This column offers practical help for line managers coaching their own staff.
This issue: Avoiding the opposite of what’s wrong
As a manager, I get to hear a lot about what’s wrong – with our customers, offices, printer, mailing service and even sometimes our people. And, of course, it’s my job to get something done about it. As a manager/coach, I often use a coaching style to start addressing these issues. Here’s an idea that could save lots of time and stress:
“What’s wanted is not the opposite of what’s wrong”
It’s tempting to think that by making a shopping list of all the things that are wrong and then setting out to do something about them, we are making maximum progress.
But think for a moment. Imagine going out to the supermarket for the weekly shop – with a list of all the things you DON’T want. No eggs, no butter, no loo roll… How useful would that be? Well, useful up to a point – we could certainly steer clear of those items.
But wait. There could well be more than 40,000 different lines in the store. Having rejected the small number of things you don’t want, you then stand in the middle of the shop looking around – and you still need to decide what you want.
In coaching, the same thing applies. Knowing what’s wrong is a useful starting point – but only to get to refining your ideas on what’s wanted. As a manager/coach, this is a key step in building yourself some useful projects and progress. So how do you do it?
Build the platform for coaching
Suppose someone comes to you with a story of something that’s gone wrong. As a good manager/coach, there are three useful things to do at this point:
LISTEN to the story – get the details, express concern, show how important it is by giving excellent attention.
AFFIRM the bringer of the bad news – let them know how important it is that they raised this issue, what you’re impressed by about them, their speed of action, concern for customers, etc.
TURN THE CORNER from focusing on what’s wrong to focusing on what’s wanted. Some good questions that can help here include:
“So, instead of that, what you want is…..?” (let them finish the sentence)
“What do you want to have happen next time?”
“What would be better than that, for everyone?”
Your counterpart may not have thought about this, being focused on what’s wrong. They may fall silent for a moment. Let them. Give them plenty of time to think about it. As always, a period of silence here is a good sign for the coach; there is thinking going on.
Expand the answer by asking, “What else?” to get more detail. Then ask about others’ perspectives on what would be preferable.
Name the project
A final tip here is to sum up all of the above with a name – a snappy title that connects in some way to what’s wanted. Asking your counterpart for a name is always a good idea. It allows them even more ownership.
Now you can sum up everything about the platform and what’s wanted in one phrase. And having become squarely focused on what’s wanted, you can pursue it with whatever coaching strategy you favour.
Try it out next time someone brings you a tale of woe – and see what happens.
Mark McKergow is director of sfwork, the Centre for Solutions Focus at Work and co-author of several books on solution-focused practice including The Solutions Focus (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2007). mark@sfwork.com, www.sfwork.com
Volume 5, Issue 2