Managing People; Take a Leaf Out of a Sports Coach's Book

In my experience coaching in organisations is a failure. The central cause of coaching failure is the lack of real interest in coaching by the leaders of the organisation.

Having only a cursory interest in coaching as a means of improving employee competence and consequently organisation performance consigns organisation's coaching efforts to the dustbin.

Coaching requires thought and commitment. My experience has been that many organisations do not think enough about what coaching is and what results they wish to achieve from coaching.

By not understanding what coaching means to their organisation, the element of commitment becomes a moot point.

Coaching in sport seems to have a structure and a rationale from which organisations could learn.

In sports coaching, if one is coaching the under-nine rugby team the concentration is on actually training them to complete tasks.

The sequence starts with an explanation of the purpose of the task and the performance standard, for example, to pass the ball to land on a team mate's chest. It follows with a demonstration of how to pass and an instruction of how to pass.

When the player practises, the coach guides the player, correcting errors as they occur and validates completed work after the player begins performing independently.

When a player reaches an acceptable level of performance, perhaps years later, the coach confirms that the learning is permanent with a random check of results, most likely during game time.

In organisations, what tends to happen is an employee receives a brief induction into processes and policies and an introduction to team mates, the workplace layout and the systems they use to complete their jobs.

Organisations that throw their employees into the proverbial deep end in this manner, risk delaying the development of people they spent a lot of money recruiting. They also risk employees having no idea of what an acceptable standard of performance is.

Some players who have reached adequate levels of performance will volunteer for development. Development is for fun, for trying out new things, to practise the banana kick or the reverse sweep.

In organisations this is too often overlooked; allowing individuals to develop along the lines they want to. The role of coach here is to provide a challenge for the employee and not to teach or provide direction. This is the employee's journey.

When a random check reveals a decline in performance a coach will focus the player by initially giving feedback of what they have observed. The coach will then challenge the player to think about what they can do to change things to make a difference to their performance.

Good coaches will press the player for more than one alternative and force the player to think about what the consequences are for each option and make a decision.

The coach will focus the player on what they can control and draw suggestions for improvement from the player.

In organisations, people who have previously performed well may drift in performance for many reasons, including personal reasons, changes in technology and changes in organisational culture.

A coach must recognise the drift, get acknowledgement of the drift and focus the employee to enable them to return to an appropriate standard of performance.

In a sporting team, players that break commitments and violate known boundaries are confronted. For example, players who get drunk at nightclubs and get involved in fights have clearly breached known boundaries. Good coaches will confront them. There is no debate, no warning and no threats, just action.

Unfortunately, there are a host of examples of sporting personalities who cross the boundaries off the field. The good coaches are swift in their reaction which includes suspension from the team, returning home if they are overseas or, in extreme circumstances, ripping up their contracts.

For breaches in safety, financial probity or even reputation, coaches must confront employees and take action. All other employees are watching and learning what the values and policies of the organisation really mean.

For exceptional performers the coach no longer needs to train or even focus. The role of the coach is to mentor. Mentoring players is challenging.

It requires the coach to get inside the personal thoughts and feelings of the player, offering counsel, usually from experience, on how to tap their inner strength or confront inner weaknesses to provide opportunities for the player to improve their performance themselves.

Mentoring adds value to the life of the player who does not need training, developing, focusing or confronting. For cricket lovers this has clearly been the approach of the Australian cricket coach, John Buchanan.

Coaching is a profession. It has a structure and adds great value to organisations by developing people to do more than they thought they could. It is not a title. It is a skill and needs to be treated seriously.

WOODRIDGE

Performance Management Articles

Managing People; Take a Leaf Out of a Sports Coach's Book