Chapter 20
Ten (or So) Surprises for You
IN THIS CHAPTER
Discovering the unintended benefits of coaching and mentoring
Realizing what’s in your control and what’s out of your control
Coaching and mentoring rely on life skills. Technical or hard skills are relatively easy to measure and develop: your ability to draft a building plan so a contractor can build it is straight-forward. It works or doesn’t. It has errors or missing information or it’s complete.
Life skills aren’t always as easy to measure or predict. How much have you increased your listening skills over the last year? How much do people trust you more or less than they did six months ago? Are your employees more engaged and productive now that you’ve read this book and used the strategies?
Even though there’s not often a straight line between effort and result, this chapter shares some of the insights I’ve gleaned over the years of coaching.
Change in Behavior Takes Time
I (Leo) once mentored a third-grade girl in reading. I worked with her every week for three months without seeing any progress. School ended for summer vacation and on opening day of the next school year, I ran into the girl’s mother in the hall. She greeted me with a big smile, “Joni jumped two reading levels over the summer!” she exclaimed. You ...
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