I’ve been a bit restless over the Christmas break. I generally struggle at this time of year when life seems to come to a standstill. Maybe it’s self perceived but I needed something to sink my teeth into. With this inability to relax and a thirst for self improvement, I took a communication skills course. Provided by High Speed Training and on a side note, I have to recommend their courses. Simply put, you get plenty of bang for your buck.
I took the course because I thought I’d be able to develop the way I explain things. We’ve all struggled with the odd stutter and I’m prone to over explain things. Admittedly, it was naive on my part to expect an outcome. It did teach me about the importance of feedback, how to inspire long term motivation and gave me a frame of what effective coaching looks like. In fact, it probably taught me more about coaching than the FA level 1 course I took in the summer.
What I’m going to do better.
Feedback.
I definitely want to improve the amount of feedback I give and how I deliver it. The start of this course was heavy on feedback and it’s always illuminating to discover what you didn’t know about seemingly simple things. For example, I wasn’t aware that it might be a good idea to give feedback as often as possible. That’s not to say you been to be blowing smoke for the sake of it but balance it out. It’s as simple as if they’ve done something good let them know about it. If they do something bad, let them know. The difficulty comes when knowing how to deliver that message. To help myself, I’ve come up with an equation, Action (Good/Bad) + Why = Understanding / development plan.
*Be clear about the action to the player. Explain why it’s good or bad to develop understanding. If bad, come up with development plan with them. And always critique with compassion and kindness.
Motivation.
If you asked me to motivate a group of players, I’d probably play Al Pacino’s “inches” speech from Any Given Sunday. It’s an incredibly inspiring video and I’m sure would motivate anyone to give their all on the pitch. But that’s only one aspect of motivation. Before, I’d never have considered setting a good example much of a motivational tool. Infact here’s a list of all the things I wouldn’t have considered;
- Having clear expectations
- Encourage thinking and sharing ideas
- Regular feedback
- Train or develop people for their role
- Positivity
- Gratitude
The basics of coaching.
Coaching seems to be something that I find comes naturally to me. Although I might be indulging in some mild form of self grandiosity, ultimately I lead with Compassion and Kindness. It seems to be serving me well but if I’m to be an effective coach in the long term I’ll need to refer to a framework of coaching. This stuff didn’t come up on my level one course. Luckily down to my natural curiosity and self awareness to improve, I stumbled across a basic framework.
- Identify problem
- Get their perspective and let them ask questions.
- State your expectations
- Work with them to come up with agreed development plan
- Monitor the situation
This course was aimed at people looking to improve their communication within a business setting. But the course has given me so many relatable skills it’s unbelievable. I’ve not even mentioned the information in regards to emotional intelligence. I want to dive into that with more depth, so that might be a future blog. So far though, the information I’ve taken away will undoubtedly improve my coaching. Ironically this blog was written on the 31st of December 2021. In 2022 this blog will serve me as a tool to remind myself of the skills I’ve learnt. Hopefully it helps a few people along the way too.
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