Interview Transcript

What makes a great coach?

I think it’s primarily listening and allowing there to be silence. Coaches come in all shapes and sizes, and it really depends what we’re talking about here. The coaching I’m engaged in — actually, I don’t even describe it as coaching. You’re an advisor. Let’s separate coaching on a very specific, perhaps behavioural thing. You’re not terribly good at decision-making; then you probably need very specific support to help you on that, and there could well be a long story which explains why you can’t make a decision. That’s a specific behavioural issue which can be dealt with.

I think broader coaching is about making sure the person sitting in front of you can be as efficient, effective, and successful as possible. What’s getting in the way of that? Sometimes, there’s an organisational issue, but less so. Sometimes, it’s the way they are working with their team, quite often. And sometimes, it’s something completely outside the work; they’re bringing an issue in. Sometimes, it’s the boss. It’s dead easy to blame the boss, and there are good bosses and bad bosses, of course, but most are in the middle.

I think a good coach has the ability to synthesise what is being heard and offer ways of dealing with that. A good coach doesn’t give the answer, nor should they. It’s about listening, playing back, rephrasing, rethinking, looking through a different lens, and then allowing the person to say, “That’s what I need to do,” or, “That’s what I can do better,” or, “In future, I will.” That’s how I think about it. And the final thing is the need for measurable outcomes; not just a nice chat.

Many of the leading companies have coaching available in one form or another. Mentoring is also very powerful; different from coaching because typically, it will be internal. Mind you, coaching can be internal as well, but there’s a dynamic there that probably doesn’t work. Mentoring, typically, is internal, well-intentioned. But I always insist, if I’m going to work with a coach, it has to be my decision who I work with. You can’t force me to go and work with that person.

There has to be a relationship between the two to allow that trust and confidence to be built and, therefore, a proper, real conversation. Mentoring’s a bit different. I’m new in a company perhaps. You’re going to mentor me, which is basically helping me find my way around, accelerate my learning in terms of where I go when I’ve got issues, how I get stuff done, the culture around here — what’s important; what’s not important? That’s got a very important role to play because that accelerates people’s ability to operate, as opposed to learning by doing.

The issue with mentoring is, again, it tends to be internal. Some companies have board members mentoring senior leaders; I don’t think that’s a good idea at all. I think there’s a fundamental conflict of interest, but that’s a personal view. Many companies do that, and some will say it works extremely well. I’m not saying it can’t work, just that it’s not what I think coaching or mentoring is all about. You have to be careful. It’s dead easy to say, “We’ve got this mentoring plan,” but let’s really understand how it’s working, if it’s working, and are people actually happy with the outcomes?

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