is

influence, others based upon your personal values and expectations of people, versus a

strategy that is aligned with the organization’s mission and department’s mission? A

mission is neutral, outcome driven, clear, and concise. After this webinar, take time to

sit down and write several drafts of your coach’s mission.

What would members of your team say if you asked them today what the mission

of the organization is? The department? What difference could it make to ask for input

from the team about the mission? If you see individuals who have been disconnected,

out for self, engaged in one-upmanship, it is a clear sign they are not connected to a

greater mission. Perhaps that lack of connection is simply because it has not been

established and clearly communicated. Modern day coaching beyond the basics

includes expanding beyond mission to develop your personal brand. Mission is part of

that brand. Can you think of some coaches who have a strong, identifiable personal

brand? When Paul Behr Bryant retired from coaching at the University of Alabama

following the football season in 1982, Coach Bryant was college football’s then most

successful coach in history with 323 victories. His Crimson Tide teams garnered a

staggering 6 national championships and 13 southeastern conference titles, making him

simply one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. Coach Bryant’s

legendary quotes regarding life, leadership, football, and coaching reveal he is a coach

who established a clear mission and walked and talked the language of expectations.

What he expected showed up in his results.

Listen to this quote from Coach Behr Bryant, see if you can hear his language of

expectation, and if you can identify the mission that he holds as the coach for this team

by the way he communicates to the players. “What are you doing here? Tell me why

you are here. If you are not here to win a national championship, you’re in the wrong

place. You boys are special. I don’t want players to be like other students – I want

special people. You can learn a lot on the football field that isn’t taught in the home, the

church, or in the classroom. There are going to be days when you think you’ve got no

more to give – and then you’re going to give plenty more. You are going to have pride

and class; you are going to be very special; you are going to win the national

championship for Alabama.” Do you hear the language of expectation? With words like

‘you are’. Nothing limiting about this coaches communication. And even though he

acknowledges there will be challenges, he says there are going to be days when you

think you’ve got no more to give, and then you are going to give plenty more.

What I love is the mission statement is clear. You are going to win the national

championship for Alabama. This coach communicates that there is a mission – it is

clear, concise, it’s aligned with the athletic department and the mission of the overall

organization. He communicates to the players with the language of expectation, and in

his word choice you can feel he believes every player has something to contribute to the

team.

Analyze the players. Now that you have a new coaching credo and have

developed your aligned coach’s mission statement, it’s time to analyze the players.

Before identifying strategies, we have to examine who is on your team, what they do,

and what they bring to the team in terms of current skills and attitude. Great leaders

begin with the end in mind, they exercise one of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly

Effective People. Then as coach you will determine what strategy will be best for each

player in order to generate the desired outcome. To apply the correct strategy we must

first analyze the players. Are you clear on each employee’s responsibilities? Have you

reviewed an updated job description with employees? Have you walked the workplace

and observed what a typical day is like for employees and/or done a ride along or

shadow day? Identify skills. When you identify the skills of employees – who I am

calling your players – think broadly in terms of not only technical skills but also the soft

skills, like emotional intelligence, listening, self-esteem, organizational skills, writing,

relational skills, creativity and others. I recommend you use the website

vocabulary.com to help you identify attitude words – both positive and negative that best

describe individuals. These attitude words will become very important in determining

where to plot your players so we match the right strategy to the right player.

I love what Brian Tracy the author of The Psychology of Achievement says about

attitude: we often tell people I don’t like your attitude, or you have a bad attitude, and

that person is left wondering what does that mean. He said pay attention to behaviors,

because behaviors are really attitudes in action. If you want to shift the behavior of the

player you have to get clear about the attitude and why that may be the experience of

that employee.

Here are some examples of both positive and negative attitude words. There are

many more on vocabulary.com, you could also use a thesaurus to help you really get

clear about the positive and negative attitude attributes for all of the players. There will

always be an overlap, yet one category will tend to predominate as you make your list.

After today, take an inventory of each player and be sure to document their name, their

skills, their responsibilities, and attitudes.

Now that you have checked your own energy, identified that your role as leader

is really to influence others by using your energy to harness the energy of others.

You’ve developed a new credo where you are starting from a place of expectation.

