The Ultimate Role of the Coach

And an introduction to Strategy coaching

 

In 2012 a bidding war erupted between two American universities for the services of American football coach, Nick Saban.  At the time Saban was being paid US $5.3 million per year by the University of Alabama, a big pay packet by anyone’s standards.

Given Saban’s track record, US$5.3 million per year was seen as a great investment by Alabama. But when the University of Texas expressed an interest in hiring him, $5.3 million suddenly seemed a little cheap.  And so the bidding war began.

In the end, Alabama were able to retain Saban’s services, paying him more than US$8 million a year.

But wait.  There’s more. After signing that $8 million a year deal, Nick Saban, continued building his successful coaching career.

Then, in 2022 he signed a US$93.6 million contract extension with Alabama.  This extension runs through to 2030, at which point Nick Saban will be – wait for it – 79 years old!

The war for Nick Saban’s coaching expertise is not unique.  In fact, the best coaches, sometimes referred to as super coaches, are highly sought after for their services.

Why?

Super coaches are experts at helping clients improve human capital, strategy and strategy execution, leading them into the green zone.

And it’s not just in sport either. These days super coaches in multiple domains help to improve client performance in all sorts of areas such as:

  • Improving business results
  • Boosting team morale
  • Losing weight
  • Getting fitter
  • Developing a stronger marriage
  • Getting one’s s#%t together
 

Where do you find a good coach?  That’s a challenge because the fact is, excellent coaches are few and far between. Put another way, there are a lot of unqualified, poorly skilled and inexperienced people calling themselves coaches.

Some people think that buying a coaching franchise, attending seminars or being a member of a coaching association automatically makes them a good coach. Wrong!

And, there are so many varying definitions as to what a coach actually is and does, it can become quite confusing.  So let’s clear up the confusion and outline what coaching is really about.

What coaching is really about

Let’s get back to Nick Saban for a moment.  What is he really coaching?

He is coaching his team how to develop and skillfully execute a good football strategy.

What about a fitness coach.  What does she coach?  A fitness coach coaches clients to develop and skillfully execute a good personal fitness strategy.

And the main role of a business coach?  Isn’t it helping businesses to develop and skillfully execute a good business strategy?

Here’s the key. The ultimate role of the coach is to coach strategy. 

Yes indeed. Coaches coach strategy.  More to the point, they coach the complete process of strategy known as strategic management. Or at least it’s what they need to be coaching to help their clients get awesome results.

First of all, let’s get a simple understanding of what strategic management is all about.

What is strategic management?

Established as a business discipline in the 1950s, strategic management is defined in business as “the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization’s managers on behalf of stakeholders.” (Source: Wikipedia/strategic management)

To put it more simply, in business strategic management is the skill of planning and executing business strategy.

In business education, strategic management is taught as the capstone – or feature course – in the MBA program.  That is, it is the course that brings together all of the core business functions – such as accounting and HR – into a coherent strategy.

As a discipline, strategic management draws upon strategy principles from the military and elite-level sport. And it is seen as the key skill of the business leader.

But the truth is this.  Strategic management is the #1 life skill.  In any aspect of life where you desire to improve performance, you need to apply the skill of strategic management.

As illustrated above, we define strategic management as the overarching skill of planning and executing a strategy to achieve a big goal and vision. Strategic management is the skill that takes you from where you are now to where you want to be.

Another way to highlight the importance of strategy is this model called The Strategy Grid.

If you spend a lot of time in your work performing strategic analysis, or have completed a business school course on strategy, then you will be very familiar with tools such as The Strategy Grid.

Anyway, as the grid illustrates, performance results fall into four zones, based on the effectiveness of your human capital, strategy and execution.  More importantly, the goal for any organization or individual must be to get into the top right hand zone, which is where you end up when your human capital, strategy and execution are strong. Let’s take a closer look at the four zones.

Red Zone: (Bottom Left).  Poor human capital, bad strategy, bad execution, low strategic asset value. Bad result.  Miserable failure.

Orange Zone:(Bottom Right). Average human capital, good strategy, bad execution, average strategic asset value.  Result is under-performance and a waste of a strategic position.

Orange Zone:(Top Left). Average human capital, bad strategy, good execution. average strategic asset value.  Underwhelming result. Just like a well trained team playing the wrong game.  Or an experienced mountain climber climbing up the wrong mountain

Green Zone:(Top Right).  High-value human capital, good strategy, excellent execution, high strategic asset value.  Green zone performance. Awesome results.

