Bob’s Ramble: The Importance of Coaching

We are overwhelmed with information. There are literally hundreds of
information pieces coming at  us every minute, including humidity, air quality, noise, temperature, next meal choices, food smells, etc. In fact, there are so many things coming at us that, simply to survive, we filter out all but the most important. As a result, each of us creates our own set of filters that provide us with our own personal reality. Like a snowflake, no two people have identical realities. For each of us, “normal is what I am,” but that is not normal for anyone else. This is one reason why two rational people can experience the exact same incident and have very different views on what happened or what the consequences will be of the event. It is also why two similar people can have vastly different beliefs on what their work potential is.

So, how do we “get on the same page” when we are all so different?

Communicating (mainly listening to each other) about our unique perspectives can help us understand where each other is coming from. In the case where there are specific performance goals, like there are in professional sports, teams will hire coaches to help individuals and groups meet their potential. The best coaches can help an individual realize that her potential is higher than she thought and help her achieve what once seemed impossible. In the world of sports and entertainment, there is a lot of money at stake. To ensure that individuals are seeing and meeting their true potentials, owners and general managers work hard to find the best coaches available. A good coach can help us see other perspectives and understand that what many of us perceive as constraints on our own capabilities are actually self-induced assumptions from our own reality filters. For example, the “I’m no good at math” syndrome can stem from a variety of early experiences that may or may not be true indicators in later years, but has created a reality that has pushed him to stay away from math.

In my opinion, the single most important characteristic needed to be a great manager is great coaching. And what do we look for when recruiting coaches? Great listening skills, intelligence, creative problem solving, curiosity, experience (more experience provides more examples of analogies, more context for a suggestion, etc.), empathy, being articulate in explanations and fun to be with. The great coach is very well paid because they bring out the best in the people around them. Around New England, there is a debate about who has been more important to the Patriots Football team, Bill Belichick or Tom Brady?

Both have been incredible leaders, but I’ve got to go with Belichick.