What Do Coaches And FedEx Have In Common? It’s The Delivery That Counts
I heard a well-known coach say, “We have to remember that many great coaches say things very wrong in terms of sports science, but it’s how they communicate and motivate that makes them great.
The more I learn about sport science, the more this is apparent to me. Just see them as great artists, not scientists.”
Let’s unravel this:
Coaching can be seen as having two basic communication components as the message we deliver can be informational and also inspirational.
The quality of the message is based first on the quality of the information in which it is based. Specifically:
→Is it correct?
→Is it understandable?
→Is it actionable?
→Is it helpful?
→If it is incorrect can it have any of the other qualities?
The quality of the message is also based on the quality of the delivery because we are all emotional beings. Specifically:
→Does it motivate?
→Does it promote self awareness?
→Do we accept it?
→Is it sustainable?
→Do we believe that coaching is first and foremost a profession or a performance art?
If it’s a profession, can we think of any, outside of the performing arts, in which the quality of the delivery is more important than the message?
If your doctor sang like Whitney Houston when telling you to eat rat poison to treat a cold, would you then just see them as a great artist?
I would hope that a person in a leadership position giving bad information was not persuasive.
Wouldn’t you?
Coaching is art and science, but is art devoid of science? Is it any coincidence that one of the greatest artists of all times, Leonardo Da Vinci, is also one of history’s greatest scientists?
The foundation of art is science, and the foundation of great coaching is the quality of the message AND the delivery.
