LOC Red Activity

Coaches need to hold themselves accountable for their coaching effectiveness. A coach realized they weren't seeing the desired progress in their coaching sessions. They hadn't been practicing the necessary skills with their client. The coach was reminded that just talking about something without putting it into practice won't lead to results. Coaches should ask themselves if they have been facilitating improvement activities and if they need to increase the frequency of these activities. They can also involve peers and use supplemental coaching to enhance practice. An example was given of a salesperson who improved their skills by practicing with peers and receiving feedback. Coaches should reward effort and increase the cadence of coaching sessions if desired results aren't being achieved. When we get to the red light, we have to also hold ourselves accountable as coaches, especially from an activity standpoint. I want to share with you very quickly a story. I asked one of our coaches at one of our client sites with a person that they were coaching if they were seeing, you know, the effort and the progress. And at the end, they said, you know, I've been coaching for about 10 weeks. I'm not seeing the success I would like to see. And I said, well, what is that? List that out for me. And she listed it out, and there were a lot of skill development areas with this one particular area that she was focused on with her coaching. And I said, can I ask you, how often have you practiced these things in your coaching sessions? And she had a look of dismay come over her. And she said, you know what? I don't think I have at all. We've had great discussions. I'm just not seeing the progress. And I said, well, let me just share with you, and I want you to hear this as a coach. I said, if you were a basketball coach, and you sat down, and you taught somebody how to shoot free throws, and you just talked about it, and you're still not seeing them in games make more shots, would that be a representation of maybe what's going on here? And she said, oh, absolutely. So we have to hold ourselves accountable as coaches. So when you get to that red light moment, ask yourself, have I been facilitating improvement activities that facilitate improvement progress? Number two, when you get to that red light moment, let's assume that you have, one of the things you can do if you are not seeing the predictable, sustainable results. Remember, green lights, effort, yellow lights, progress, red lights, sustainable, predictable results. If you are not seeing those results, we need to increase the activity cadence. You can do that inside your coaching relationship. And don't forget, you can use peers, use supplemental coaching, use other people that can facilitate continuous practice. Let me give you an example. When you get to the activity stage, we had, at one of our client sites, a salesperson who was really struggling with open-ended questions. He was a talker. He talked over clients. He didn't really understand customers' unique set of needs. And we had him, almost for about three months, practicing three to four times a week for 10 minutes each with peers. And the rule was we had to stop him every time he started talking too much. We said, let's stop. Let's go back. Let's start over. And it was like slapping a hand. And it was aggressive. It was at a red light moment because we were not garnering the results we needed. We weren't seeing the results. Here was the funny thing. After about a month and a half, you could tell he was starting to slow down. You could tell he was starting to write down customers' things. You could tell he was biting his tongue. To a certain extent, we went back to the effort stage. And you know what was cool? It was really interesting. You could see the change starting to evolve. Was it instantaneous? Absolutely not. Activities are powerful. If you're at that red light moment, ask yourself, have I facilitated enough change activities? Number two, have I rewarded their effort? Number three, if you're not seeing those results, it is wise at the red light moment to increase that cadence inside and outside your coaching conversations.