Get A Coach. Be A Coach. Start Small.
We can all use help from someone else to be our best, doing what we want to do.
Sometimes it’s a formal relationship contemplating repeated interactions with static roles where one is the Coach and the other is the Person Being Coached (PBC). It’s common for people to resist putting themselves in the position of the PBC, and if that happens to you, it’s a worthwhile exercise in itself just to examine the reasons why. Being willing to ask for help might mean agreeing to enter into one of these formal relationships. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Here’s another way to think about coaching: A quick, transient, moment-in-time Insight Boost offered by one person to another, in the spirit of pure generosity, with no expectation of an enduring coaching relationship.
Examples:
- It comes out in a conversation that a co-worker is stuck on a small decision that must be made for the project to move ahead. You ask a question designed to help him generate some new ideas, and then you move on.
- You share with a co-worker that you’re stuck, and ask whether she has any ideas. She asks you a question that challenges your thinking and then moves on.
Let’s break it down:
Moment-in-time. We’re not trying to offer a do-it-yourself work habits make-over. She’s stuck on this one problem. Right here. Right now. You want to help.
Insight Boost. You’re not taking over her thinking by remote control. Rather, you’re trying to gently help her do her own thinking, usually by asking a question she must answer herself, to see the problem with a fresh perspective.
Spirit of Generosity. There’s no expectation of payment or even reciprocity. There are no strings attached.
No enduring coaching relationship. You’re not setting up permanent roles. It’s just for the here-and-now. The roles could be reversed some time soon — maybe even tomorrow or later today!
If you start to view every business relationship as an opportunity to coach and be coached in this informal way, you’ll see your attitude about work interactions begin to change. In today’s work reality, everyone’s experiences are so different, we’re all learning new things at different times. That makes it more important for each of us to be alert for opportunities to help others, and to ask for help, moment-by-moment. throughout the workday.
Don’t get me wrong. Formal coaching relationships can be very helpful, provided all the factors are right — a well-trained Coach, a good match between the Coach and the Person Being Coached, agreed-upon ground rules of engagement, clear expectations of the parties and mutual commitments to make it work.
But people are often scared off by time and budget pressures and the specter of signing on for all that “infrastructure.”
Coaching works. Any kind of coaching, from the formal, structured relationship to the simplest, now-and-then-it’s-over kind. It can start with offering or asking for help in the moment, as and when it’s needed.
Start now to integrate some easy, simple coaching into your daily business interactions and watch what happens.