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Posts Tagged ‘coaching for managers’

VIDEO: Fatal Coaching Mistake. Managers, Share Ideas, Not Expectations

Mar 12, 2010 Executive Coaching, Videos, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


It is a fact that if you’re a boss, manager, or executive responsible for managing people, you are their superior. And, therefore, you have a certain degree of influence over how your staff feels about certain things.

Managers and executives have the power to shut down a conversation or open up a dialogue. Quite often, they don’t realize how much of an influence they have over their staff and how influential they can be without even trying. When a manager takes a strong stand or position and makes a statement like, “Here’s the solution” or “Here’s how it is,” it removes any opportunity for others to contribute a different and potentially better idea.

There’s a difference between sharing an opinion or idea and sharing an expectation. It’s one thing if the manager or boss shares an opinion that allows the dialogue and flow of the conversation to continue moving in a positive, collaborative direction. It’s entirely different when the manager shares an expectation with a strong agenda or ultimatum behind it.

An opinion or idea from the boss opens up further conversation. An expectation shuts it down.

In this video, I discuss this approach managers can take so that you will be more likely to get a response that encourages unfiltered collaboration and multiple contributions.

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Why Managers Don’t Ask Better Coaching Questions – Stop Coaching In Your Own Image

Mar 12, 2010 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, management articles, training for managers


A few posts ago, someone posted a fair and relevant question which I thought was important enough to re-post front and center.

It was in reference this post: Coaching Questions Part 3 – Questions To Get People into Action That Drive Desired Results, which you can read here.

Here is her question and my response follows.

“Keith- I’m a huge fan of yours, let me say that first so you don’t get mad at me, but every single one of those questions above 1-12 would infuriate me if I ever had my vp of sales ask any of them. And I would feel dumb asking my reps too! I don’t get it.”

The truth be known, many managers don’t get it – at least not initially; until the blind spot is exposed and placed in their line of vision for them to see. And please keep in mind, their inability to see this blind spot has nothing to do with their acumen, experience, abilities, commitment to their team or intelligence and everything to do with one of the common traps that management has tendency to fall into which is due to the fact that coaching is often counterintuitive.

Here was my response:

Thanks for the comment! Much appreciated. Why would I get mad? Keep your comments coming! I don’t expect everyone to agree with everything I write. Besides, if I post stuff that everyone agrees with, then I’m not doing my job! Just like I told a client today; “If you plan on doing what you did yesterday, aren’t open to challenging your current way of thinking and are able to see every blind spot on your own which is getting in the way of better performance (you can’t self diagnose when you’re in the middle of the game), then what do you need me for?”

Back to your question. I was very mindful when posting these questions that they may not work for everyone and are distinctly positioned for specific situations. As I wrote in this post, “Remember, treat these questions like a buffet. So, take what you like and leave what you don’t. Depending upon your situation and the individual you’re coaching, every question may not work for everyone. Conversely, since we all looking for new and better results, take some of these questions out for a test drive, as you may not know how effective they are until you try them out.”

So, who are these questions for? Well, probably not for your top performer or the person who’s self driven and accountable. These questions are for the salesperson who may be stuck, either in follow through, in their own story and excuses or in taking the necessary actions to better their performance. For the manager, getting on your soapbox and preaching what needs to be done gets old fast and doesn’t work for the long haul.

Which is the point of these questions. So often, managers see the problem, see what needs to change in order to fix the problem and as such, get into the tell mode of dumping the solution on their people. Conversely, these questions find the gap, or what is missing either in the person’s thinking, skills or resources and deepens the level of accountability that every manger is looking to instill, preventing the salesperson from using more creative excuses to justify their performance!

I’m guessing that you personally, (I don’t like to make assumptions) don’t fall into the category of the underperformer? So yes, in that case, these questions certainly would not fit for you.

Conversely, be mindful that, just because they don’t fit for you, doesn’t mean they won’t fit for anyone or for another person on your team. After all, just like in selling, you don’t want to sell the way you buy, that is, instilling your values and decision making process on the customer, assuming they think and process information the same way you do. You also don’t want to coach the way you like to be coached, because then you’re essentially coaching in your own image (building robots vs. respecting each person’s individuality and where they’re at).

Look at the spirit behind each question. I have hundreds of coaching questions that I use, and it’s not only about having the right questions, but when to use them and with whom that makes the difference.

Does this make more sense now? Let me know!

