Great Coaching

Great Coaching

We are all coaches, whether leading a work team, helping our kids through school, or coaching sports. Unfortunately, the guidance on how to be a great coach is confusing. 

On the one hand, we consider coaching to involve assessment and the development of the necessary skills through instruction. On the other hand, we are often told to avoid critical feedback and instruction for fear of irritating others and undermining their agency. Instead, it is preferable to follow the coachee’s interests and facilitate.

In truth, we need to do both, and this is a main topic in my upcoming book, Coaching Executive Teams. 

There is no better example than Mikaela Shiffrin, who took her 100th World Cup victory last month to become her sport’s greatest of all time (GOAT).  Her coaching program differs from others in:

1.     the amount of technical data analysis - including frame-by-frame video reviews of her skiing and non-stop bio-metric feedback

2.     She puts in the training hours—reportedly, she works out twice as hard as most—but she is also monitored closely for sustainability, backing off when needed. She also gets a lot of sleep.

3.     Her mental resilience comes back to feeling good when she is competing and finding the courage, which she distinguishes from confidence, to explore what she is capable of.

 I love this idea of exploring her potential rather than aiming for a particular result or beating her competitors. Given her GOAT achievements, there’s some irony or magic alchemy in this ;-)