You’ve analyzed your players, now you must plot them before going forward so you

know which strategies and skills you must employ. You will plot each player’s name on

the grid, take a look at your list, and start by assigning a number to attitude. 0-5 is low

to average; 5-10 average to high. Then you will assess skills, on a scale of 0 being the

least, to 10 extremely proficient, expert level demonstration of skill. You will then plot

the skill point. So for example, think about plotting these points like we did in school in

math class. Let’s say you have Tom. Tom is a player who has pretty positive attitude;

in fact, he’s enthusiastic, he’s open, willing to learn – he’s about an 8 in attitude. Put

your index finger on the 0 on the chart, and slide your finger over to the right, past the

mid-section which would be 5, to about the middle of the next part of that arrow which

would be an 8. But on skill level Tom is about a 4, he’s new, he’s got a lot of growth in

the skill level that is needed. So he’s only about a 4, your finger is over as far as 8 to

the right hand side, and then you will move up to 4. This places Tom’s name in the

bottom right quadrant. The strategy for Tom is coaching. Coaching isn’t for every

player. You will learn there are actually 4 different strategies to use based upon where

you plot the players.

You coach employees who have high attitude but low skill. That’s the idea

moment to meet a player with coaching. They’re open, they’re enthusiastic, they have a

pretty positive attitude, they just don’t know what they’re doing yet. And they’re waiting

on you as coach. When we don’t meet employees with coaching when they are at this

phase of development, what changes begin to show up in attitude? Then eventually the

low morale is what we call it brings them into a different category – they now have low

attitude, negative attitude and low skill. The skill never improved because they were

never coached. The end up in the left bottom quadrant, which you will learn is the

counseling quadrant. When organizations do not invest in coaching they end up with

more people who have to be disciplined, and all the energy and resources and time

ends up being drained into that quadrant of individuals, and those are not the individuals

who needed coaching.

COACHING SKILLS: BEYOND BASIC SUPERVISION MODULE TWO – COACHING STRATEGIES AND SKILLS

Module 2: Coaching Strategies and Skills

There are 5 steps to building successful strategies for coaching: team ownership,

understood costs, measureable progress, clear results, and obvious benefits. You may

use one or a combination of these strategies to build a cohesive team.

Fortune issues its list of best places to work in the United States each year. The

organizations listed on this year’s Fortune 2014 List employed a number of these

strategies to achieve results for the overall organization and the individual players.

Google achieved its #1 status on Fortune’s Best Places to Work in the United States in

2014 by fostering team ownership. CEO Larry Page urged them to be audacious,

especially in philanthropy. Google donates $50 for every 5 hours an employee

volunteers. Last year a new program sent employees to Ghana and India to work on

community projects. This invests the team in Google’s mission, which is a global

mission. As an information technology based organization, their mission is to have a

global reach – and they have established team ownership through these practices.

Genentech, a company that’s #6 on Fortune’s List, is inspired by customer

feedback. This connects employees to the obvious benefits, and clear results as

strategies for achievement of this company’s goals. For example, when a new breast

cancer drug got FDA approval last February, Genentech employees pulled out all the

stops to ship the drug overnight to the UCLA Medical Center where they had heard 3

women were desperately awaiting treatment.

Does your team understand the costs, and are they connected to costs? Ask

them for feedback. What are some ways we can reduce costs? Employees know the

redundancies, inefficiencies, and gaps. One of my earliest and biggest coaching

mistakes as a leader was diving in and developing strategies without first asking for

input. How motivated do you suppose employees were to achieve the result? This was

top down strategy rather than coaching. If I had asked, they would have told me many

of the same costs I discovered, but by allowing them to identify the redundancies,

wasted money, and create creative solutions I would have created buy-in and motivated

the team to actually implement a targeted goal. It would have been a true ‘we’ effort

and result.

Camden Property Trust is #11 on Fortune’s 2014 List of Best Places to Work, and they

use both team ownership and measureable progress to drive desired outcomes. Non-

executive employees of this apartment landlord received surprise bonuses the past 3

years as a result of better than expected financial results. Camden manages more than

60,000 apartments at 180 properties in 10 states. More than 600 employees live in

Camden Apartments and get a 20% discount on rent. They are connected to the

mission of the organization as residents of Camden Properties, who enjoy the spoils of

the results driven through their efforts at work.

What strategies would work best for your team?

Get In the Arena

As coach, you have to get in the arena. I love what Theodore Roosevelt says in

his speech that became known as the Man in the Arena. “It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds

could have done them better; the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs, who

comes short again and again; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high

achievement while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and

timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Brunea Brown’s book Daring Greatly talks about the importance of courage in

life, leadership, personal achievement and parenting. Her book was inspired by

Roosevelt’s famous Man in the Arena excerpt from one of his speeches. “Courage,”

she says “is about the willingness to be vulnerable among other core qualities you must

develop.” As coach, you are asking employees, or anyone you coach, to dare greatly.

