Some readers may think that I have deviated far from the theme of the coach now, and the role of the manager and the changing environment are all minor issues. In fact, they are not side issues, but closely related. If you don't know them, the coach is just another tool in the toolbox. It is also possible to use the coaching methods and processes introduced in this book to guide others to solve problems or master new skills without recognizing the coaching concept. This kind of counseling may produce certain effects and achieve certain success, but it is far from the effect that could have been achieved.
That's how some coaches start. I remember a ski instructor we trained. At first, he didn't intend to have a deeper understanding. His methods are autocratic, dogmatic and manipulative, but by systematically applying our methods to guide skiing, his achievements convince him that giving learners more choices is the key to releasing all hidden potentials. He soon changed his whole concept of skiing teaching. He not only wrote a ski self-coaching manual and designed the best skiing events I have ever seen, but also became an expert coach in the field of sales training.
Enhance consciousness
I can only control what I feel. What I don't know controls me. Perception gives me strength.
The first key element of counseling is consciousness, which is the product of concentration, concentration and clarification. Let's go back to the concise Oxford Dictionary. Perception is defined as "consciously possessing knowledge, not unconsciously". I like the description in Webster's Dictionary: "Perception refers to the understanding of something by observing and explaining what a person sees, hears and feels." Our vision and hearing can be sensitive or insensitive, and our perception can have countless levels. Unlike the higher standards of vision and hearing, our daily perception is lower. Magnifier or megaphone can make our visual and auditory thresholds higher than normal. Similarly, through concentration and practice, consciousness can be greatly improved without resorting to the drugstore on the corner. The improvement of consciousness makes our perception beyond normal clarity, just like the role of a magnifying glass.
Although consciousness includes what you see and hear at work, it includes much more than that. It is the ability to collect and clearly perceive relevant facts and information and determine the correlation between things. This ability includes understanding the system, understanding the dynamics and relationships between things and people, and some understanding of psychology. Perception also includes self-cognition, especially when emotions or desires will distort your cognition.
Perceptual enhancement ability
In the development of physical skills, the consciousness of body feeling is the key. For example, in most sports, the most effective way to improve individual physical efficiency is to let athletes improve their awareness of physical feelings in an activity. Most sports coaches know little about this and insist on strengthening their skills from the outside. When motion perception focuses on one action, it will reduce or even eliminate the discomfort caused by the action. The result is smoother and more perfect external performance. What is important is that it is aimed at the body of every athlete, not the "ordinary" body involved in the book.
No two people have the same mind and body. How can I tell you how to be your best self? Only you can become your best self through perception.
Teachers, lecturers or managers will try to demonstrate or tell others to do things the way he taught them, or the way the book says they should do it. In other words, he taught his own methods to students or subordinates, thus continuing the traditional wisdom. Although learning and using standard or "correct" methods will show advantages in the early stage, the preferences and characteristics of individual executors will be suppressed and the work of managers will become simpler; The dependence of executors on experts has been extended, and the self-esteem and power illusion of managers have been improved.
Another counseling method to raise awareness is to pay attention to the uniqueness of each person's body and mind, which can also enhance strength and confidence without the guidance of another person. It establishes self-reliance, self-confidence, self-confidence and sense of responsibility. The coach should not be confused with the practice of "here are the tools, find the answers by yourself". Our own normal consciousness level is relatively low. Relying only on your own perception, you may spend a long time doing repetitive things and developing some mixed methods, which will lead to bad habits. Therefore, we need expert coaches to help us raise our awareness-at least we can continue to improve and discover ourselves until we develop our skills from my coach.
If there is only one "correct" method, Forsberg will never invent the "fosbury flop" and tennis player Bjorn Borg will never win Wimbledon.
There are many ways to improve our consciousness, which varies from person to person. Every activity corresponds to a different part of our body. Sports are mainly physical fitness, but some sports also have high requirements for vision; Musicians need and develop high-level auditory perception; Sculptors and magicians need touch; Businessmen need mental and interpersonal awareness, as well as other awareness.
Although these explanations about perception are difficult at first glance, they can be cultivated quickly through simple practice, application and guidance. Perhaps the following popular definitions are easier to understand:
Perception is knowing what is happening around you.
Self-awareness is knowing what you are going through.
invest
Another term may deepen our understanding of perception: input. Every human activity can be simplified as input-processing-output.
For example, when you drive to work, you will receive traffic information, road and weather conditions, the relationship between changing speed and space, sounds from engines and other equipment, and input information about your body's comfort, tension or fatigue. You may be willing to get this information, you may refuse to accept it, you may accept it all, and you may not receive any other information at all except some main information.
When you listen to the "Today's Program" on the radio, you may consciously realize that you are driving, or unconsciously input the information needed for safe driving into your work. In either case, you are receiving information input. Good drivers get higher quality and more information, and these inputs provide them with more accurate and detailed information for processing and taking actions, so as to produce appropriate outputs, such as the speed and position of vehicles on the road. No matter how you handle the input you receive and take action, the quality of your output depends on the quality and quantity of the input. Raising awareness means improving our sensitivity to input acceptance, not only regulating our feelings, but also regulating our brains.
