Understanding "Weakness" from a Strengths Coaching perspective

by Dries Lombaard


"Embrace your Weaknesses"

I love to see the expression on peoples faces when I make the above statement.  It is a foreign concept to most.  It is as if we have been conditioned to be ashamed of our natural weaknesses.  
To hide it, hate it, or ignore it.

Or then, in an effort not to have weakness, to spend as much energy as possible on it to try and fix it, improve it and erase it.

Unfortunately none of the above strategies have the results you hope for.  Your weaknesses are a reality just like your strengths.  No person is without it. 

It is essential to understand the meaning of Weakness just like we explained the meaning of Strength in Part 1 of this Blog. So let's unpack some of it's characteristics.

1. Weakness is a severe lack of energy

• The biggest misconception out there, is that weakness and lack of skill is the same thing.  Not so.  You can be the most skilled person in the room, and still be building on a weakness.  How do you know?  Skill won't energise you.  Talent does.  When you add knowledge, skill and experience to natural talent, you have a strength.
• It is important to keep in mind that weakness is not lack of ability.  Weakness is the lack of sustainability.  You may operate pretty well in some of your weaknesses, especially if you rely on skill to do so.  But be very sure:  it is not sustainable.  Just like playing a shot from the bunker in golf, you can play a brilliant shot. But should I ask you to play it again, and again....you will probably find it more and more difficult to repeat your success from relying on your skill alone.  
• In the same way as we are wired with sustainable energy within certain areas of talent, we have a lack of energy for other areas.  This reality cause us to feel weak, drained or demotivated when we have to engage with specific thoughts, emotions or behaviours.  

2. Weakness cause resistance

• Weakness is not alone a lack of energy towards specific thoughts, emotions or behaviour.  It is is actual resistance towards it. You will - consciously or sub-consciously - resist certain ways of doing things, certain patterns of thinking or certain emotional expressions or interactions.  That in itself is normal, and just as part of who you are as your energy and needs allow you to be.

3. You should manage your weaknesses and your exposure to them

• Sometimes I explain the effect of your Non Patterns (weaknesses) have on you by comparing it to the effect Kryptonite has on Superman. It steals his super-powers.  It makes him feel weak.  Eventually it has the ability to kill him.  Now, operating within your weaknesses won't kill you like Kryptonite does Superman!  But it will have a very specific negative effect on you if you are consistently exposed to it. A draining, weakening effect.  
• Because of this you need to do the same to your weaknesses as you would do with the bunkers on a golf course.  Avoid them.  Play around them, or over them.  Intentionally try as hard as you can to not having to rely on your natural weaknesses.  This is exactly why you should know what your natural weaknesses are, and how they manifest in different areas or situations of you life.  If you know that, you know what to avoid.
• You cannot always avoid being in a specific situation, among specific people or faced with a specific challenge.  When life takes you places you do not prefer to go, you need to be able and skilled to handle the roads.  This is exactly why there is no such thing as "ignore your weaknesses".  You cannot ignore them.  You need to embrace them.  But, you should not invest more in them than the absolute minimum time and effort you need in order for it NOT to be a detriment to your Strengths. 
• An important part of you managing your weakness is being open to yourself and to others when it comes to the expectations and realities you - and they - will face when you are functioning within your Non Patterns, or your "weakness space" if I can call it that.  Do not try to hide your weaknesses.  Communicate them openly - not as an excuse but as a reality.  Simply make others aware that they will not get the same energy, results or performance from you when you play from your Non Patterns, as they will when you play from your Dominant Themes.  In most cases people wo live or work with you will in any case know that even better than you do, as they often observe how you struggle better than you think.  So, embracing your weaknesses means you stop hiding them or stop covering them up with excuses.  

