The Value of Quality Coaching

Because we know the value of coaching, all of us here have, and are, getting our own coaching to improve our skills and performance in other domains. For me, it's swimming. I've paddled around on beaches since I was a child, but didn't take up swimming as an exercise until I was nearly 50.?

I knew how to stay on top of the water and get some forward momentum, but it was awkward and inefficient. At that time, I would take a break a few days a week in the early afternoon to paddle in a lane at a local pool that accepted members. One of those afternoons each week, there was a group in other lanes who trained for the Special Olympics under the direction of a coach.?

One afternoon, at the end of their training session and the competitors had left for the locker rooms, the coach, Beverly, approached me and asked if she could give me some tips. Beverly had been a professional swimmer whose specialty was synchronized swimming. My semi-flailing had to have been hard to watch for someone who had achieved artistry as well as athleticism in the water.?My experience however, was of generosity without judgment.

Yes please! I said.

The tips she gave me were transformative. No one was going to mistake me for ever having been a competitive swimmer, but I had a new experience moving through the water. I asked if I could take lessons with her, and progressed even further.

Beverly retired and moved a couple of years later, and I've sought out classes and individual lessons since. During Covid, lessons paused for a couple of years; my form had deteriorated; and I needed help pulling it back together.

What's interesting is I had the background of good training; and there are no end of excellent coaching videos to learn swim technique. What I needed, however, was someone up on the pool deck, Brian this time, who could see what I couldn't see; who knew what I needed to do; and with the experience to know what I had to do first, in order to set up the next improvement, and so on. Brian was a Division 1 butterfly competitor. He can move 25 yards in fewer than half the number of strokes I use on my best day. Nonetheless, my experience of his coaching is generosity without judgment.

On my own this morning in the water, I felt smooth in a way I haven't in a while. That was 7am. It's now mid-afternoon, and I still experience the well being.

Perhaps all of you have had experiences like this. Here are examples of data validating the consistency of those experiences.

Take Away #1

Our managers were all replaced with coaches, with a ratio of one coach per six employees.

Introducing coaches has had a major impact in terms of both engagement and productivity. We use Gallup’s Q12 Survey to rate employee engagement, and we have consistently ranked in the top 1% of teams worldwide since implementing these changes.

Take Away #2

In my coaching practice, I witness daily how coaching and the process of organizing and dissecting thinking and gathering emotional and observational data can create deeper insights and switch cognitive frames. Through coaching, new ways of looking at things are created in the minds of leaders. That reframing process sends calming signals into the body, which in turn enables the prefrontal cortex to play its orchestrating role of controlling autonomic arousal in a healthy way. This also allows us to access the vast database that resides in the hippocampus for better thinking, synthesizing and decision-making.

Take Away #3

Organizations that offer training alone experience a?22% increase in productivity, but when combined with coaching, that figure rises to 88%?(Gerald Olivero, Denise Bane & Richard Kopelman, Public Personnel Management).

GTD Focus:

World-class coaching

Generosity without judgment.

Warmly,

CEO of GTD Focus

Francis Sopper