I was talking to a client recently about best practices in coaching. The point I wanted to stress is that it’s all about the person being coached, meaning the coach leaves his or her ego and bias out of the process and discussions. The coach should be curious about what the person being coached wants, help them understand and overcome any obstacles, and develop their plan to achieve the goal(s). Helping someone discover and explore their hopes and dreams and fears and motives is one of the best parts of being a leader. Too often organizations encourage coaching only as a way of helping employees understand and remediate poor performance: that’s such a limiting use of the power of coaching. Instead, they should catch people at their best and use the power of coaching to help them discover more ways to shine, harness their positive energy, and channel it into greater endeavors. Exploring ways to get individuals and organizations from where they are to where they hope to be is an important and valuable part of leadership. It’s an employee relations strategy that should be widely encouraged and celebrated, one that unlocks the potential of everyone involved. Coaches help employees discover how to be their own best selves. Look for opportunities to help your employees discover who and what they want to be today.
John Steinbeck Jr. (1902 – 1968): American author and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner
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