Unlocking Potential

1. Trust is the foundation of effective coaching

All effective coaching is based on building trust, tapping potential, creating commitment, and actually executing goals.

Build genuine trust. As a coach, your primary responsibility is to establish a relationship of trust with those you coach. This requires demonstrating genuine concern, personal integrity, and maintaining strict confidentiality. Trust cannot be demanded or assumed based on authority alone - it must be earned through consistent, ethical behavior and a sincere desire to help others succeed.

Model trustworthiness. The most effective coaches embody trustworthiness in their character and competence. They walk the talk by living up to high ethical standards and continuously developing their coaching skills. By modeling trust themselves, coaches create psychological safety that allows individuals to be vulnerable, take risks, and grow.

2. Unlock potential by challenging paradigms

When a coach helps a person challenge their paradigms, they can more readily take responsibility for their life or situation.

Question limiting beliefs. Great coaches help individuals identify and challenge the paradigms or mental models that may be holding them back. This involves asking probing questions to uncover assumptions, explore different perspectives, and examine the implications of current ways of thinking.

Reframe for growth. By guiding people to reframe negative experiences or perceived limitations, coaches can help unlock untapped potential. The goal is to shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset that embraces challenges as opportunities for development. Powerful questions that coaches can ask include:

• What assumption is behind that belief?
• How else could you look at this situation?
• What would be possible if that limitation didn't exist?

3. Seek strategic clarity to drive meaningful goals

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes time. Vision with action can change the world.

Define a compelling vision. Coaches help individuals and organizations clarify their vision, mission, and values - their "True North." This provides direction and purpose, answering fundamental questions like:

• Why do we exist?
• What do we want to become?
• What principles guide our actions?

Set concrete goals. With a clear vision in place, coaches guide the process of translating broad aspirations into specific, measurable goals. The most effective goals follow the "From X to Y by When" format, providing a clear start point, end point, and timeline. For example: "Increase profit with new product sales from $150 million to $225 million this year."

4. Execute flawlessly using the four disciplines

Companies on average deliver only 63 percent of the financial performance their strategies promise.

Focus on the wildly important. To close the execution gap, coaches help leaders and teams implement four key disciplines:

1. Focus on 1-3 "Wildly Important Goals" (WIGs)
2. Act on lead measures (predictive and influenceable)
3. Keep a compelling scoreboard
4. Create a cadence of accountability

Overcome the whirlwind. Execution often fails because urgent daily tasks crowd out important strategic priorities. Coaches help individuals distinguish between the "whirlwind" of urgent activities and the truly important goals that fulfill the vision and strategy.

5. Give balanced and effective feedback

Great coaches give feedback that is a balance of courage and consideration.

Prepare for feedback. Effective coaches create a safe environment for honest feedback by:

• Giving people time to absorb difficult information
• Focusing on specific behaviors rather than personal attacks
• Balancing positive recognition with areas for improvement

Foster self-reflection. Instead of simply offering observations, great coaches ask individuals to give themselves feedback first:

• What do you like about what you've done?
• What would you have done differently?
• What have you learned?

6. Tap into talent by empowering individuals

The mindset of a great leader is "My job is to release the talent, passion, and ingenuity of all our people."

Unleash potential. Many employees feel underutilized in their current roles. Coaches help leaders create a culture that maximizes diverse talents and contributions by:

• Matching strengths to roles
• Providing growth opportunities
• Recognizing and rewarding performance

Clear the path. Effective coaches guide leaders to remove obstacles and empower their teams. This involves regularly asking:

• What barriers can I help remove?
• How can I make your job easier?
• What resources do you need to succeed?

7. Move the middle to maximize organizational performance

Improving team performance in the middle 60 to 70 percent yields the quickest path to greatness.

Focus beyond top performers. While it's important to develop high achievers, the biggest opportunity for organizational improvement lies in elevating the performance of the middle 60-70% of employees. A 10% improvement in this group can yield 3.5 times more overall impact than the same improvement in top performers alone.

Develop the talent pipeline. To "move the middle," coaches help leaders:

• Provide rotating job assignments and mentoring
• Balance conceptual learning with practical experience
• Create clear career paths and development opportunities
• Identify and leverage existing "pockets of excellence"

8. Coach the whole organization as a system

All organizations are a series of complex, interdependent systems that consist of a set of subsystems.

See the big picture. Just as doctors must understand the entire body to promote health, coaches must help leaders see the organization as a whole system. The Organizational Effectiveness (OE) Cycle provides a framework for diagnosing and addressing both acute issues and opportunities for improvement across key areas:

• Customer/stakeholder needs
• Vision, mission, and values
• Strategy and goals
• Processes and systems
• Culture and talent

Ask powerful questions. Coaches use the OE Cycle to guide leaders through a series of probing questions that reveal root causes and interconnections. This systemic approach helps organizations move beyond surface-level fixes to achieve lasting, holistic improvement.

Last updated: November 22, 2024