Coaching, Mentoring and Managing: A Coach Guidebook

The Coaching Role: Inspiring and Motivating

3

The point is, every direction passed on to your

associates can be clarified by communications tailored

to the situation.

• Additional communication methods might include:
  — Role-playing: explaining by acting out a
  desired activity.
  — Outcome contrast: describing what not to do,
  usually based on past experience.
  Coach:
  So, when we finally get this display ready to ship,
  it should look like ... well ... Andy, remember that
  job we shipped for Puritan?
  Andy:
  Do I ever! (laughter)
  Coach:
  Well, it shouldn’t look like that!


• Organize before communicating.
  In the rush of busy days, when the procedures seem
  obvious and the projects seem predictable, failure to
  organize before communicating important directions
  or goals is very tempting ... and very common. In
  spite of that, remember: Organized effort never results
  from disorganized input! The responsibility for project
  progress ... for tasks that move from start to finish
  smoothly, on time and without hitches ... rests
  squarely on the coach and his ability to outline
  organized activity.
  Never use shortcuts in the organizational phase of
  your team communications. Two ways to avoid that
  are the following:
  
  
  1. Write your instructions or information.
     Directions are three to four times more likely to
     be followed correctly when written! Why? For at
     least three reasons:
  
  
  
  

You have two

chances of

building a strong

team without

communication:

slim and none.

Each new day

offers a manager

first-rate

opportunities to

avoid second-rate

options.