How to Be a Great Coach

Even the greatest have coaches

What do Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Muhamud Ali all have in common? How about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Jack Welch?

Besides being at the top of their respective fields, all of these top-performers sought out a personal coach. In fact, its safe to say they wouldn’t have become as great as they did without the influence of coaches and mentors.

Coaching matters

In short, coaching matters. It’s the difference between surviving as a person - and as an employee - and thriving. You could even say, life is about coaching. When you consider some of the most important relationships we have, this is not hard to see.

Parent-to-child, teacher-to-student, boss-to-employee. Some of life’s most formative relationships are essentially coaching relationships. And RemoteU is no different. To grow in the capacity of coach and mentor may be one of the greatest benefits you’ll realize from the program.

But before we get into the fundamentals of what makes a great coach, we should first clarify what good coaching is NOT.

What coaching is NOT

Most “coaches” are not even coaches at all. They are figures in positions of authority who simply tell their teams to do better - faster, stronger, more! - on a routine basis.

It’s not wrong for a coach to point out mistakes. In fact, it’s a foundational part of what a coach does. The problem comes when a coach points out your mistakes, but never follows up with HOW to actually make improvements.

Imagine a sales manager who barks, “Increase your close rate!” but never offers feedback on how to do so. Or, the customer support manager who repeats, “Wow your customer!” with no guidance on how exactly to do so.

Ok, but how?

Good managers and bad managers, alike, point out mistakes to their people. HOWEVER, the difference between the good and the bad manager - between the pro and the amateur - is in what they do with the information.

Great coaches transform the problem into actionable insights so they get buy-in from their team. But a coach who only highlights errors without offering solutions will not only lose performance results, will lose respect from the team, too.

Unnecessary pressure

Accentuating the negative is an added burden to a team. An unnecessary form of pressure which negatively impacts morale and culture.

By pouring on the pressure, you can actually improve your short-term business results, but at what cost? Turnover is expensive. Are you willing to sacrifice long-term value in exchange for short-term wins.

Great coaches lead by example

Effective coaching strikes a balance between teaching with words and teaching with actions. If you want your team to succeed, it’s not enough to just tell them what to do. You have to show them, too.

For example, a customer support manager might take a closed support ticket which scored a low customer service score, and then take steps to properly resolve the ticket, including communications to the end-user which would have wowed them.

As a sales coach, you could find an opportunity which didn’t close, and use it as a teaching tool. For each call, document specific portions of the call which were handled poorly, and write out a viable alternative. For each email, rewrite a viable alternative which would set up the opportunity to close.

Or as an engineering manager, referencing a specific pull request which caused a bug, highlight the errors in code, and then rewrite a bug-free snippet.

An approach to optimal coaching

For each area of performance improvement, plan on demonstrating the correct solution several times for your team.

Next, you’ll directly observe them as they perform the correct solution several times, during which they can ask you for suggestions or guidance.

Ultimately, once they are consistently producing quality results, you’ll monitor their work via quality reporting, and perform deep-dives on specific failures.

Great coaches are quality experts

Obviously, as a RemoteU manager and coach, you want to be as effective as possible in whatever areas you’re working. Being effective is called “doing things right.”

However, of equal importance is to be effective in the areas where it matters most. This, we call “doing the right things.” Great coaches will do both.

Without a proper sense of context (that is, knowing the big picture), you could fall into the trap of being an incredibly effective coach, but coaching in the wrong area, altogether.

The bottom line is, not all problems are created equal. Some are easier to resolve, while others have a larger impact. Your job as a coach is to develop the insights needed to, not only ensure effective tactics, but to also ensure strategic vision. In other words, you need context.

Great coaches are close to the work

Great coaches earn credibility because they can demonstrate the process. They’re not detached from the frontline, or from daily operations. They lead by following the process, and by following the team member.

When errors are made, coaches who are close to the work can give highly specific feedback. And the team will accept the proposed solution because it is grounded in practicality and real-world experience.

Great coaches grow their people

By the very nature of their role, coaches can usually see more than we do. More of how we impact our current role, more of our work team, and more of our future career path.

Without these critical insights, a coach won’t add much value to his team. Coaches are good for teaching and reiterating tactics. But also for thinking, acting, and teaching strategically.

You, yourself, will add this value to the lives of others you would coach. And through their growth, you too will grow.

Great coaches depend on their teams

As you assume more professional responsibility, your success will progressively depend more upon other people’s performance. As a coach, you have great potential to impact people’s lives and careers positively.

To succeed, you simply must enable your team members to accomplish more than they even thought possible. If you care enough to invest your expertise in your team, you will forge meaningful relationships and launch others into opportunities undreamt of.