Coach for Today's Challenge or Tomorrow's Abilities
Last month’s article, Coaching on the Go™: Coaching Effectively in Moments introduced the three outcomes essential for coaching effectively. If you haven’t seen that article, it’s a nice backdrop for this month.
This month, we are going to explore why much of the coaching provided in the workplace today is less effective than it could be. Let us begin with an example:
We recently worked with a sales manager who was coaching one of his sales reps. The rep was working on the final stages of landing a major account, and the manager was discussing strategy to increase the chances of the rep’s success. With the benefits of the manager’s approach, the rep did land the account, and it was hailed as a major win for the company.
This sounds like a great success, and of course there is no doubt that winning a great contract with a great client is an important priority. But there is a major problem for the sales manager, the rep, and the company, a sort of wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“This was a great win for your company,” we agreed, “but what about the next customer? Who is going to build the sales strategy for that one?” The sales manager replied that the rep would be able to do it because now he has seen the effective approach and will be able to replicate it in the future.
How many times does seeing or hearing one or two examples of an expert result in behavior change? Yes, it can happen, but it often doesn’t. There are two much more common outcomes:
- The rep attributes the manager’s approach to some innate skill that the manager has and the rep doesn’t have. This leads the rep to say, “My manager is just a natural at that. I’m not.” The unspoken part of that thought is, “I’m not a natural like my manager is and I never will be.” This leads the rep to give up on that skill and continue doing what they’ve always done.
- The rep sees the manager’s approach, and that leads him or her to return to the manager for advice every time they get into a difficult challenge or a high-stakes customer situation. The rep comes to believe that to increase the chance of success, he needs to rely on his manager for expert advice.
This leads to three nasty side effects that should concern every manager:
Why Won’t He Ever Do Anything Without Me?
This rep comes to the manager for advice every time something challenging comes up. Many managers, believing the rep will learn and improve from this interaction, fall into the trap of giving the advice. What does the rep actually learn? Whenever there is something tough to decide, ask the manager to get the right answer. This pattern repeats over and over because the rep is not actually building new skills and capacity to solve the problems on their own.
It’s Never My Fault
This rep comes to the manager for advice as to CYA. Who ever got fired for following the manager’s advice? But this is another trap for managers. Whoever has the idea owns it. So when the manager provides expert advice, no matter how well intentioned and crafted, the rep has an excuse for any mistake or failure. Giving advice takes away the reps responsibility for the results.
Whatever You Say, Boss
This rep comes to coaching meetings only because they have to. They don’t want advice, and they resist sometimes directly and other times covertly. There are many possible reasons why, but until the manager finds a way to defuse the resistance to the conversations and build a solid, trusting relationship, the coaching is a waste of time.
These three patterns cause frustration for all involved. But there is hope. The manager has the power to shift these conversations into productive coaching moments.
There is an important distinction in coaching conversations that is often overlooked and is one of the fundamental reasons that most coaching does not have the as much impact that it could. The greatest value of coaching comes not from advice that produces success with the current challenge. The real value shows up when the rep has the ability to handle these difficult situations without the manager’s intervention. When this is possible, the rep is more effective, feels successful because of their achievement and competence, which raises engagement, and the manager saves time by not having to intervene. The greatest value of coaching comes when the rep has increased their own capacity to be successful. Without achieving this outcome, the manager and the rep are on a treadmill solving the same problems over and over, and the manager has lost time for strategic work.
To change the patterns, shift the conversations
It stands to reason, to have a conversation that has a different result, the exchanges have to be different. Otherwise, the conversations fall into the same patterns, with predictable outcomes, and continued frustration. To get something different to happen in the conversation, the manager has to say different things and say them differently. Coaching provides the manager this powerful leverage point.
Advice giving tends to generate dependency, lack of accountability, and resistance. Instead of giving advice directly, the coaching approach is to use more questions. Although the manager may know the answer, the rep learn more when the manager changes his own mind:
- The manager's approach may not work for the rep. Great coaching helps the rep find and believe in a way forward that they are willing to try.
We’re not talking about obligatory requirements, compliance, company policy, etc. We’re talking about the kinds of things the rep does to be effective with customers. The goal of the coaching is to help the rep find a way that makes sense in their world, works with customers, and gives the rep the groundwork and space to continually adapt, refine, and improve through experience. When the manager dictates an approach, this is not a shortcut but a dead end. No matter how effective the approach is for some, telling the approach does not help the rep build their own capacity. At best, the manager solves the current problem. At worst, any failures are blamed on the manager, and the rep depends on the manager for problem solving in the future.
- The manager can help the rep explore their thinking and options by asking questions and remaining curious.
When the manager can set aside his own agenda and approach, this helps the rep walk through the their own perceptions, thinking, options, and potential outcomes without feeling confined to one approach. Adopting a questioning approach is often a difficult shift for managers who are expected to give direction and have the answers. Coaching is one place where giving the answer is often less effective. Questions are powerful in coaching because they influence attention, thinking, and learning.
A true success story
Last week, a district manager that we’ve been working with, applied the three outcomes of the pyramid (see last month’s article for more info) to build the capacity of one of his reps. Here’s what it looked like:
- Enhance the Relationship
Knowing that he (the district manager, “Josh”) was working with a rep (“Danielle”) who is somewhat skittish about getting feedback, he took the time to explore the major strengths that Danielle brought to the table, including how those strengths are transferrable to other calls. He also made sure that he praised and affirmed the progress that she’d made to date. This helped Danielle to be open to exploring new territory.
- Raise Awareness
To help Danielle raise awareness, Josh asked questions like, “What did you notice about the customer’s body language when you started your presentation?” and “When the customer said x, what thoughts went through your mind?” In this case, she admitted that she panicked and really didn’t know where to go next, which led to a fruitful discussion. In that discussion, Josh and Danielle learned that she was confused over the objective of the sales call. In the past this company has been very product-centric and the sales were relatively straightforward. Now, because the industry has changed, the sales process is much more complex. Danielle was operating under the old way of doing things: make a sale on every call. While she knew that the industry had changed – and so had their sales process – she didn’t really know how that affected her call objective and what she should do in that situation.
- Advance Action
Danielle’s discovery and admission led to a discussion about how she can set realistic call objectives (for example, instead of thinking that on every call she had to go in and get the sale, Josh helped her brainstorm what realistic call objectives might be throughout the sales cycle. At the end of the session, Danielle took a deep breath and said, “I feel so relieved. I can do this!”
Great coaching goes beyond giving them a fish and helps them learn to fish. A helpful question that managers can ask themselves after coaching is, “Have I helped the rep increase their ability to solve a problem on their own in the future?”
To wrap up our story, when Danielle left the room, Josh shared that he would soon be going on a vacation with his family. He commented that he felt like his coaching had helped Danielle get to a place where, if a similar situation arose while he was away, she could move things forward without needing to call him or wait for his return. That is the essence of building the capacity of your team and is a fundamental differentiator of effective coaching.
Note: Some of the ideas in this article are based on the following source:
Rogers, J. (2008). Coaching skills: A handbook (2nd ed.). Maidenhead, Berkshire, England: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press.
© 2011 Bobbi Kahler. All rights reserved. Developing Leaders, Creating Possibilities: Kahler Leadership Group
>> Coaching on the Go™: Effective Coaching in Moments
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