Supplemental (summit)

Progress Coaching teaches Supplemental Coaching, which supplements direct coaching using a four-step model. It can be used alongside direct coaching to help individuals improve specific skills or behaviors. Supplemental coaching techniques include providing books, using journal-based coaching, implementing peer-to-peer coaching, and arranging mentoring relationships. It is recommended to use two supplemental coaching techniques in addition to direct coaching to avoid overwhelming the individual. These techniques can help accelerate talent development and transform organizations. I think one of the favorite things that we teach at Progress Coaching is Supplemental Coaching. And it is probably one of the best things in the world that we teach. And the reason being is it just supplements time. That's why we named it Supplemental Coaching. It's supplementing your direct coaching, which is using that four-step model. With that being said, let me just share this with you. When you are coaching someone, we still strongly advise you maintain that direct coaching model. Sometimes people will solely use Supplemental Coaching because it doesn't take any of their in-person time. It's really designed to work directly with your direct coaching, which is your four-step model, the QAL of QALMS. So with that being said, let's go back to our fictitious employee, Charlie. Charlie wants to become a future leader, struggles with being positive, struggles with being an influential teammate. So let's just talk about books for a second. You could get that person a book by John Maxwell on becoming a first-time manager. You could get him a book by Patrick Lencioni, the ideal team player. And you could use that within your coaching relationship as you see fit, depending on the stage of where they're at. The second thing you could do is subscribe to something called journal-based coaching. Journal-based coaching is where they can journal positive thoughts, positive observations of other people, actions they took on a daily basis that really are going to lead them to being a positive teammate and position them to become a first-time leader or manager. Third, peer-to-peer coaching. Let's say you know somebody who's gone through similar challenges that Charlie's gone through. What you can do is then say something to the effect of, you know, I want you to spend some time with Lisa. Lisa has really grown into a very positive teammate, and I want you to find out what she did and just meet with her three or four times. That's peer-to-peer coaching. Now, let's say you have another manager in an area where maybe Charlie wants to work. You can go to that manager and say, would you mind mentoring Charlie maybe once or twice a month and tell him what's expected of a promotion in your area or becoming a first-time manager and, you know, how positivity plays into that formula to get that job. Now you've assigned peer-to-peer, you've assigned books, you've assigned a mentoring relationship. Typically, we encourage two supplemental coaching techniques in addition to your direct coaching. Nothing more because you might run the risk of overwhelming them. Now, we've talked about peer-to-peer. We've talked about mentoring. We've talked about journal-based coaching. We've talked about observing and journaling. You know, we've talked about reading books. You can also use video. Again, when you fuel people's minds and educate them of what's possible, the really cool thing is you are supplementing, you are supporting your direct coaching initiative. Let me just share with you a very quick story that really exemplifies this. It's one of my favorite stories. There was a young man at one of our client sites over 20 years ago. His name was Chris. Chris was very isolated from his teammates, and this is where the supplemental coaching comes into play and then the qualms as well. And he was very negative, had an opinion on why everybody was wrong. And so his sales numbers were down, and he was at 71% of goal, and the manager wasn't happy with him, really didn't think he was going to last, wanted to actually terminate him at one point. So what we did is we started to coach him, and Chris's learning project was a random act of kindness. Inside his department, outside, we didn't care where, but he had to do it. And he would do it. And the other thing that we did is I found two guys, Eric and Matt, who sat within vicinity of Chris, and I said, guys, he's struggling. He's kind of isolated. He's kind of a loner. He does have a negative attitude. Would you guys mind grabbing him for lunch? And just every once in a while when he sounds good on the phone, tell him that. And my whole strategy was to fuel, and I'm going to say it, this kid's mind. He was 22, just out of college, seven months into the job at 71% of goal. And these two guys started to realize some changes. They started to fall in love with coaching. They became his peer-based coaches. And then when other people would observe and put a note on his desk saying, hey, you sound great on the phone, it sounds like you're really doing well, let me know if you need help, my whole strategy was positivity and building up goodwill around him. Now, there were many more things that we did, but I never did any direct sales training or sales coaching. That's the power of qualms. So I had peer-based coaches. I used the learning project. I kept asking self-awareness questions, such as, Chris, what are you learning about yourself? And within one year, he went from 71% to 119% of goal. Now, while that sounds awesome, the real awesome thing about coaching is that the real awesome thing that came out of it was just what everybody wanted at that company or within that division. Everybody wanted coaching because they could see the results. It really transformed an organization. Here's the funny thing. Twenty years later, Eric, Matt, Chris still work at the company. Eric and Matt launched their careers because they fell in love with peer-based coaching. They now lead major divisions of the company, and they go back to their coaching days. They started coaching when they were just, quote-unquote, sales reps without the title. So when you are using different techniques like supplemental coaching outside of your direct coaching, it not only scales time, it accelerates talent development.