The Joy of Coaching

I have a vivid memory of a smile. I looked up from my desk to witness a scene of two people on my team celebrating, a coach and a coachee. The coachee had just successfully completed a significant task after a couple weeks of hard work and perseverance. The happiest person was the coach who had a big smile on his face. I have never seen him happier.

A New Coach

Background on the coach: he was a high achiever in school and at work. He understood complex concepts and was effective at completing tasks. He did not have personal experience with failing to complete tasks.

The smile came from his second opportunity to coach in a work environment. In his first coaching experience, he was a buddy for a new employee in their onboarding process. To say it went poorly would be an understatement.

Before taking on the role of a buddy, we discussed his responsibilities and how to coach the new employee. However, it became clear during the first two weeks that his mindset was not into coaching. He did not follow up with the new employee. He did not learn about how the person prefers to learn, or even simply what their hopes and goals were in the new position.

A Second Chance

The second opportunity to coach and support a new team member came up soon afterwards. There was a significant difference between the two situations. The person had the skill and ability to do their tasks well but had lost their self-esteem. This led to a vicious circle of doubting themselves when completing tasks. It was of paramount importance that they had a successful onboarding experience. Losing any further confidence would have finished their career at the company.

A very important question: Was the coach up to the seriousness of the challenge?

We discussed how he did not give a good effort in his previous opportunity. The problem with his first foray into coaching was his attitude, energy and enthusiasm. He needed to bring that from within.

He accepted the responsibility. We discussed how to proceed. He needed to understand how the coachee learns and under no circumstances perform the coachee’s tasks. He needed to have the coachee achieve small victories to build momentum and grow confidence.

From the start, there was a significant difference in the coach’s behaviour. He had regular touchpoints with the coachee. He took the time to prepare.

It was a struggle. Concepts that had come so easily to him were not translating to the coachee. He showed no frustration, was patient and gathered information on what was not working. He changed his approach which led to further progress. They both kept at it.

Triumph

Then it happened. The coachee had a breakthrough and completed the task. The coach who had enjoyed great personal success, found another person’s success to be more rewarding than his own.

To this day, the memory brings a smile to my face and motivates me to develop more people to find the joy of coaching.