2/21/14…The
other week our leadership attended InsideOut training. We wanted to improve our
coaching skills, especially in the realm of our high performance teams. The
first part of attending this training caught my attention. The founder of this
program, a tennis coach, picked someone at random on a local tennis court. The
person agree to be part of an instructional video. Using S.M.A.R.T. goal
setting, the founder first asked the person, what would you like to work on?
Through a series of questions, the coach got the person to verbally express
they would desire to hit 5 out of 10 backhands in the right hand opponents
court. The person thought the goal reasonable, but lacked the confidence in his
ability. The coach, standing at the net, began hitting balls to the person who
was standing on baseline. Out of 10 balls, the person only hit 2 in his desired
spot on the court.
Then
the coach did something miraculous. Instead of having the person focus on the
result, he slowly got the person to change their focus by asking a series of
questions, all the while hitting balls to the person. First he asked the
person, what do you see as I hit this ball towards you? Response: the lines on the
ball as the ball spins towards me. Ok, can you tell me how fast the ball is
spinning? Response: slow. Ok, can you tell me on a scale of 1-10 how fast the
ball is spinning when looking at the lines.
During
this whole process, the person was oblivious to their backhand accuracy
improving. By the end of this exercise the person went from 2 out of 10 to 6
out of 10 in their accuracy. I was impressed! I was excited! Just by changing a
person’s focus, their performance improved. The coach consultant called his
approach the three F’s; with Focus being the first F. Impressive. Then my
excitement increased when I heard the next F; Faith. Finally, an acknowledgment
regarding how faith is a necessary component in the TOIL. Next, the coach
discussed how most organizations approach performance deficiencies by giving
people more knowledge. Yes I thought, organizations inundate people with more
knowledge thinking performance will improve. However, the coach’s premise was people
already have most of the knowledge they need to perform, so building on more
knowledge will not result in a dramatic increase in performance. Instead the
focus must go on the inside of a person, or back to the three F’s, Focus,
Faith, Fire. Up until now, I bought into everything this consultant said. But...my
excitement was short-lived as the coach started going in depth about the faith
component. Why? When discussing the faith component of the three F’s, faith was
expressed as the belief in oneself, not in God or the Spirit within. I sigh. I
hope no-one around me heard.
Once
again, answers sought in the secular world will at best only lead to short term
contentment…
