September 22 Coaching Tip: Stuck? Change It Up.
Numerous coaching sessions are about my clients being “stuck”. They are doing ok, but they seem to be stuck and not really growing, but not losing business either. Most times I will ask them, “when you have been stuck in the past, what did you do?” I ask that question to get them thinking positively, about a time when they became unstuck and progressed forward. They usually share that they changed things up a bit, i.e. they hired a coach, they changed their office and included a dashboard somewhere, they created a competition on their team to reward the new behavior. Bottom line, they changed things up a bit.
It happened to me recently. I was stuck on a design project; I kept going and doing the same thing for 2-3 weeks. Then I did something totally different, really got feedback, and changed my thinking. I’m already feeling the new feeling, and it’s invigorating.
September 23 Coaching Tip: Turn Them Loose.
Talked to a couple of my coaching clients recently about their experience with their interns this summer. They both were absolutely blown away by how thorough and helpful these interns were for their teams. Both leaders mentioned that these interns were professional, got projects done quicker than the team expected they would get them done, and asked for more work that could truly help the team.
In my experience of leading interns since we hired 100-200 interns/year when I was at Caterpillar, we found that if you give them big projects, get them to critically think about the result, learn how to go ask questions, and grow from feedback, they were quite valuable “part-time hires.” Some of our high school interns would work for us their junior and senior years in high school, and then would add another 3-4 internships while they were in junior college or college. By the time these interns were graduating from college, they were very familiar with many of the facilities, the processes, numerous people, the work culture, and the performance expectations.
If you have interns, give them direction and projects, and turn them loose. They’ll get stuff done for you quicker that you had imagined.
September 24 Coaching Tip: Get Both Sides of the Story.
Ever have someone call you and said that, “you said this, you said that…” and yet they have never talked to you nor asked you what you actually said? That happened to me recently by a leader. This leader launched in to what I did, without remaining curious and asking me for my input on what I did. So being the wiser of the two, I chose to listen to them opine on what I did…then I calmed summarized what they said, and then clearly slowed down and said the following, “now that I think I understand what you are saying, let me tell you what I did.” It was interesting how what this leader had heard was very different than what I did.
As a leader, it’s your responsibility to 1) support your people, and 2) get their side of the story. Don’t just think what someone else says is correct and accurate.