To step into the arena, even if that means failure. To be vulnerable by trying new

things. To face their perceived or actual weaknesses, and do it anyway. As coach, you

too must hone your skills – exhibit the willingness to err and get back in the ring again

and again, and to be vulnerable in front of the team. A great coach is not omniscient

and omnipotent; remember, coaching is about harnessing the energy of others – their

positives and negatives that they bring to the table, and using what you have in each

player to achieve the mission.

Ask yourself these questions: do I demonstrate the courage to dare greatly as

coach? What strategies are best for each player? What skills do I need as coach?

My son, Sterling, is a phenomenal young athlete who has come to expect high

achievement of himself after years of All Star team selections in football and baseball,

lots of trophies and wins. But along the way he has learned the humility of losses, and

how to dare greatly in the process. Wrestling, a new sport for Sterling, challenged

Sterling’s weaknesses. Even your highest achievers have negatives. Like Sterling,

they may be their own harshest critics, and at times even hesitant to try something new

for fear of getting it wrong. You will ask them to dare greatly anyway. Sometimes we

have to be willing to go to the mat.

What strategies do coaches utilize to empower, inspire, and enable players to

take the risk of being vulnerable? This takes courage on your part, and theirs. I love

what Sterling’s wrestling coach said when asked how he dominates his opponents when

he gets in the ring, even as a coach, and still from time to time competes and wrestles

opponents. His coach said – I just take what they give me. His coach is a strategist on

and off the mat. As a champion wrestler, Sterling’s coach exploits the weaknesses of

his opponents and spends most of his matches on top scoring all the points, rather than

reacting defensively. As a coach, he uses the same philosophy – I take what they give

me. He exploits the strengths of his players, and coaches them up in other areas of

weakness so they can compete on the mat. Sterling, a new wrestler, doesn’t have the

tactical technical skills yet, but he has superior strength, speed, determination and

intelligence. So his coach doesn’t overwhelm Sterling with too much communication.

Coaches can over communicate to players. Instead, Sterling’s coach teaches him

moves that play to Sterling’s strengths, and because Sterling is a fast learner, his coach

coaches him up in the moment with countermoves when necessary. That means the

coaches mat side for support while the wrestler is in the arena, on that mat, daring

greatly. What is your strategy for each player? Where are you when they are daring

greatly, to provide that necessary support in the moment in the right way for that player?

Sometimes coaching is just a matter of something that is said in a few moments that

can greatly change the results for the player, the team, and you as coach.

Teams are successfully cohesive when their needs are met within the team by

other team members and by the team’s leader. Stop and ask yourself what’s in it for the

team? We’ll talk more about how to motivate players. Think about this list, after today,

and invite input from members of your team. Ask them what they see as the positives

and negatives of teamwork so you can learn what would be meaningful to the players.

If individual needs are met and the leader makes the goals and objectives of the team

worthwhile and achievable, commitment and loyalty follow.

Motivating people is a constant challenge and it boils down to the question: what

makes people want to be a part of the team? Can we motivate people? Everyone is

not motivated by recognition. And we’ll learn more about how to build a team by

motivating the players.

These are coaching skills a good coach is able to utilize all these skills and more

to empower the players. Coaching is a process. Active listening is one of your most

powerful techniques as coach. You will learn some specific techniques for good

listening. According to Gallop poles and poles by the American Management

Association, over 50% of employees would report greater job satisfaction if they just had

opportunities for input. They need more opportunities where you as coach will simply

listen. Listening is also actually a skill that builds rapport with certain styles of

individuals, and is a demonstration of emotional intelligence. You will learn how to build

rapport with the platinum role in another module. Great coaches have a list of powerful

questions. Many of these questions also create player accountability.

After listening, ask questions such as: is there more? Invite an employee to vent,

it can actually move that player away from powerless complaining into a discussion

about solutions. When you listen as coach, you are taking what they give you and

determining how you can gather information you may need. Every person who must

persuade anyone should have a developed list of questions. How can I help? What do

you see as the most important task you must do today? What resources will you need

to get the work done? Have you asked your coworker for what you want? With

additional training could you do it? Is there anything you may need to perform the

essential functions of your job? What do you like best about your performance this

week? What can you do differently next time?

Do you have a list of power questions that immediately inspire a player to be

solution minded, that hold players accountable and that invest them in results? There’s

a wonderful book by Jeffrey Gitterer called The Little Red Book of Selling and he talks

about the power of persuasion and how anyone who must persuade others has to

develop a list of questions. Remember, leaders must have the ability to influence other

people – questions are a major part of exercising influence as a coach.

