Becoming a Better Coach - Building Capability

Effective coaching is about capability building. It's about creating in others the capacity to solve problems on their own, to think differently about solutions, and to examine their own thinking about any challenge they are facing. Too often, we make it about giving them the answer so they can get the task done, at the expense of creating the capability to accomplish that task, and others, better in the future. There's no doubt that some of the sales representatives on Scott's team will use this approach to help them improve their connections with clients.

Let me give you an example of the difference I have seen in managers I have worked with. The first manager we will call Scott. Scott was a phenomenal sales representative and was promoted to a management position because of his sales success. Scott's approach to his team is to help them understand why he was successful and to encourage them to duplicate his best practices in order to achieve that same success for themselves.

During a discussion at a sales meeting, the subject of building better client relationships comes up and Scott quickly begins recounting how he created those relationships during his sales career and gives lots of specific examples. One tactic that Scott used religiously was celebrating clients' birthdays, complete with a cake that was delivered and a personal handwritten note from Scott. He insists that members of his sales team adopt this tactic for their own clients.

Elizabeth, another sales manager in the same company, handles this kind of discussion in a little different manner. When working with one of her sales representatives and coaching them on building relationships, Elizabeth asks the salesperson to take some time and come up with ten different ways that they might strengthen their relationships with clients.