1st Lead U - Leadership Development
This podcast, now in Season 3, is dedicated to self-development, self-awareness, and learning to lead oneself so listeners can lead others well. If someone cannot lead themselves well, it will be difficult for them to be an effective leader of others. This podcast will help listeners understand what it means to 1st Lead U and build confidence in themselves and their leadership ability. Personal Growth Coach John Ballinger has spent 35 years developing the knowledge and material he shares with individuals, business owners, and leaders from a variety of areas.
1st Lead U - Leadership Development
Coaching Your Team to Success: CHARTing Potential Through Strategic Leadership - Ep. 306
A coach has to do these things. According to what I researched with things, they coach someone in learning and growth, goal setting and planning, motivation and encouragement, feedback and evaluation, skill development, problem solving, accountability and trust building Welcome to First Lead you, a podcast dedicated to building leaders, expanding their capacity, improving their self-awareness through emotional intelligence and developing deeper understanding of selfless leadership. Hello America and welcome to First Lead you where we believe selfless leadership is essential. America is suffering a leadership crisis. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence is the key to developing selfless leaders. Now here is personal growth coach John Ballinger.
Speaker 1:Hello leaders, welcome to First Lead U. My name is John Ballinger. I'm here with my trusted co-host, mr Douglas Ford. Good afternoon, john. How are you sir?
Speaker 3:I'm great. How are you?
Speaker 1:Guess what we get to do today.
Speaker 3:We're going to start a new adventure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are. We're starting the chart chart. Yep, I'm excited about that. So we're going to start C, h, a, r T, which is the charting, a new path to leadership. And what do you call that? An acrostic?
Speaker 3:That's the term we've been using. We hope it's correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hadn't heard that word until Douglas brought it. I'm like, well, that's a big word for us, but we're going to start in the C's today and so we're going to. We're going to talk about our first episode of the chart with the four C's. Our first C is coach, and I was uh doing some research, uh, for the podcast, and so I thought you know what this AI stuff's just going nuts and we're. So let me just dump this into AI and see what AI says about coach.
Speaker 1:And I'm not kidding you when I say this, this the first thing that came up is a horse-drawn carriage, that's true. The second thing that came up was a railroad car. The third thing that came up was a position of seating on an airplane. The fourth thing that came up was a pocketbook company. The fifth thing that came up was someone that that coaches athletics. I got to thinking, hmm, coach, horse drawn carriage, a railroad cart, and I wrote at the top of my notes oh well, a good coach can carry a team. Then I thought the position of seating on an airplane. From that position a coach gives to others to give up their seat in first class or business class to go into coach so their team can elevate themselves. The pocketbook the only thing I could think of on that one is if you ask a lady that carries a pocket book for something, she can usually dig around in there and find something like oh yeah, I've got that right in here. I was like, what do you? Got Swiss army knives in there.
Speaker 1:But then I got to the actual, what we're talking about the coach side of it and, man, there was a lot that I dove into. When it come to coach, I think from our perspective we're talking about coach and leadership. We want out of the four C's and I'm just going to go over those real quick the coach, the counselor, the commander and the cop and and at some level, a leader, has to put one of those hats on throughout the day, or multiple hats on throughout the day, depending on what they're dealing with and what employee they're dealing with. But for the sake of coach, a coach has to do these things. According to what I researched with teams, they coach someone in learning and growth, goal setting and planning, motivation and encouragement, feedback and evaluation, skill development, problem solving, accountability and trust building. So think about that. That's a lot of stuff that a coach has got to think through when they're coaching one of their teammates in the workplace.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and so my research. I got variations of most of those and probably had a couple of different ones. So, yeah, there's a there's a lot going on when you think about a coach. And of course, I think a lot of times our mind goes to the sports analogies when we think about coach, because it's the most prominent thing that we see in society where we talk about coach.
Speaker 3:But when you start thinking about coach from a business standpoint, there there's a lot to consider and, like a sports team, you've got to kind of deal with everybody individually, based on where they are and what their level of development is. And of course, right now we're in a heavy sports season. This is probably more sports going on at this little kind of sliver of time than at any other point in the year, just because of all the overlapping sports that go on. And so you hear coaches talking about developing their players. Everybody's process is different, everybody develops at a different pace and their maturation is in different stages. So, yeah, that's a lot when you start thinking about as a leader, being a coach to a team, all the things that you have to take into account so that you can properly lead them.
