Find a Business Coach – Three Elements of a Good Coaching Experience
Last Updated on April 15, 2024 by Bill Truby
The best athletes in the world get coached – why? To get better. The “Top” is a moving target. You don’t get coached primarily for training or just to fix a problem. You get coaching and you keep getting coaching to provide the constant renewal needed to be the best and stay the best.
Often, we have difficulty getting better…alone. Though there are many aspects of growth and development we can practice ourselves, the intimate knowledge of what can make us the BEST we can be often eludes us. We are our own worst enemies. And…we are the last to see our blind spots. In fact, the only way a blind spot can be illuminated is by someone else. The coaching process is a way to maximize that “someone else.” Coaching is a way to grow in knowledge and nurture and help the best become better.
Three Elements to a Good Coaching Process
In addition to encouragement, structure, and support; there are three elements to a good coaching process:
- Coaching Provides Knowledge
A good coach gives you knowledge, but not in the way a teacher would. A coach often has experiential knowledge that helps you not only perform better, but helps you be better. Tiger Wood’s coach doesn’t teach him how to play golf; he teaches him how to better perform at some aspect of golf, or to look at a situation differently.
- Coaching Provides an Honest, Objective Mirror
When you look in a mirror, that mirror reflects what is there. There is no judgment, no opinion, no guessing. A coach gives feedback in the same way, and shapes that feedback in such a way that the person truly understands it and is helped by it.
- Coaching Creates a Training Program for Improvement
The process of coaching is to help the person getting coached improve in some aspect of “being,” thinking, or performance. Because the coach provides experiential knowledge and is able to be an honest “mirror” – that coach can create a step by step training program to improve the person and use the first two elements to either fix a bad habit that has crept in, or to help the person become better in some way (i.e. happier; more confident; better with interactions, etc.)
And If You Are Lucky…
We’ve all seen movies or read stories about a coach that goes beyond the three elements mentioned; a coach who provides the three core services but who also exhibits the mysterious mixture of intuition and wisdom. If you get that kind of coach you are indeed lucky or blessed. This kind of coach has a powerful process that is applied to different individuals based on EACH person’s specific personality, character, and need. (You know… “Wax on…Wax off”).
When you watch this kind of coach work it’s almost magical. Comments, words, silence, suggestion, or assignment are all perfectly timed to help take the coached person to the next step. Sometimes the path seems strange to the person being coached, but if trusted, the desired result lies around the corner, just out of sight.
Whether you are receiving the three core elements of coaching or are lucky enough to have the fourth element of “process-driven, intuitive-wisdom” – there is a basic test to determine whether the coaching is a positive experience or not. You know the coaching experience is a good one when you have regular sessions with your coach, you can’t wait to talk to your coach, and you can’t wait to tell someone else what you’ve learned.
It is rare to find good coaches in the workplace who possess the above attributes. We’ve talked to many managers who think they are good coaches, who say they are good coaches; but strangely, these managers aren’t currently receiving coaching. And, often, have NEVER received coaching. Plus their direct reports don’t excitedly seek out that manager for guidance, training – coaching, or wisdom.
A test for you: What happens when you ask to see someone in your office? Is the person excited to come to your office? Do they look forward to getting coaching, input, and feedback from you? Or, do they respond to the request to see them in your office with a, “I wonder what I did wrong now!” Team members responding to a successful coach/leader’s request to come to their office enthusiastically want to be there.
If you want to be the best you can be, get coaching. Then keep getting coached to help you keep getting better. But don’t stop there – take what you’ve learned and pass it on. Become a coach to someone you want to grow. Help their “best” become better too!
Our Experienced and Successful Coach – Joann Truby
Joann Truby, Vice-President and co-founder of Truby Achievements, is truly an experienced and successful coach.
Joann, an athlete, and national champion roller skater, then world-class coach (all before the age of 30) is this “magical” kind of coach. She has a consistent process, but her application and implementation of that process is intuitively wise – crafted in each moment for the precise need of the person being coached. She knows just what to say; when to say it, how to say it, and even when not to say anything.
She passes the subjective test of “desire” with flying colors. EVERY person she has coached, no matter their position, no matter their stress level, no matter their level of busy-ness, no matter where they are in the world, it is an extremely rare occasion for one of her coaching clients to cancel an appointment.
Read more about her proven success and unique process here. If you are interested in working with Joann, you can send us an email to learn more.
You can also follow us on Social Media for more content:
LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Bill Truby
Founder and President of Truby Achievements
