COACHING -- A TEAM EFFORT: It is easy to spot the difference between a work team that is "motivated" and one that just goes through the motions. The motivated team produces at or above the level expected by top management, has only occasional absences or tardiness, and low employee turnover. The second group has trouble meeting its goals, greater absenteeism, and higher turnover. In addition, members of the latter work team may be more apt to argue with one another or to band together against their supervisor. Can a supervisor who is also a good coach really make a difference? The answer is a definite "yes" with a few qualifiers.

TOWARD EFFECTIVE COACHING: There are three things you can do to have a solid, productive work force. 1) Hire only fully competent people who already know the job and who do things right all the time. There aren’t many such people but you could look around and keep on searching. -- 2) Wish for a miracle. -- 3) Take the employees you have and train them to be highly competent. Of these three choices, doing a good job of training and coaching is the most practical way to have successful and productive employees. Training is teaching employees the necessary skills before they are given the job to do on their own. Coaching is helping employees day-by-day to do a better job. It’s making them more able to do their present job on their own and to enjoy doing it well. It’s also preparing them for bigger future responsibilities. Good coaching is motivating people to want to do the best they can and more.

ABOUT COACHING: What’s exciting about the possibility coaching presents is that it continually demands from you the commitment to perform beyond the levels you’ve reached in the past. It demands the willingness to treat each situation as brand new and to treat people with compassion. Above all, being a great coach demands that you be coachable yourself. Your coach could be anyone, and to the extent that you let people coach you, your own coaching will be empowered.

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