Speaker 1:I wonder what would happen if businesses had to deal with portals and NIL.
Speaker 3:Well, they kind of do, don't they?
Speaker 1:I'm leaving this job because I'm'm gonna go to that job, because it makes more money and I don't think at the level of compensation we're talking about probably not that level but if you thought as a, as a, I guess it goes back to one of the things we've talked about in the past the ceo cfo conversation about you training the team and the CFO says you know what if we, what if we spend the money and train them and they, they leave the CFOs. A CEO says, what if we don't? And they stay? I mean, coaches are really getting into that now, cause they can take somebody in for a year and really pour into them and try and develop them and they see a lot of of potential in them and then the next year they're gone and the risk of that with that player is what if they go to?
Speaker 3:they go to a team that that coach doesn't really coach them into the success that they really could potentially, uh, achieve yeah, and I've seen several coaches talk about like some of your bigger programs are not trying to be the most profitable in terms of nil money that they give to the players, because they don't want the players coming there for money and they understand that everybody's in different situations, they need to go and do different things, but they're trying to figure out a new way to get the players to buy in to the culture, the program, so to speak, of what they're doing there and how they think they can help them achieve at the next level, because the NIL money is good at the college level but it doesn't really compare still to what they're going to make if they move on to professional sports and what they're going to do there.
Speaker 3:So I've heard a couple coaches I thought it was an interesting take of like they're. They're more about development and skills and how do you become better at the next level than it is about like we're going to give you all the money that you need now we'll we'll take a slightly less developed player, naturally, and work with them to bring them up, and that they want to be here and be a part of our program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't you think that some of the old line coaches left or are leaving because they, just like I don't want to? I got into the coaching business to coach, you know, student athletes, to be the best version of himself, to potentially get to that next level. I didn't get into this bidding war and all this compensation stuff that's going on and promotion and all that stuff yeah, I definitely think that's true.
Speaker 3:I mean, we, we there's probably a couple of really prominent cases related to that where they left the coaching profession because it was no longer about what they started coaching for. And you know, and you're seeing the complexity of team management change as well, with administrative people coming in that are focused on nil and building a roster and so, um, it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks and months as we get some other things included in NIL and portal.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So for the leaders that are listening, I want you to really assess yourself as we're going through these four C's and and take the four C's and lay them out. You know, as we're talking through them and saying, yeah, which one's my natural bend, which one do I really kind of? You know in my leadership style every day. I really go toward this because I've seen all four types of these leaders and you can't just be one today. You really have to be all four.
Speaker 1:And we've talked about the difficulty of all the traits that you need to have as a leader today to be successful and that one horse show doesn't work anymore and to be the leader that people need, you have to develop yourself in order to develop them. So I want our leaders to really pay attention as we talk through the coaching aspect of it and say, okay, I'm nothing like that, but I know I need to embrace being a coach to some of my team because my team needs that. They don't need just me to be a commander every day or a cop every day or a counselor every day or a coach every day. I have to learn which one of those hats to put on, depending on the situation and the people I'm dealing with. One of the things a coach does is seize untapped potential. We for so many years and I've I heard this last week with a business let's just throw them in the pool and see if they can swim or not.
Speaker 3:That's a great strategy.
Speaker 1:I'm like I just looked at that. I'm like what did you just say? He said well, that's what we've done in the past. That doesn't work anymore. And even if you did do it, don't do that, because look what you're doing to the company, the employees that are there as as well as that person. You're just throwing them in there. No training, let's just see if they stick. A coach will see potential that's unrealized in that person and actually coach to that and tell and it may not be that leader, it may be somebody in the company that they go to the supervisor and say you know what? Here's what I've seen in that person. Pay special attention to that. Coach that person to success, give them this training in order for them to succeed. But don't just throw them in the swimming pool hoping they swim. That's just that, to me, is bad leadership.
Speaker 3:Oh, it absolutely is. Yeah, and, like you said, it just frustrates everybody. I mean, if you're coming into a new company, a new position, and you want to do well, I think very few people go to work every day and go. This is going to be the worst day ever and I'm going to do everything I can to make it. So I mean, they're looking to be successful. Everybody wants to be successful, and the more you can help them by recognizing where their strengths and weaknesses are, how you can push them in areas that they can be more successful in, the more successful your team's going to be, the more successful your company's going to be, and then, probably, the more successful you will be in the long run, the more successful you will be in the long run?
