What is the role of a coach? Are we problem solvers or solution finders or both. Is there a difference?
At the most basic level Coaches are problem solvers. We are architects of change. Our job is to move a given performance ability forward one element at a time, one modification at a time. “Status Quo” is a dirty word.
Goals exist only as directional markers to draw us forward. Once reached, we set a course beyond to the next waypoint, the next target. This is how we pass through life. One modification at a time, one problem at a time.
Where coaching gets fun…. The process of change
Great coaches work as part of a team. The team may be just one individual athlete or team of athletes. Coaches may work alone or part of a full performance enhancement team. A full support team may contain additional coaches, physiologists, biomechanists, physical therapists, doctors, psychologists and others. Regardless of the situation the game is the same. The struggle is the same. Work with your partner(s) to move the performance level forward.
The fun comes in the struggle to make the difference. Once the performance goal or target is an experimental process is set in action.
- Assess the current performance ability
- Identify the key performance elements required
- Target one or more performance elements
- Make a plan and set it in action
- Monitor the results, assess the impact and repeat it all again.
This is the game I love getting wrapped up in. I view the entire process as challenge and struggle. I don’t say struggle with a negative meaning behind it. Inside the struggle is where I ‘search’ for solutions. The struggle to find a solution is where the pride of coaching comes from. The value is in the struggle. The value is in the search.
In reality it is not problem solving but rather solution finding and seeking solutions where the pride is derived. I am the kind of person that seeks solutions, I delve into problems looking for elements to strengthen improve on and learn from. I think this should like the kind of person I would admire and so I strive to be this person. This is different from identifying a problem or something that does not work. I much prefer to find what does work. This is a productive approach and I believe to be a good coach we must produce.
My father was a contractor who spent his time building things. He is productive. I like to think I learned some of this love of building from him. I have academic background in the sciences so I like to monitor and assess things. I like processes that are measureable, repeatable and predictable.
By combining the Builder and the Scientist I become the coach. I seek better methods of building elements and the end performance. I collect tools and methods that can help my athletes build their performances in a measurable, repeatable and predictive method.
This is the process I love. As a coach, this is my game and I seek better and better performance.