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Philip Edgell

Coaching in the Corporate Arena: Lessons from Deloitte, the NHL and Beyond

Ditch your annual review and accelerate the performance of your corporate athletes.



It has been interesting to watch the evolution of coaching in professional sports. 


In the NHL, for instance, head coaches have gone from red-faced, screaming, fear-based tyrants behind the bench to maestros of motivation, aligning team strategy to execute the game plan.


With the pace of the game and the number of players on the bench, a coach must rely on something other than an intermission speech or tomorrow's practice to tune performance. One lousy period, sometimes just one bad shift, is the difference between winning and losing.


Players and lines evaluate themselves in real-time with iPads between shifts, discussing strategy changes necessary to win. Specialized coaches behind the bench are helping individual players with immediate feedback. Players huddle before face-off in high-stakes moments on the ice to ensure everyone knows their role.


If professional athletes are getting real-time feedback, what about the corporate athlete? Could they benefit from more than an annual performance review? 


Should Leaders become coaches?


It has been almost a decade since Deloitte, ranked the number one consulting firm in the world by Gartner in 2023, ditched the annual performance review. 


In 2015, performance reviews at Deloitte required two million person-hours to complete and at best, a neutral impact, though often a negative impact on employee performance and engagement. 

That's a terrible ROI.


Deloitte streamlined the process. They focused on more frequent real-time conversations, removed subjectivity from the process and removed employee ranking, all in an attempt to fuel performance.

Deloitte realized managers must partner with their teams for success and create continuous feedback.


More frequent conversations about how projects were going and how individuals were performing during those projects led to increased engagement and faster skill improvement for individual contributors.


What is the coaching moment?


A hockey game has a defined set of rules and referees to enforce them; business has no such luxury. 


The need for employees to be skilled and empowered to make decisions is paramount to modern business success. Employees in a highly integrated and dynamic business environment can not wait for feedback once a year.


Employers can't afford it either.


In the war for good talent, employees constantly seek autonomy, mastery and purpose. They will look elsewhere if they are not progressing where they are today.


The shift is simple but challenging. A coaching leadership style requires the following:


Curiosity - genuine interest in the person, not just their performance


Great Questions - the foundation of coaching


Judgement and Assumption Free Listening - this is the most challenging shift to make as a leader


Partnering Mindset - the best partners have credibility, inspire confidence and challenge their counterparts 


Micro Engagements - mindset shift from less but longer to more frequent but shorter


Do you want to make the shift but need clarification on what you will do next?


Pick one or two points from the list above and experiment with your team. 


If you feel like directing, shift to asking a question. One of my favourites is "What do you think is the next best step?"


If you don't fully understand a statement or a point your team member makes from their perspective, say, "Tell me more," or "What did you mean by that?"


If you don't know what your team members do outside of work for fun, ask them.


At the end of a meeting, ask, "How can I best support you moving forward?"


Set up your next micro check-in by aligning on the answer to "How will we know we are making progress?" and start your next meeting with that.


The most critical leadership and coaching attribute is to be interested in the whole person. The investment will pay enormous dividends.

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