Robert, thank you for your thorough article. I enjoyed reading it.
I wonder what your take is on the balance between challenge and care in cooperative environments. The background of this question is sports coaching. I think an effective coach needs to strike a balance between challenging athletes to always give their best, and caring for them so they feel supported. What do you think?
Thanks for the comment Rolf! I'm curious what resonated to you from the article?
My take:
The role of a coach to me, is to help a person realize their full potential. They know what to say to get the person back on the right path if they're deviating. They know what to say when the person is down and needs a pick me up.
I believe sports psychology (which can be applied to high performance in any domain, IMO) boils down to understanding the following for the athlete/professional:
What do you want?
How badly do you want it?
How badly are you willing to suffer to get it?
I believe a great coach helps an athlete/professional understand the answers to these questions (which are personal), and then works to rightsize what they say and the assignments given to grow the person toward their potential.
Another thing that comes to mind is "influence styles". Different people have different influence styles and ways they appreciate communication to gain sufficient motivation to stimulate new behavior or habit change. A great coach has a solid understanding of those tools and what influence styles their coachee appreciates.
I resonated with the overall theme of care in your article and wondered if care is the one main ingredient in a coach‘s cook book. And i found that challenge is the other main thing. You also put it beautifully with your 3 questions, because wanting something badly transforms into a challenge.
So in a team setting, sports or business, the two elements need to be there.
From my sports psychology studies I remember the concept of cohesion. There is social cohesion, when a team has a good time when together. And there is task cohesion, when the team works well together to fulfill its job. The interesting bit is that social cohesion helps with tasks, but task cohesion needs to come first. A social-only team will never get anything done, while a task-only team will get at least some results, especially when they all want it somewhat badly. 🙂
I think care and challenge are 2 great vectors to think about coaching. Another element I would add is trust.
When people trust each other, they are more open to listening and taking feedback. That ultimately leads to change from a coaching and leadership standpoint. So great coaches also focus on trust, from cultivating psychological safety.
Trust. I agree! Looking forward to that post 😉 I’ll also see if it fits in one of my upcoming newsletters. Great resource, the link. I love the exchange, Robert!
Robert, thank you for your thorough article. I enjoyed reading it.
I wonder what your take is on the balance between challenge and care in cooperative environments. The background of this question is sports coaching. I think an effective coach needs to strike a balance between challenging athletes to always give their best, and caring for them so they feel supported. What do you think?
Thanks for the comment Rolf! I'm curious what resonated to you from the article?
My take:
The role of a coach to me, is to help a person realize their full potential. They know what to say to get the person back on the right path if they're deviating. They know what to say when the person is down and needs a pick me up.
I believe sports psychology (which can be applied to high performance in any domain, IMO) boils down to understanding the following for the athlete/professional:
What do you want?
How badly do you want it?
How badly are you willing to suffer to get it?
I believe a great coach helps an athlete/professional understand the answers to these questions (which are personal), and then works to rightsize what they say and the assignments given to grow the person toward their potential.
Another thing that comes to mind is "influence styles". Different people have different influence styles and ways they appreciate communication to gain sufficient motivation to stimulate new behavior or habit change. A great coach has a solid understanding of those tools and what influence styles their coachee appreciates.
What do you think?
I resonated with the overall theme of care in your article and wondered if care is the one main ingredient in a coach‘s cook book. And i found that challenge is the other main thing. You also put it beautifully with your 3 questions, because wanting something badly transforms into a challenge.
So in a team setting, sports or business, the two elements need to be there.
From my sports psychology studies I remember the concept of cohesion. There is social cohesion, when a team has a good time when together. And there is task cohesion, when the team works well together to fulfill its job. The interesting bit is that social cohesion helps with tasks, but task cohesion needs to come first. A social-only team will never get anything done, while a task-only team will get at least some results, especially when they all want it somewhat badly. 🙂
Thank you for sharing Rolf. Glad it resonated.
An additional thought I have on "task cohesion" is Patrick Lencioni's 6 Working Geniuses. You might find it a useful framework for task cohesion: https://blog.leadr.com/embracing-patrick-lencionis-6-working-geniuses
I think care and challenge are 2 great vectors to think about coaching. Another element I would add is trust.
When people trust each other, they are more open to listening and taking feedback. That ultimately leads to change from a coaching and leadership standpoint. So great coaches also focus on trust, from cultivating psychological safety.
topic for another article! (:
Trust. I agree! Looking forward to that post 😉 I’ll also see if it fits in one of my upcoming newsletters. Great resource, the link. I love the exchange, Robert!