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Coaching III

WHEN TRUE COACHING BEGINS

by David Beavers, NMD

Part 1

This two-part message will ask and answer the question: When does the coaching relationship begin?

Some components of the coaching process begin when a person  becomes a Juice Plus+ distributor. If we learn to ask the right questions--thought-provoking questions--the kind of questions that require more than a "Yes" or "No" response--we can start coaching in the broadest sense, from day one.

One of the best questions is found on the opening page of the Virtual Franchise Owner's Manual. "I'M NEW NOW WHAT?" We would be smart to master that page from the inside and out, and then, get good at listening with patience and respect.

Over the past 20 years, when sponsoring or helping to sponsor someone, I have very often made the mistake of assuming a depth of commitment and a level of understanding on the part of a new person which, I would discover later, was never really there.

We've all tripped up on this one, haven't we? The moment we sniff out a bit of enthusiasm and passion and energy in our new recruit, we are convinced that the next National Marketing Director is standing right before us. We say to ourselves, "This is awesome. Book ‘em Danno! This is a done deal."

Two weeks later, our new star is not returning phone calls. Then we find out she's selling magnets and Noni Juice. What in the world happened?

Had we just paused for a moment, taken a breath, and let her answer that important question--"I'm New, Now What?"--we could have met her where she was, instead of where we wanted her to be.

We forget that most of our top leaders launched their Juice Plus+ efforts with a simple desire to help their friends and family get healthy. But, as their personal belief deepened--their belief in the product, the company, our industry and, most importantly, in themselves--their motivation and personal vision jumped to a whole new level.

We make a similar mistake with some of our best people when we invite them prematurely to enter this strange and mysterious world of coaching.

Part 2

Some of my most promising coaching relationships in Juice Plus+ have failed. I think the reason for these coaching flops is that the person I was coaching--whom I will call the client--and I did not share a commitment to the same things.

We probably respected and like each other a lot. And we felt good about the idea of coaching. But we never laid a foundation of what our commitment really looked like. We never really talked about the nature of the coaching relationship. I also probably had the sense that my commitment and my enthusiasm would somehow bring my client along?

This approach to coaching is a lot like the infatuated girl who clearly sees the red flags in her dating relationship--her boyfriend drinks too much, he's never on time, or he keeps losing his job--but she opts to marry him anyway, convinced that her undying love and determination will bring about changes he will need to make down the road. We all know how those relationships turn out.

Our enthusiasm and commitment to the people we want to coach are indispensable. But they are not enough. Without a shared commitment--between us and our clients--we will find ourselves pushing and prodding our team members, at times actually pleading with them to show up at a bootcamp or re-write their goals or listen to their Voicecom messages. This, in my opinion, is a form of managing, teaching or even manipulation. But it is not coaching.

Since looking hard at my coaching experience over the last two years, I have learned that a lot of work goes into a relationship with a team member before the coaching process begins. A foundation must be laid. As the commitment to the coaching relationship approaches, both the client and the coach will make crystal clear to each other what they are committed to accomplishing in the coaching program, and the part each of them will play in pursuing those shared goals and outcomes. In other words, the commitment of one will never be enough.

The foundation and shared outcomes of the coaching relationship will be among our topics in the coming weeks.

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