I would bet that you are a leader in some way or another. You have a tribe. More than likely, there are people who follow you. You are their leader. You are their coach.
As I sit here in my weekly staff meeting, we are having a discussion on GOOD COACHING vs. POOR COACHING. It’s revealing and it’s empowering and it’s convicting. Our Executive Director, Ann, is phenomenal at helping us as a staff to grow and become what God has called us to as leaders.
Here’s what the brainstorming list looks like so far:
GOOD COACHING
* Encouraging
* Asks permission to coach someone
* Helps me set goals and achieve them
* 1 on 1 time
* Hands-on training
* Equips me with resources
* Gives people the benefit of the doubt
* Casts vision
* Delegates authority rather than tasks
* Demonstrates what they are asking
* Asks good questions
* They should know me well
* Know my strengths and weaknesses
* Sets me up for success
* Willing to let me fail
* Doesn’t “correct”, but takes time to help learn from mistakes
* Willing to have a tough conversation
POOR COACHING
* Micro-manages
* Poor equipping (not enough “how”)
* Doubt…no confidence in me
* Controlling
* Lack of moral integrity/authority
* Competitive spirit (you’ll out-grow your coach)
* Silence…no communication
* Non-passionate
* Rebukes harshly rather than restores gently
* Closed-minded, not open to learn
* Non-relational…all business
* Fails to confront failures/mistakes
* Inauthentic / Hypocrite
* Focuses on last deliverable to judge performance
(only as good as your last…)
* Small-minded, focusing on unimportant things
* Lack of inspiration
* Unhappy
So. Where are you? If you’re leading…coaching…how are you doing? If you’re being led…being coached…how is your coach doing?
…and in those times, I like to play mind-numbing strategy games.
Lately, I’ve been consumed with:
Fieldrunners is a tower-defense game where you have to protect your base from enemies getting across. You build up weapons stronger and stronger to destroy ever-increasing foes. It’s only available on the iPhone/iPod Touch and it costs $4.99…sometimes you catch it on sale though.
If you’ve got an iPhone or an iPod Touch…you have to buy this game. For all the times you’ve been stuck in a waiting room, you have to buy this game. If you’ve got a friend with an iPhone or iPod Touch…make them buy it so you can play it. It’s the best.
In the free realm…flash games are always fun. Our friend Elaine (who is a great blogger by the way) turned me on to this one last weekend:
Last night was interesting. Culinarily speaking…It was just plain weird.
Ava Beans took it upon herself to find her own dinner. She’s a big girl now and we’re trying to let her make more decisions on her own. She found something in the cabinet that caught her eye and we couldn’t convince her that it was not going to be something she wanted. Here’s a video of what happened, but before you view it, I want you to recognize that my 2-year old uses the right adjectives the right places way more than I think she should be able to. Enjoy:
Shortly after this Anchovy event, our power kept going on and off while I was trying to make dinner. We had a 50+mph windstorm going on and the power just kept flickering…it was highly annoying. I had something warming in the oven and somewhere in the process of power-flickering, the oven decided that it was going to crank on the high broiler without my knowledge.
I have no idea how long it was on…but I smelled it when it was engulfed in flames. The inside of the oven was roaring with fire and I couldn’t open it…that would just feed the flames. So this was the aftermath:
Anyone wish to GUESS THAT MESS?? I’ll reveal the true identity of that black tar later on tonight in the form of a comment.
