Just recently, I had a couple of experiences with a couple of clients of mine. The first was a client that shared on the coaching call that he received an email the day before from somebody on his team. Immediately when he shared this, I could see his body language go negative, like another issue we have to address.
As we read the email together, we looked at it two different ways. He looked at it as somebody on his team that was complaining. I looked at it as somebody on his team that was bringing to his attention something that she felt didn’t align with the culture of excellence with the organization.
I had another client that was on vacation for a week, and as he returned, he couldn’t wait to share with me how proud he was of his team, of how they stepped up while he was away. On Monday morning he had a meeting to praise them on how they worked seamlessly to accomplish everything on the docket, take care of all the cases, all the items that had to be done, and how proud he was of how they executed in such a manner of excellence as a team, and rewarded them and let them know that that Friday lunch would be on him.
Now I’ll go back to my first client, as we were having a conversation about this email. I advised him how to address the email. I said, “Take it as an opportunity to thank this employee for having the courage for taking the opportunity to share this with you.” So, he replied in an email, “Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I appreciate the courage it took for you to send this email. We will handle it accordingly. Let’s take some time, just you and I, to have a quick conversation. I want to thank you for your standard of excellence and for being part of this team.”
What did he accomplish in that email? He simply took the opportunity to coach up that individual. I share these two stories for a reason. Every opportunity you have as a leader of an organization or small business, whether positive or negative, with an employee is an opportunity you have to coach them up.
We’ve all watched professional football, where you have a rookie quarterback that makes a mistake or miscue and comes back off the field and if he’s smart; goes directly, to either the quarterback coach, the offense coach, or the head coach to get that moment of coaching, where the coach takes his hand and puts him on the shoulder, looks him in the eye, talks about the situation that just happened, pats him on the shoulder, and says, “Go get em.” That coach took the opportunity to coach him up.
Every opportunity we have as leaders to coach up our team two people grow. Number one, because we took that opportunity to coach that person up, we grow as a leader. Two, that individual grows because you just presented leadership and pride in them for being a part of an organization and regarding their opinion with high praise.
Whether it be positive or negative, good or bad, whether you want to avoid it or not, embrace it. Embrace every opportunity you have as a leader of an organization to coach your team. Be aware of the opportunity, take advantage of it, be a better leader, and I guarantee you, your team, your organization, and most importantly your customers and your bottom line will benefit accordingly.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com