Your Playbook for Business Success

Great coaches are great pace setters. They are the ones who want it as much or more than anyone on the team. That kind of energy is contagious! The drive for excellence shows up in every-thing they do. Great coaching leaders are rarely distracted or discouraged in the face of adversity. They lead by example in terms of their own willingness to continually stretch themselves and their team. I think one of the great bonuses of being a coaching leader is that you always get to be holding the mirror up and working on yourself as well. For some of you that may not be very appealing! The bottom line is that great coaching leaders have an unending desire to get better, and they know that the quickest way to ruin a coaching relationship is to not practice what they preach.

That is not to say that you cannot show your faults. Transparency is a very important and endearing quality of great coaches. It is not to say that you are not going to have a breakdown or letdown occasionally. How you handle them will be very critical to your success, and will show determination and commitment to the vision at all times. Just be real; you can have faults.

So when I say, “working on you,” I am not saying that you have to be perfect, but you should expect of yourself what you expect of your teammates. Those expectations may be hard work, determination, focus, and professionalism.

If you are going to have a coaching culture and be a coaching leader, I would suggest that you engage in a formal coaching relationship. One of the best insights I received in my career was from a mentor, Larry Snead. He told me, “The organization mirrors the leaders.” As a coach, your team is only going to be as good as you are. You are the center spoke of a wider wheel, so keep working on you. 

Consider getting your own coach to help you work on you, and also consider giving others in your organization permission to coach you. Your humanness and transparency will be one of  the greatest ways to endear yourself to your team and build a high level of respect for you.