4. Making up for your Weaknesses

• You should develop the knowledge and skill to make up for your natural weakness, as life will take you there if you choose to or not.  You cannot tell your boss "Sorry, I am not wired to hand in reports", or tell you friends "I am actually not naturally supportive at all."  Well, actually you can do it. But the result will be defining to your career and relationships - in a negative way.  As human beings we are able to acquire an amazing array of skills. Yes, you probably can do anything you want to in life - but as I often tell my children, the fact that you can does not mean that you should.  Choose the places where you invest your energy in carefully.  But when it comes to the draining effect of Weakness on us, obtaining the knowledge, skill and experience to at least "keep the vehicle on the road" is essential. We call that, in many cases, life skills.  These are the skills teenagers and young people lack - and you can observe it in the results of their actions and decisions.  
• When making up for weakness with skill you should understand that it is sometimes "soft skills" and other times "hard skills".  In order to understand and operate in my business I had to obtain the hard skills of using and understanding spreadsheets and budgets.  I hate every moment of working with it.  But obtaining the skills (even very basic) made all the difference in me managing it.  I also constantly have to obtain certain emotional skills in my life.  It does not come natural to me.  But, as I choose to manage my emotions I handle my weaknesses in that area with a lot more grace and efficiency. These weaknesses is not a detriment to me any longer, as I developed the skills to at the very least "keep the vehicle on the road during a storm." 
• Another way to make up for the draining effect of your weakness is to work in a team or partnership with someone who is strong where you are weak.  Somebody who loves the stuff you hate.  Who get energised by the exact things that drains the life out of you.  Actually, I find that in most life partnerships, we tend to gravitate towards a partner or spouse that is completely opposite than we are.  What a team!  But in business and other areas of life we need to be very intentional in doing exactly this.  Find out who sits up straight when your shoulders drop, who smile when you frown, who picks up speed when you slow down, who makes the call when you hesitate, who brings the intuition when you bring the facts, who finishes well if you start well....those are your true partners who will make the team work and win with you.  Study the best teams or best partnerships.  You will see how it is in their difference that they are strong.

5. The myth of "My Strength is my Weakness"

• Your natural Strengths will never be your weakness, simply because it will never weaken you.  It is your ability to manage the energy that comes with that talent that makes you experience it as a weakness.  But, it is actually a detriment. Just like the super power of a Super Hero character cause them detriment
• Yes, the result of an overused Strength can cause detriment.  But detriment is different than weakness.  Detriment can be changed into advantage. Weakness cannot be changed into Strength.  (Do not confuse talent and skill in this point!)
• What drains and weakens you, will always have that effect of you.  You can mitigate and manage the effect by adding knowledge and skill, and you should. But is stays a weakness - not sustainable and not a good investment of time and energy.  

"A well manage talent becomes a Strength. A miss managed talent becomes a detriment."   

So, the effect of your talent is determined by how you manage it.  If you don't manage the energy and need well, it will become an obstacle to yourself and others.  

Don't play towards your weaknesses. Avoid the bunkers.  

But when you do get stuck in them, do not be overwhelmed or paralysed.  Play to the situation as best you can.  Learn from every move.  

Then - get out of there as soon as you can.

The challenge of life is to play the whole field.  We have 34 Talent Themes. Some strong. Others weak.  But there is nothing we cannot do.

The right question is:  What should you be doing?

Dries Lombaard is the co-owner of Strategic Leadership Institute and NeuWorx, and has more than 7000 hours of Strengths Coaching experience over the last decade.  He is leading a vibrant and growing network of Strengths Coaches in Southern Africa, and works with corporate and multinational leadership and management teams and C-level leaders as a Strengths Coach and training facilitator.  

Why you should be able to play ALL of your Talent Themes - not only to your top 5 Strengths

by Dries Lombaard - Executive Coach: Strategic leadership Institute

Before you make the assumption that I have shifted my view away from a "strengths focus", let me assure you it is not the case.  We absolutely will always have most sustainable energy and best results if we play towards our natural talent needs and energy.  I am being prompted for some time now to write something to bring another perspective on the "Strengths Stampede" as some refer to it, especially when it comes to unlocking of your Top 5 Strengths Report from the brilliant Clifton StrengthsFinder online assessment.  In my view, the Top 5 StrengthsFinder report should be viewed merely as the cover page of a menu. Not only have you not seen all on offer - you haven't tasted anything yet!

When I say we should understand how to play to ALL of our talent themes, I refer to the fact that we are confronted regularly in life with situations where we are forced out of our rhythm and natural energy created by our natural Strengths.   If that happens, we cannot stop working, living or playing.  We need to function as best we can.

If we view the All 34 StrengthsFinder Report as generated by Gallup, we clearly see that our strongest energy and need lies towards the top of the sequence list (first 10-12 themes), and our strongest resistance, and draining effect, lies towards the bottom of the list (last 5 - 8 themes). Unfortunately these are not revealed in the Top 5 Report - from there its immense limitations.

We should always push towards our strongest themes....and we should always try and avoid our weakest ones.

