Remember the old sayings, there’s a time and place for everything. While it is best to err on the side of being very active in your coaching, great coaching leaders are smart about when and where to coach. Too much of anything can overwhelm and annoy people. The brain has limited capacity for learning, so do not overdo it!
As a rule of thumb you should be actively coaching on a daily basis, but make sure to pick the most productive coaching opportunities in the day. The most productive opportunities are:
- High payoff or cost to the organization
- A new skill you have been wanting the team to learn/see in action
- A bad habit you have been trying to eliminate
One of the faults I see in leaders is not coaching, letting too much time pass, and then figuring the lesson has passed. There is a shelf life to coaching opportunities. If you see one of your key team members drop the ball or you see a great coaching moment, it is not helpful to point it out to them three weeks later. It is much more helpful in direct relation to the time you meet with them.
Obviously, if people are in meltdown, major crisis or under a lot of stress, it may not be the best time for coaching. But conversely, that does not mean you have to wait a week to coach them, you might wait an hour or a day.
