Name: Unlocking Potential
Rating: 4.2 (97 reviews)
Author: Michael K. Simpson

What’s in it for me? Learn how to coach your team toward success today and every day.

In today’s always changing business environment, it is crucial that employees continue to learn and develop a wide variety of skills.

And yet, this is easier said than done. As a business leader, you may have the desire to learn and inspire your team to do the same, but actually making this happen isn’t straightforward.

Help is here for you! A great coach can create a transformative experience for you and your team in a surprisingly short period of time. In essence, a coach can turn average into exceptional!

How do you harness the power of a great coach to take your team to the next level? These blinks will teach you the tips and tricks of top coaches so you can realize your business goals today.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

why the best feedback a coach can give doesn’t come from a coach at all;
why professional and personal missions need to be in sync; and
how “going with the flow” will make you more productive.

The first two coaching principles are trust and unlocking potential. You need both to succeed.

If you’re a business leader, it’s your job to maximize the potential of your team. But how do you go about it?

The answer lies in coaching.

Coaching is a unique style of leadership. It’s not just concerned with consulting and advising, but instead is about unlocking the potential of another human being.

Yep, quite a hefty task! Before you consider coaching for your team, it’s important that you keep the four foundational principles of coaching in mind.

Let’s start with the first two.

A coach can’t succeed unless his team trusts him. As the first principle of coaching, trust is vital because it facilitates good communication. Two people that share trust are more likely to be open and honest with each other. Secrets or lies don’t pose a threat to their bond.

For coaches this is important, as a coach needs to know exactly what makes his team tick. A coach requires total honesty from his clients. But he won’t get it unless he presents himself honestly – trust is of course a two-way street!

The second key principle of coaching is about potential. What does this mean? Coaching is based on the assumption that each person has the potential to grow and become something better.

Unlocking someone’s potential begins with close observation. Listen carefully to what the person is saying, and the way she is saying it. Is she speaking too softly? Or avoiding eye contact? Maybe she’s just keeping her head down, or is she perhaps quick to anger?

Each of these aspects allows a coach to discover the paradigms, or views of the client, what she thinks about the world and herself, which can affect (often negatively) the way she acts and behaves.

For example, the paradigm of a person who exhibits low self-esteem might be that she lacks crucial life skills and so can’t ever achieve anything worthwhile. The job of a coach is mine for this information which can then be challenged, to show the client her true potential.

Coaching requires credibility, and the ability to challenge a client’s attitude.

It’s important for a coach to approach building trust correctly. This is not easy! Coaches need to keep a few things in mind when developing trust with a client.

A trustworthy coach is also a credible person. As a coach, you need to develop both character and competence. Character refers to personal integrity, in terms of qualities such as honesty and modesty. Competence, on the other hand, refers to your skills and capabilities.

Manage the day-to-day without losing sight of the long-term. Coaches help keep this balance.

In general, it can be hard to know in which direction you want to head professionally, as long-term goals sometimes can seem vague or unrealistic at best.

As a coach, the task of guiding others to achieve their own tentative aspirations is certainly challenging. Yet great coaches get the job done. How do they do this?

A great coach taps the stores of innate talent and helps move the “middle” toward greatness.

Do you know where your talents lie? Most of us have a general idea about what we’re good at. But did you know there are many areas in which our skills are unknown and untapped?

Great coaches seek to unleash and leverage people’s innate talents. Through conversations, coaches are able to inspire behaviors and attitudes needed to bring these talents and strengths to light.

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Unlocking Potential summary