Let me share a metaphor that I use a lot to explain to people how to interpret the sequence of all the 34 StrengthsFinder themes.  I find the metaphor of the game of golf works extremely well to explain the dynamic of our 34 talent themes in action.  Even if you haven't played a single shot of golf in your life, everyone is familiar with the most basic practices of the game - and the most basic layout of a golf course - being the fairway, the putting green, the rough, the bunkers and areas that are "out-of-bounds".

Playing your best game - stay on the fairway

Everyone loves the look of a beautiful fairway.  The gentle slopes, the green grass - cut neat and short, the clear view towards the putting green.  Playing on a fairway is why most people love the game of golf.  You can drive the ball with gracious power and see it fly through the blue sky, bouncing....rolling....stopping clearly visible a few hundred yards down the course.

A nice brisk walk towards your ball, aligning with the direction of the flag, and with a lower number club you graciously lift the ball with a perfect loop towards the green.  Yeah!  That's what the game is all about!

You can view your Top sequence of talent themes as your personal "fairway".  Generally it will be your top ten to twelve themes - maybe a few less, maybe a few more.  How many themes there are making up your fairway is less important than your understanding of it.  You should know the bends, the slopes, the challenges and the flow of your fairway.

And, as any golfer will tell you, you need to try and stay on the fairway.  That is actually the whole point of the game. Play the fairway towards the green, then put the ball into the hole.

Sounds easy, right?  Definitely easier said than done.  That is exactly the joy and challenge of trying to master the game!  The point is, with your talents, you should play on your fairway. Each one of us has our own very unique fairway, and that is where our game will excel most and where we will become the best we can be - while enjoying the game!
And of course we do not have the absolute luxury to play on our own fairway 100% of the time. Sometimes we will be part of a group or team that will play a course which are new and foreign to us.  Do we pack up and go home because of this?  No of course not.  It simply means that the game will be more challenging to us, and we will have to rely a lot more on our skills and tools (clubs) than on our natural game.  But we can still have a great game, no doubt.

Leaders can adapt their game

The famous South African golfer, Gary Player, once remarked (after a journalist called a shot of his a "lucky shot"):  "Yea, the more you practice, the luckier you get."
The more we play towards out natural talents, the more flexible we also become to adapt our game towards challenges like the weather, obstacles or unknown courses.  In leadership or management, this is a crucial skill and ability to develop. You simply do not have the luxury to lead or manage people and insist on playing your own fairway all the time.  Your success as a leader will be directly tied to your ability to let your followers play their natural game on their natural fairway most of the time - as long as the score card counts towards the favour of the team.

Playing from the rough

It is somewhat unheard of that a golfer will play through 18 holes without once landing up in the rough.  And of course this is no shame or tragedy - it's simply part of the game.  Frustrating, yes. But when it happens we simply adapt in order to play further.
The analogy here is that whenever we have to "tap into" our supporting or lessor talents (usually numbers 12 or 15 down to about numbers 25 or 28), we find ourselves "in the rough".  This is where, just like in golf, we are in a situation that requires more from as and takes us out of our comfort zone or "natural game".  It is regarded as simply a circumstance that is part of the game and we should deal with it best we can.

Most helpful in these situations are the tools and skill we can draw from. Just like we have a golf bag full of clubs, each for a different shot, we can draw on resources and tools when we find ourselves in the "rough" with our talents.  (Keep in mind that one of the best resources there is, is another person who finds your "rough" similar to his or her "fairway").
Of course practice makes perfect no matter where you play from. It is best to spend most time practicing your fairway shots - after all, precision with those shots will keep you on the fairway.

Here is the most important rule to remember when you find yourself off the fairway and in the rough. "When in the rough, always play back to the fairway."  As simple as that.  Sometimes a very short chip-shot will be enough to have you back in the clear, and the damage done will be minimal.  Taking the risk to use force and drive through the bushes or branches towards the pin may very well end up having you in a much worse position than you were in.

The principle from this analogy:  you can, and should tap into your supporting talents, when ever necessary to do so.  You have a lot more than your dominant 10 or 12 talents at your disposal!  It only takes a decision to play a different, and a bit more uncomfortable shot. With the right tools and some practice this may even become quite easy to do. This said: it is still not the same as playing your fairway.

