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Coachable, or a lost cause??
“My favourite example is athletics,” said Dr Robert Hogan, founder of Hogan Assessments. “They say for every ten world-class athletes, defined in terms of their physical abilities, only one will ever make it. The difference is that this one person is the one who is coachable. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you won’t take the coaching on board, then you’re done!”
Here are four ways to tell if someone is coachable (or a lost cause!):
- Can they keep their cool? When you confront them with bad news, do they keep their cool, or do they act excitable, explosive, defensive or paranoid? “People who are cool-headed are much more likely to take feedback on board,” said Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, CEO of Hogan Assessments.
- Do they accept responsibility? Do they distort reality in their favour, or do they accept their mistake? People who do this may think of themselves as smart, but they don’t assume any responsibility. People who are more accepting of their limitations are much more coachable because they don’t just listen, they actually assume responsibility for what happens.
- Are they responsive to feedback? Some people are responsive to feedback, while others either resist, deny wrongdoing, or even pretend to comply while remaining privately resentful. Being responsive to feedback makes a person much easier to coach. A person who resents negative feedback will most likely continue with their existing habits no matter how many times these behaviours or actions may have been addressed.
- Are they willing to change? You can lead the horse to water, but you certainly can’t make it drink! Change can sometimes be difficult, so if there’s not a willingness on the part of the coachee to accept there are benefits to be had, there is unlikely to be any real progress.
With the intricate use and interpretation of assessment tools, such as the Hogan Suite of Psychometrics, coaching can sometimes be viewed as a rather complicated science. It’s the giving (and, indeed, the receiving of) feedback, however, both specific and useful enough to be deemed as constructive by the coachee, that must truly be recognised as a fine art!