A633.7.4 How do Coaches help

Have you ever interacted with a coach that is so memorable that twenty or thirty years later you still reflect on lessons?  We walk through the halls of leadership schools and academia and there are motivational posters and meme's online that are all inspiring and emotional.  This is a coaches job, to enable us to push through the problem (key word--US).  A good coach is a mentor and trusted advisor, a good , someone to push us to improve to GROW, someone that pushes us past our own limits to solve the problems  (Northouse, 2016).  Take for example, my high school track coach.  When I was fifteen, I was afraid of him, until I got to know him, I would follow this man into war if he asked.  I admired him with all the strength I could muster.  Though he was tuff, he led me, he pushed me to "run my race", to "race yourself" and finally "there is no one else but you on that track."  These immortal words still haunt and pushed me.  This is the coach I remember, this is coach that demanded yet cared. 

Now several decades later I am reminded of qualities of a good coach.  A good coach is about building the follower to accomplish long term capability (Passmore, 2010) or "coaching is the long game."  A good coach should inspire, create the momentum toward the vision and help the follower see the strategy (Hicks, 2011).  A good coach asks the tug questions, what is the goal, what is the reality (current), what are the options and what is your will to achieve these goals (Obolensky, 2016). This is how we move through life, this is what we remember.  For example, during my track years, I had a goal of running a sub-ten minute two mile, this was my goal.  I trained everyday for years, I trained everyday during the summer.  I knew that my reality was I needed to run faster after the first 800m.  I needed to learn to sprint the segments.  My coach put this into options for me, he broke it down in bite size pieces.  He used what skill and will I had and turned it into an evolution for me.  We set our sights on the long game and risked the short game (the week by week results) into a journey towards this evolution.  It was not until my senior year, that I broke the ten minute mark and set the school record.  I worked for four years to break that record. 

 A coach needs to understand how to push and pull the relationship between the reality and the end game.  My coach took my reality and created strength points, create a long game to improve what I already had, he used my willpower to plow through the task.  He sharpened my options to allow me to achieve the goal.  This is what arching is all about.  This GROW "coaching" method can be used over and over again throughout leadership.  This is why we remember our coaches, not because of their attributes but rather our own seen through their eyes.     

References

Hicks, R., PhD., & McCracken, J., PhD. (2011). Coaching as a leadership style.Physician Executive, 37(5), 70-2.

Northhouse, P. (2016) Leadership; Theory and Practice 7^thEdition. SAGE Publications. 

Obolensky, N. (2016). Complex Adaptive Leadership. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Passmore, J. (Ed.). (2010). Leadership coaching : working with leaders to develop elite performance.