The New Essence Of Coaching
by Randy Lane
Effective coaching is helping a person to unlock their creative potential to maximize their performance.
One of the worst coaching experiences I had as a DJ was when I turned off the mic after a song intro and the PD suddenly burst into the control and said, “Don’t ever say anything that stupid again!” I was shattered. Every time I opened the mic for a month I feared that what I said would be perceived as stupid by the PD. He will remain anonymous to protect the guilty!
The tendency of most programmers and managers is to point out what’s wrong by critiquing (synonym: criticizing) a talent’s performance. A more effective method is to build on the strengths and the talents of the show and many of the negatives will organically fall away or disappear.
Pointing out the parts of performance that need work is important to the coaching process. More important is pointing out and reinforcing what’s working or what the talent and show is doing well (see Self-esteem below).
A Good Coach Is A:
- Teacher
- Collaborator
- Master interviewer
- Sounding board
- Awareness-raiser
- Counselor
- Problem solver
- Adviser
- Amateur psychologist
The old view: The program/brand director is a boss that critiques talent and molds them into who they think they should be.
The new view: The program/brand director is a coach, facilitator and collaborator that helps bring out the strengths of talent, thereby giving them ownership of their growth.
The relationship between the PD and the show: Is ideally a partnership of trust and honesty, openness and safety, and of minimal pressure.
The environment: The environment is based on trust and safety so that talent can experiment, be creative, fail and know they’ll still be loved.
Self-esteem is the life force of personality, and if that is suppressed or diminished, then so is the person and the performance. Stress and burnout increase.
Develop the art of collaboration by asking questions before making judgments. You will find that about 80% of the time the show will make the point for you. Next week, a sample coaching session based on these principles.