Emotional intelligence includes demonstrating empathy. This means

acknowledging the other person’s feelings and emotion rather than just sticking to the

facts. This can be a challenge for task based people like myself, but absolutely

essential to be an effective coach. Statements such as, I can understand how that

would be frustrating for you; I imagine it must feel overwhelming to be responsible for all

the HR duties, help me understand what tools would help you operate efficiently. Notice

how in that coaching phrase I moved from demonstrating emotional intelligence to

utilizing questions to hold this player accountable for HR, and empower this employee

by listening to what they really need to achieve the goal. Understand some employees

do not know yet what they need; as coach, you are responsible for assisting the player

and identifying resources they need to achieve the goal. That may be pairing this

employee with a coworker who is a veteran. This may be training, a book, software that

performs certain duties, outsourcing certain non-essential functions so the player can

focus on priorities. Frequent meaningful feedback as part of your coaching process

builds the self-esteem of players, and when self-esteem is up – performance is up,

productivity is up, and so is profit. I learned from Dr. Susan Bail, an expert on building

self-esteem, that unconditional love is based upon recognition of who a person is at his

or her core, not what he or she has done. Do you give feedback as coach that is based

upon efforts and qualities of the person or strictly outcomes?

Here’s an example of a coaching phrase that is not outcome based: I love your

hustle on every play versus you scored 10 points in the scrimmage game today, great

job. Feedback must be balanced, and speaks to all the qualities you need on a team.

Some players are highly motivated and their self-esteem is experienced by the outcome

statement you scored 10 points. You will learn more about those players in our section

on motivating; but some employees are only motivated, and their self-esteem is only

built by the statement I love your hustle on every play. There can only be one high

scorer on your team, you need role players to win the game. Make sure your frequent

meaningful feedback is designed to the personality of the player so that it builds the

self-esteem without creating shame.

Here are some quick tips for good listening after today: are you pre-judging the

message or even rehearsing your answer as the other person is talking? Minimize all

distractions like cell phones, checking email, looking at texts – things that we call multi-

tasking. 55% of your communication as coach is non-verbal. What do you

communicate when you don’t give your present attention through listening to a player?

Don’t nod people on – you know that unconscious behavior we engage in when we

really want somebody to hurry up and we start nodding our head. Listen now to avoid

the fallout later, and employ these techniques as a coach.

Coaching is an ongoing circular process with no beginning or end. As coach,

you will have your own moments where you forgot to show empathy, didn’t listen, went

right to tasks, or focused only on outcomes. To keep yourself on track, take note of

your coaching interactions. In the business world you might not interact with each

player daily – there may not be a team meeting every week, so track your interaction to

make sure you are coaching up each player with enough consistency to see progress.

We use one of Dr. Susan Bail’s techniques for building self-esteem at Fred Pryor

Seminars and Career Track, in giving feedback to the players. You can use LB’s and

NT’s – Liked Best and Next Time. Ask the player what did you like best about your

performance this week? What would you do differently next time? As coach, keep

track of your own LB’s and NT’s in your journal – things you like best in interactions that

really worked this week with the team, and what you will do differently next time. And

make sure you are always exercising one of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective

People, and that you are always sharpening the saw. Are there skills you need to focus

on in your own individual training?

COACHING SKILLS: BEYOND BASIC SUPERVISION MODULE THREE – MOTIVATE THE PLAYERS

MODULE 3: Motivate the Players

It’s time now to plot each player’s name on the grid. You assigned a number to

attitude and skill. Make sure that you have now plotted all your players. In this section,

as we talk about specific strategies, you must be clear on where to place each player so

you are certain to use the right coaching strategy for each player.

Map your players. A great coach needs a map. This is really the game plan.

Map the personality style of each player so you use the right language. Are you only

giving feedback to those who really are supposed to be counseled? Are you trying to

coach people who are really at a point of formal counseling? How you communicate

with employees will differ based upon their personality style and the coaching strategy

you must utilize will differ based upon how you plotted each player when we started

developing a game plan.

Personality styles is an entire separate area of training that you must master as a

coach. I recommend the Fred Pryor Seminars Training: Dealing With Difficult People,

and Dr. Tony Alasandro’s program New Addition Relationship Strategies.

Coaching and counseling are not the same thing. I learned from Dr. Tony

Alasandro the importance of mastering the Platinum Rule as a coach. Interpersonal

communication skills make or break coaches, and team members will always turn to the

coach for a quick decision in times of need. Dr. Tony Alasandro developed “The

Platinum Rule”, which says treat others the way they want to be treated. This simply

means you must learn to map your players and speak their language if you are going to

be effective in your interpersonal communication as coach.