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VIDEO: How To Leverage The Power Of Fear to Become Unstoppable

Mar 5, 2010 Career Advice, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Coaching, Videos, accountability, career coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, cold calling, training for managers


Do you allow fear to paralyze you or have you made fear your greatest ally? Does fear hold you hostage, preventing you from being more of who you are and what you want to achieve? Have you ever been in a position of action, yet felt powerless to take those steps you need to take to live your greatness, achieve better results or make the best choice because fear had it’s grip over you?

Are you driven by what you want most; your dreams, goals and passions – or are you fueled by fear, consequence and what you worry may happen or occur in the worst case scenario?

How do you manage fear? Do you embrace it or resist it?

In this video, discover how you can leverage fear and make it your greatest teacher so that you can become unstoppable.

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Coaching Questions Part 6 – Questions That Empower People To Create Their Own Solutions

Feb 19, 2010 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, career coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople


These questions are perfect for coaching someone to come up with the solutions to their own challenges and problems. No more do you have to foster a team that’s reliant on you for all the answers. These questions challenge people to come up with the answers, while you guide and support them through the process.

Remember, treat these questions like a buffet – take what you like and leave what you don’t. Depending upon your situation and the individual you’re coaching, all questions don’t work for everyone, which is why you have a list to choose from. Keep in mind, you can always use these questions for some self-coaching to challenge yourself and increase your level of awareness.

1-If you were me, how would you coach yourself around this?
2-What do you suggest?
3-Listen to what you just said. What are you hearing?
4-What’s the outcome that you’re looking to achieve?
5-How have you typically handled something like this in the past?
6-What are some of the ideas you thought of that might work?
7-What’s the first thing that you need to do to resolve this?
8-What resources do you have available that might help?
9-What process can you put into place to make sure you consistently achieve the results you want?
10-What question, if you had the answer, would give you the solution you’re looking for? (What question, if you knew the answer, would solve that problem? What do you need to ask yourself?)
11-How should I coach you on this one?
12-Why is that important to you?
13-What did you just hear?
14-If you had to (generate more qualified prospects, boost the effectiveness of your presentations, qualify your prospects better, get more organized, etc.), what would that process look like?
15-Imagine for a moment that you are the client. How might you respond to your approach?
16-If you want to generate a specific response from your customers after presenting a solution to them, what approach do you think may be more effective?
17-If you were the coach in this situation, what changes would you like to see?

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Coaching Questions Part 5 – Questions To Challenge People and Bring Out Their Best

Feb 18, 2010 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


These questions are formulated to stretch a person to reach their fullest potential. They challenge someone directly, yet supportively and positively, to achieve more and do better than they have before.

Remember, treat these questions like a buffet – take what you like and leave what you don’t. Depending upon your situation and the individual you’re coaching, all questions don’t work for everyone, which is why you have a list to choose from. Keep in mind, you can always use these questions for some self-coaching to challenge yourself and increase your level of awareness.

1-If you could no longer use that as an excuse, what would another solution look like? (What would you need to change or do differently to achieve better results?)
2-(When the person says, ‘‘I can’t.’’) Okay, but if you could, how would you do it?
3-(When the person says, ‘‘I don’t know.’’) Okay, but if you did know, what would it look like?
4-What would doubling your effectiveness look like?
5-What could you do that would be uncomfortable for you but would cause a breakthrough and move you forward?
6-What would be easy for you to do this week? What would be a stretch for you? (You can’t stretch or challenge people until you know what would be fairly easy for them to accomplish during the course of a normal week.)
7-What is one thing you could do this week that would clearly demonstrate your commitment to your goal? (Look for evidence.)
8-What would be something you would consider challenging that you could do which would double your productivity?
9-When did you decide that was true? What else is possible/true?

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Coaching Questions Part 3 – Questions To Get People into Action That Drive Desired Results

Feb 12, 2010 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, career coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople


We’re all looking for results today – fast. But standing at the podium preaching to your team gets real old and tiring for both you and your salespeople. Moreover, it simply doesn’t work to effectively drive the change and the activity you need.

These result-driven questions get people out of their head, challenging their well crafted stories (excuses) and redirects their focus into action and the right activity. Shift the conversation to the actionable, measurable tasks they can engage in to achieve the specific and measurable results you seek, rather than you telling them what they should do. After all, if they come up with the solution, then they own it. And if they own it, they’re going to be more willing to act on it.

