Have you ever felt like you want more for people than they want for themselves? Align the potential you see in others with their personal goals or risk pushing your consistent performers out the door.
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Enhanced Video Transcript
Sometimes a coach wants so much for their clients or their staff to be happy, successful, and satisfied that they instill their own agenda into the coaching process. Now the coach wants more for their direct reports than they want or are ready for themselves.
While coaching is about stretching and challenging someone to attain more than they would be able to on their own, sometimes what they can achieve, what they want to achieve, and what is in their best interest are in conflict with each other. Therefore, when coaching people, it’s not always about what is possible, realistic, or attainable.
Instead, it becomes more about what your employees want, what they need, and what is most aligned with their personal and professional vision and goals. Subsequently, this shapes the focus of your coaching and helps define the right priorities to address. And if pushed too hard, you might find yourself pushing a solid B player to the point they quit. And if they don’t quit, how do you think this affects the level of trust they have in you? Now, this person feels that all you do is push your own goals and agenda on them without honoring what they want most!
While it’s the responsibility of the leader to support, coach and develop their people to live their fullest potential, you also need to respectful and mindful of what is most important to them.
Sure, you can look at some of the talent on your team and say, “If only they worked a little harder, put more time into developing themselves and focused on increasing their sales activity, they could make more money and be an A player!”
The challenge is, what if the person doesn’t want to be an A player? What if they’re happy just being a B player? What if they don’t want to make more money? What if they don’t want to work harder because they value their life balance and the time they have with their family more than the additional money they can make?
Sure, they may not be setting the world on fire and blowing out their sales targets but they are still a solid, non-toxic contributor and good corporate citizen. And while every manager wants to develop a team of A players, every team needs and can afford to have some B performers who still consistently contribute to your bottom line and sales objectives.
Conversely, there’s never room at the winner’s table for the C players, since no manager can afford to have these underperformers on their team.
In truth, the real measurement of value derived from the coaching relationship is determined by the person you are coaching and how they define value rather than how you define it. While this might sound counterintuitive, you need to surrender your attachment to pushing this type of person to realize their potential and respect their personal goals as well as what is most important to them.
When you do so, you may be surprised that at some point, your B player may decide, due to a change in their life or priorities, that they are ready and willing to become a top performer! So, coach them to be the best they can be, while respecting their boundaries and values. Now, instead of pushing them too hard, the value they receive from your coaching can be created organically during every conversation.
