Three Powerful Steps to Coaching
In the last post we reviewed tips to become a better mentor. Now, let’s look at coaching.
Every team leader of any project takes on the role of the coach. As with sports, the team with the best coach usually has the edge.
Coaching is an important responsibility of a leader. Compared to a mentor, a coach has greater accountability and provides more active, hands-on guidance along your professional journey.
Let’s review the three basic roles of the coach:
1) Take Inventory: Identify where your team is now.
A good coach lives by the dictum “Know thyself.” If you don’t know where you are, you can’t plot your course to any destination. What is your team’s current condition? What are your strengths? (Play to your strengths, not your weaknesses.) What’s the overall context of the competitive landscape?
2) Set Objectives: Determine where you want to go.
Obvious isn’t it? Yet frequently, this vital step is often overlooked. An effective coach spends a disproportionate amount of time clearly defining the end picture—what the project will look like at the end. A clear vision is paramount to leading a successful team.
3) Develop Strategy: Plot the optimal course to your end picture.
With the help of an experienced team, the coach crafts a pathway to success by identifying the key results and strategic actions that must take place in order to realize the ultimate vision determined in step 2.
Similar to mentoring, the better you are at coaching your team through these three steps, the more effective you will be and the greater the results you will achieve.
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