Remember, treat these questions like a buffet. So, take what you like and leave what you don’t. Depending upon your situation and the individual you’re coaching, every question may not work for everyone. Conversely, since we all looking for new and better results, take some of these questions out for a test drive, as you may not know how effective they are until you try them out.

1 – What do you want to be able to do quickly that you are unable to do now?
2 – What’s the right action for you to take in this situation?
3 – What are the steps you are going to take in order to resolve this issue?
4 – What are the three activities you can commit to doing this week that will move you closer to your goal?
5 – What shift do you feel you need to make in your thinking to achieve this result? (What limiting thinking do you need to abandon that is getting in your way?)
6 – What drastic changes can you make today that would support your goals?
7 – What would you like to have completed by our next coaching session? (What are you willing to commit to?)
8 – What’s the biggest change you are willing to make this week, starting today?
9 – What are you going to begin doing immediately after our meeting today?
10 – What are you willing to commit to doing this week that would give you a sense of accomplishment you can experience by our next coaching session?
11 – What are you willing to do or change in order to achieve this?
12 – What do you need to give up or abandon in order to achieve this? (In thinking and in action, old habits, etc.)

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Coaching Questions Managers Use To Get People To Recognize The Cost of Self Sabotaging Behavior- Part 2

Feb 11, 2010 Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, coaching salespeople


Like most people, most managers I meet simply do not like confrontation. As such, they have tendency to avoid it at all costs. Now, I’m a huge advocate of motivating people by uncovering what drives them personally by tapping into their individuality, and then motivating them by pleasure, their goals, their dreams and their personal vision. While this is my preferred way of coaching and management, the unfortunate truth is, sometimes this isn’t enough for some people, especially those who simply aren’t getting the message that their behavior is going to bring them to a place where they don’t want to be.

The following questions hit on the cost of negative thinking or behavior. And the fact is, pain is always a greater motivator than pleasure. The benefit of using some of these questions is this. Instead of you having to deliver the cost incurred as a result of the individual perpetuating toxic thinking or behavior, you can get off your soap box and stop preaching by asking these types of questions in order for the person to realize the costs or consequences on their own.

Sometimes, when people uncover the cost on their own, and they finally hear it in their own words and voice, it leads to the momentum needed to create something new that would put them on a more productive path. And in many cases they aren’t even aware of their behavior or the repercussions they would realize as a result. Therefore, make sure you’re patient with them and give them the space to do some self reflection until they can come up with the solution on their own.

Remember, when asking the tougher coaching questions, it doesn’t serve you if you’re answering your own questions. So, if you’re asking the question, and then answering your own questions, then what do you need the other person in the conversation for!

Here are the questions to get people to recognize what they may not be seeing on their own:

1.What is this costing you (to continue doing things the way you’re doing them)?
2.How is that strategy working for you?
3.Do you feel that continuing this way is costing you something?
4.When you keep engaging in that behavior, what are the repercussions you may experience? How does your behavior affect you and those around you?
5.If you continue doing what you are currently doing, where do you think you will end up?
6.How does that affect you? (Your team, your legacy, your career here?)
7.How much longer are you going to put up with that?
8.What, if any benefit, are you realizing from continually doing things this way? (Yes, people still tap into any available energy source they can, even if it sometimes causes suffering or difficulties. This is a deeper conversation which requires the skills of a good coach as it’s often something they are not aware of.)

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The Playbook of Coaching Questions: Asking The Right Questions At The Right Time When Coaching. Part 1

Feb 5, 2010 Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, career coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


The underperformer you want to turn around. The problem you need to resolve. The tension among coworkers or teammates that desperately needs to be defused. The sale that must be closed. The passion and drive within each person, especially your rookies, which are essential to uncover and leverage. The underperforming veterans who are in a slump and require additional support, gentle encouragement, and a deeper sense of accountability in order to bring out their very best. The candidate who you would love to hire but is considering a position elsewhere.

Whatever the situation, challenge, or solution, the one common denominator and the tool used consistently by the world’s best coaches when approaching any scenario are questions. Not just any questions but powerful, creative, and well-crafted questions delivered at the right time, in the right way, to the right person.

Questions are at the very core of all coaching tools and strategies. Questions are the essence of coaching. Coaches draw their power from questions and questions are where the magic of coaching originates. Questions are where great opportunities are born, new ideas are ignited, self-imposed limitations are exposed, and vast possibilities are discovered.

