Sean Glaze explains how to coach someone who seems resistant to feedback. Start by asking what they want to accomplish and where they are now, then identify the gap between the two. This approach works better than just giving advice.
So how do you handle a team member who just doesn't seem coachable? Well, I actually had somebody come up after an event just about a week ago and ask me that exact question. Sean, there's somebody on my team and they're just not coachable. They're not taking advice. They're not taking action on the items that I'm suggesting to them. And what I shared was something that is oddly enough in my most recent book, Staying Coachable, but it's very simply the fact that not everybody is ready when you would like for them to be. We're all on a learning journey and every seed that you spread isn't going to always find the best, most fertile soil. And so your job as a leader is to make sure that you help them to become more coachable, because if you share information or ideas or insights or, oh my goodness, advice, and they're not ready for it, you're just wasting your time. Instead, ask them questions. And the two most powerful questions you can begin that conversation with are, first, what is it you want to accomplish? And then second, where are you now? What are those numbers that you're presently getting? And if you can have a conversation based upon those first two questions, you're going to discover, along with your team member, that there's usually a gap. And it's that gap of difference between where they want to be and where they currently are that will allow you to maybe identify with them some of the weaknesses or opportunities they can address that your coaching and advice might help them to move forward with. I'm Sean Glaze. That's what effective leaders do.
