I had been begging my dad for days to take the training wheels off my bike. I was eager to catch up to my friends who were already cruising the neighborhood on two wheels. On a late Sunday afternoon, my dad finally took them off but my fear of falling created insecurity. My dad said he would hold onto the back of my seat – his arm’s long overarching shadow would provide constant assurance. So he played the training wheels’ balancing role and instructed me to pedal and steer straight. After a few runs I grew more confident and my dad encouraged me to pedal faster. He kept running beside me and telling me to make no sudden moves – I just had to focus on a point in distance and try to get there in a straight line. Once I finally grew tired of this exercise I asked him when I would learn to ride the bike on my own. He replied that I had already done that – during the last few runs he had just been running beside me but did not hold my seat, it was all me. I had never been prouder! I ran back into the house to tell my mom all about my feat.
My father coached me through this important lesson by teaching me the basics and providing the setting for success. He then stepped aside and let me take on the challenge and subsequent glory. I learned bike riding all on my own – or so I thought – and, more importantly, my dad taught me to trust my skills and believe in myself. Marshall J. Cook talks about the same pattern in Effective Coaching. Cook’s book focuses on workplace coaching and managers as the target audience but the lessons he shares can be applied elsewhere – in schools by teachers, in sports by coaches, and at home by parents. Cook emphasizes understanding people through asking them right questions, listening to their answers, and then by extracting the essence to ensure the common understanding and agreement on a course of action. Most importantly, after instructing and empowering their employees, Cook instructs managers to step aside and let their subordinates execute and eventually bask in the glory of a job well done.
As one of the developers behind Rypple’s coaching solutions, I’ve had the opportunity to interview many managers. Cook’s book confirms what I learned. Successful managers see coaching as an integral part of their job that lets them achieve peak team performance. They identify personal and professional success with their team’s performance and that makes their coaching intent genuine and earnest. Some of the managers we interviewed spend half of their time on coaching; meeting with their team members to discuss issues and design action plans. These managers engage in most of crucial effective behaviors Cook outlines in his book:
They meet regularly one on one to discuss past performance while focusing on improving future strategies.
They transfer skills to their teams trusting them to carry much of the workload
They are always available.
They are highly selective in who they hire.
They protect their teams from external influences
They reward the right type of behavior (and not just the results).
They establish a winning and supportive team culture.
Effective Coaching lessons remind me of agile principles of close collaboration, team trust, embracing changes/challenges as opportunities, and frequent retrospectives in which issues and not people are discussed and addressed. These simple ideas are powerful and universal. Their application is essential to fostering a great office culture. Mad Men‘s dysfunctional 60′s office setting would not be as nearly as scandalous if its characters were to apply at least some of these ideas. They would subdue discriminatory, unsupportive, and jealous overtones and turn this captivating TV drama into a boring team work video befitting of Troy McClure. You would benefit from consulting Cook’s Effective Coaching if you don’t prefer office drama.
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Effective Coaching
I had been begging my dad for days to take the training wheels off my bike. I was eager to catch up to my friends who were already cruising the neighborhood on two wheels. On a late Sunday afternoon, my dad finally took them off but my fear of falling created insecurity. My dad said he would hold onto the back of my seat – his arm’s long overarching shadow would provide constant assurance. So he played the training wheels’ balancing role and instructed me to pedal and steer straight. After a few runs I grew more confident and my dad encouraged me to pedal faster. He kept running beside me and telling me to make no sudden moves – I just had to focus on a point in distance and try to get there in a straight line. Once I finally grew tired of this exercise I asked him when I would learn to ride the bike on my own. He replied that I had already done that – during the last few runs he had just been running beside me but did not hold my seat, it was all me. I had never been prouder! I ran back into the house to tell my mom all about my feat.
My father coached me through this important lesson by teaching me the basics and providing the setting for success. He then stepped aside and let me take on the challenge and subsequent glory. I learned bike riding all on my own – or so I thought – and, more importantly, my dad taught me to trust my skills and believe in myself. Marshall J. Cook talks about the same pattern in Effective Coaching. Cook’s book focuses on workplace coaching and managers as the target audience but the lessons he shares can be applied elsewhere – in schools by teachers, in sports by coaches, and at home by parents. Cook emphasizes understanding people through asking them right questions, listening to their answers, and then by extracting the essence to ensure the common understanding and agreement on a course of action. Most importantly, after instructing and empowering their employees, Cook instructs managers to step aside and let their subordinates execute and eventually bask in the glory of a job well done.
As one of the developers behind Rypple’s coaching solutions, I’ve had the opportunity to interview many managers. Cook’s book confirms what I learned. Successful managers see coaching as an integral part of their job that lets them achieve peak team performance. They identify personal and professional success with their team’s performance and that makes their coaching intent genuine and earnest. Some of the managers we interviewed spend half of their time on coaching; meeting with their team members to discuss issues and design action plans. These managers engage in most of crucial effective behaviors Cook outlines in his book:
Effective Coaching lessons remind me of agile principles of close collaboration, team trust, embracing changes/challenges as opportunities, and frequent retrospectives in which issues and not people are discussed and addressed. These simple ideas are powerful and universal. Their application is essential to fostering a great office culture. Mad Men‘s dysfunctional 60′s office setting would not be as nearly as scandalous if its characters were to apply at least some of these ideas. They would subdue discriminatory, unsupportive, and jealous overtones and turn this captivating TV drama into a boring team work video befitting of Troy McClure. You would benefit from consulting Cook’s Effective Coaching if you don’t prefer office drama.