The key to coaching is helping people to achieve their goals and their potential. The three critical areas are talent, desire and opportunity. The talent and the desire are unique to them. The opportunity is you, your place of work and the environment created by you.
Just as the chef gathers ingredients together to make a cake, the coach gathers together the ingredients to develop the staff. The coach like the chef asks:
- What do I have to work with?
- How much can I achieve with what I have?
- Do I have enough to make a hundred cakes?
- Do I have enough to work with to achieve their goals and the organisation’s goals?
Small Picture — Big Picture
The role of coach is to look at the individual’s small picture and at the same time look at the organisations’s big picture.
The goals — the rewards — the hopes – and the aspirations should meet to fit into both pictures. Only when this happens can the coach and the trainee start on the journey to achievement.
The Journey and the Vehicle
Every journey needs a vehicle – the car that takes you to work, the jumbo jet to fly you to the outer reaches of the world, or the vehicle to help us achieve our goals, the outer reaches of our mind.
You need a plan. Jonah Barrington’s plans helped him win six world championship squash titles. He also said that, “it is better to have a bad plan, than no plan at all”.
Keep it Short and Simple (KISS). Make it simpler by going for the simple route with a simple vehicle that is as old as the human race itself. Go back to basics.