Are you speaking the language of the players, or are you only speaking one

language – your own? Mastering the platinum rule is about mapping people by learning

the verbal and non-verbal cues that give away what really motivates them to act. We

don’t have time in this program today to go through all the quadrants and all of the

techniques, but there are 4 major categories of personality styles that you will work with,

according to Dr. Tony Alasandro’s program New Addition Relationship Strategies. The

get it right people – he calls them thinkers. They are passive to assertive as

communicators, highly task focused, the intend to get it right; they like facts, logic,

structure. They tend to fear getting it wrong and sometimes do not like change. They

need to know the entire playbook before they are motivated to take action, and they

want to know why. They prefer to get communication in email so that they can print it

out and think it over and check off the list.

Get it done people are also very task based, they are assertive to aggressive as

communicators. They’re big picture thinkers – they hate being micro-managed. They

like to be praised for a job well done, and they tend to be fast paced. Sometimes you

get it done people are aggressive as communicators, they may tend to speak in ‘you

need’ language, even to the coach.

Get along people are more passive as communicators. They tend to go along to

get along – they’re called relators: great listeners, listening in fact is the number one skill

to use to be effective with this player. Teamwork and being connected to a team

mission and getting opportunities to work together as a team is very important. This

player wants to know do I matter, how do I fit in? They also have to have safety needs

met in order to be an effective part of the team.

Get appreciated people are your socializers. They’re outgoing, they’re assertive

to aggressive as communicators, they’re very people focused – they’re your creative

individuals in the organization. They want opportunities to give input, and if they don’t

get an opportunity they’ll tell you anyway. They prefer praise – the more public, the

better; and they want a personal relationship, and they’d like to know a little bit about

who you are before they will trust you.

Where would you map some of the personalities on your team? Which one is

your personality style? Learn the strengths and weaknesses of your own style, the

strengths and weaknesses of each of the players on your team, and continue to master

this Platinum Rule after today to be effective as a coach.

What do people really need? As coach, you are seeking to meet the unmet

needs of players to achieve an overall result. This is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. At

the most basic level we have physiological and safety needs. Physiological needs are

needs like air, food, water. Safety needs are the needs for stability and consistency in a

chaotic world. Love and belonging is the need that makes people want to be part of a

team. Humans desire to be a part of an established group, and to be accepted within

that group.

Esteem is experienced in 2 different ways: there are really 2 types. Some

players experience self-esteem based upon their results. Remember those personality

styles like the thinkers and directors, your task-based people feel motivated and

experience a boost in their self-esteem when you praise results, or give an opportunity

for those employees to demonstrate competence or mastery of a task. People people

tend to experience self-esteem based upon attention or recognition from others.

At the highest level we achieve self-actualization. We cannot achieve that

highest level of our needs until we have met all of the needs below. Self-actualization is

the desire to become more and more of what one is; to become everything that one is

capable of being. We tend to use the term motivation to describe that someone has this

inherent desire to become everything that one is capable of being. People who have

everything – all their other needs met – can maximize their true potential. The most

exceptional coach finds a way to help the players achieve self-actualization. And really

that is the ultimate reward of a coach. An understanding of people’s needs helps

managers to determine how to motivate, and what to motivate with. Every move a

person makes meets a need of some sort – even our positive behaviors and negative

behaviors. We don’t do anything that we don’t think serves one of these areas of

needs. As a coach, particularly if you are applying coaching skills and strategies to the

workplace, you have limited time to address a lifetime of a players actual needs. You

may be working with employees who have personal situations that compromise their

basic physiological and safety needs. The employee is facing serious financial strife

that threatens the roof over his or her head; an employee is dealing with domestic

violence in the home – these are circumstances beyond coaching, but that you must

include in your plan. Your role in the workplace is to listen, ask questions such as you

don’t seem like yourself is there something else going out outside of work that is

impacting you, we may have assistance we could offer. You may have HR/legal

reasons to address these issues as they may trigger the Rights of Employees under the

Americans With Disabilities Act Amendments Act, The Family Medical Leave Act, or

Employee Assistance Programs and more. As coach, when the basic levels of needs

are threatened an employee is in survival mode, and just showing up to work may

literally be the best he or she can do. Then it’s time to engage human resources.

As coach, use the X/DEM/PRA method: explain, demonstrate, practice. Have

players been thrown onto the field and expected to perform but the coach has not set

them up to succeed by using this basic coaching method for motivating the players?

