Anyone who has taken the time to coach a Little League sports team understands the definition of the word “coachability”. Trying to show a kid how to properly throw a pass or swing a bat never sticks the first time — or even the first 20 times in some cases. In some instances, coaching a kid never results in a successful outcome.
In the business world this same challenge appears everyday. Leaders and managers constantly trying to coach their direct reports in various areas: how to work more effectively with others, how to communicate better, how to prioritize and focus more efficiently…the list goes on and on. But as every manager can attest, getting people to make the changes you want can at times be as difficult and frustrating to achieve as getting little Jimmy to learn how to swing that damn bat.
A lot of management thinking and literature swirling around today calls out the notion that people are wired with certain talents and that there is little that can be done to affect change in people if they aren’t blessed with talents. For example, it’s no use trying to get an employee who abhors details to be the top dog in your operations unit.
Okay, in some levels I buy a lot of the “talents” based thinking. I’ve experienced it first hand managing people who just weren’t suited for their roles or who excelled because they were doing jobs that they were really talented in performing.
But I’m not one to think it’s as black & white as just saying all you have to do is match an employee’s talent to the role they should be playing in an organization. What this binary thinking leaves out of the equation is the value of “coachability” — the ability for an individual to actually be coached and to improve in various performance areas as a result of being coached or managed effectively.
Now I’m no psychologist, but here are four ways I’ve found to improve coachability in employees:
1) Use Role Models — Just as in sports, one of the best ways for people to learn and improve their own skills is to point out those abilities in others who they see and work around every day. The power of wanting to emulate skills and talents that others possess is a powerful aspirational force for people.
2) Create an Accountability Culture — Seems pretty obvious why accountability is important, but in the context of fostering better coachability it’s crucial. When people know that they are accountable for delivering results, they become much more receptive to being coached. At least their ears tend to work better!
3) Connect Rewards to Outcomes — Again this seems pretty intuitive, but like #2 it has to be in place in order to ramp up coachability in your people. Organizations that reward employees — e.g. financial compensation or increased responsibility — for measurable outcomes — e.g. closing key deals or shipping a product on time — have a better chance of coaching people towards those outcomes.
4) Be Consistent in Your Coaching — People become coachable by being coached. Too often we expect people (or athletes to continue the sports example) to learn a skill or technique after a single coaching session. In a business environment, the role for the leader/manager is to continually coach. To recognize that it may take 20 lessons for an employee to become a better communicator. Ultimately, it’s when someone is coached and is then successful that they become coachable and attain a level of coachability that can be built upon in the future.
Originally published on Medium on December 9, 2009. This Substack version is maintained as the canonical archive.