Speaker 1:How many leaders have been placed in a position without giving training by their leader and just thrown in the pool and said figure it out.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we, we see it all the time, and one of the things that I saw in the um, um, my research, was that coaching has to do with developing your succession plan, and so many times we talk to people and there's no succession plan, there's nothing, there's no planning for what's next, and actually again, just because I'm watching a lot of sports, because that's what's on march madness and all that uh, but um, someone was talking about, uh, the commissioner of the sec was mike slive a few years ago, before Greg Sankey came in, and Mike Slive had done such a great job of mentoring and preparing his number one, who was Greg Sankey, that when he moved on, the coach made the statement. The hardest thing that Greg Sankey had to do was to replace himself for the person who would come behind him, and it's like that's a great model, but so many people don't use that.
Speaker 1:No, they don't another thing a a coach needs to do is teach that person how to overcome roadblocks. So when they see potentials in them, then they start looking like what's causing a roadblock, what's causing them not to reach that full potential? Those are coaching moments. That's being able to sit down and you've assessed that person. You see the roadblocks. There's sometimes a fear factor in it. Sometimes there's a confidence factor in it. I find a lot of times that people have it inside their head. They just don't know how to deliver it outside and actually, you know, fulfill what they need to do in their role. And that coach sometimes has got let me just pull that out of you and you see that a lot in athletics. You see a coach, they'll grab somebody that has raw talent and they'll see what's blocking them and say well let me coach that person to success.
Speaker 1:So think through that as a leader not just yourself, but the team that you're in charge of leading. But then ask yourself my leadership style as we go through that. What's caused me to have that leadership style, and how do I expand my leadership style to understanding all four c's? So we come back from break.
Speaker 3:We'll uh, we'll talk more about the coaching aspect of leadership. Thank you of information that will help you on your own personal leadership journey. In order to reach more people and to improve our positioning on all the podcasting and social media platforms, it's important that you subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcasting platform, like Apple, spotify or any other platform where you listen to First Lead you. We would really appreciate you clicking on the subscribe button to help us reach more people and expand the message of First Lead you, and please take time to visit the First Lead you website. That's the number one S-T, the word lead and the letter U dot com. First Lead you dot com. Number one S-T, the word lead and the letter Ucom. I hope you have a great day as you continue to learn to First Lead you. Welcome back to First Lead you.
Speaker 3:Today we are talking about one of the four C's in the chart ac, the cross stick that we've developed in charting a new path to leadership.
Speaker 3:So we have coach, cop, commander and counselor are the four C's that we talk about, and today we've been spending time talking about being a coach and, as we were kind of talking through the first session there and thinking about what it means to be a coach.
Speaker 3:I've got a note here that says really, coaches are meant to empower individuals to reach their full potential, achieve their goals by providing guidance, through support and motivation, and I think that kind of sums up where we are from the first section of the podcast and the other things that we mentioned about the attributes that you need to have as a coach is you need to empower people so they can grow, motivate and support them. You're looking to develop skills with them, help them develop self-awareness by pointing out strengths and weaknesses that they may have, help build their value, facilitate learning and build confidence. So those are all things that we talked about in various forms in the first part of the podcast, and now we're going to talk a little bit about some of the pitfalls that we can find ourselves in from a coaching standpoint before we got some. Going to talk a little bit about some of the pitfalls that we can find ourselves in from a coaching standpoint.
Speaker 3:John you've got some stuff to talk about that?
Speaker 1:I do. But let me ask you this Out of all the leaders that we have interacted with, have you left any of them think, man, they have got it figured out. They're at peak performance from a leadership standpoint.
Speaker 3:No, not that we've worked with I don't. I don't think so. Of course, we usually don't call them when you know when your house is in order you don't, you're, you're not looking for somebody to come in and help fix it.
Speaker 1:You're, you're not, but some of the leaders who called us in and who we find are two different people and a lot of I mean a lot of times we'll we'll go in and we'll work with leaders that don't think they need much developing. They have to think.
Speaker 3:I'm in the leadership position. We've talked a lot about that, about the difference between leadership and authority. Yeah, some people have authority. That doesn't necessarily mean they're leading.
