Critic or Coach?

In the past week I've had a great time.

I became an instant expert, a decisive judge / adjudicator for the Olympic diving events (3 - 10 metre platforms) prepared to award and deduct points with little hesitation and great confidence, and to argue vociferously with the international panel of judges as to whether a diver had earned a 7 or 6.5.... 

Suddenly, with no training or credentials, and precious little experience (does a belly flop from the 10m platform at age 10 count?), I was a critic!! 

It was terrific fun... and luckily for everyone involved I could exercise my criticism without harm or consequence to anyone, since I did it all from the privacy and comfort of my living room - well out of hearing of divers & judges! 

And just as well too because I was at times ruthless and scathing... and perhaps just a tad biased in favour of certain divers whose demeanour suggested a personality and attitude pleasing to me! (I absolutely refuse to accept my partner's suggestion that physical attractiveness played any role in my judging or criticism! I mean really! How shallow would that make me!)

Anway... somewhere on my walk tonight I began to reflect on my behaviour and various managers I've encountered over the past few months who seem to think that all that is required to develop high performance in their staff is to criticise and judge!

Thinking about the divers, it's clear that telling them what they're doing wrong or warning them about what can go wrong won't help... they need clear, correct instruction on how to do it safely and well, clear feedback on what they are doing correctly, and clear guidance and suggestions on actions, changes they can make to do better. It's equally clear that, if they could hear me, my criticism would have little credence since I have absolutely no expertise in diving (and in all truth, the slowmo replays often proved me wrong...oops!). 

They need a coach not a critic.

And the same is true for employees!  

When it comes to diving, I would NEVER be hired as a coach, since, despite my in-front-of-telly delusions of knowledgeability, the fact is that I have NO idea how to help any diver improve from a 6.5 to an 8... nor do I know how to teach them to dive off a 10metre platform for the first time ever and survive without injury! 

When it comes to the workplace, many managers would never be hired by their employees as coaches either - that means they will never be listened to - because, despite their ability and propensity to criticise, they have no idea how to help people improve their performance, nor do they know how to develop someone from scratch. 

They think that telling someone what to do (dive off that platform), warning them about doing badly (if you get it wrong you'll kill yourself), criticising their efforts (that's a belly-flop not a dive), and throwing in the occasional marshmallow (token) compliment (well not bad really,you actually hit the water rather than the side of the pool).... is coaching.

It's not!

Coaching involves a lot more skill and work than criticism - probably why many managers avoid it! 

The coach has to work out how to deconstruct success or performance, create manageable steps from wherever the protege IS to mastery, provide clear and helpful instruction, devise and develop training plans of strategically paced activities and challenges, and find ways to progressively build skill by offering timely, helpful tips and techniques to correct and improve.

The coach needs to build a history of achievement a sense of growing competence & confidence or efficacy, and to maintain and build motivation and commitment. The coach has to help the performer become an informed, searching, incisive and dispassionate analyst of his/her own performance, manage and learn from failures and setbacks, identify and manage their stinkin' thinkin', their self-talk and imagination, mentally rehearse & visualise success, and anticipate and manage the external environment to eliminate or minimise hazards, obstacles and distractions - even step in to protect or run interference so that the performer can develop... it's a fantastic job requiring insight, skill and commitment!

It can also be dead easy.

The simplest coaching technique I know can make a huge difference to motivation and performance on the job - it's what I ca the Did Well, Do Different technique. 

Identify specifically and fully what the person did well - even if it's just ONE thing, then replace your usual But...  with So... and describe one or two simple actions they can take to build on that....  

'Good line...nice an straight along the whole seam - now use the plane to remove the burrs so that it doesn't catch or cut anything rubbing against it.'

'Great - this is clear and concise - very easy to understand. Now go through this second part and underline every word ending in _ion. Rewrite the sentence containing that word, so that it ends in _ed or _ing. That will turn reduce the fog factor - it will turn it from passive voice into active voice, and make it engaging and easy for the reader to follow. How about we do one together so it's clear what I mean?'

'OK so, let's se... you're eye contact was good during the talk - you scanned and looked at each person in the audience using the one thought, one person technique we've been practising. Terrific work! So now, let's work with bringing your hands into the presentation to enhance the visual impact. How about this time you run through the first three minutes without allowing your hands to touch the podium or your body. Imagine you're the conductor of an orchestra...move them to accompany your words. It will be over the top, yes, because, for now, we want to fre up the movement and unlearn what you've been doing unconsciously... we'll move on to some other ways to use your hands once we master this.'

You may have been a critic up 'til now...how about starting to coach?

Give Did Well Do Different a shot.. or two...or three...and when you master it, add another coaching tip to your kit!

Who knows, before you know it, you'll have a high performance team and a heap of fun.