Good perception is essential for high performance. But we also have a mentality, and we will constantly seek to reduce our consciousness to the level of "just being able to cope". Although this sounds unfortunate, it is actually very important if we want to avoid input overload. The disadvantage is that we will provide the lowest level of output if we don't improve our understanding of the people related to us. The coach's skill is to improve and maintain an appropriate level of consciousness in the required areas.
Being more focused than the average person will bring higher performance than the average person.
In our course, we define high-quality perception as "high-quality relevant input". We can add "spontaneity" to the front, but in a sense it is already included, because if the input is not self-generated, it will not be of high quality at all. The act of participating in something itself provides high quality. When I said "the flowers over there are red", you received very little image information; When I ask you, "What color are the flowers over there?" Seeing the color of the flowers is red with your own eyes will enrich the image information. The better question is, "What hue or color system are they red?" The former gives a standard image of flowers, while the latter is a vivid and numerous subdivision of red at this particular moment. /kloc-There will be different states after 0/5 minutes, because the sun will move. It will never be the same again. Therefore, spontaneous input is richer, more direct and more real.
Once you get high-quality feedback or input, changes will follow, and there is no need to force it.
Another word to describe the characteristics of perception is feedback, which refers to feedback from the environment, your body, your behavior and the equipment you are using, as opposed to feedback from others.
conscientiousness
Responsibility is another key concept, or the goal of a coach. In the third chapter, I put forward the relationship between the change of corporate culture and the increasing concern for collective and individual responsibilities. Responsibility is the key to high performance. When we really accept, choose or undertake our own thoughts and behaviors, our commitment to them will increase and our performance will improve. When we are ordered to be responsible, told, expected or given a sense of responsibility, even if we don't accept it, our performance will not improve. Of course, we may do a job because if we don't do it, there will be a potential threat, but doing something to avoid danger will not maximize our performance. If you want to really feel responsible, it inevitably involves choice.
If I give you advice and fail, you will blame me. It's not a good idea for me to exchange my advice for your sense of responsibility.
Let's look at a few examples.
reproach
What would you do if I gave you advice, especially uninvited, and you took action and failed? Of course it's my fault, which obviously shows that you think the responsibility lies with me. Failure can be attributed not only to my wrong advice, but also to your lack of proper power. In the workplace, when advice is an order, your initiative is zero, which may lead to resentment, destruction or confrontational behavior. You didn't give me a choice; You hurt my self-esteem; I can't decide this action, and I can't clean it up in the end, so I have to take the initiative to do another action that hurts you. Of course, that action may also hurt me, but at least I am relieved. This (unconscious) inference may seem exaggerated, but I assure you that millions of employees with bad bosses will admit that they do it in the above way from time to time.
choose
This is another example of the difference between a generally imposed sense of responsibility and a high sense of responsibility or self-choice. Imagine a group of construction workers hearing an order: "Fred, get a ladder." There is one in the shed. "
What will Fred do if he can't find a ladder there? He would come back and say, "There is no ladder."
If I put it another way, "We need a ladder. There is one in the shed. Who wants to pick it up? "
Fred replied, "I do." But when he got there, he didn't find the ladder. What will he do this time? He'll look elsewhere. Why? Because he felt responsible. He hopes to succeed. He will find a ladder for himself and his self-esteem. The difference here is to give him a choice and his reaction to it.
One of our clients has a history of bad labor relations. In order to improve these, I have done a series of courses for workshop supervisors. Although the company gossip said that our course was very enjoyable, at the beginning, the participants were always suspicious, defensive and even contradictory. I admit that they are resisting what the senior management asked them to do. They have been told to attend the training class, so they will boycott it. In order to alleviate this uncooperative situation, I asked them if they could refuse to take these classes.
"I can't." They said with one voice.
"Oh, you have a choice now." I said. "You have met the requirements of your company-you are here. Congratulations! Now, this is your choice. How do you want to spend these two days? You can study wholeheartedly, you can resist learning, you can be careless, and you can also waste your time. Write a sentence to describe your choice. You can keep it for yourself or share it with others if you like. I won't read it, and I won't tell your boss what you did. This is your choice. "
The atmosphere in the room has changed. Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and release energy, and then most employees actively participated in the course. Choice and responsibility can work miracles.
These simple examples clearly show how important it is to enjoy fully responsible choices to improve performance. This won't happen unless you feel responsible. Telling someone that he is responsible for something doesn't really make him feel responsible. They may be afraid of failure, and if they fail, they will feel guilty, but that is completely different from feeling responsible. True sense of responsibility comes with choice, and in turn needs questions to guide it. We will pay attention to the construction of coaches in the next chapter.
Perception and responsibility
Consciousness and responsibility are undoubtedly the key factors in any activity. My colleague David Heimli, a 400-meter hurdler, won the gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games. In the book Excellent Sports, he studied 63 world-class athletes in 20 different sports. Although there are considerable differences in other fields, consciousness and responsibility are always the two most important attitude factors for everyone, and the attitude or spirit of players is the key to any kind of sports performance.
