Coaching, Mentoring and Managing: A Coach Guidebook

Empathy and Understanding

To succeed as a coach, you must have empathy for the people

who work for you — a basic understanding and acceptance of

human nature. People are people. If you expect people to be super-

beings or pawns in a corporate ladder-climbing game, there is little

chance you will be able to inspire them to greater heights. People

aren’t enthusiastic about being with someone who lacks sensitivity

toward them or their situation.

To help you maintain a proper “people perspective,” many

managers have found these “Five Golden Questions for Leading

People” to be helpful.

1. Have I communicated the assignment in a way that makes
   my employee feel she must “do or die”?


2. Do my instructions sound like marching orders, or like
   helpful directions toward a mutually desired destination?


3. Can my employee excel if she completes this assignment,
   or is it possible only to do “just what’s expected”?


4. If I had to perform this task that I am assigning, would I
   look forward to doing it for a boss like me?


5. Does my employee believe that I understand her
   frustrations, or do I appear mistake-proof, regret-proof
   ... feeling-proof?

Valuing the Employee

A team can’t function at its best unless it feels valuable. That

feeling can come only from you, as you provide encouragement

and opportunities for increased individual success. If individuals

on your team slowly get the feeling that the results of their efforts

are somehow more important than they are, success will plummet.

On the other hand, if you are each person’s biggest fan ... each

person’s most ardent supporter ... you’ll see results you never

would have expected.

Coaching, Mentoring and Managing

2

A team can’t

function at its best

unless it feels

valuable.