The Exceptional Coach as Gardener
My father, Anker Jensen, immigrated to Canada from Denmark in March of 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929—not an ideal time for a 20-year-old to try to forge a new life in North America. He came into Canada, as did all immigrants at that time, through Pier 21, the Canadian equivalent of Ellis Island, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My father died in 1976, and I know very little of his past in Denmark, but a few years ago I spent a day at Pier 21 and managed to trace all his records from that time. In Canada, he worked in a mine in northern Quebec for 42 years and served for five years with the Canadian forces in the Second World War, but interestingly— and revealingly—the ship documents on his entry to this country had him listed as a farm laborer.
Despite the climate and the poor soil conditions in Noranda, where I was born and raised, my father always had an amazing garden. Some of the neighbors tried to follow his example, but their gardens were never quite as fruitful as his. There was a reason for this, of course. A natural gardener, my father knew how to create the right conditions to maximize the growth potential that lies dormant in every plant. He spent many hours tending the beds and enriching the clay soil in our backyard with compost from a bin he had built in the back corner. Similarly, good coaches, leaders and parents nourish their charges and thus get a lot more commitment out of them than poor coaches, leaders and parents ever could. And they do it the same way a gardener does: by creating an environment that stimulates growth.
In developing people, the challenge is not about physical growth but about igniting in them the desire to achieve their potential, whatever their focus. When we speak of commitment, it is about commitment to themselves and their own growth and development, rather than to anything outside the person, such as an organization. We want them to begin using all of their talents and skills to become the best they can be. We want them to activate their Third Factor.
Without stimulation and encouragement, a life-altering event, or a nurturing mentor/coach, the Third Factor can go unrealized, just as, in the gardening analogy above, a plant’s potential for growth may go unrealized until a gardener with the skill to stimulate it comes along.
Five Characteristics of Exceptional Coaches
My studies of exceptional coaches have revealed five characteristics that enable them to ignite the Third Factor.
• Self-awareness, which equips them to assist, not inhibit, the igniting of Third Factor
• Ability to build trust, so that the first steps toward gradually attaining self-direction can be taken in a relatively safe and secure environment
• Ability to use imagery to help the person “see” what is possible and thus to encourage the process of belief in the self
• Ability to identify blocks when they occur and to help the person take responsibility for dealing with these temporary barriers
• Recognizing the importance of adversity, which is critical at some point to determine the strength of the person’s commitment to themselves and their performance. Learning to embrace adversity and focus on what can be controlled is essential in developing the Third Factor in the performer—a preparation for moving out of the performance laboratory and into the bigger arena of life.
Over years of involvement in the corporate world and the world of Olympic and international sport, it has become obvious to me that a developmental bias is the foundation for effective coaching. The exceptional coaches I’ve had the good fortune to spend time with have all had an incredibly strong developmental bias. Without exception, they have also been very practical people. This book has the same focus. It’s a practical “playbook” that you can use to get much better at developing others.
This book, though written particularly for use in the workplace, is ultimately a practical guide to using coaching as a tool in any realm where the principles and techniques are applicable. You will hear a lot about what exceptional athletic coaches do, but as leaders in the business community you should know that when I talk to athletic coaches, I talk to them about what great business leaders do! When I’m training them, I routinely ask them to review a business leadership book and tell me what they learned from it that they can use on a daily basis. They never fail to discover valuable skills and techniques that help them become better athletic coaches. This book, in a way, turns those tables. You will find here lessons from these exceptional Olympic coaches that will be of value to you in your day-to-day responsibilities as a leader.
Leaders with a strong developmental bias spend a great deal of time playing out various scenarios and imagined consequences. They take leading and developing seriously and are open to new learning. As Coach Wooden puts it, “It’s what you learn after you know everything that matters.”
For those with a strong developmental bias, the line blurs between work and play, person and profession. Their impulse to develop is evident everywhere, with everyone. I never see Wally Kozak, former Canadian national team ice hockey coach and currently a scout for the women’s team, without walking away with something: an idea, an article, a question, a book, some reinforcement, a quote, something to reflect on. (On at least two occasions I’ve also walked away with a toasted tomato sandwich made from tomatoes that he had grown!) Marlene Rankel, an education-psychology professor who introduced me to Kazimierz Dabrowski, was the same—I always came away from encounters with her feeling somehow enriched. Leadership for these people truly is a mantle, a cloak they put on that transforms others. The very good ones can’t help themselves. They are people who make a difference.
Are You a Leader?
Is this something that interests you? Can you, or do you, get caught up in the puzzle that is another person—and how you might encourage that drive you see in them, or unlock that resistance, or deal with that lack of confidence, or curb that overconfidence without breaking the person?
Here’s a simple but practical way of beginning to see the challenges involved in developing others: a diagram that plots “confidence” (from low to high), on one axis, against “know-how” (also from low to high), on another, producing the following four quadrants:
How could you best lead and develop people in each of these quadrants? Which group would be the hardest to coach? You might ask me at this point: “What do you mean by ‘hardest’?” Good question. Some of you may relate very well to the low-confidence and high-know-how group because perhaps you were like that, or your best friend or one of your children is like that, so you have some affinity for these people and their issues. Other readers, those of you who came out of the womb confident, are probably thinking, “I can’t relate at all. If you’re afraid or fearful, so what—just do what I do: focus on what you have to do and don’t worry, because worry is a waste of time!” Clearly, the degree of difficulty will vary depending upon the leader’s background, experience and confidence level.
Do you like to ponder over the various people in your work world and the diversity of challenges they present? Do you think of yourself as a leader with a strong developmental bias? You may not even have considered this approach because the experiences that led you to become a manager or leader haven’t prepared you for the job.
I spend a lot of time working with leaders and managers in the oil industry, most of whom are engineers or geologists. A few years ago I was working with a major company in the industry in the middle of its third downsizing. I asked the engineers in the room how many articles they had read during the past year on engineering or issues related
