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The Six Question Process for business coaching... In
my role as an executive coach, most of
what I do is coaching to help people
achieve positive long-term change in leadership behavior. This
is behavioral coaching. I'm frequently asked a question,
though. How can I be a better business
coach? How can I be a better coach
in terms of helping people deal with strategic issues,
the business side of the business? This Six Question
Process is a fantastic tool. I've used this process with
six major CEOs around the world and it has
worked every time. Six out of six. One of the
CEOs I worked with, a gentleman Jim Morton, was
the CEO of the John Hancock Life Insurance Company. The
first year I gave him his feedback about providing
feedback and coaching, I think he scored an 8 percentile.
The last year I did it he got a 98
percentile on the same topic, this is all he did. The
other thing Jim said is, You know, I spent less time
with people when I got evaluated a 98 than I did
when I got evaluated an 8. He spent less time, but
he had more structure, more direction, and more clarity. So the
time he spent was used in a lot better way. Let's
describe the six question coaching process. First, have a one-on-one dialogue
with each of your direct reports, and I'd say do
this about every two or three months, dealing with six basic
issues. Question Number 1: Where are we going? Where are
we going? Have a dialogue with the person and say, As
your manager here's where I see the bigger parts of
the business are going. Here's where I see our organization is
going. Where do you think we should be going? So you
have a dialogue, two-way communication. Here's where I see us going.
Where do you think we should be going? Number 2:
Where are you going? Here's where as a manger I
would say, Here's where I see you and your part
of the business going. Where do you think you and
your part of the business should be going? Because you
want to have alignment two ways. 1: Big picture-smaller picture.
2: Manager-direct report. You want to have both types of
alignment. Where are you going? Number 3: Doing well. As the
leader I'd say, Here's what I see and your part
of the business as doing very well. Then ask the person
a question. This is a question we don't ask enough in
leadership. What do you think you're doing well? What are you
most proud of? Well, sometimes we don't recognize people, not
out of maliciousness, but out of ignorance. By asking this question,
what do you think you're doing well, we can often learn
a lot. For example, a person might say, You know, manager,
I know you had that important presentation to make. The team
spent all weekend working on it. It seemed to go great.
I was very proud of them. As the manager, I might
say, I didn't understand that. I didn't appreciate all the work you
put in. Let me recognize the team. So, again, by asking
this question, what are you proud of, what do you think you're
doing well? We often learn things as a leader we didn't
know. Question Number 4: Suggestions for improvement. I'd say as your manager,
here are some suggestions I think might help you do
even better moving forward. And my idea is feedforward not feedback.
Give them ideas for the future more than feedback about the
past. Then ask the person a question. And this is a
great coaching question. If you were the coach for you, what
advice would you have for you? Then listen. One of my
good coaching clients recently retired, George Borst, CEO of Toyota Financial
Services. George said he was shocked at how much he learned
when he asked people this question. Originally he thought they'd
say fluffy things like, Oh, I work too hard and I
need to take a little more time off. He was set,
he was wrong. He said more than half the time their
ideas on how they would coach themselves he thought were
superior to his ideas on how he would coach them. He
ended up saying, Look, I gave you my ideas. I've thought
about it. Let's just go with your ideas. A great question.
Imagine you were the coach for you. What ideas would you have?
A great coaching question. Then question Number 5: As the leader, how can
I help? How can I help you? We've talked about what you
want to do, where you want to go, how can I help you
get there. And then Number 6: What suggestions or ideas do you
have for me that are going to help me be more effective as
your manager? What suggestions do you have for me? Two ways, not
one way. Everybody's trying to help each other. Now here's the key to
making this process work. It's something called mutual responsibility,
mutual responsibility. As the leader what I would say
is, Once every two or three months I'm going
to go over these six basic issues with you.
If at any time you feel the sense
of ambiguity, confusion, not clear on priorities, not clear
on direction, I want you to take responsibility to
come in and talk to me. If at any
time you need more feedback, coaching, please take
responsibility. If I take responsibility to do my job
every two or three months and cover these six
basic questions, and you take responsibility in between time,
there is absolutely zero reason we should have
any confusion or doubt in terms of clarity,
in terms of direction, in terms of coaching,
or in terms of feedback. Mutual responsibility. I
have never seen this process fail. So as a leader, you want to do a better
job of providing clarity. Better job of coaching.
Better job of feedback. Better job of recognition.
The Six Question Process can help you get there.
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