The Qualities of a “Real” Coach

Mark Adams, President of EnthusiAdams
July 8, 2005

The Qualities of a “Real” Coach

In coaching, sometimes it’s the little victories that create a new beginning for teams. In the process of rebuilding bad teams throughout my coaching career, I focused on little victories first and expanded to bigger triumphs as we progressed. Every program I took over, I left in better shape with markedly more victories.

 Today, I still coach although not on the court but in classrooms, boardrooms and ballrooms. I coach business professionals on how to be more productive and how to build a team. I am amazed at how many people call themselves “business coaches” who have never called a time out with the game on the line, their jobs in jeopardy and 18-22 year old kids running up and down the floor with their paychecks in these youngsters’ mouths.

Can you call yourself a doctor or lawyer if you didn’t go to school and ultimately practice that profession? Then how can anyone call himself or herself a “coach” if they never paid their dues actually coaching?

I have coached and have the battle wounds to show for it. Coaching is not consulting! Consulting is giving advice, coaching is implementing and holding yourself and others accountable for hard, quantifiable results. I have challenged myself to bridge the gap between real coaching and true business coaching. I have found that certain qualities were necessary to successfully coach business leaders. I also found that my coaching style on the court would get me fired in most corporate environments.

There are some similarities between coaching athletics and coaching fellow business teammates and after spending a good deal of time doing both I feel I am uniquely qualified to identify those qualities. What are the qualities of business coaches that are so important? Here are ten qualities of coaches for today’s business environment:

10 Qualities to Look For in a Real Coach:

 

• A coach is more like a shepherd than a general.
• The team should reflect some traits of their coach.
• A coach believes in the 90%-10% Rule.  It must be FUN with 90% positive reinforcement.
• A coach nurtures people to someday take his/her job.
• A coach should always encourage competition.
• A coach learns how to ride the wave & how to rock the boat.
• A coach delegates but does not dictate.
• A coach creates an environment of roving leadership.
• A coach always says thank you to his team by giving them all of the credit for success.
• A coach always takes the blame for a team’s failures.

    

Many of these qualities are self-explanatory and easy to understand. I would like to comment on a few of these qualities.

Too many business leaders think they can coach and lead like their former football coach or some coach that is famous in today’s athletic world. Business coaching is not about being a general and ordering your subordinates around like mindless idiots. Instead, real coaching is about providing a path to success for each individual and the team. You must be a good Shepard to successfully lead in today’s environment.

Whether you are a Christian or not you must admit that Jesus Christ was some Shepard! He changed the world not by ruling his people but by being a Shepard for his people. We should follow his example.

A real coach also prepares his/her team members to take over the team someday. While every coach has an ego it must not interfere with the task to mold individuals and teams into the best they can possibly become. EGO stands for “edged God out” and you must not become a hurdle for any person to someday pass you by. Your job is to revel in their successes and focus on your task to help them to get to even greater successes in life.

Create competition with incentives and positive reinforcement. People remember the good but inflate the value of any negative reinforcement. Therefore go by the 90%-10% rule and challenge yourself to coach from a positive stance.

Ride the wave when things are going well but rock the boat when the boat is sinking. Coaches have the responsibility to hire and fire and both are critical elements to team success.

I once had a senior player who I kept on the team and honored his scholarship because he was a hold over from a previous coach from a 3-24 team. He had a spot on the team but I cautioned him in the beginning that playing time would be limited.

During an early season blow out as we led by 20 points with three minutes remaining I turned to Curt and told him to go into the game. He refused, and to my dismay rejected my second request for him to enter the game, strike two. I told him to carefully think through his decision and I would be back soon to give him one last chance.

I strolled down the sideline to his place on the bench and again asked him to sub in for the final few minutes. He declined for strike three!

After the game, Curt and his father came into my office and I sat at my desk quiet and expressionless. Curt asked, “Coach what do I have to do to play?”

I replied, “Son, transfer!” That was the end of that conversation and the end of his playing career.

I am not proud of this story and I may appear uncaring for Curt but I believe he was trying to sink my ship by rocking the boat. Coaching a team is about survival and we did not want Curt and his rock the boat attitude to kill us. Therefore, he was removed from the team.

Business coaches also face this daunting task of making decisions that affect people’s lives. Hiring and firing are the most crucial elements to cultivating successful teams.

By the way, after that event every player knew the importance of checking your ego at the door.

Business coaches also create an environment for roving leadership. Opponents often dictate whose talents we need to be successful and a good blend of diverse talents give every coach and team a better chance for victory and success.

Roving leadership is simply diversity. We often think of diversity as a melting pot. Excuse me but a melting pot of goop does not get me very excited. I see diversity as a mosaic with each piece fitting into a bigger work of art and contributing to its success and beauty.

Successful teams are diverse in talents and thoughts and actions and beliefs. True coaches are not intimidated by differences among team members. In fact, we should celebrate our differences and encourage competition because with an ever-changing marketplace it takes much diverse talent to address all of the issues we face to be successful in today’s business climate. Different people of differing talents allow different leaders to step to the front when needed the most by their team.

Lastly, always give credit to the team for all successes and always take the blame for every team failure. Real coaches do not play the blame game and chase the snake that bit them. If you chase the snake that bites you, you will soon die from the poison. The best coaches deal with the poison immediately by accepting responsibility for failure.

Players win games and coaches lose games. Accept your role and when failure occurs, accept that responsibility and then develop strategies to face the challenge as a team. Then re-train your team to perform better when the same challenge occurs again.

Dynamic change is a constant in real coaching. The best way to deal with organizational change as a coach is to develop a team to help each other by helping themselves.

Mark Adams is a professional communicator and President of EnthusiAdams, Inc. in Springboro Ohio. Don't miss his exciting presentation at the CUNA Operations, Sales & Service Council Conference, September 11 - 14, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV.