Coaching others

Mattias is discussing his take on coaching in today's episode. Aside from coaching himself, Mattias also works together with some of his colleagues and managers at iGoMoon. When it comes to these coachings, he has many important aspects to keep in mind:

Help them win 🏆

To start with, let the counterpart know that you are going to help them win in business.

Set clear 🎯 and expectations

In addition, in order for people to become coachable, you need to provide them with a clear goal they can work towards. Mattias shares that he has learned the importance of clear communication of goals over the years. It is easy to misunderstand something and start working in the "wrong" direction. To prevent this from happening he always asks his team to send him an email where they summarize their goals and what they are asked to do after discussing these things together as a team.

Support the self-awareness 💡

Encourage people to notice themselves and work on their self-awareness. Check with them if what they do is aligned with their initial goals. If that is not the case, there is a need to talk about what has to be changed. In these situations, it is beneficial to be a good listener and let people discover their own behaviors. Also, it is important to understand where each individual is positioned on their personal learning curve. Based on that you can figure out how to help them best more easily. Some people might need some more guidance and instructions than others.

Communicate 🗣 your concerns

You should make sure that both you and the person you are coaching are on the same page and agree that something can be improved. For Mattias, it’s crucial to clearly communicate his concerns but also make sure that the counterpart is not taking it personally.

Be flexible 🤸‍♀️

When Mattias is coaching others he doesn’t like to look at the process as a fixed time slot in his calendar. He is working alongside his colleagues every day and compares his role to being a coach of a sports team. He is improvising a lot and sometimes decides that it’s best to coach a person right then and there together with the team. Other times the best method might be to take that person aside and talk about things just the two of them. Mattias also mentions how important it is to point out good and bad things as soon as possible (best right away). It is by far not as efficient to coach someone a week after an incident happened.

Show appreciation 🤗

Of course, it is important to show someone if they are doing something really good. Mattias integrated the system of giving kudos to one another in the office. This basically means that the team is showing appreciation to their colleagues by pointing out every week what one of them has been doing they find worth mentioning.

I need to remind myself as a leader - I'm just a human.

- MATTIAS GRONBORG

💡 EPISODE TAKE AWAY
Kindness is the solution to all darkness.

What is your thoughts on coaching and what we discussed in the episode?