Reverse Engineered Coaching: Part 3 - What Are We Coaching To?
This month we've really focused on something called Reverse Engineered Coaching. How does it work?
The whole concept stems from one question: What if you collected or defined information you want to collect from your leaders in advance?
I had a meeting with a client in New York, a wealth management company. We asked the leaders how many of them had a list of what motivates their employees. Very few did. I asked them how many of them knew specifically what their individual employees wanted to do with their career? Very few did.
Why is that important? Here's a small rabbit hole around motivation and career development.
If I know someone wants to be a leader, I can bring that into my conversation. I can use that as the motivator.
If I know someone wants to work in marketing analytics, or R&D, or reach a certain position at a company, I can bring that into my conversation. For example, "Tim, when I think about what you're currently doing in your role and your current performance level, what if we raised it by 30%? What would that look like to you? How do you think that might help you reach your goal of _____?" Then fill in the blank.
That creates immediate emotional attachment to what most people avoid: personal change.
What if, instead of training and just practicing with our employees, we as leaders said what do you want to know? What if we define those objectives for leaders in advance? Then encourage them to go get the information.
That's what reverse engineered coaching is. It's about creating a bucket list of information we want to know. The only way to get that information is to do what? Ask really good coaching questions.
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