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So once you've articulated a clear vision with priorities and focus on matching your
time with your priorities, and focus on making sure your people are trying to do the same
thing, i.e. are they articulating a clear vision to their people? Are they identifying
three to five top priorities? And are they trying to match their time to their top priorities?
Then I would argue you're ready to coach.
Coaching is one of the key ways you align your organization to the vision and priorities.
Meaning, let's say I hire a terrific person, but they're doing something where I'd prefer
they were doing something else. I coach them. And I can get them to get more in alignment.
Let me give you the definition of coaching because I don't know that -- I think there's
lots of definitions.
Coaching to me means you identify one or two weaknesses, usually skill-related that you
would like a person to improve upon, which will ideally manifest themselves the improvements
in their actions. I need to mention two or three things or one or two things that I think
you should do better. Ideally then I give you some suggestions on how to do them better
and I hopefully follow up a month later or two months later and talk about how was it
going and make any course adjustments.
To do that though, coaching requires direct observation of the subject. I'll explain what
I mean. Either I directly observe you or I interview people who directly observe you
because there's a lot of people who say, "Oh, I get coached, I get coached all the time."
Oh, who coaches you? "Oh, I have somebody that I've known since I was 15 and they were
a college professor or they were a former person I used to work with." When's the last
them they've observed you? "Oh, they don't observe me at all, but what I do is I tell
them all the things I'm doing and they give me coaching." Well to me, that's not coaching.
That's mentoring.
Mentoring is I tell you a story; you give me advice back based on my story. Here's the
problem, your advice is only as good as my story. And most of us have blind spots including
me, and so I'm painfully aware of this. And that the story of what I tell about what I
did is just a beautiful story about, with usually me as the hero, or maybe I'm too self-critical
and it's a terrible story about a nightmare I created, but if the person I was telling
the story to actually could have observed me, they might have seen something totally
different than the story I'm telling. Mainly because I have blind spots; I don't' see myself
accurately. None of us do completely.
Make sure you do it during the year well in advance of the year-end review. Year-end review
is the verdict. Your comp has been set whether you're going to get promoted has already been
decided and if you surprise somebody in their year-end review with a criticism that they
don't think they've heard before, they're not going to trust you anymore. They're liable
to quit. I've never seen anybody quit yet because I coached them too much during the
year, but I've seen a lot of people quit because I surprised them in the year-end review after
it was too late to do anything about it and they really wanted that promotion or they
wanted a certain compensation and they were surprised and then they just -- they don't
trust you anymore.
Make sure you do it months in advance so you give people a chance to improve. In terms
of your top three to five priorities, I can't imagine that that doesn't need to be one of
them. And if you don't have time to coach your direct reports, you've got too many direct
reports. You ought to restructure something 'cause I would argue one of the things you
must make time for is coaching your direct reports. It's one of the key ways you have
to create alignment to achieve your vision and priorities. Don't squander it. So that's
being a coach.
Now, I typically talk to a group of CEO's or senior people, I will ask them to raise
their hand. I say, "How many of you are coach?" Usually 80 percent of the hands will go up
and people proudly say they're a coach. Okay, fine. Then I'll ask a second question later.
How many of you have a coach? And if they're senior people, almost no hands go up. So then
I always think I've asked the question wrong and I'll say -- I'll ask it differently. How
many of you do not have a coach? And almost all the hands go up. And this is -- then I
realize, this is the bigger problem in that senior people think it's okay sometimes not
to have a coach. And it's not. And I would say to ever senior person, anybody who manages
someone or is a senior person who's listening to this, I would argue you are completely
responsible for going out and getting a coach.
Leadership is not about God-given talents. The most talented people have the biggest
negative reaction to thinking that they need to get coaching from their direct reports.
No way. Because they think that what a leader does is give orders or act very confident.
And the last thing you want to be doing is seeking advice from their subordinates, they
think.
But I ask them; well what would you advise the President of the United States to do?
Everyone, literally in the country, is a subordinate. Would you suggest they get advice from no
one? Well, of course not, I mean, you know. When they talk about presidents in a bubble,
what do you think they're talking about? They're basically saying the person isn't open to
negative feedback because they don't' want to hear it or people are afraid to give it
to them. You're the same. And people underestimate the power asymmetry that exists between them
and the people who report to them. It's huge.
The President of the United States is the extreme of it, but believe me, if you have
people reporting to you, they see you as all powerful; you control their lives, you set
their compensation. If they have future aspirations in their career you're the person they're
relying on. You have all the power. So you've got to ask them for advice.
Okay, so what -- I give an example. What normally happens, and I used to do this for years,
is I sit one-on-one with each of my people and say, can you give me a suggestion. And
the reason I say one-on-one, no one wants to criticize you in front of others. They're
not going to do that. Okay. So you ask them, can you give me one thing I need to do to
improve. And the reaction you're going to get is, "nothing I can think of." Okay. So
then you're going to have to sit and say, no, I'm really, really serious. I really want
to improve and can you help me? Just give me one thing that I can do to improve, you
know, specific action I can take. The person will sit there, usually beads of sweat forming
on their forehead. And they're starting to think by this time this is some weird, perverse
loyalty test or some sick trick that you're trying to play on them. Okay, but you say,
no, I'm really serious, I really want your help. I really would appreciate it.
Okay, so then, reluctantly, reluctantly, they say something. The moment they say it they
immediately regret it. They wish they could take it back. Why? Because it's devastating
and it's devastating why because you know it's true. You know everybody must think it.
It doesn't sound very good. You then thank them, try not to act devastated, they leave,
you then call home and you ask, "Am I, am I like such and such?" And on the other end
of the line a pause for a moment and they'll say, "Yeah, that does sound like you." And
you realize, oh my god, oh my god. I really have a problem. And you will improve, you'll
take action, you'll improve and you'll get better because almost invariably when people
know what they need to improve on, they do get better. That person, by the way, will
tell peers out there, boy, this person asked my -- the senior person asked my advice and
they act on -- what a great place this is. And what happens over time is word gets around
that you want advice and people start coming in and giving it to you. And for me in my
career, what used to happen is, people would warn me before a little problem became a catastrophe.
They would say, "I know what you're trying to do yesterday in that thing you did, but
it didn't go the way you thought and now you've got a problem with three people out there
and you better go fix it." And it would save me from all sorts of mistakes. But you see
when you do that you're no longer alone. You're not so isolated and you're not doing your
job all by yourself. I haven't met a leader yet can be a great leader of a group all by
themselves. This engages your people.
And for some people say, but it makes me look vulnerable, makes me look weak. I would argue
the opposite. It makes you look strong. It is not a weakness to ask a question or seek
advice. I would argue the most insecure people are the ones who do not do that.
So I've talked about two things: giving coaching, especially early in the year so people can
act on it, and it's got to be specific and it's got to be based on direct observation.
But the big mistake people make is they don't get it. And I would say to everybody listening
to this, it is your job to get coaching. Pick any great athlete in any sport you want to.
And you tell me, do they have a coach? Will they tell you they have a coach or do they
brag that, oh, no, I have no coaching, I'm self-taught? No. None of them do that. If
Tiger Woods or you name the sport, football player, basketball player, track person, World-Class
athletes say they need a coach no matter how accomplished they are and how many millions
of dollars a year they make, then why is it you can't go get coaching. I think you've
got to go out and make it your job to get coaching. It will help you align yourself
and your organization to achieve your vision and priorities.