Why Leaders Can't Coach.

"All coaching is, is taking a player where he can't take himself." - Bill McCartney When executives coach, they commonly make the mistake of downplaying their role as the boss. Confusion occurs with the associate and coaching fails.

To be clear, a boss is the one who holds people accountable for results. A coach helps people increase their skills to achieve the results.

When executives coach, they usually downplay their team's accountability for results because as a coach, they want to develop their skills. They use coaching to get them to do what they want. That's wrong.

Coaching is not a substitute for performance management. You have to do both and develop clarity with each endeavor. Ensure each team member understands their performance expectations AND coach them to accomplish those performance expectations. It's a dual role — don't mix them up.

Communicate your expectations and ensure you get full commitment.

1. Make sure they understand their goals. Get them to break down each goal and to identify the Who, What, Where, When and Why. This process will allow the How to appear. Steer them when they go off-course and ensure they will deliver EXACTLY what you expect.

2. Get them to mentally commit to their goals. Ownership is key — if they see these goals as yours and not theirs, all will fail. Impart clear accountability — if goals fail, it's their head, If the goals succeed, they get the accolades. It's that simple. If they are stuck or don't know how to do this, I show them how I do it.

3. Give them space to take initiative to reach their goals. Now be a good boss, step back, and give them space. This is a critical time where bosses tend to crowd their team members — give them adequate real estate to reach their goal.

Coach to keep them focused, on track, and to increase their performance.

1. Put yourself in their place and understand their challenges. Each team member has their own strengths and weaknesses. It's your job to understand what they are and where the possible road hazards might occur along the process. Once this is done, you will know approximately where each tipping point will occur and be available to coach them through it.

2. Work with the associate so they can plan all their steps. Get each associate to come up with a process comfortable to them to easily track their progress. The process of planning together allows you to step out of your 'boss' role and to help guide their progress as a coach. Remember it's their plan, not yours.

3. Actively coach them through the process. Develop regular meetings to discuss issues, concerns and opportunities along the way. If they are getting frustrated, help them solve each obstacle by asking questions. Do not attempt to help — this will only move the responsibility from the associate to you. Provide regular tracking to measure where they are and how much farther they have to go. Finally, help break bad behavior patterns along the way — this will help them accelerate and grow during the process.

How do you coach your team?

How To Be More Effective On The Job.

"Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things." - Peter Drucker   Efficiency has been pounded into us since grade school.

• Keep your desk clean.
• Finish your tests on-time.
• Always have three sharpened pencils.
• Let's squeeze 7-8 classes into one day.

And the list goes on and on.

Even on the job, one is forced to comply to look busy, to fit as much 'stuff' into a workday as possible, to outshine your peers, and fly through your duties. It reminds me of a great song by Kevin Kline in the Sandra Boynton musical "Philadelphia Chickens" called 'Busy Busy Busy'*:

We’re very very busy And we’ve got a lot to do And we haven’t got a minute To explain it all to you For on Sunday Monday Tuesday There are people we must see And on Wednesday Thursday Friday We’re as busy as can be With our most important meetings And our most important calls And we have to do so many things And post them on the walls…

We have to hurry far away And then we hurry near And we have to hurry everywhere And be both there and here And we have to send out messages By e-mail, phone, and fax And we’re talking every minute And we really can’t relax And we think there is a reason To be running neck-and-neck And it must be quite important But we don’t have time to check.

I'm not saying efficiency is bad, it's just overrated. But effectiveness is the key to success. Just doing things will not deliver the requisite benefits — results are key in any endeavor. It's what differentiates you from the chattel who worry about their job every day.

Is this you? I have to:

• Do tons of work to show everyone I am the master of my domain.
• Read, assess, and answer all of the 150 emails I receive every day.
• Attend every meeting I'm invited to so I don't miss anything.
• Provide an audience to every person who comes into my office or passes by my cubicle.
• Never make a mistake - so I double- and triple-check every thing I do.
• Return every phone call, meet with every new prospect, and get on every project.
• Do the safe/easy things - I can do them quickly and not worry about not delivering quantity.
• "Push a lot of buttons to get results."

Now, focus on being effective:

• Out of the 150 emails I receive, what 10-20 are really important for my attention?
• What meetings are really important? (usually none)
• Setup specific times for open door policies and drive-by's.
• Who really is your key customer? What project will really deliver growth for the company?
• I tackle those things which will deliver maximum results and not worry about getting many little things done.
• How can I focus on the 20% which delivers the 80%?
• "I can push THE button."

What is the best reason for effectiveness?

It allows you to develop the confidence to take on new challenges, to push your envelope, and to not worry about failure. Because if you fail - you will just try again.

"Efficiency is making many things happen. Effectiveness is making IT happen." - Rich Gee

How do you balance efficiency and effectiveness?

*This song was introduced to my by one of my favorite and dearest colleagues, Diane Senior. Thank you Diane, I still laugh listening to the CD — it so reminded us of our environment at that time.