COACHING 101: Player Instructions

Final Results--The Winners!

RESULTS. During the first phase of the game, we invited players to contribute tips for effective coaching. We received 107 tips from participants. During the second phase, we asked players to identify their top five from these 107 tips.

KENNIE CAUTHERN (Supervisor, Douglas Machine LLC, Alexandria, MI. kcauthre@douglas-machine.com) sent us this comment along with the votes:

This was like a kid looking at a Christmas tree and wondering which gift to open first. The tips were all good. The five I chose were the ones that I found most relevant to me at this time in my career. They are all very useful and I will keep them close at hand for ready reference. This is exactly the kind of stuff that should be easily accessed to all.

Thanks, Kennie!

AND THE WINNER IS . . . Tip #104 which received 7 votes. Here it is

(7 votes) Tip 104: Practice "generous listening". What I mean by that is listen for the honorable intent behind the coachee's words. So if someone has strong passion which is displayed through frustration, recognize the passion and the good intention the coachee has behind his/her words. (Alain)

RUNNERS UP. Here are the next seven tips that received the highest scores:

(4 votes) Tip 14: Communicate high expectations for your coachees and faith in their abilities to perform highly. Something that I've picked up on from sports coaches of mine was that they held higher expectations for me than I had for myself. Most importantly, they showed faith in my ability to rise above my perception of myself. (Kurt Squire)

(4 votes) Tip 17: Resist the temptation to ask, "Why?" Asking why generally takes you close to doing therapy and many coachees react to "Why?" as a blaming or fault-finding question. Instead of "Why didn't you finish this project on time?" try "What got in your way and how can you deal with it next time?" (Ken Coleman)

(3 votes) Tip 7: Most coaching conversations are framed as attempts at solving problems or overcoming the coachee's weakness. Try the opposite approach of profiting from opportunities and building upon the coachee's strengths. (ST)

(3 votes) Tip 20: In every group coaching situation, acknowledge and show appreciation for each person's contribution, no matter how small. Each person deserves to be acknowledged, and rewarding small efforts can inspire them to bigger efforts the next time. (Kaye Vivian)

(3 votes) Tip 59: Have a firm handshake. smile and look people in the eye. You will be surprised what it can accomplish. The first thing I do when I am meeting students or a group of parents is go up and introduce myself. The second thing is that I tell them they have my respect and do not have to "earn it". Start positive and you will be surprised what can happen. So few teachers and coaches do this you will be surprised how well it works. In the real world that we all live and learn in, handshakes and attitudes count. Coaching is teaching, teaching is coaching, it is all about learning. (Zeke Martin)

(3 votes) Tip 87: End your coaching session by asking the coachee to list two or three of the most important things he or she has learned. This will reinforce learning and help build the coachee's satisfaction with the learning process. (Doreen Brady)

(3 votes) Tip 89: Debriefing is the process used by facilitators to encourage participants to reflect on an experiential activity and share their insights. You can adapt this technique for use in one-on-one coaching situations, especially after some positive or negative experience (such as completing a proposal within a tight deadline or losing a contract at the last moment). Invite the coachee to think back on the experience and discuss lessons learned. Also discuss implications of the experience for future behavior. (ST)

THANKS to everyone who contributed the tips, who cast their votes, and who "lurked" in the background.

POLLING CONTINUES. If you have not sent in your votes for the top tips, you may do so now. (But, please, don't vote more than once.) This is how you do it:

Please visit the website page ( http://www.thiagi.com/email-coach101-tips.html ) and review the 107 coaching tips.
Send us an e-mail note (to thiagi@thiagi.com ) identifying the five tips that you personally believe to be the most useful ones.
You don't have to arrange your votes in any order.
You don't have to retype the tips. Just give us the identification number of each chosen tip.
If you'd like, add a comment at the end of your e-mail note explaining why you chose those five tips and passed up the others.

SEND YOUR VOTES in an e-mail note directly to us at thiagi@thiagi.com .

Please identify the subject as "Coaching-101 Tips: Top Five".

THERE IS NO DEADLINE. We will count your votes every Sunday and update the Hall of Fame page every Monday.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE THIS E-MAIL GAME? Please check our website page ( http://www.thiagi.com/email-101tips.html ) for detailed instructions for adapting and using the 101 TIPS e-mail game for your own needs.

FEEDBACK PLEASE! We'd appreciate any feedback about your experiences with the game and suggestions for improving it. We'd be interested in hearing from you even if you did not actively participate in the game, but observed what was happening from time to time.

READY FOR THE NEXT GAME? We have field tested a dozen different e-mail games that can be used to serve different instructional and teamwork functions. If you would like to join our e-mail game group and participate in our future games, please drop us a note at thiagi@thiagi.com .

THANK YOU!

The current list of coaching tips

The current Hall of Fame