People don’t change for companies, and they don’t change because it’s logical. They change because a motivated coach or peer or family member helps them make the transition.
I had a manager that called himself a coach once that rarely interacted with those of us on his team. He spent all of his motivational talk time telling us how amazing he was, and why he was going to “turn us into the best team ever.” He left us feeling like we were broken losers awaiting our savior. The only good team meeting we had was when he stood in front of us talking about himself, again, and we realized his zipper was down and his shirt tail was sticking out of it. That was awesome.
Bottom-line is that we were never quite sure what we were supposed to do, but he always let us know when we were doing it incorrectly. Luckily, he was soon fired. The man who followed him inspired us to achieve great performance in a matter of months. He was our inspiration, and following are ten things he did that all change coaches should do:
1. Clearly define the change that is expected.
2. Motivate the employee by telling him why the change is important to them first, the team second. Use story (tie it to the heart).
3. Create clear, challenging but achievable goals around the new change.
4. Tell the employee how those goals will add value to him.
5. Make the challenges fun by creating teams that compete and have fun rewards.
6. Move him forward with specific actions that will lead the employee to that goal.
7. Determine which actions will be “quick wins,” and which will be longer term, and go for at least one quick win first, so the employee can feel immediate success.
8. Meet daily or weekly at the beginning of the change.
9. Reward the employee when he achieves his goals each week, giving him a sense of accomplishment.
10. Acknowledge every success, and use that success as a way to take away the “no’s” of those who say it can’t be done.
These steps create a framework around change that informs the head, inspires the heart, and gives the feet the very steps they should take to move forward. If you think it feels good to get through change, then just imagine how good it feels to coach somebody else to successful change!