Coaching to improve focus

Coaching to improve focus
Keep your eye on the...

Imagine I was coaching you on something as straightforward
as catching a ball. We might conclude that keeping your eye
on the ball would be a useful quality to bring to the task.
Let's consider four ways I might try to help you do that.

1. "Watch the ball!"
2. "Are you watching the ball?"
3. "Why aren't you watching the ball?"
4. "What do you notice about the ball as it comes towards
you?"

Let's consider the impact of these. 1 is a command. It does
not actually give you anything to try in an effort to focus
on the ball and if you don't like me or feel under
pressure, you'll probably elect to look at something else.
2 is a closed question. You will probably answer, yes, but
I won't know if you were truly watching the ball or not. 3
is an interrogative question and likely to be met with a
defensive, justifying response. Only 4 is a coaching
question because you cannot answer it without paying
attention to the ball.

Now imagine I was coaching you on something complex like
selling. We might conclude that asking your customers open
questions would be a useful quality to bring to the task.
Again, here are four ways I could try to help.

1. "Use open questions!"
2. "Are you using open questions?"
3. "Why aren't you using open questions?"
4. "How would you rate the quality of the open questions
that you ask?"

Contrast approaches 1 and 4. 1 will create anxiety and
tension or fatigue and resentment. 4 will have me thinking
about the questions I'm asking and deciding on what basis I
would rate their quality. I really have to think about my
questions to do this and so I'm going to be learning about
questions to a much higher degree than normal and in my own
unique way. Powerful stuff.

Which approach will promote best focus on the qualities
you're seeking to develop? In the same way that the ball
can teach us how to catch, our customers can teach us all
we need to know about selling our products and services.
Similarly, our staff can teach us all we need to know about
how to get the best from them. We just need to become keen
and attentive students. We need, in other words, to focus
on the right things. Using coaching questions creates focus
infinitely better than commands and instructions, we've
just become used to a command and control world. Time to
develop some new habits I think.

What do you notice about.....?

----------------------------------------------------
Matt Somers is a coaching practitioner of many years'
experience. He works with a host of clients in North East
England where his firm is based and throughout the UK and
Europe. Matt understands that people are working with their
true potential locked away. He shows how coaching provides
a simple yet elegant key to this lock. For a bumper load of
coaching tips and tricks - including FREE resources - visit
http://www.mattsomers.com