First explain – describe expectations, describe the overall objective and determine

knowledge. Remember, some players – especially your thinker who wants to get it right

– cannot make a move until you have explained exactly where to hit the target and

determined that they have the knowledge and tools to get it right. Your socializer needs

to know why – why am I being asked to do this, what do you expect of me? They fear

embarrassment. See how these personality styles are served by explaining. Then

demonstrate. You show them. Sometimes you’ve got to get in the arena. Then they

show you, and assess the skills. If you ever watch an effective coach who’s coaching an

athletic team, the coach explains the drill first, then the coach physically demonstrates

the drill or brings a couple players out front who have demonstrated mastery – that

builds their self-esteem because they get to be recognized and have an opportunity to

demonstrate their competence, and they get to show the players how to perform the

drill. Then assess the skills. You may have to have mixed ability groups. You might

have to provide additional what we call scaffolding in teaching more supports to some

than others. Now it’s time to practice. This is what is most missing in the workplace –

we’re often moving at a fast pace with few opportunities to practice until employees

meet expectations. In fact, job descriptions are being rewritten to include any and all

relevant duties as assigned – those duties are all assigned quickly without any

explanation, without any demonstration or tools to get it done, and certainly with no

opportunity to practice – and employees are helped strictly accountable for results. This

is demoralizing, disempowering and not effective coaching.

Allow the player to practice until they meet the objective and give immediate,

appropriate feedback along the way.

COACHING SKILLS: BEYOND BASIC SUPERVISION MODULE FOUR – COACHING PROBLEM PLAYERS

Module 4: Coaching Problem Players

Now that you have the skills to build and motivate your team with external

motivators and coaching, let’s move to counseling. How do you put a problem player

back on track?

Now that you have plotted all of your players, you’ve got to analyze your plotting.

Those individuals – remember – who have high attitude but low skill, that’s who you

meet with coaching or training. Sometimes the only thing an employee needs is training

and an opportunity to practice. Some need to be coached up in some areas until they

develop the skills by using some of the techniques we’ve practiced in prior modules.

We’ll talk about mentoring and empowering in our final module, and you’ve learned

some skills for relating. Remember, the relator – some of those people people; skills

like listening, demonstrating emotional intelligence, giving frequent meaningful feedback

to players. You do that for employees who have a 0-5 on attitude, but they have high

skill. Have you been treating people as disciplinary problem players who really should

be in the relate box? All they need is for you to demonstrate those coaching skills that

we outlined in that circular process, to build a connection. If you relate to those

employees they already have the skill, their attitude will improve; it’s the soft skills you

will use for those employees. They already have the skill.

But what about those problem players? The only individuals who truly belong in

the counsel box have a 0-5 in attitude and their skill is low. Problem players can

become a distraction, a drain on the energy of the team, the coach, and the bottom line.

Can these players be turned around? Before you can help a problem employee you

must first identify the cause of the problem. You may have a fault-finder or a know-it-all.

What could be causing that? Remember the thinker? Sometimes, when a thinker’s

need to get it right is threatened, they may start to find fault with everyone else, or act

like a know-it-all, especially if you’re in the middle of managing change. Remember, the

thinkers fear is getting it wrong – so you have to make change safe. Explain the why,

provide details, and enough time to implement change. Also, as a strategy with the

fault-finder or know-it-all, ask for solutions, not problems. If they come to you with a

problem, ask them to brainstorm how to fix it. Use the word think – what do you think

about how we might fix that, what do you think would work?

Then you have the bottom left category here, the anti-social person, or the loner.

Find out why this person is being anti-social, make sure this individual is not being

bullied by other members of the team, or that there aren’t other issues outside of work

causing this employee to shut down. Some people feel too vulnerable being asked to

participate, so you have to make it safe. Remember that hierarchy of needs – the fear

of not belonging, the fear of embarrassment, or just not feeling safe could lead someone

to become seemingly anti-social. Have them outline what they’re working on, tell them

what aspects you expect them to delegate to others if they’re hoarding work, doing

everything all by themselves. They fear a loss of control and have to learn how to

appropriately delegate. You might engage this person by having them gather

information, taking notes in meetings, involving themselves in a way that is not too

vulnerable. I’ve heard employees come to my HR trainings and they’ve shared with me

forced teamwork situations, where they’re forced to be paired with someone – and

worse, forced to speak in a meeting. And the leader thought this was an effective

coaching skill, but actually it drove people further underground into anti-social

behaviors. So think of ways to start engaging people in a manner that’s safe.

You have the socializer or time-waster, sometimes called the goof-off. This

employee may need you to set deadlines and check up on progress frequently.