Mentality is the key
In his research, David Heimrey asked each player a question: How much role does the mind play in their sports? David wrote: "The unanimous opinions are' great',' complete',' this is the whole game',' it stimulates your spirit' and' that is the source of physical exercise'. The lowest evaluation is' as important as the body'. " The high performance of enterprise management requires the brain as much as exercise, and mentality is the key.
Mentality is the key, but where is the key to open it?
Knowledge and experience correspond to skills and physical fitness in enterprise management. Leaving any one can't guarantee us to reach the peak, and many successful people have proved that both are indispensable. And the mentality of wanting to win is the most critical.
Victory mentality
Ten years ago, sports coaches focused on technical ability and physical training, but people have not generally realized the importance of mentality. People think that the mentality is inherent in players, and it is difficult for coaches to make a difference. No! Coaches can influence the mental state of players, but most of them unconsciously use arbitrary means, which has a bad influence on players and only pays attention to technology.
These coaches just tell their athletes what to do, thus denying their sense of responsibility as athletes; They tell the players what they see and deny the players' perception. They suppressed the sense of responsibility and the perception. Some people called coaches are still like many managers. They limit the success of players or employees. The problem is that they still get reasonable results from the management object, so they have no motivation to try any other ideas, so they don't understand or believe what new results can be obtained by other means.
In recent years, many changes have taken place in sports. Most top teams employ sports psychologists to provide attitude training for their players. However, if the old coaching methods remain unchanged, coaches will often inadvertently deny the efforts of psychologists. The best way to develop and maintain mentality is to establish a continuous process of consciousness and responsibility through daily practice and skill acquisition. This requires changing the coaching style, that is, from mandatory to real coaching.
By raising the awareness and sense of responsibility of coaches, people can complete their tasks in a short time and get a higher quality of life in a long time.
A coach is not an expert in solving problems, a teacher, a consultant, a lecturer or even an expert; He is a guide, consultant and insightful promoter. The following words can at least help you understand what this role means.
The quality of a coach
In our coaching course, we ask participants to list the qualities that an ideal coach should have. The following is a typical list:
-Patience, patience
-Just separation.
-Support. Support
-Are you interested?
-Good listener.
-insightful.
-Keen, conscious
-self-knowledge, self-knowledge
-Be careful.
-Good memory, strong memory
Sometimes it also contains the following words:
-Technical expertise
-Knowledge. Knowledge
-Experience
-Credibility
-Authority
As a professional coach
I don't quite agree with the latter five qualities, and put forward the question of "a coach is an expert": does a coach need to have experience or technical knowledge in his field? The answer is "no"-if the coach really acts in a fair and insightful way. However, if the coach can't fully believe in the potential of his partner and the value of self-responsibility, then he will think that he needs professional knowledge to provide the coach. We don't mean that we don't need experts' input, but the average coach often overuses this point, thus reducing his value as a coach, because every input reduces the customer's sense of responsibility.
The trap of knowledge
Ideally, it seems that expert coaches have a high level of technical knowledge, but it is difficult for experts to effectively restrain their majors and coach well. Let me use a tennis example to further illustrate. Many years ago, several of our "internal tennis" courses were overbooked, so that we lacked coaches to train "internal tennis". We asked the two "inside-sliding" coaches to change into tennis coaches' uniforms and put a racket under their arm, and promised them that they would not use the racket under any circumstances to relax them.
As expected, their coaching work is largely the same as that of tennis coaches. In addition, in some noteworthy cases, they did even better. Through reflection, the reason is obvious. Tennis coaches can see the technical mistakes of participants, but ski coaches can't see these problems. What they can see is the efficiency with which participants use their bodies. Physical disharmony stems from self-doubt and lack of understanding of the body. Ski coaches have to rely on participants' self-diagnosis to solve the problem fundamentally, while tennis coaches only deal with symptoms and technical mistakes. This requires us to give more training to tennis coaches and get rid of majors more effectively.
A deeper level
The same problem also appears in the enterprise environment. A manager saw that her subordinate George didn't fully communicate with his colleagues in another department, and the manager thought that the solution was to let him write a work memo every week. However, if George has always resisted communication, this memo will be difficult to play a role. George agreed to write a memo, but the manager didn't stop there. Instead, Jeangeorges found and let go of his resistance through tutoring. Lack of communication is only a symptom, and conflict is the root cause. Only by touching the essence through the phenomenon can the problem be solved.
Are managers experts or coaches?
It is difficult to make an expert a good coach, but it is by no means impossible. Of course, the major is priceless to a manager in many ways. In fact, managers are most likely to become experts. A company's executives want to make the company's operation information. If he is a good coach, whether he knows the new system or not, he should easily guide his team to further improve their computer skills. As long as he does this, the suspicion of his subordinates will disappear and he can maintain control of the department. With the specialization of skills and the complexity of technology, coaching ability has become one of the necessary abilities for a manager.
Developing our potential is to fully show our individuality and uniqueness, not to shape ourselves according to what others say is the best practice.