Those irritating bunkers...or being "out of bounds"

If ever you've played a round of two of golf you will know what this means. That sinking feeling when you see your ball disappear into a sand bunker, or, even worse, into a pool of water.  This is basically what everyone avoid on the golf course.  Often bunkers or pools of water are also strategically placed near the putting greens where it can easily be a trap you find yourself in.
When it come to your StrengthsFinder talent themes, this analogy refer to your so called "Non Patterns. Those are usually the last 5 or 8 talents listed on your Full 34 Sequence Report.

Just like with a bunker on the golf course, we instinctively will try to avoid these themes.  We resist them just as we resist bunkers or water on the golf course.  And, when we do find ourselves within this situation, it can be extremely tricky to get out of it.  When "out of bounds" like a ball in water, we are penalised with an extra shot against our name.
And still, it is part of the game and part of the challenge.  It will be very immature to pack up your clubs and go home the first time you hit a bunker.  You cannot avoid the obstacles - and in the same way you cannot avoid the draining effect of your Non Patterns being in play in life or work. It is a reality.

Again, there are specialised tools to get us out of such situations. You should rather not play without your sand-wedge as part of your kit. Practicing bunker shots will also be wise - as long as you do not spend most of your time practicing those shots, as a far better strategy will always be to avoid the bunkers. Nobody aim towards a bunker or towards water.

Similarly, we naturally will not aim towards our weakest themes. We will naturally resist it. But, in life and work, we cannot avoid it either. At times, we will have to play from a bunker, or even be penalised for a shot being "out of bounds".  It is part of reality.  Remember: playing a great bunker shot is not impossible - it's just not sustainable.

Playing the (real) Strengths game

Playing towards your Strengths means you will be confronted with all 34 of the talent theme patterns in some way.  Therefor, the revealing of only your Top 5 talent theme Report is in my view similar to playing at a driving range only, and boasting that you play golf.  Nice, clear and open grass in front of you. No obstacles. The only challenge being to find the sweet spot of your club.

You only really start understanding your talents, and developing your strengths, once you get out on the course, and experience the challenge of all the themes within you being challenged at any given time.

In the same way, if you are under the impression that knowing your Top 5 Themes only will be sufficient in taking on the challenges at life and work, you unfortunately will never experience what the real game is about.  Life is not only about your strongest few strengths.  It is about all your strengths, about tapping into supporting talents with skill, and about knowing exactly where the bunkers and water are so you can avoid it.

If I want to teach you how to hold a golf club and the basics of the game, I will start at the driving range.  I will never sell that to you as being golf though.

And most of all, reading every book about golf will help your understanding of it.  If you want to really improve your skills and game, you will need at least some coaching.

Finally: play towards the flag

If you play a driving range, you play for distance and practice.  If you play the course, you play towards the flag.

You should aim your natural talents - formed into strengths through added knowledge, skill and experience - at the flag which indicates your exact target.
The flags of the pin is not always visible from the base of the tee-off, but your fairway will indicate the direction you should play.

Having no direction you play towards, is merely practicing.  There is a time and a place for that, but be careful to not become the master of the practice shot, while the joy and achievement of the real game escapes you.


Oh, yes, just in case you don't know it, golf is about having fun.  Yep, it can be played professionally but even those pro's will tell you that if the fun is out of it, there is little motivation left.
If playing towards your strengths is not fun, you are missing the fairway somewhere. The nature of your talents are energy and need, and that per definition will be satisfying and an enjoyment to experience.

Dries Lombaard is the co-owner of Strategic Leadership Institute and NeuWorx, and has more than 7000 hours of Strengths Coaching experience over the last decade.  He is leading a vibrant and growing network of Strengths Coaches in Southern Africa, and works with corporate and multinational leadership and management teams and C-level leaders as a Strengths Coach and training facilitator.  

Talent is so obvious, it hides in plain sight

by Dries Lombaard; Strategic Leadership Institute

talent

ˈtalənt/

noun

1. 1.

   natural aptitude or skill.

   "he possesses more talent than any other player"

   synonyms:

   flair, aptitude, facility, gift, knack, technique, touch, bent, ability,expertise, capacity, power, faculty; More
2. 2.

   a former weight and unit of currency, used especially by the ancient Romans and Greeks.

   "a mighty steed bought from a Thessalian merchant for thirteen talents"

There are different perspectives of the term "talent".  The most common association of the word will always be to link it to "skill".  And I suppose, within some contexts, this may be accurate.  Generally what we perceive and observe as performance, and then call "talent", is actually skill....(mostly fuelled by talent).

