Coach Your Team - Don't Manage It

"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds. It is something one creates."

 

-- Thomas Szasz, Psychiatrist

That's right - we all need to wake up to the fact that the old beliefs about managing people in business are just not very effective. We need to learn to coach them. Coach and lead the business like a great professional sports team. No more, annual reviews, no more focus only on the numbers and push and cajole the team to achieve them. Instead focusing on having the best talent in every position and focus on making each individual the best they can be. Focus on coaching in practice, not managing i.e. showing people how to do things in the heat of the game.  

Listen to this 5 minute audio, which is Part 2 of how to build a team of people who are accountable for results - not just for being busy.  

(If you missed it last week, Part One is Stop Answering Questions. Check it out here.) 

All the best, 

Rick Wallace

Stop Answering Questions - Build the Team you want

"Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results."

-- George S. Patton, US Army General

Do you feel like the place couldn't run without you? Too many interruptions and questions and fires to put out? Does it seem like there is no time to focus on the business and making it better?

What you need is a team that is accountable for results, not for being busy. People that don't need to be managed and babysat all day.

Did you know that you have created this situation and every day you continue to feed the beast and reinforce behavior that is just the opposite of what you want to see? It is not your team's fault, it is all about you.

I see this with clients all the time. Too busy, business depends on me to work, or they can't get everything done because of the interruptions and questions.

Solution --- stop answering questions. Yes - stop answering everyone's questions. Listen to this 5 minute audio that will change the way you lead and create the behavior in your team that will solve the issues above.

The next 2 weeks I'll share 2 more parts of the puzzle in short audios. 

All the best, 
Rick Wallace

Why You Should Be Defenseless

"I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities."

- Bob Nardelli, CEO Home Depot

"The most expensive thing a person can own is a closed mind." - Don Hutton

From Seth Godin:

The opposite of 'defenseless'  

It might be defended, or defensive.

If you're asking for feedback or coaching or an education, neither of the above are going to help you very much.

The person who has ideas that are well defended isn't going to be able to listen carefully for the lessons that can help him change those ideas.

And the person who is defensive not only won't hear the ideas, but he'll push away anyone generous enough to share them.

Defenseless is the best choice for those seeking to grow.

All the best, 

Rick Wallace

On Making Money

"What we fear (hate) doing the most is usually the thing we should most be doing."

- Anonymous  

From Steve Chandler: 

One day I was down and out. I was low. I decided to book a session with my coach. I told him I wasn't making enough money.  

 

He said, "You want to know a surefire formula for making money that always works?"

What was I going to say, "No"? Of course!

"Find someone with a problem," he said, "and solve that problem for them." 

I have lived by that formula ever since. I have found that it is not hard to find someone with a problem. That would be anyone you'd run into, wouldn't it?

The simple things are the hardest to learn and incorporate, because our minds are
conditioned to take simple things and add drama and emotion and self-doubt and false beliefs and deep confusion and fear to every challenge. 

All the best, 

Rick Wallace