Speaker 1:Well, there's some people that are in the leadership positions that may be decent managers but not good leaders, and we've talked about that too. But you know, I'm saying this from my perspective. I'm always learning to be a better leader. I'm always searching, I'm always reading Leadership. If you take it serious, you never stop wanting to learn how to lead yourself well so you can lead your team Well. It should be a desire, it shouldn't be a thirst, it shouldn't be a dread for you to want to learn more, be better, do better for your team, and if you find yourself not doing that, you think you've arrived quotation mark, arrived in leadership position. You probably need to start looking for another position because most likely, your team is not being led well. So I'm going to talk about leadership pitfalls.
Speaker 1:When it comes to coaching, One of the number one things that I see with someone that is a coach only type leader is they sometimes, a lot of times, give too much leeway with a team member, hoping that some point they will develop and come around. They are on a constant coaching process with their members and they've got other functional team members around them. They're like when are you going to give up on that person? They're just not getting it. And that's difficult, you know, I've told you before it's difficult for me when I like I'm thinking one or two more coaching sessions and the light bulb may come on and it doesn't.
Speaker 1:And I finally had to get to the point where I had a stopping point. And the stopping point that I started using is if I was putting more effort in them and developing them than they were putting effort in and developing them, I knew it was time to stop. If I wanted their success more than they wanted their success, it was time to stop. If I wanted their success more than they wanted their success, it was time to stop. But as long as I saw effort, I was willing to put effort in. But I do use kind of that benchmark. Now is, you know, if I'm working harder at trying to develop you than you're working harder at trying to develop you, we may have a problem. So, as a coach with a coaching bend if that is your natural leadership bend find a stopping point, because you're actually damaging your people around you that are having to pick up the slack from that person that you're still trying to coach into success, and that's a difficult thing. To do is stop.
Speaker 3:It is, and if the other team members aren't seeing some development and you're spending an inordinate amount of time with that particular team member, well, that creates problems as well, and so maybe they would be able to serve in another capacity in an organization, or maybe they need to have different responsibilities. That doesn't require as much of them from a self-development, self-awareness, self-motivation standpoint. But you can't kind of quote, unquote, overcoach somebody else at the detriment of your other team members, right, absolutely not. Somebody else at the detriment of your other team members, right, absolutely not Another pitfall of the depending on the type of coach.
Speaker 1:there's two types. There could be two types of coach. There could be the old Bobby Knight coach. Remember Bobby Knight?
Speaker 3:Douglas Yep, the famous chair incident. That was just one, apparently. There's many more that's coming out.
Speaker 1:For you, younger leaders. Bobby Knight was a coach at, uh, indiana, indianapolis, or Indiana, uh, iu, indianapolis, indiana university, excuse me, indiana. And and there's a video that you could go out and search on the internet, for it's the famous chair, uh, where that thing just went flying across the gym floor. You know he didn't, he didn't uh, he just pitched it the gym floor. You know he didn't, he didn't uh, he just pitched it.
Speaker 1:Um, recently, uh, there was a uh, a high school coach girls coach that came up behind one of his players and pulled her ponytail and jerked her backwards because he was upset I think it was a national, I mean, excuse me, as a state championship game for high school, and evidently he was not happy with something that the player had done. He had a lack of judgment moment, not thinking about everybody's cell phones, just out constantly, uh, videoing things, and comes up and pulls her ponytail off. Uh, back, pulls her literally, pulls her back. He gets in front of her and just starts. Uh, back, pulls her literally, pulls her back. He gets in front of her and just starts uh, you know, going after her teammate, gets in front of or in between the two of them and that coach. I read his apology and some of the things that you know he was remorseful about and whatnot, but I got thinking, hmm, so that's an old school coaching approach, and now that guy doesn't have a job, it's he's going to have a tough time finding a job, mr Ford.
Speaker 3:Yeah, With all that video evidence, I mean it's, it's amazing that, uh, coaches are still using those methods. And I mean I used to officiate and you know we didn't tolerate that. It didn't matter, Couldn't, couldn't touch a player like that, Um, regardless of who they were.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you've got the old Bobby Knight style coaching, which is kind of like this coach. But let me get in your face, let me, let me pull your hair. Uh, coaches, he used to grab the face mask, pull you to them and football and they're. They're screaming so loud that spits just coming through your face mask and that's. That is an old style coach. Well, there are leaders that lead like that and companies. That style doesn't work anymore.
Speaker 1:However, the coach that just kind of lethargic y'all win if you want to. You know I'm not going to do anything to create discipline. No, no, we're not going to run win sprints today. No, we're not going to do this. That's not a coach that's going to win teams, uh, championships or, or tournaments or games. Either the coach today has to learn to balance, either the coach today has to learn to balance.