From my perspective, talent is not the same as skill at all.  It is actually very different. (For more on the difference, read this blogpost).

Let me drill through the clutter and make the term "talent" as understandable and practical as possible.  In my experience through coaching people in their natural talent, it can be condensed to two words:

Energy, and Need. 

• Sustainable Energy

However you may define natural talent, it will always be a source of energy to you.  This energy tend to manifest in one or more of three areas:  emotional energy, physical energy and / or intellectual energy. Actually, it is more than mere energy.  It is sustainable energy.  Energy that you cannot ignore, avoid or get away from.  Energy that truly defines you.  (Some people may define this energy with the word "passion", but for me, passion is a broader concept than talent. Passion is your yearning, your desire, your lasting interest.) 

This energy obviously manifest mostly through specific activities.  And it is in the actual doing of the activities that you express your skill (or sometimes, lack of it). 

The ability to define your sustainable energy is crucial, as it gives it identity and you thus get a grasp on it in order to celebrate it for the unique talent that it is.  The moment you give expression in language and understanding to the different talents, something happens.  It is as if you truly own it then, simply because you can accurately name it for what it is. 

This is where people experience the research from Gallup so useful in this field, and why the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment is such a fantastic tool - defining 34 themes of talent.  StrengthsFinder accurately assess your talent energy, and then gives it names, ranked in order of importance according to your unique response to the 178 questions asked in the assessment.  True, some of the words used to describe the talent theme may be a bit confusing at first, but once you understand the true meaning behind the chosen term in context, it is always an empowering and even liberating experience to have a language to express your combination of sustainable energy to yourself and to others.

(If you know StrengthsFinder, think about someone having "Arranger Energy", "Ideation Energy", "Empathy Energy" or "Significance Energy".  Simply connecting the CSF terms with the word "energy" opens up a new understanding - especially if you coach people using StrengthsFinder as a baseline tool.)

• Unrelenting Need

A talent is a need. An unrelenting, lasting need for specific expression and specific stimulation. My experience in this field taught me that understanding talent as a need, even more than an energy, leads to the most important paradigm shifts within peoples discovery of their own brilliance and uniqueness.  In the same way that talents are energy in thought, emotional or behavioural expression, the different energies (talents) are constantly yearning to be fed. Talents have needs. Specific needs, and generic needs. These needs they have in order to function…to survive…to contribute.  If the “needs” are not met, the Talent will go dormant or stagnate.

Talent contribution is directly linked towards specific talent needs, and it is these needs that need to be managed well in order for the energy to flow best - and the talent to become a strength. 

Some needs are generic to all talents themes, like the need for affirmation, for celebration, for permission or opportunities to play or for expression.

Then again, there are needs specific to certain talent themes, like the need for more time, the need for people interaction, the need to connect with individuals, the need for constant comparison, for emotional expression, for action or activity, for accuracy, for routine, and yes, even a need for chaos.

Understanding talent themes as needs are so important because it is the key that unlocks the true development, and releases your talents to thrive and contribute fully. It is also the practical element in managing your talents well. If you know what a talent need, then you can feed it!

Even more, if the unique needs of talents are understood, it bring an element into the understanding of others that seldom get the attention it deserves within partnerships, relationships or teams. If you can view someone else not from the perspective of what they should bring, but from what they naturally need in order to function with  maximum energy, the dynamics change forever. 

Imagine being a manager who knows the exact needs of each of your team members, and providing them with the right opportunities and environment to unleash their natural energy within their talents.

Imagine being a spouse who can read the signs of your partners thoughts, feelings and behaviours when it longs for talent energy to flow.

Imagine being a parent who can guide your teenager according to his or her exact needs when it comes to the abundance of talent energy that flows through them.

Imagine being a person with enough self respect to be attentive to your own needs of talent, managing it well, so that your energy that is so unique to you can play as strengths when it combines with the needed knowledge, skill and experience.

(Referring to the StrengthsFinder tool, think about someone having "Focus Needs", "Maximizer Needs", "Includer Needs" or "Learner Needs".  Unpacking this with people you coach takes them to a new stratosphere of understanding themselves and others.)

• A simplified perspective on Talent

Whenever you hear the term "talent" again, do not think "ability", "skill", "performance" or "contribution".  Think ENERGY and NEED.  Then look at the people around you with the lens that identifies the energy for the beauty that it is (even when misdirected or miss-managed), and see their specific needs that yearns for opportunities.

