Shadow Coaching

Surgeon Atul Gawande has a great article in New Yorker about hiring a coach to help him become a better surgeon.

He doesn’t call it this, but what he’s describing is “Shadow Coaching”.  A shadow coach watches you (or shadows you) as you perform some activity and later gives you pointers and tips to improve your technique. This is the kind of coaching sports coaches do; also acting coaches, singing coaches, etc. Almost any kind of coach that improves performance works this way.

Why does Shadow Coaching work?

It’s useful because a coach has a different vantage point than you do (physically as well as emotionally) and can see things you cannot. A shadow coach also needs an understanding of the topic and the ability to teach things you would not have known. In Gawande’s case his coach was also a surgeon, and able to perform in the operating room. But this is not required in a coach. I doubt that 200-some pound, 50 year old Bela Karolyi (pictured above) could do any of the things he coached his 80 pound teen age girls to do in gymnastics competition, yet they won Olympic gold.

How can a Shadow coach help a CEO?

They can improve your performance in the following areas

• Running meetings
• Interpersonal communication (one-on-one meetings and calls)
• Public Speaking (with employees, the public and the press)
• Decision making (A coach won’t tell you what the best decision is – that’s what a consultant does, but they can help you improve the decision making process.)
• Time Management
• Reporting (helping you get the right reports and provide them to others)
• Interviewing

What to look for in a Shadow Coach

• Familiarity with your skill set. They must know as much or more than you about what you’re trying to accomplish. This can come from personal experience or other forms of learning. But beware of super stars who can do but not teach.
• Chemistry. They must be able to give advice, correction and encouragement in a way that you are able to receive.
• Ability to see patterns and consequences. You want a coach who can (for example) teach you how to eat better, not just cook you meals.

When NOT to hire a Shadow Coach

• If you aren’t willing to change your technique. This is particularly difficult in the areas how you relate to people but it’s correspondingly powerful.
• If you don’t know what to do next or how to prioritize. Then you need strategic coaching.
• If you don’t have the time to analyze, practice and improve some aspect of your performance
• If your shadow coach can’t see you in action frequently enough. “Enough” varies with your situation. Sometimes once is enough.

Strategic Coaching

This is the term I use for a less specific, but often more powerful type of support. A strategic coach is your confidante, your sounding board, your cheer leader and the one to kick you in the butt when needed. A strategic coach helps you achieve success (as you define it) in a broader sense than a shadow coach will. In fact one of the first things a strategic coach should do is help you put specific descriptions to your definition of success.

Why does Strategic Coaching work?

Strategic coaching also works because the coach has a different vantage point than you do, but in this case the important distinction is more emotional and intentional than physical. In fact it’s common for strategic coaching to work by phone with no face to face interaction at all. A coach can keep the big picture in mind and not get as distracted as you are in the day to day emergencies. Probably the single most useful thing a strategic coach can do is keep you focused on the important things and not allow you to get consumed by the merely urgent.

How can a Strategic coach help a CEO?

• Helping you define measurable goals
• Helping you keep your actions aligned with those goals
• Seeing inconsistencies in your thinking (let’s face it well all have some)
• Coming up with improvements in your ability. Ironically a coach (unlike a consultant) may not have good suggestions. But if their (lousy) suggestions help you come up with a better plan, they’ve made a significant contribution.
• Asking the right questions
• Pulling out the best parts of yourself

What to look for in a Strategic Coach

• One who is willing and able to help you see the hard truths
• One who is familiar enough with your situation to ask the right questions. This familiarity need not be as specific or detailed as that of a Shadow coach, but must be useful.
• Curiosity. Ironically if a strategic coach is not learning from you, if they know too much, they may try to force you into a mold that worked for previous clients doesn’t work for you
• Chemistry. They must be able to give advice, correction and encouragement in a way that you are able to receive.

When NOT to hire a Strategic Coach

• Insanity. I’m using the definition attributed to Einstein: Doing the same thing over and over yet expecting a different result. Do not hire a coach if you aren’t willing to change what you do and how you do it on a daily basis.
• When you need someone to solve a problem for you. Consultants do that. Some coaches are both. But a coach who is not a consultant will help you improve – not do work for you.
• Too busy. Ironically, this is often the pain that causes people to reach out to a coach. But if you aren’t willing to stop and work on ways to change then hiring a coach won’t help.

Consulting

In working with CEO’s there’s often a fine line between coaching and consulting so I thought it useful to give consulting a short mention here. My working distinction is this:

A consultant brings in  expertise that you didn’t have. A coach helps you maximize the expertise you already have.

Another way to say it is a coach is more focused on asking the right questions while a consultant provides answers. In my experience, CEOs of small to medium size companies want both. They want a coach to help them become better at what they know how to do, and at times they want a consultant to bring in some expertise that they have not yet developed.

Takeaway:

• Hire a shadow coach to help improve HOW you do something
• Hire a strategic coach to help improve WHAT you’re doing
• Hire a consultant to give you answers or ADVICE when you need it