Which zone do you want to be in? If it’s the green zone, one way to get there is through coaching.

Ben M. Bartlett offers a business, team and personal coaching service that specialises in strategic management. 

With this service we apply the principles and practices of strategic management to help individuals and teams to make huge performance gains at work and in life.  Specifically, our core coaching streams are:

  • Personal strategy
  • Team strategy
  • Business strategy

The Blended Coaching Model

The actual coaching approach we use follows the Blended Coaching model, illustrated here:

The Blended Coaching model integrates elements of high-level sports coaching with apprenticeships and traditional learning.  Traditional class-based learning makes up only a small component of the coaching, with most of the coaching having a high practical component.

As shown the model highlights the two key people in a coaching initiative or session – the coach and the coachee.  The ultimate objective of a coaching program is to get the learner up to a high skill level.  And to do that the coach uses a variety of techniques including active coaching, modelling and game sense training.

To expand on the blended coaching model, let’s look at the origins of coaching.

The origin of coaching dates back to 1830, according to etymology, which is the study of word origins.  And, as defined by the etymology dictionary, coaching is:

Meaning “instructor/trainer” is c. 1830 Oxford University slang for a tutor who “carries” a student through an exam; athletic sense is from 1861. A more classical word for an athletic trainer was agonistarch, from Greek agonistarkhes “one who trains (someone) to compete in the public games and contests.”
(Source: http://www.etymonline.com/word/coach)

This definition highlights three key things:

Firstly, the purpose of coaching is to improve performance.  This is what is meant by “‘carries’ a student.” 

Secondly, the coach performs several roles including those of a mentor, motivator, helper and teacher.

Finally, the definition suggests that as a tutor, instructor or trainer, the coach has a high level of technical knowledge and expertise – and part of the coach’s role is to pass that expertise onto the student.

Ultimately, the concept of coaching is quite clear cut.  That is, coaching is a process of improving skills and performance.  It involves a coach, which is the person doing the coaching…as well as the coachee/s, who is the individual or team being coached.

The coach coaches strategy!

For more than 150 years the concept of a coach has stayed true to its etymological roots. This has been helped no doubt by the popularity of sports and the role that the sports coach plays in the development of sporting performance.  The fact is, the domain or field most associated with coaching is sports.

Unfortunately, the concept of coaching has become somewhat muddied, especially since the early 2000s, with the emergence of the professional coaching industry.  This is the industry where coaches are tasked with improving the performance of businesses, business teams, career professionals, executives, business owners and so on.

It is generally accepted by many in the professional coaching industry that coaches don’t have to be strategic, tactical or functional experts. In other words, they don’t need to be experts or skilled in areas such as leadership, sales, management, strategic planning, team-building and so on.

Furthermore, some coaching industry leaders hold the view that coaching does not extend to solving a problem or giving advice.

In effect then, under a model favored by many in the coaching industry, the coach is primarily a facilitator.

The reality is that this model goes against the original definition of coach. That definition is very clear cut.

Coaching clients should get more than a facilitator. A coach should be a subject matter expert.  Furthermore, a coach should educate, tell, push, encourage and, when occasion permits, demand.

And most importantly of all, a coach coaches strategy.

 

Subscribe to get The Strategy Lessons Newsletter

With our strategy coaching service you have an opportunity to improve performance and get into the green zone.  Before considering coaching though, subscribe to get The Strategy Lessons Newsletter.

As the name suggests, The Strategy Lessons Newsletter is an educational newsletter about strategy.  It is the starting point for learning about strategic management.  It is also the stepping stone to our other strategic management services.

In your subscription you’ll also be introduced to our other service offerings, as well as our strategy consulting and education services portfolio.  To subscribe, complete the form below.

The very best in coaching

The late Paul J.Meyer, one of the world’s top personal development authors and speakers once stated that “The best investment you can make is an investment in YOU!”  He’s right on the money.

With our strategic management coaching service you will learn critical skills designed to help you improve business and personal performance. You will also be taught how to better balance work, family and self, so that your overall performance is much more balanced.

In sports, good coaching can do much to improve an athlete’s skill levels. The same principle applies to business and executive coaching.  Simply, good business and executive coaching will improve your business skills and those of your team members.

For more information on how to get the best out of a coaching relationship email ben (at) benmbartlett.com