The 4 Steps of Coaching Someone to Improve a Skill

If you were coaching an actor before a performance, you’d have them rehearse their lines.

If you were coaching an athlete before a competition, you’d have them practice and train.

As a leader, mentor, friend or parent, you also have opportunities to help others improve key skills.

Every Leader Is a Coach

After nearly 20 years of helping people improve key skills at work, I’ve come to realize that absolutely nothing beats ongoing coaching.

Coaching can be planned or spontaneous, and it can be done before or after the times when the skill to be coached is needed most.

Whenever it happens, here are the four steps for the most effective skill coaching. If/when you’re the one needing the coaching, consider sharing these four steps with those who will be coaching you.

1. 1. Get buy-in for coaching. Help the person who is being coached acknowledge that they need to and want to improve, and that they can and will get better at the skill in a particular situation or with similar stakeholders.You could say something here like, “Thanks for letting me join that meeting. Would it be OK if I offered an idea for how you might adjust how you communicated during one part of that meeting?Or you could get their buy-in by asking a thought-provoking question like, “What benefit would there be to you if you could get other people talking more in your meetings?”
   2. Explain/show what you expect. One step that many coaches overlook, especially in communication-related coaching, is the need for them to show and tell. In other words, they assume the person being coached knows and understands things that they really don’t fully know or understand (or forgot).Ted Williams was one of baseball’s greatest hitters. But he couldn’t coach. He was so talented, but he couldn’t properly explain to others what they needed to know and do. Great coaches make their instructions clear, simple, and memorable. Plus, when possible, they show what they explain — through video, illustration, story, or demonstration.
   3. Have them practice until you’re satisfied. This is the most awkward but most important step in the skill coaching process, and it’s central to Anders Ericsson’s deliberate practice model. You’ll need to ask the other person to practice (demonstrate) what they ideally will (or should have) said or done during a given situation.You’re likely to feel that having them practice it once is enough. No one wants to inflict pain on someone else by asking them to “do it again.” But until they have done it to your satisfaction, that’s exactly what needs to happen so that they feel successful. It’s not enough to have them practice once, give some feedback and then say, “Ok, so you got it now? Great!”On that point, though, pick your battles so you win the war. You might see three changes they need to make, but you also know that, when it comes to the situations they need to be prepared for, only two of the three changes matter a lot. Plus, you anticipate that their energy and attention will wane by the third piece of coaching. In that case, stick with two…or whatever you think is profitable coaching.
   4. Give encouragement. Ultimately, people need the confidence and motivation to put their skill into action. Consider saying something like, “You nailed that introduction. I especially liked how specific and relevant your story was. If you keep using specific, relevant evidence like that, you’ll build enormous credibility, which I know is important to you.Notice what’s going on in that statement above. The encouragement referenced something that the coachee did or said. It then made a forward-looking statement such as, “If you continue to do this in the future, you will…” Finally, the encouragement made mention of something important to the person being coached. This, of course, only works if the coach has heard what the person being coached really values. And assuming you have, it’s demonstrating influence by making the motivation intrinsic to the other person. It’s their reason(s) for improving.

Let’s take the difficult road of skill coaching. If we do, we’ll land in beautiful destinations filled with greater trust, culture and impact.

• Tweet
• 
• 

Comments

comments