Coachability is the secret sauce of professional growth.
When I run workshops on how to identify and hire great scientists for your lab or group, one of the screening items I talk about is whether the candidate can hear and act on useful feedback. If they can, that suggests that they have what has been called a “growth” mind set. That is, they know they have things to learn, are eager to do so and aren’t afraid of admitting that they don’t know something. People who hide what they don’t know and get defensive when their work, conclusions or data are questioned are going to have a hard time in science and maybe life too. People who are eager and accepting of feedback are “coachable.” They listen to and seek suggestions, guidance and input.
This question is also on my mind when I first meet new coaching clients. How can I tell if this person is coachable? If they’re not, our time together may be frustrating for both of us.
The first tip is whether the client has sought out coaching on their own. They realize that there’s some aspect of their job that they’re not doing as well as they could, or not doing well at all. For many this could mean struggling with being a manager for the first time. For others it might be fraught, tense or combative relationships with peers or with a supervisor. These people sense that they have something to learn and often, but not always, are quick learners.
Also, in this group are those who don’t have a particular burning issue, but who believe that talking about or “processing” how they’re doing their jobs and managing their work relationships on an ongoing basis is something worth doing. Sometimes such clients start a session with “I really don’t have much to talk about this week – not much of note happened.” To which I respond. “Great – why don’t you just talk me through some of the things that did happen, and we’ll go from there.” And then something magic happens. They start talking about the first thing that pops into their head that was “nothing of note” and I start asking questions. Then – bingo - we’re talking about something substantive, fascinating and of importance. Of course, there was a reason this topic was the first thing they talked about, but it was not a conscious reason, it was lurking beneath the surface, waiting to be lured out by a leading question.
I also look for signs of emotional intelligence (EI) in coaching clients. Specifically, I listen for whether the candidate can notice and describe what they’re feeling or have felt in difficult, tense or challenging situations. I also listen for whether they show evidence of having empathy for others. Can they put themselves in the other person’s shoes, imagine what it might be like to be that person and how they might be feeling? And more important, do they care about those things? Having self- insight and being empathic and caring are highlights of EI and also are excellent markers of people who might be good at managing others. Conversely, with people who spend most of their time blaming and have a tendency to explain why they said or did something as due to circumstances beyond their control, including the behavior of others, I know I’m in for it.
So, showing up for coaching of your own volition and showing signs of well-developed EI can be big predictors of the success of a coaching relationship.
Another category of clients I see for coaching are those who have been referred to me by their employer or supervisor. In these cases, the client didn’t ask for coaching, they were told they needed coaching. Not surprisingly, these clients often will not even be told by their company or manager exactly why they need coaching, just that they need to “do better.” When this happens, I try to speak with the referrer to find out what they think the issues are. Sometimes this is informative and sometimes not. Very often, a manager referring an employee to me cannot articulate what’s wrong except perhaps to say that the client “Doesn’t get along with people” or “Isn’t doing their job well.” These are the most challenging cases. There is often little or no concrete data that I can share with the client since the company itself has only a vague notion of what the issues are. So, I and the client are put into the position of having to read the minds of the referrers and “fix” the client. This challenge is confounded when the client believes they are doing a terrific job and that their manager has an inaccurate or distorted view of their performance and confounded further when the client has low EI and is a blamer. Good luck with that.
In these cases, there can also be the confounding influence of a dysfunctional organization and weak senior management or leadership. When you place employees with poorly developed EI into such an environment the results will be predictable, and coaching may have limited value. When I’m told that an organization has a whole slew of people it wants me to coach, I always ask if they report to the same manager. It may be that it’s that person that’s really in need of coaching.
Another tip off that things aren’t going to go well is when I ask the client how things went that week, or how a meeting they were going to went, and they say “Fine. Everything is terrific.” Then I speak with someone else who interacted with this person or who was at the meeting, and I hear “It was a train wreck.” Often in these situations I never do figure out what the truth is. In such cases I fantasize about sitting in on one of these enigmatic meetings to see for myself and on the rare occasion when I have been able to do that, I can usually figure out what’s going on in about ten seconds.
Sometimes I get lucky and the referred client senses what the problems are and is willing to work on them to save their job. Other times, the client is resentful of having been forced to undertake this onerous coaching process to address problems they do not see as being caused by their behavior using methods they do not like (being introspective for example).
So, the question “are you coachable?” is a bit of a trick question. If you think you need coaching, there’s a good chance you’re coachable. If you don’t think you need coaching, but your manager or organization does, you’re going to need to do it in any case. Who knows, you might end up talking about something that seems inconsequential and irrelevant but that turns out to open your mind to new ways of thinking and working.
Carl M Cohen, Ph.D.
President, Science Management Associates