If you want to experience the impact of this simple yet powerful approach, contact me at dries@strengths.institute . It is my passion to help people and companies thrive within their natural energy, by understanding and meeting the specific needs.

Dries Lombaard is the co-owner of Strategic Leadership Institute and NeuWorx, and has more than 7000 hours of Strengths Coaching experience over the last decade.  He is leading a vibrant and growing network of Strengths Coaches in Southern Africa, and works with corporate and multinational leadership and management teams and C-level leaders as a Strengths Coach and training facilitator.   

Five Practices of Great Strengths Coaching - [Guest Article]

by Stephen Shields, Senior Practice Consultant, Gallup

One of Gallup’s primary performance insights is that there are different strengths-based paths to the same outcomes. For strengths performance coaching, this means that there is no definitive style that describes a great coach. A coach’s ability, for example, to envision a potential positive outcome for a series of coaching sessions can be born of any theme. A coach who sees potential might be leaning on their own theme of Maximizer, for example. Or they might equally be pulling from their Strategic or even Futuristic. Similarly, while styles may vary according to that coach’s specific strengths, there are some common practices that can be seen in great coaching. Here are five I have found helpful in my own experience as a coach. 

1. Begin with great questions. When I first began coaching around strengths, I developed a list of initial questions from a variety of sources. Over time, I culled the list as I found some questions to be more helpful than others. As I continued using my questions, I came to realize that they were, basically, “insight nets” -- useful tools that helped me gather initial discoveries to pursue later with my client. As I’ve certified other strengths coaches over the years, I’ve frequently been asked by my students to provide them my list of questions. And while I’m happy to give examples, I typically encourage new coaches to develop their own list -- one that reflects their own strengths and style. In Gallup’s strengths courses, individuals pursuing strengths performance coach certification are exposed to a plethora of questions from which they can begin to assemble such a list. The purpose of such questions, of course, is to help you and your client to…
2. Pursue insights and emotions. While compiling such a list of questions is valuable, new coaches may sometimes spend too much time “sticking to the script” and remain married to their question list. Experienced coaches are instead constantly looking for promising rabbit trails that will help them transform the session from an interview to a conversation. Great coaches know whether an alternative path is worth pursuing or not based on whether they see their client discovering new or deeper insights or emotions. When you see your client’s emotion, you may be hitting a passion point. Clifton StrengthsFinder not only reveals what people are good at, but also something about their passion and what really motivates them. When coaches lean into their client’s passion, they are more likely to help them find new and helpful insights. Another indication that a profitable rabbit trail is presenting itself is when you see your client begin to have an “a-ha” Moment. Dive into that new realization and help your client explore it. Be selective, of course, about how many rabbit trails you pursue.When you pursue your clients “a-has” and emotions based on the past, you are following another great coaching practice…
3. Leverage your client’s experience.  Princeton’s Dr. Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize in Economics for his work demonstrating that an individual’s decisions are mostly driven by emotions. Building on Kahneman’s work, Gallup research has been able to quantify that 70% of our decisions are based on emotion. Therefore your clients’ experiences are context for your clients’ emotions. One way to leverage experience is to help your client focus on activities in which they find ease, excellence or enjoyment. Help them consider the parts of their role they enjoy the most. Then explore the connection between their Signature Themes and that experience. In this way, you are helping them to connect those emotions with an understanding of their strengths. This will both deepen their understanding of and commitment to their own key strengths. But a great coaching session doesn’t just end with a deeper understanding.Coaching sessions that transform clients…
4. End with action. A few years ago, the Center for Creative Leadership originated the 70:20:10 learning and development ratio. It’s been expressed in a variety of ways but, essentially, the ratio captures that 70% of what precipitates true change is experience, 20% is relationships and 10% is information transfer. Accordingly, smart coaches recognize that real change occurs between coaching sessions. That is when their clients can have the experience (70%) of applying their new insights. To leverage this powerful change dynamic, the best coaches complete their coaching sessions by helping their client to develop a few specific new actions.
   
