GOOD BUSINESS COACHING: Clearly, the right kind of coaching can alter a teams or an organizations performance. The implication for business is that if you create a climate of coaching in any organization, you can produce performance that exceeds your expectations and you wont have to change the people to do so. Coaching can produce star performers in organizations, even when the players are people of ordinary talent and ability.

A COACH CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE: This is a big claims to make. But consider this: when you look at a human endeavor where coaching is the norm, you see extraordinary results. In sports, for example, coaching is recognized as crucial among those who strive for extraordinary performance. No athlete would dream of training for the Olympics without a great coach. Great coaching shows up in sports all the time, but its as rare in business as pitching a no-hitter is in the major leagues. Thats because although a supervisors job is to coach, it is not always recognized as part of that job.

COACHING THE PLAYERS AT WORK: In order for coaching to work, the performer has to listen. Thats a big catch, because coaching is often heard as criticism. When people think they are hearing criticism, they can become defensive or invalidate themselves. Usually, they do both. In any case, people tend to ignore what they dont want to hear. This further emphasizes how important empathetic communication is for effective coaching.