Speaker 1:How do, how do we get the most out of the team members today, knowing that there may be different ways that you have to coach, uh, those people to success and what? What you're going to find as we go through these four c's, that there are times that you need to pull all four of those C's out, during a game even, or during, uh, during, uh, the day in business that you'll be leaving from one location in the company, the other, and as you approach that organization, that part of the organization and the company, you got to think oh, today I'm counseling someone. Oh, today I've got to enforce code enforcement the cop side of it. Oh, today I've got to lead a new project, the commander side of it. And oh no, today I've got to coach somebody to success because I feel like there's potential there. And if you try to just play the coach only mode of leadership, I I'm afraid in today's environment you're not going to be successful with your team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there's so much more that has to go on and, like I said, as a coach, you've got to be able to recognize what your team needs, and part of that is you kind of switching roles from person to person, from situation to situation, and maybe you could quote unquote, stay in a coach mode, but you're going to have to be different types of coaches, right, depending on that. And so what you've done with the chart and having these four words in the C part of it encompasses all those things that you need to do. And, as we talked about, I mean, we've got 20 different words that we use across chart. Well, those are all different characteristics and attributes that a leader needs, but we've seen lists as deep as 35, 40, 50 attributes or characteristics that a leader needs to have. So, you know, chart is great place to to start, but there's a still. Even beyond that, there's a lot that can be developed.
Speaker 1:Uh, as a leader, yeah, it's almost like you need to have the word and then sub words under it that develop that master word, let's. Let's leave this on a positive note. We're talking about that bobby knight and that coach and pulling uh ponytail and things like that. What I did find out that if a coach identifies with an athlete, or a business coach identifies with a business leader, they have a huge impact on that person's life. It can be even greater than a teacher, because when I was researching like who has the greatest impact or can have the greatest impact, a coach can have a huge impact. And here's what I started thinking to myself with coaches I've had in the past If a coach develops you and you go from the sidelines on the bench to playing, you gain confidence. That coach also gains trust and you gain confidence. That coach also gains trust and you start respecting. Then, when you leave playing into a starting role or in the world of business, you get promoted. Now you've got more trust and more respect and you will listen to that coach more. So I want you to think through that process yourself. If you had someone pouring into you, coaching you, developing you, you go from on the sidelines to playing, to promotion. You most likely are going to listen to that coach and you're going to respect them and they're going to have a great impact on you, and that is a critical component that we see as missing is the listening part.
Speaker 1:It is difficult to get people to listen, especially when they've got a phone in their hand and they go Google whatever you're talking about to see. Did they just lie to me? Is this really, is this? Is this person, is this is it true? What they just said? You know, and really dependent on how you ask the question, you may get a different answer than what I just told you about something, because they may have asked the question into AI or into Google or into some search engine and it may be different, and so I want the people out there create relationships with your coach.
Speaker 1:Find you a coach If you don't know how to coach and you're in a leadership position and you're one of the other four C's. Find someone that has a coaching bend from a leadership standpoint and have them pour into you so that you can really learn how to do that. I know it's going to be valuable and hopefully, out of the end, as we kind of lay out this chart, you will be engaged as a leader to really want to develop what your natural bend is to into the other three C's so you can be a well-rounded leader.
Speaker 3:Absolutely no. You're absolutely right, John. I think that as we continue to explore the four C's and especially thinking about being a coach, you really have to be someone who is open to being coached yourself and developing yourself, because you need to understand what your team needs as well. And so as you go through that process and you're coached and you feel the pain of someone pointing out a weakness or you feel the encouragement of someone pointing out a weakness or you feel the encouragement of someone pointing out a strength, then that helps you to understand why you need to do that for your team. It certainly makes sense, but the more personal interaction you can have from being coached, the more you can start to understand how you need to coach.
Speaker 1:Right. So, leaders, please listen, look at yourself, write down on paper what do I know about coaching from a leadership standpoint? Just write down. So am I? Would I be a good coach? Would I want me to coach somebody? Would I want to be coached by somebody? Because one of the challenges we have with leaders, too, is they really don't like somebody coaching them, and so you got to ask yourself this question. So, mr Ford, the first C is uh, in the bank, so to speak, and uh, I look forward to uh unpacking the next C, which is cop. Oh, that's going to be a unique one. And an audience, please remember, in order to lead your team Well, you must learn to first lead. We'll see you next time.