Paradoxically, questions can very quickly become the prime source of devastation, damage, and disappointment for the manager who misuses or abuses them. Oddly enough, questions can put people on the defensive, make them wrong, come across as accusatory, and keep people drowning in the problem rather than maintaining their focus on the solution. Any of the many barriers to effective coaching or the coaching mistakes I discuss in my book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions will prevent you from using these questions in a way that will achieve the positive impact you’re hoping for. The flagrant abuse and misuse of questions can easily create the negative outcome you were trying to avoid.

The use of questions plays a critical role throughout the entire coaching process, during every coaching session, and also throughout daily conversations between you and your staff, as well as with your customers.

In my last blog, “Coaching Questions Managers Use To Get People To Recognize The Cost of Self Sabotaging Behavior,” I received many positive comments from people, thanking them for sharing some very strategic questions that can be used in the specific situation that calls for them. Given how critical it is to use the right coaching question at the right time, I’m devoting an entire week to the Art of Coaching Questions.

Rather than put the questions into a compelling and entertaining story, the following posts will be formatted in a more tactical way so that you can use them immediately, as more of a practical hand book for you to choose the most effective questions at the appropriate times. This Playbook of Coaching Questions is meant to become your tactical reference guide to use daily, as I will be sharing some of the most powerful coaching questions, all of which are broken down by category. This way, you can easily search through and locate the right questions to use depending on the unique circumstances or situations you find yourself in throughout the course of your week.

Whether it’s during a coaching session, an enrollment conversation, or to defuse a potentially volatile issue, you will find questions that will enable you to create the breakthroughs you’re looking for in any conversation and allow you to get to the real truth behind every issue.

If you find that there are a couple of questions that you use when coaching which I haven’t included, please do let me know so that we can share those as well!

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Fourteen Questions, Observations and Potential Pitfalls to Address to Ensure the Long Term Success of Your Internal Coaching Program – Part Two

Jan 22, 2010 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople


Yesterday, I started answering the question, “I’ve heard various opinions about the importance of coaching. I’ve even heard some philosophies that argue sales managers shouldn’t be coaches at all? Where should “coaching” fall as a priority for a sales manager and why?”

As I’ve mentioned, failed coaching initiatives certainly do happen frequently in many organizations for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that, quite frankly, coaching is more difficult than most managers realize. Granted, there are a many moving parts and variables which come into play that would determine how effective the coach is, how valuable the coaching is, and whether or not all sales managers or even a specific sales manager needs to, or for that matter, has the opportunity to transform into more of a coach.

In this post, I’ve listed fourteen questions that every company needs to address in order to ensure the long term success of any coaching initiative.

1.How is coaching introduced and rolled out within the organization? Is coaching being positioned correctly? (Is coaching positioned as a perk to better support each person at every level or is it viewed as more remedial for the underperformer and “broken wing?” (I.e. “You’re broken and you need some fixing!”)

2.What type of coach training will the managers receive? This is another topic altogether, that is, how to choose the right management coach training program that will produce a measurable return on your time and monetary investment.

3.What is the company’s definition of coaching? What is the universal definition of coaching that each manager will be embracing? Ultimately, coaching is a language, a new way of communicating and engaging at a deeper, more meaningful level. This is why managers always have an opportunity to coach in every interaction.

4.What is the level of buy in and commitment from the top? Are senior leaders fully onboard and supportive of this initiative? Will they be coaching as well? In some companies, I’ve seen senior leaders actually pull their people out of a management coach training program! (Hmm, now what message is being sent here?)

5.Building off the commitment of senior leadership, has coaching been made a priority as reflected in the manager’s new daily responsibilities? Has more room been made in the manager’s schedule, have certain activities or tasks been removed or their workload decreased to make room for coaching, has more support been given to management so they can offload some of these activities that have now been marked as less of a priority in relation to coaching?

6.What is the commitment each manager has to their team around how each person wants and needs to be supported based on their individuality?

7.Does the manager have the right team to be coaching?

8.How willing is the manager to develop this new skill of coaching in order to make their people more valuable? (This is management’s primary objective.)

9.How effective is the manager in enrolling their salespeople around being coached? Did they uncover and shatter negative assumptions, faulty thinking and costly perceptions around coaching?

10.What is the level of trust between the salesperson and manager? Was it established, confirmed, assumed or re-created?