   Clients will tend to articulate their intentions as mere goals or aspirations. They may say, “I need to do a better job listening to my team.” The best coach will affirm the goal, but also help drive the client to more specificity: “That’s fantastic! What is one specific action you can take this week to do a better job listening to your team?” One helpful criterion for evaluating the specificity of an action is to ask, “Is this a filmable behavior?” If a film crew came in and filmed you doing that action, would anyone watching the video be able to articulate exactly what you’re doing? Under this criterion “A better job listening” is not specific enough, because you can’t film intention; it can’t be seen. “Sending out an email one day before the next team meeting to ask everyone if they have any items they’d like to add to our agenda,” is a specific filmable behavior that is easily verifiable. The email either went out or it didn’t.
   
   In the coaching session, after you and your client develop one or two great actions, then you can…
5. Hold your client accountable to their own best intentions.  Part of the powerful dynamic between great coaches and their clients is that 1) the clients generate their own actions and 2) the coaches remind them of their intentions and follow up. Less skillful coaches will overly rely on suggesting actions, not realizing that if the client generates their own action ideas, they will have far more ownership of the actions. Highly effective coaches will then send an email to their client after a session where they 1) express appreciation for the conversation, 2) review one or two key conversation points or insights that came up during the session, 3) remind the client of their intended actions, and 4) let the client know that the coach is looking forward to hearing how the execution of the client’s actions went when they next meet. Then, in the next session, the first thing the coach explores is that execution -- is it an action that they wish to continue doing? What did they learn from the action’s execution?  
   
   When you first begin meeting with a new client, the earlier conversations will tend to be more educational as you help the client to understand their strengths. But if education becomes the essence of ongoing conversations, the coaching relationship will most definitely have a limited shelf life. Longevity in thriving coaching relationships only comes when the client is also bringing something to the table: how they are operationalizing their understanding of their strengths, and how that is leading them to even deeper insights.
   
   By focusing on specific actions, you are truly helping your client to transform.
   
   Part of the challenge of coaching is accommodating the high variability of talents that coaches find in their clients. Part of the joy of coaching is identifying the best ways for coaches to apply their own coaching style to their clients! These five practices provide a helpful tactical framework within which each coach can execute their unique helping style!

Stephen Shields is a Senior Practice Consultant with Gallup. He conducts one-on-one coaching with executive and mid-level managers and team-building sessions with management and leadership groups; he also presents on leadership and employee and customer engagement to large groups. He has worked with clients in the healthcare, financial services, retail, insurance, hospitality and pharmaceutical sectors

Leave the perks; take the coaching {Guest Article}

By Charlotte Saulny

President and SVP of Education and Coaching at The Marcus Buckingham Company.

Foosball tables and wellness programs may attract talent, but they won’t keep it.

Whether you’re in Silicon Valley or Kansas City, you are living in a startup world now. We all are. Every year, the U.S. sees about 4,000 new start-ups, even though only 15 of those will generate 95% of the economic returns.[1] Despite the long odds, optimistic entrepreneurs continue breaking virtual ground on a daily basis. Even the U.S. Government backs the rising tide of start-ups in hopes of creating more high-quality jobs and driving the innovation we need to solve some of the globe’s biggest issues. 


More than any other thing you do to develop your team leaders, coaching helps to create a high-performing culture, because it is:

• Coaching identifies critical challenges and points to education and practices that help people learn how to be the best version of themselves, not only at work, but also in life.
• One-to-one coaching is “just for me and just enough of what I need right now, encouraging people to take what is unique about them and make it useful.
• Providing one-to-one coaching flaunts your commitment to nurturing talent. I often ask people, “what is the meaning you’re attaching to that action?” The action of investing directly in someone’s development conveys a pretty clear meaning: “I care about your future success.”

This start-up economy in which we find ourselves has big implications for hiring and retention of talent, and for culture. Many organizations try to differentiate themselves by offering increasingly extravagant perks. But fighting the perk war is a losing battle. Not because perks aren’t desirable. They are (don’t you dare try to take away my office stash of chocolate almonds). And not because your corporate culture isn’t important. It definitely is. When it comes to hiring and retaining talent, culture is the only meaningful differentiator.

But your corporate culture is about far more than whether people can bring their dogs to the office or do downward-facing dog onsite at noon. When it comes to retaining and nurturing talent, you have to do one thing: create an environment in which people feel like they have the opportunity to do their best work, every day. Perks are an investment in the present moment. If you want to retain your talent, you need to be investing in your people’s future.

Superstars need coaches.

