LOC Red Questions

Coaching progress is divided into three stages: green light (effort), yellow light (progress), and red light (sustainable results). At the red light stage, it's important to ask if we're seeing predictable results. If not, we need to have an honest conversation and define what success looks like. When coaching someone lacking accountability, ask about their strengths and areas for improvement. Define terms like accountability and have a dialogue to reach consistent results. When it comes to the lights of coaching, the green light is the effort stage, typically three or four sessions. The yellow light is three or four sessions. That denotes progress. Then when we get to the red light, we have to ask ourselves, are we seeing progress yet more importantly, are we seeing sustainable, predictable results? It's always easy to see no. And when we say no, we've cut ourselves off. Remember, it's always easy to pick apart what you're not getting. So we have to, at the red light moment, ask ourselves, what are we starting to see from a predictability standpoint, from a success standpoint? Now, if you can't answer that, that garners a much more aggressive conversation than somebody who says, I'm seeing success here, yet I'm not seeing success over here. So the red light moment, one of the things that I would encourage you to do is to insert words before your questions, such as hypothetically, honestly, sincerely. And what you want people to do is be really honest with themselves. See, when you're at the red light moment and you're not seeing what you would like to see, you have a smaller window to get there because you've been coaching for a while. So let's say we're having a coaching conversation with someone lacking accountability. And when we have someone who's lacking accountability, that's going to take time. It's going to require effort to go through the progress stage. So you might use questions such as, so Charlie, honestly, when you think about your ability to be fluid and consistent with accountability, where do you feel like you have strengths and where do you feel like you have specific opportunities to improve and what are those? Or what are two areas that you know you need to adjust and navigate right now to reach that level of consistent accountability? Now remember, when you get to things that you're coaching to, like accountability, attitude, motivation, we have to be able to, at that stage, at all stages, quite frankly, be able to depict and define what that desired predictable set of sustainable results look like. Accountability is a big, big word. Don't leave the definition in your mind because then it becomes a moving target for the person that you're coaching. So when you are coaching, remember to define it. When you get to the red light stage, you can use that definition. Charlie, when it comes to our definition of consistent and professional accountability, what are some areas that you feel like you're maintaining consistency, you're progressing, and what is that one or two areas that you know you have to improve in order for you to be absolutely predictable and sustainable with your results? Remember, you're at that red light moment. You can be a little bit more aggressive. Yet, you don't have to be aggressive in terms of your behavior. You still want to maintain a semblance of dialogue.