11.Is the manager also a producer? Coaching is challenging enough for managers. Does this create an even more challenging dynamic if there’s a sense of competition between manager and salesperson? (Is the manager’s personal agenda aligned or conflicting with coaching?)

12.What is the level of consistency and follow through in the coaching? Does the manager only coach in ‘good’ or in ‘bad’ times?

13.Is there a dedicated coaching team? If the manager doesn’t deliver formal coaching (as in scheduled weekly or biweekly coaching sessions, for example), then someone needs to do so. In some organizations, it’s worked to have a separate sales skills coaching team that fills some of this void, whether it’s outsourced or done internally. Keep in mind, this doesn’t dismiss the need for managers to learn how to coach. What it does is help leverage the manager’s time and complements the coaching they are doing with their team. After all, the manager will still need to support the work that the external coach is doing with their team.

14.Who will be coaching the coach? Is this coaching initiative reactionary and event based or built to sustain itself over the long term? Training your managers in effective coaching skills and providing them with a framework they can use to coach is only one part of the equation. After the training is over, what is being done to reinforce the coaching and what was learned during the coach training program? What level of continued support is being provided for management to ensure that the managers themselves have a coach to lean on for support and accountability throughout the process? Who can the manager go to for situational coaching where they can share what they’ve experienced while coaching their salespeople as well as discuss their challenges and goals in a safe and confidential setting? Offering ongoing coaching for your managers will further embed their newly learned skills and the approach they need in order to lead and develop their people. Having a coach for the managers also sends the right message to your salespeople regarding the stand that management is taking around coaching by demonstrating the importance of coaching – at every level.

These are just a handful of questions, observations and potential pitfalls that every company needs to be mindful of and address to ensure the success of any long term coaching initiative, as well as the level of success that the manager will be able to realize when coaching.

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Should All Sales Managers Be Sales Coaches? Part One

Jan 21, 2010 Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Coaching, coaching for managers, training for managers


On LinkedIn the other day, I was directed to a question about coaching. That questions was, “I’ve heard various opinions about the importance of coaching. I’ve even heard some philosophies that argue sales managers shouldn’t be coaches at all? Where should “coaching” fall as a priority for a sales manager and why?”

Over my next three blog posts, I will be providing some deeper insight and more clarity around these pressing questions.

Whether or not all sales managers should be coaches is a big topic of discussion. Conversely, it’s difficult to determine the priority level of coaching for the sales manager if this question isn’t addressed as well, if not first, as it speaks to the foundation that each organization needs to build upon if they truly want to transform their company and their culture into a true, sustainable coaching culture. Ultimately, it’s the environment in which coaching is being cultivated that will determine success or failure. Coaching needs to become the priority of the organization to ensure the deepest impact.

So, let me qualify my response to the initial part of this question by saying, in the right environment and based on my definition of coaching, every manager needs to expand their role as a manager and develop the essential skills needed to become an effective coach. Coaching is now part of every manager’s job description and is a non negotiable core competency they need to develop. Coaching is not just an event, nor is it something that happens only during regularly scheduled coaching sessions. Coaching is a language and a more powerful way of communicating. It is something that can be leveraged during every conversation. In short, my definition of coaching is the art of creating a new possibility. Now, whether or not the manager “should” coach, wants to coach or can coach, both in ability and in execution, and do so effectively and consistently is dependent upon a variety of factors, which I’ll address shortly.

Coaching is the missing discipline of leadership; a learned and developed skill for every manager – and given the measurable results that effective coaching drives (measured through objective company /industry surveys as well as what I’ve experienced coaching thousands of managers and salespeople), coaching isn’t going to become the next great fad that fizzles out or the flavor of the month. Masterfully delivered coaching is here to stay. Whether or not a company weaves coaching into their culture isn’t a question of “if” but a question of “when,” as those companies that have done so successfully will report that coaching has provided them with a competitive edge, which has allowed them to respond better and faster in the new marketplace.

Conversely, failed coaching initiatives certainly do happen frequently in many organizations for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that, quite frankly, coaching is more difficult than most managers realize. Granted, there are a many moving parts and variables which come into play that would determine how effective the coach is, how valuable the coaching is, and whether or not all sales managers or even a specific sales manager needs to, or for that matter, has the opportunity to transform into more of a coach.

I will be listing a handful of these determining factors in tomorrow’s blog.

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