7 Creds - Leadership

[MUSIC] Coaching for behavioral change–I’d like to talk about when behavioral coaching works and just as importantly, when behavioral coaching does not work. First, when will behavioral coaching not work? When will my coaching process be a waste of time? Number 1–my process does not help people that don’t care. If somebody doesn’t care, they don’t want to try, this process is not going to help them get better. This is not for saving the unsavable. This process works for people that do care. So, Number 1, they have to try. Number 2–they have to be given a fair chance. Sometimes, big companies write people off and they don’t really give them a chance. And they have this fake coaching process, which is not really about coaching–it’s a thinly disguised seek-and-destroy activity. Well, if somebody doesn’t really have a chance, they’ve been written off by the executives… Don’t coach them, be merciful–just fire them. Number 3–behavioral coaching only solves behavioral issues. It doesn’t help intellectual, technical, or functional problems. I get ridiculous requests for coaching. I probably get ten times as many requests for coaching as I have time to do it. And some of them are just nonsense. A pharmaceutical company calls me. Marshall, we’d like to you to coach Dr. X. I said, What’s his problem? They said, He’s not updated on recent medical technology. I said, Neither am I. Well, I can’t make a bad doctor a good doctor. A bad scientist to good scientist, a bad engineer to good engineer. Behavioral coaching only solves behavioral problems. Next, never coach an ethics or integrity problem. If someone has an ethics or integrity problem, fire them, don’t coach them. How many ethics problems does it take to ruin the reputation of your company? One. Never coach ethics problems, fire ethics problems. And finally, this doesn’t help someone who’s going in the wrong strategy, the wrong direction. If somebody’s going in the wrong direction, behavioral coaching only helps them get there faster. It doesn’t turn the wrong direction to the right direction. Now, when will behavioral coaching work? Behavioral coaching works–at least my part of behavioral coaching or my process works–if three conditions exist. 1–the issue is behavioral. It is not intellectual. It’s not technical. It’s not functional. It’s behavioral. 2–the person is willing to try, and 3–they will be given a fair chance. If these three conditions exist, my coaching process always works. If these three conditions do not exist, do not use this process–it’ll probably be a waste of time. So, behavioral coaching… 70% of all requests for coaching, the issue is behavioral. The person is willing to try, and they will be given a fair chance. This process really helps in that 70%. [MUSIC]

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