Checkpoints and deadlines, and then praise success – even the smallest measurement

of advancement, to get this employee back on track. Be very clear about expectations

of quality, what will and will not be accepted as a final product. Accountability measures

are important for the socializer or time-waster. Also, find out why they’re wasting time –

this could be a function of personality, they may also just have a challenge with

executive functioning skills and need you to help demonstrate practices for getting

organized.

And you have your anti-management rebel. When this person negatively

pronounces their feelings, tell them that such pronouncements serve no valuable

purpose, and then ask them to validate their statements. Tell me what you mean when

you say management doesn’t know what it’s doing. What are you talking about

specifically? This is a technique called shining the spotlight. This person is attempting

to take the spotlight off themselves by shining it on others, and usually your rebel who’s

anti-management is someone who’s an extreme get appreciated mode and who wants

to shine the spotlight on others. Their biggest fear is embarrassment. Have this

conversation one on one. If they are a sniper who likes to do this in front of the group,

it’s important to manage your emotions, turn the spotlight on them in the moment, and

ask them their intentions. Are you intending to embarrass your coworker by pointing out

his mistake in front of the group? What I want is, if you have a problem that you notify

for you next to suggest solutions in the meeting instead of attacking others. Now, where

did the spotlight turn? It’s important though that before you say something if it’s public,

that you learn to master your emotional control with the rebel. Otherwise, you lose all

credibility and they have all the power. You may have to have conversations one on

one with this individual and explain to them how they could later pay the personal price

for being anti-management. The key is do not defend management or the coaches role,

make it about them and how their gossiping is ultimately embarrassing them, causing

them a loss of credibility and could ultimately cost them a spot on the team.

What do people really need? Remember, to employ the right strategy you will

have to return to Maslow’s Hierarchy to determine what is within your skillset and what

is not. If the player lacks cognitive and physical ability to perform the job, this may be a

situation that training and coaching cannot resolve. This could also be an American’s

With Disabilities Act Amendments Act issue, if the player has physical or mental

impairments that substantially limit the person in a major life activity. At that point, you

are determining what reasonable accommodations this employee might need with the

assistance of HR. Your job is just to spot that issue.

Can you turn around problem behavior by determining the root cause and filling

that need? Most of the problem players we’ve described are the result of needing to

feel love and belonging and/or self-esteem issues. If you can employ your coaching

skills to fill those needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy, you can and will move employees out of

problem behavior and even out of the counseling quadrant.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

If performance is up to standard now, coach as needed to maintain performance;

and if not, ask these series of checklist questions before simply moving right to transfer

or termination. Sometimes lack of performance has been inadvertently rewarded just by

avoiding confronting it. Is performance inadvertently punished? Sometimes we curse

the competent by piling on more work. Are you delegating effectively? Sometimes

simple lack of delegation as a skill of the coach is what’s driving down someone’s

performance, and perceived as a skill issue. It’s really not a skill issue or an attitude

issue of the player, it’s the coach who has not organized duties, effectively delegated,

and has not held others who are not performing accountable for their lack of results.

When it’s time to counsel, go through these steps. Think about the risks before

you have this conversation – it is a form of confrontation, yet its part of being a coach.

Keep the main thing the main thing. Don’t allow the player or yourself to get side

tracked by throwing in other issues that aren’t germane to that counseling meeting.

There may be some excellent benefits, if you analyze the potential benefits of

counseling an employee it will help move you toward confronting the real issues with

tact and skill. Not all conflict is bad. Getting issues out on the table is often the first

step. Determine your goal and objective for this session, stick to the goal. If other

issues come up you may have to set separate meetings, but keep this meeting on track

and focus on the behavior, not the person. Michael Staver says one of his 21 ways to

diffuse anger so that a situation like this does not escalate when you have to talk about

difficult issues is to focus on behaviors and not your interpretation. If you tell someone

you are so disrespectful – disrespect is your interpretation of behaviors. In a counseling

session, effective counseling is documented in writing and it focuses on specific,

measureable, observable behaviors. Rather than a list of your interpretations.

Interpretation words are words like lazy, disrespectful, rude; instead, what are the

underlying behaviors that you need to address, and know when to stop. Remember, no

matter your best efforts in coaching skills or determining who must be counseled and

holding people accountable, there are some issues beyond coaching and it may be time

for you to stop and make hard decisions with the help of HR about whether this

employee can continue to serve on the team. Sometimes the greatest gift you can give

to someone is holding them ultimately accountable.

COACHING SKILLS: BEYOND BASIC SUPERVISION MODULE FIVE – DEVELOP YOUR ACTION PLAN

Module 5: Develop Your Action Plan

The CFO asked the CEO what if we invest in developing our people and they

leave us? The CEO replied, what if we don’t and they stay?

