Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Anjali - A Master Class in Coaching

The toy superman flies in the air if you pull at a string. If you do it right he flies nice and high. Else he does not take off or goes all over.

Anjali was teaching her Mythily atta how to do it right. Her aunt was being too gentle with it and as a result the toy would not fly. In fact it would not even eject from the base. Classic situation - a ward who was not delivering. Now is it a skill issue or a will issue?

I watched Anjali as she went about her coaching job with her aunt. She quickly addressed the skill part.
'Hold this in this direction,' she said pointing at the base. 'Then it will go in the direction you want it to.'
To her credit she did not do it herself - but let her ward do it.

The skill part taken care of, she urged her aunt to go at it again. This time the toy man flew slightly but fell far short of expectations.

Another, man management issue.

Anjali was patient. She actually came by and laughed and put her aunt at ease.
'Do it again,' she said. 'Try to touch this line. Ok. Go.'

This time her aunt managed to touch that line.
A round of genuine and instant appreciation came from the young coach.
'Very good,' she said fetching the toy in obvious delight. 'Now this time you must hit the door.'

Soon her aunt did hit the door.

It's a fine lesson in man management. Unlike adults who are constantly looking for what is wrong, children seem to have no problem accepting what is wrong. Her focus was only on how to get it right - not to somehow prove that she was more right. If we have this coaching attitude, dealing with people should be a lot simpler.

So Anjali corrected her aunt's skill issue, gave her a clear target, did not get upset when her aunt failed, redirected her aunt's energies to the target gently, encouraged her when she hit the target and gently increased the target again. Once her aunt figures out the way to do things and gains a decent level of confidence, she need not bother her again.

Good coaching, young coach.

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