Coaching Basics That Stick

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Transcript

Back To Coaching Fundamentals

Why One-Off Feedback Fails

The QALMS Coaching Framework

The Learning Project That Sticks

Effort Progress Results Checkpoint

Ownership And Accountability Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_00 0:37

With all the talk about artificial intelligence and coaching and all the things that are going on in the industry, I think one of the things that we forget, and I think it's very typical of when technology has a revolution or a revolutionary uh movement. And that is the fundamentals. You know, when you think about all the data and the statistics and things that sports teams use, you know, sometimes it also comes back to the basics of your batting stance, your shooting form. Do you know how to run the offense? It's the basics. And we really forget the basics. Now, in coaching, I often think about let's take a sampling of people that we need to coach in the workplace, someone with a negative attitude, someone lacking time management, somebody who doesn't work well with others who wants to become a leader, somebody who has emotional intelligence issues such as self-awareness and self-regulation. What do we do? We typically in the workplace have what I call a one-off conversation. We sit down and say, John, your attitude stinks, you got to cut it out. What do we do? We tend to think in our mind. I've talked to John, I've addressed that issue. That issue requires continuous conversations. So if John has a negative attitude, and let's say hypothetically, this fictitious employee also wants to become a future leader. At Progress Coaching, we have a coaching framework. I have not changed it in over 32 years because I think it still proves the test of time. Let me explain. Qualms is Q-A-L-M-S. Questions drive self-awareness. The A is activities drive change. The L, which I'm going to talk about, the learning project, builds ownership and accountability, yet more importantly, continuity between coaching conversations. I'll demonstrate that here in a bit. The motivator, in this case with John, wanting to become a future leader, that's his motivator. And then supplemental, the S are coaching strategies that are prescriptive in nature that can be prescribed and ultimately save people time. So the learning project. When you are coaching someone like John, I might say, John, you know, I want you to come in every single week or every two weeks, whatever your cadence is. I usually encourage weekly or bi-weekly. I don't encourage monthly. I think it's too long between coaching sessions. The learning project drives accountability and ownership. Yet more importantly, it's really tied to the area of needed improvement. Now, that doesn't always mean something bad, but in this case, we'll just talk about John's attitude. Now, we don't want to ask John to come in with examples of where his attitude wasn't bad. We want to have it to be very proactive and very forthright in terms of his pursuit. So I might say, John, every week I want you to come in with two examples of where you really felt like you positively influenced your teammates and how you think that'll help you become a future leader. So what I just did is I crafted a learning project towards a specific area. Now, attitude is somewhat specific. Communication, too vague and ambiguous. So if you want to coach someone to be a better communicator, is it active listening? Is it body language? Is it eye contact? What is it? You want to be specific. In this case, I'm keeping it very simple. So, John, come in with two examples of where you positively influence your teammates, not but you insert the word. And how do you think that will help you, specific to his motivator, of becoming a future leader? See, the motivator creates emotional attachment to what most people avoid. Personal change. So what we do is then every week we start our conversation. John comes in and I say, What happened? What are you learning? What are you going to do to maintain this? What are you proud of? Honestly, what do you think you still need to improve with your teammates? What momentum do you think exists? What momentum do you think you can create? So I'm a big fan of the cue, the questions, always starting with the word what? Why tends to put people in a defensive posture. Now the activity might be, well, I had a tough conversation with Lisa. And we might say, well, let's practice that conversation. And then when you end the conversation, which is the same thing that starts the next conversation, I bestow another learning project on John, but it's the same one. We call it a standing learning project. The standing learning project builds continuity and puts the ownership on the rightful owner. So you as a leader, you as a coach, are not responsible for John. I'm not responsible for John. John is responsible for John. So what's really cool, everybody, is it builds continuity between conversations. And the person driving the change is the very entity that needs to change. We call it a standing learning project. Now, someone will always say, when do you change it? The way you change from one area to coach to the next is when you feel like you've gone through three levels of change. Effort, is he showing effort? Typically the first three to four sessions. Praise it. Don't give a lot of constructive feedback. Second level is progress, pinpoint progress. 76% of people are at their most motivated state when they're progressing. You got to point it out. Sometimes they don't even know they're progressing. And then results, when you're starting to see that John is showing a positive influence, a positive demeanor, a collaborative demeanor on a consistent, predictable basis. Then you can leap to the next area where John might have an opportunity to improve. And oh, by the way, when you have traction with one area, their mind opens to the fact that this is working. I want to continue the process. Yet if I'm coaching John and I really want him to improve his attitude, but I'm also bringing up six other things in every coaching conversation, it's too much to assimilate. Make sure you're really leveraging the learning project. It creates that continuity between coaching conversations and bestows ownership and accountability on the rightful owner. In this case, our hypothetical employee, John.