While business coaching and sports coaching differ greatly, the key mindset is the same
By MIKE MOORE
There are lots of talks, seminars, and articles written today about coaching and leadership. I am always interested in what people are saying about coaching and leadership because I have been studying both all my life.
The importance of leaders who coach is heightened with today’s hyper-competitive job market and rising employee dissatisfaction.
The latest research reveals that only 11-22 percent of employees are passionate about or fully engaged with their work, 67 percent of employees think about leaving their job daily, 67 percent of employees earning $100,000 or more annually are planning to leave their job in the next six months, and 37 percent of employees are actively looking for a new job. Exit interviews long ago exposed that employees do not leave bad jobs; they leave bad bosses. This situation is getting worse, and developing leaders who can coach, inspire, enlighten, and empower people to help them learn, grow, and improve is more important than ever.
I recently heard an interview with Hall of Fame Football Coach Bill Parcells, which explained a lot to me about my own life. The interviewer was giving Bill Parcells credit for his coaching tree, the coaches that worked for him who have gone on to great head coaching careers, coaches like Bill Belichick and Mike Zimmer. Parcells quickly cut off the interviewer and said it was not so much his influence as it was the fact that he hired coach’s sons. He explained that coach’s sons were raised differently; from a very young age, all they heard about was coaching. They were exposed to inside information and got to watch how coaches worked.
The reason this resonated with me is that I am a coach’s son. I was raised to coach by a very successful high school football coach, and in addition, by my mother who was an outstanding teacher. So, you see, education and coaching were all I heard about growing up. I was exposed to the great coaches of the past 70 years. I was fortunate enough to hear many speak, and to sit in on conversations between coaches about how to coach, build teams, and bring out the best in people. My earliest memory of being consciously taught about coaching goes back to when I was nine years old, but I had already spent several years in my Dad’s coach’s office, film room, locker room, and on the sidelines watching him coach. At the age of nine, however, my father started talking to me about what I was watching. He began to teach me to be a coach.
Forty four years ago, I made the choice to forego a career in sports and go into sales and business. I took all the early life lessons and my understanding about coaching into business. I continued to study coaching, and to adapt and apply what I had learned to business and sales leadership. I adapted and developed programs that created effective results others were not getting. Make no mistake, business and sales coaching are different than sports coaching; in fact, they are harder. In my keynotes, workshops, and coaching session, I share the similarities and differences, in addition to how to become a real business leadership coach or sales leadership coach. As I began speaking and coaching full time, and after my father passed away, I was blessed to have the legendary Hall of Fame Coach John Wooden spend time with me. He shared his insights and experience freely and we talked about the differences between business, life, and sports coaching.
Over the years, I have seen many great coaches speak about coaching and I have heard many business leaders speak about coaching in business, but I always get a sense that they are missing pieces and not connecting all the dots. I am now more aware of why I can hear these missing dots and connect them: it looks like an opportunity to coach and create improvement. Improvement: that is key to coaching. In fact, being obsessed with improvement is one of my 11 Keys To Great Coaching from my ABCs Of Leadership: Always Be Coaching!
It is with all that I have been exposed to and experienced that I developed my ABCs Of Leadership… Always Be Coaching, keynotes, workshops, leadership development programs, and coaching sessions. This includes my 11 Keys to Great Coaching and I am excited to be doing a Spotlight Session to kick of this year’s International Business Show. On Tuesday February 19, at 9:30 am in South 223, I will be sharing my insights to inspire, enlighten, and empower leaders to become the coaches who can attract, retain, and develop the teams and talent to help them and their companies stand out – and be a game changer.
You see, my normal upbringing was not so normal; I was blessed to take an exceptional journey that exposed me to both sports and business coaching up close and personal. In homebuilding, we have all heard the analogy that if you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Well, I am a coach, and to coaches, everything looks like a chance to coach and create improvement. So, join me at IBS 2019 if you want to learn the 11 Keys To Great Coaching and always be creating improvement that leads to excellence. Bill Parcells explained that a coach’s son is just different; I will share how you can be, too. It will change your career and improve your people and company!
Mike Moore is a motivational speaker, leadership and peak performance coach. He combines his expertise in retailing, interior design, vendor and new home sales to address all aspects of the home buying experience. He may be reached at makingcustomers.com.
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