Coaching for accountability
As a leader, what is your mindset around accountability? Some leaders believe that people resist accountability. When you are acting based on a false premise it makes you ineffective. Coaching from the mindset that people resist accountability causes you to believe that your job is to create sufficient pressure to overcome that resistance. But what happens when you apply pressure to people (think about your kids or your spouse)? You increase their resistance to you! And how do you overcome increased resistance? You increase the pressure - which causes their resistance to get stronger! Remember the definition of insanity? People do not resist commitments they make themselves. You can coach them to discover what it is they are committed to. For example, if they are behind quota; or over budget; or not tracking to meet a deadline; use coaching questions that help them uncover their own commitments. Where are you today vs your target? Where do you want to be by the end of the quarter? What support might you need to meet your commitment?
People are accountable to the commitments they impose on themselves. They resist the ones you impose on them.
Coaching is effortless. When you coach, you are simply supporting people to get to where they want to go. If you find that coaching is hard work - you might pause and reflect. Your mindset is the only thing that can make coaching hard. Your beliefs are getting in your way. Question your beliefs.