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In our first discussion, we defined what effective coaching entails—and what it doesn’t. At Insigniam, we believe the role of a coach is to make someone succeed beyond what that person could achieve on his or her own often referred to as breakthrough performance. This means driving all conversations toward action.

Often, in order to develop an action-oriented mindset, perspectives must be broadened and expanded. This means coaches must help those being coached alter how they perceive and approach a given situation by:

  • Gaining outside perspectives—particularly how those being coached perceive others
  • Thinking objectively, not emotionally

An Elevated State of Awareness

If the person being coached must widen their perspective to achieve results, then it is the coach’s responsibility to help them arrive at this elevated state.

How so? Let’s imagine a frustrated marketing director is working alongside a coach, trying to discover why a particular product—one that has been thoroughly vetted through market research — is experiencing production setbacks.

In a coaching session, the marketing director might express his or her frustration with, “I talked to someone in R&D, and they don’t know what they’re doing.” However, this is rarely the case, and emotions often cloud context clues that could be highly valuable in identifying breakdowns and solutions.

When pressed by the coach to repeat the conversation verbatim, the marketing director might reveal useful information—perhaps an issue related to plant development, for instance. Now the coach has information that can be used to alter the way the marketing director perceives the problem and arrives at a solution. Without outside counsel, the marketing director’s frustration may have exacerbated the issue and prevented them from not only a breakthrough but also approaching the problem objectively, with an action-oriented mindset.

While broaden perspectives is essential in approaching any number of goals and challenges, what about coaching after the action? That’s the topic of our next discussion: Coaching: Part IV – Coaching After the Event.