Characteristic 5: Winner
A coach makes the game fun, they win a lot - bosses don’t believe work should be fun
Fun does not mean, avoiding working. Winning is fun because everyone loves to celebrate. If you are not celebrating victories then you are missing one of the most vital opportunities to gain momentum and build trust with your team. Celebrate your team member;s victories and celebrate them often. This winning attitude becomes contagious and evolution management practices are easier to implement with the momentum.
Fun does not mean, throwing parties. Coaches build a winning mentality among their team. Coaches direct their team's attention on winning. To know if you are winning the game or not, you need to define what winning is to you. Yeah, from time to time, you need an office party. From time to time, you need field day, but more importantly you need to win.
When people are winning they tend to be happier. You need to define winning when the economy is good and you need to define winning when the economy is bad. Make a game out of reaching goals. Make a game out of who is leading the productivity. Make a game out of catching team members doing things right. Lastly, make a game out of cooperation and competition in the office.
Fun does not mean, that you do not hold people accountable. Coaches don’t assign blame, find faults, or avoid mistakes. This is one sure way to kill morale. Holding people accountable takes finesse. When coaching try to keep accountability conversations private, and under one minute. People will typically be harder on themselves than you are on them. The following is a simple three step conversation that may be wise to follow:
Step 1: Pull the person aside, have a document in front of you about the issue
Step 2: Remind them of how great a person they are and that you have an issue with some specific behavior.
Step 3: Let the team member know exactly they are doing the new process, filling out data, or signing all their paperwork & remind them about how bright they are and why you hired them.
Keep correction light for light issues, moderate for moderate issues, and be careful of intensity corrections. Use intensity corrections as a tool of last resort. Always make sure if punishment is required that it is fair, and you have provided an opportunity for the team member to correct the issues before being formally punished. Make sure follow up with celebration when the team member has corrected the issue. Remember that people want to win, your goal is to use correction to have more fun. Remember to look back at people's growth and laugh with them. Finding humor and education in mistakes perpetuates winning, success, and fun.
Characteristic 6: Trusting
A coach minimizes coaching too much during the game
- bosses micro-manage
- bosses micro-manage
Bad bosses will not let employees do their job. Bad bosses are involved of every part of their team’s job and go behind them. They assign work, that has already been delegated, they try to stick their nose in on processes that are already working.
Coaches do not let the fan’s, spectators, or referees change the game plan. Coaches know and understand the entire responsibility of each team member. A great coach protects the team from ideas until they understand how the idea will affect each team member.
7 Defining Characteristics of Great Coaching can be found in my book, "Leadership Coaching as a Strategy for Employee Development." This can be downloaded for FREE atwww.nathanbushmba.com
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