There are many valid and important ways to create a culture in which people can do their best work. Learning programs can help people discover new ways of seeing and applying their innate strengths. Technology can increasingly understand who people are and deliver content that is meaningful, personalized, and relevant to what they need right now, at this very moment. But the most powerful, proven mechanism to support the culture that fosters and sustains talent is coaching.

In the corporate world, we are slowly expanding our structure of interpretation around coaching. It used to be that coaching was leveraged to help a struggling executive. It might as well have been dubbed swim coaching, because it was aimed at people trying to keep their heads above water (or to keep from drowning others). But that attitude is changing, fast. In fact, coaching has its greatest impact not in remediating poor performance, but in retaining top talent. Google’s Eric Schmidt went as far as to say that a board member telling him to get a coach — when he was already a highly successful CEO — was the best advice he ever received. As he put it, every famous athlete, every famous performer, has somebody who’s a coach to give them perspective.

When you look outside the corporate world, it’s easy to see how true that is. The most successful music superstars all have vocal coaches who put them through their paces and catch the subtle nuances that improve performance. It’s inconceivable that a top athlete would go without a coach. Quite frankly, without a coach, it would be impossible even to be a top athlete. Some coaches are highly visible, pacing the sidelines and showing up at the parades (it’s worth noting that Phil Jackson led Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to 11 NBA titles between them, while their total without the great coach was exactly zero). Other coaches are behind the scenes, known only to insiders who watch closely (everyone knows Nadia Comaneci got perfect 10s at the Olympics in Montreal in 1976; few can name Bela Karolyi, the man who helped her elevate her performance to that height).

Obviously, the corporate world is a little different from the world of world-class sports and music stars. But only a little. We value performance just as much. We measure it just as obsessively as anyone in a ball cap with a whistle around his neck measures the performance of his team. And, just as in sports or in a band, while we need to address the team as a whole and coordinate its elements, performance happens one individual at a time. So why wouldn’t we address it that way?

Perks are about “we”; coaching is about “me.”

It’s all about the individual. This is why perks will never be the key differentiator. Perks are about the “we” — the whole company, together. “We” is a great thing. It’s important. But by definition, it’s not differentiated. Sure, you can differentiate yourself from the company down the street by offering better food, or laundry service, or even — I am not making this up — “life creation insurance.” (Because if you work here, you’re going to be too busy innovating to think about having kids just yet; tech magnets such as Apple and are now footing the bill for IVF, sperm donors and egg freezing.)

But what about differentiating each person and the unique strengths he or she has to offer? Investment in “we” is great. But where is the investment in “me”?

Coaching — specifically strengths-based coaching — is that investment. It is the surest, most direct way to help people make their greatest contribution and do their best work. At the risk of sounding like Dr. Seuss, it helps “me” be the best “me” I can be. It creates an overall culture for your organization that is the aggregate of myriad unique micro-cultures, one for each person. Because each person is able, with the help of a coach, to define and create the conditions under which he or she is not only productive and engaged, but fulfilled.


This personal, one-size-fits-one strengths-based approach makes as much sense in the corporate world as it does on a sports field. In both environments, team success is achieved by maximizing the impact of the individual. Strengths-based coaching focuses on individuals who want to take responsibility for becoming a more powerful contributor, and it emphasizes that their key areas of opportunity are their strengths, not their weaknesses. Every single person has unique gifts that can be leveraged to benefit both that individual, and the team. 


The job of the coach is to work with the individual to draw those gifts out, apply them to situational challenges and opportunities, and create the goals and action plans that will help to realize his or her potential.

Strengths-based coaching is like performance insurance.

Innovative organizations that already invest in coaching for their team leaders don’t consider it a “perk.” They consider it a “must,” because the performance of team leaders drives the performance of the entire organization. Organizations that know this consider coaching a way to retain, motivate and develop their most critical talent: their team leaders. To take just one example, 

Facebook has made strengths-based coaching an integral part of its culture. We have had the privilege of partnering with them over the past five years to weave the strengths approach into their management training. As part of that training, they have emphasized the importance of strengths-based coaching for their people managers, understanding that coaching team leaders lays the foundation for building stronger teams.

The bottom line? Competing in the perks war is necessary, but not sufficient. A tangible, personal investment in your people is the best way to differentiate your culture. And nothing is a more effective, more personal investment than coaching. Coaching is more about retention than remediation. Helicopter rides and frozen eggs may get attention and headlines, but they won’t retain top talent. Coaching will.

This article was originally published on www.tmbc.com on 27 April 2015.