Coaching is a term that is been around for many years and it’s expected that when someone is promoted to the role of manager or team leader, the skills to coach just materialize overnight. In our experience having trained 1000’s of frontline managers, this is simply not the case. Very few managers possess the skills naturally, yet it is expected that in their role they help their team to be great at customer service, merchandising, etc. To help people be amazing requires specific coaching skills, so that is where we come in.
We specialize in training managers to be great coaches, providing them with a simple five-step process that they can immediately use with their team back on the job. The results are outstanding when these steps are put in place and we have many examples of poor performers who have improved dramatically through coaching. However, coaching is not a one-time process, to ensure peak performance, managers must continually follow up with their team as it’s easy to slip back into bad habits.
Unfortunately, not everyone believes in the need to have a coach, or to outlay time or money in the investment of taking on board a coach. If you ever questioned the need to have a coach, invest 15 minutes to watch this brilliant TED talk by Atul Gawande. Atul is a surgeon and found out the power of coaching first hand when he realised he wasn’t improving anymore. His performance had plateaued.
As he says “it’s not how good you are now, it’s how good you’re going to be.” An extremely wise quote, as physical retail stores are facing immense challenges with competition intensifying dramatically. If you don’t want to become another retail statistic, then there is a real need to constantly improve.
Atul says “We don’t recognise issues standing in our way or even how to fix them. When this happens we stop improving. A coach is your external eyes and ears, providing a more accurate picture of your reality. Coaches recognise fundamentals, break the actions down and then help you to build back up again.”
This old saying is so true – we don’t know what we don’t know. However, a coach can help us realise where we need to improve and help us get there. This is why managers have to be great coaches so they help their team be amazing, and that’s what your customers want and now expect!
Enjoy the TED talk
Roger Simpson – CEO, The Retail Solution and Author of “The Ultimate Retail Sales Experience” With over 35 years’ industry experience, Roger Simpson is recognized as Australia’s #1 Authority on customer ROI in the retail industry and as a global expert on staff coaching, customer service, and selling skills.
