Coaching on tap
Leadership Coaching on Tap
A recent radio talk show spiked my interest. The topic. ‘what I have learned from using YouTube’ was nothing short of mesmerizing with the sharing of numerous fascinating stories. Callers shared how they had learned to paint their house, ride a bike, complete a 1/2 marathon, play guitar, learning Irish crochet from a lady in Russia, start a fire from lemons through to fix air conditioning, plumbing, and car problems.
Many listeners shared the satisfaction that had come from their learning experience. One caller referred to YouTube as ‘the modern version of the village square where one could ask an elder’ Clearly, they and others perceive the tool as valuable, with more than 300 hours of viewing uploaded per minute!
It reminded me of my own first experiences of dialing YouTube for help. My then 6-year-old son and I were about to leave for school one day when we realized neither of us knew how to do up his school tie. Desperately I searched YouTube, and to my great relief, I found a video demonstration of how to complete the task. I still marvel that in a little over two minutes, I learned this new skill.
High-Value Moments. Deeper Transferrable Learnings
The parallels with leadership coaching strike me. Just as YouTube learning is a low cost, efficient, and of immediate practical use, coaching moments generate a similar kind of value. Every day at work, there are 20,000 coaching moments. When leaders adopt a coaching orientation, they become able to leverage these coaching moments to unlock tremendous value. In such openings, people are most receptive to learning. The perceived need is present, and often with it comes a willingness to try new things just as I needed to knot that tie.
Often, leaders mistake coaching to be a discrete time-consuming activity, and are concerned that a significant investment is required to build a coaching culture. The reality is that a coaching culture is created interaction by interaction, moment by moment rather than through an isolated series of time-consuming interactions. Tuned in leaders who adopt a coaching orientation successfully leverage the many thousands of moments each day to unlock value and facilitate shift.
The best leader-coaches are superb at recognizing opportunities to transform the briefest of interactions into opportunities for shift. Some coaching moments serve as opportunities to build alignment, for example, helping a person understand what success looks like… others enhance engagement, for example pointing out the positive impact of a behavior on an outcome. Others serve to build capability as in taking a moment to help a person think about the most helpful approach to take in a situation. In contrast, others facilitate accountability, for example, taking a moment to share 60 seconds of feedback. Occurring literally in most interactions, they have the potential to make a significant difference to individuals, teams, and the broader organization.
There is a skill however, involved in leveraging these moments.
For example, in the following situation a tentative team member asks their boss if their approach is on the right track. The boss says:
1. I would do the following
2. I think that will cause problems.
3. Happy to help. Could you walk me through your thinking?
As we look at the three responses, we can see that option 1 leads to dependence while option 2 undermines confidence. Option 3 however, communicates support, explores the thoughts behind the approach, and opens the door to help the person develop insight, objectivity, and ownership to take the most helpful approach.
As you read the following two examples, see if you can see which one would yield the best value? Consider also the pattern that most reflects your orientation
Peer Situation
A colleague has had a setback with a stakeholder. The peer suggests:
1. Don’t worry about it
2. What is the most challenging part of that experience for you?
3. Tells the person how to set the other person straight
Senior Leadership Team Situation
A local leadership team is frustrated at receiving insufficient support from a key stakeholder group. The CEO suggests:
1. He will take it up at the steering committee.
2. He asks the team to put themselves into the shoes of the stakeholder. He invites them to explore from that person’s perspective what might be going on and what might be the most helpful response.
3. He encourages the team to keep going without the support of the stakeholder
Reflection
1. What would you say have been your most potent sixty-second coaching moments?
2. How do you practice being present enough to spot and to leverage coaching moments?
3. How do you help your leaders better utilize coaching moments as part of their coaching portfolio?
4. Where would your organization derive distinctive value from coaching being available on tap