As a Coach, Who is Your Customer

As a coach of a team, ask yourself, who are your customers? If you were to ask me as a Manager who my customers were, I would not hesitate to tell you the consumer, the shareholders, my boss.

But in the changing environment we are in, as a coach it is important to realize that my biggest customer is the people I am coaching. If I want them to make the decisions, if I want them to grow and develop, if I want them to develop the business, then I had better realize that my first customer is the people I am coaching. I should constantly be asking myself what their needs are, what can I do to make their job easier, and, how can I help them become better at what they do.

So often, you hear leaders state they are coaches. But, when you look at where their priorities are, it is not with their people; it is usually with the outside customer. Focus must be first with the inside customer, your people!

Performance reviews can be most revealing. We do performance reviews on staff. We ask for feedback from customers on our performance. Yet do we have performance reviews done on ourselves by those that we coach? This suggestion is very threatening to many leaders. However, it is a most effective way to learn and grow ourselves.

You may not agree with all the comments you get back from your team. But the important thing to realize is not the comment itself, but in how you can change your behavior to help the person understand what it is you are doing.

An example, I once had a comment, “I was moving too fast, not being realistic in my expectations.” Rather than argue with the person about this comment, I realized that if the person was thinking this way, I had not done a good enough job communicating why we needed to do what had to be done faster due to the competition and of the survival of our business. I learned that I had to develop my communication skills further and find different methods of communicating, so that everyone could see the urgency of moving fast.

The one thing that strikes me is that as we progress in our career and take on a leadership role, the person who does our review is the not the one that we most influence. Think about how much more effective leaders would be if there own team reviewed them. I have seen results of this review process change the way leaders act and treat their people.

Try it! The first time you try this review process, it probably is best to do it without getting people to sign their names. You eventually need to know, however, who is making the comments so that you can change your style. But initially, so there is no threat to individuals and if you want truly honest feedback, do not have people sign their names. This type of review will be the best development you will ever receive.