Whit's World: Wanna win your people over? Be a coach - not a barking boss
1 May, 2009 By: Marty Whitford Landscape ManagementBill Hoopes has made a career of coaching leaders on how to become good coaches so they can build championship teams. Coach Hoopes says success begins with effective leadership, which requires a coach — not a barking boss.
Hoopes managed the prestigious Scotts Training Institute and Professional Turf Institute, and helped launch Scotts Lawn Service. Now Head Coach of Grassroots Training in Delaware, OH, Hoopes also leads LM's People Power Consulting Club (www.lmconsultingclubs.net).
I recently attended one of Hoopes' Green Industry coaching sessions and had my eyes, ears and heart opened to a world of opportunities for leadership growth — both professionally and personally as my wife and I work at home with our three children.
Following are just a few of the many lessons Coach Hoopes taught me and dozens of Green Industry leaders trying to game plan ways to win our people over:
- Winning coaches hire, retain and fully develop those individuals who are both star players and star teammates. Star players have the basic ability and desire to learn how to succeed. Star teammates consistently show by their words and actions they are on your team and are committed to "putting the 'we' before 'me.'" (Bosses hire bodies — usually as cheaply as possible — and it shows.)
- Winning coaches effectively communicate their expectations. (Bosses think employees are psychic.)
- Winning coaches understand the benefits of teaching versus telling, and take the time to explain why they want things done certain ways. (Bosses bark orders.)
- Winning coaches involve their teams early on in the decision-making process. This promotes buy-in and helps ensure all options and likely outcomes have been explored. (Bosses involve their employees after making their unilateral decisions.)
- Winning coaches promptly and publicly recognize and reward successes, and ask teammates to share their winning ways. (Bosses focus more on failures.)
- Winning coaches build and capitalize on team synergies. (Bosses rely solely on stars.)
- Winning coaches have faith in their people. (Bosses believe their people are overpaid, lazy incompetents.)
- Winning coaches provide regular training that teammates look forward to and benefit from. (Bosses think training is a waste of time — and, thus, the little training they do becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.)
- Winning coaches treat their people as individuals. (Bosses treat them as resources.)
- Winning coaches ask their players for input on ways to improve training, tactics, strategies and performance. (Bosses are more about dictating than respecting and listening to co-workers.)
- Winning coaches are open and honest with themselves and others. (Bosses don't even realize that essentially they're just barking outloud to themselves — that few positives will come until they change their words and actions.)
- And, last but not least, winning coaches recognize all of us have tendencies to revert back to bossing. They work hard to admit and correct this behavior in themselves and their fellow coaches. (Bosses avoid an honest look in the mirror — often because they've become "the emperor with new (aka 'no') clothes."
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