As coach, you have a brand new mindset, you’ve established a mission, you

develop strategies and continue to train yourself on the coaching skills. You continue to

get in the arena throughout this process as coach, and part of getting in the arena is

developing your action plan. The final quadrant of players on your team are those who

must be mentored and empowered. And so sadly, these are the individuals who are the

most ignored in an organization, and that’s when they take their talents to another

organization. The more that you invest in coaching, the ultimate goal is to move your

entire team to the quadrant of being players who must be empowered. How do you

reach that goal?

These are the employees who have high attitude and high skill, what do we do to

these folks? We use the exact same system we’ve used for everyone else, we require

them to complete spreadsheets, micro-manage their time, contact them with emails and

phone calls with statements such as where are you on that, how is that going, what do

you need from me? All of these patterned phrases and techniques that we’ve learned

through FAD coaching. Great coaches are always sharpening the saw, they don’t

adhere just to the latest trends, but they often also rely on intuition. Intuition is your

greatest asset, and in addition to all the strategies today you should know through your

intuition when it’s time to mentor and empower certain players. How do I fit my work

within the corporate structure, while still mentoring and empowering others? Managers

manage process; coaches lead – and they lead by influencing others. And the way to

influence those with positive attitude and high skill is to start mentoring them, and then

empowering them when they reach that highest level.

Here’s who needs a mentor: Does the employee have high attitude and high

skills? Yes. Then does the employee express a desire to advance or learn more? This

is an important question, some people really don’t want to learn more – they have

positive attitude, high skill, and they are okay where they are. One of the things I really

had to learn is that those are the employees just to continue to relate to, connect with,

and just let them know you’re there if they need any coaching. There are role-players

on teams – not everyone wants to be mentored or wants to advance or learn. This is

why forced mentoring programs don’t work. Everyone is not a candidate. Sometimes,

all that employee wants is to be left alone; they want to complete their work, they want

the frequent meaningful feedback that works for them, and an open line of

communication to know that if I bring my problem to the coach, the coach will help me

solve it.

What do you have to give as mentor? You have your time, your talents, your

experience, connections. You may have the ability to remove some barriers, and so

much can be gained for you personally as mentor. You will sharpen your own saw and

learn a lot about yourself and enhance your skills as teacher or mentor. Sometimes

those employees who reach a high level experience a great deal of satisfaction and

their self-esteem is built by being able to mentor someone else, or even be a coach to

someone else.

I love what General Colin Powell says about his different 18 qualities of leaders, and he

said the day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped

leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them, or concluded

that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

So how do you empower the players? There are 7 levels of empowerment. Consider

these levels and where each player might be, remember, empowerment as a strategy is

for those players who have very positive attitude/high skill, and you’re trying to

differentiate how you treat those players so you don’t demoralize them. General Powell

said one of the worst things you can do as leader is treat everyone equally – regardless

of their level of performance results. Systems where we just try to treat everyone

equally nicely fail your highest players. Differentiate these players, utilize these levels

of empowerment. There is no substitute for being competent and knowing your stuff. If

you don’t have strong technical skill in the aspects of your role, players will not bring

their problems to you because they won’t have confidence that you will know how to

handle it. As you move up through the levels these players are now bringing

alternatives, recommendations, and then you have a number of layers of empowerment

that you may engage in.

Remember to set smart goals, specific, measureable, aligned, realistic, and time driven.

Every player on your team should have their own playbook with their own individual

smart goals that are specific, they’re measureable, they’re aligned with your mission –

the mission of the department and the organization; they’re realistic for that player, and

time driven. Periodically compare that player’s actual progress to the expected

progress so you as coach adjust your plan, its pace, the depth and breadth for each

player.

Remember, coaching is a process. Remember to reassess your coaching process to

maintain progress. Did I stop giving feedback when things were going well? Have I

been demonstrating emotional intelligence? Have I been inconsistent with

accountability? Coaching sometimes is one of these techniques for the right player in

the right moment to achieve the desired result.

I learned from former NFL Coach Herman Edwards that a goal without a plan is just a

wish. So I never leave anyone after a day of training by saying well I wish you well –

you’re the coach, and now you have the credo, the mission, you’ve analyzed the

players, you’ve plotted them, you have a set of coaching strategies and skills, and an

action plan for your success. So with the Law of Expectation, instead of wishing you

success, I will tell you I know you will win. Thank you for participating in Coaching

Skills: Beyond the Basics.

(End of recording).

term definition introduced in · 2017-12-07 · term definition introduced in coaching to influence...

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