The Power of Coaching in 2021

What does a great coach do? How do they enable their athletes to be the best they can, not just on the playing field or sporting arena, but in life generally? What can leaders learn from this? And how can businesses leverage the skillset and approach of the 1.5m volunteer coaches in the UK, for themselves, their partners, and their communities?

There are not many people better placed to look at these topics than Mel Marshall and Emma Atkins. Mel is coach to a world class team of swimmers including the extraordinary Adam Peaty; Emma is Director of Coaching at UK Coaching and has over 25 years of coaching experience from grassroots sport to supporting Olympians to transition to life beyond sport. Both kindly gave up their time to share their valuable insights and thoughts on these key topics.

2021 is going to be a challenging year for many. And one where you may need to think differently. I hope that as leaders across sectors, you can use Mel and Emma’s comments to drive performance, wellbeing and purpose in your organisations and beyond.

Question 1: Graham Henry, renowned coach of the All Blacks, talks about how a coach's aim should be to make themselves redundant. What do you think he means by this?

Mel: The ultimate aim of a great coach is to empower the people around them. I’ve always said, it’s not about me – my results and how I am perceived – it has to be about them. You are in the wrong job if you are over-indulging in yourself and not making it about the athlete. Coaching is a selfless job and is all about how you illuminate the people you work with. So, yes, in that sense, a coach’s aim should be to make themselves redundant.

Someone once told me, ‘roots to grow, wings to fly’. The coach should lay the foundations so that people have got the ability to grow through the challenges we set them and what sport challenges them with. And then it’s about us giving them the wings to fly out on their own; knowing they can come back to the nest when they need that little bit of advice, before flying out again to explore.

Empowerment for me is how you challenge, provide feedback and a safe platform for failure. A good coach (and a good leader) puts really good and intelligent competitive hurdles in front of their athletes (or their staff) for them to get over. And that experience in itself allows them to grow and develop.

“My job as a coach is to work out what the right competitive hurdle is for each individual I work with; how high they can have it and how I want to progress it. Too often we prepare the road for the athlete. We must prepare the athlete for the road, empowering them to become independent learners and thinkers.”

Question 2: Pre-pandemic, there were over 1.5m volunteer coaches in the UK. What skillsets do you think coaches can take into the workplace?

Emma: To put the question in context; we have a real challenge next year because we know from the various workforce surveys that we will see around a 20% reduction in volunteer coaches, with many citing a lack of support and a feeling of being isolated as a coach. This reduction will have a massive knock-on effect on the sport and physical activity recovery plan, the recovery of the nation as a whole and on the business community too – in the form of demotivated, exhausted and anxious staff.

By collaborating better, we can solve this problem.

We know that most of those volunteers will be earning their living in other roles across the economy. The task is to convince business leaders to find out if they have any of these coaches in their workforce. And then to support them to return to coaching in their community, continue to enhance their coaching skills, and bring these skills to the workplace. Unlocking their full potential can only be a positive contribution to the productivity of the business.

Coaching others can be really good for self-actualisation, self-confidence and health and well-being. And while being happy and healthy translates to staff taking fewer sick days, it goes much deeper than absenteeism, as having highly motivated, resilient and person-centred coaches will help others in the business to thrive too, improving overall efficiency and productivity.

Ultimately, coaching is a leadership skill. So, while great leaders have great coaching skills, great coaches have leadership skills that any business would want. The question employers should be asking themselves is, do they realise the internal talent they are sitting on within their staff, and that the skillset those coaches have can be transferred to any employed role?

Mel: I always describe sport as the university of life, and that goes for coaching too. Because you have everything. You have extreme challenge; success; defeat; times when you make super progress and other times when things go stale; and I think you develop so many transferable skills through those experiences: hard work, resilience, understanding the importance of being on time, how to chase a goal or a vision. Competition is the bread of life, and if you reflect on those experiences and have confidence in the non-technical skills you have built, you will be an important part of any workforce.

Question 3: How do senior business leaders support those coaches in their workforce to flourish and ensure their talents are being utilised effectively at work and in the wider community?

Emma: Find out why they coach, what motivates them, and ask them if they need help to return to coaching post-pandemic. You could set up a community of practice in the workplace, for example, for those who coach to connect, share challenges and ideas. We know that many businesses provide staff with financial support to go to a gym or sports club, so why not support those staff that coach by giving them some time to enjoy their coaching even more, by having time to plan and reflect, or develop their skillset by providing master classes or access to learning resources.

We will lose more of our coaches if we don’t support them financially and physically, and business leaders can play a significant role in the retention of coaches by showing they value them with their actions and words.

Supporting those staff members who already coach, or have coached – and finding out who could be a great coach and unlocking their potential within the workforce – could also be turned into a valuable public relations tool, helping spread the businesses’ core vision and Corporate Social Responsibility Agenda. For example, if your vision is to be at the beating heart of your local community, what better way of showing this connection than adding up the number of coaching hours in the local community that your staff rack up on a weekly, monthly or annual basis? By supporting staff in their community coaching endeavours, businesses will be laying down deeper community roots of their own, whilst also benefiting financially.

Mindful of our current situation with many coaches unable to practice in the community maybe you could encourage these coaches to support staff across the business to get and keep active with regular challenges; or buddying up for coaching sessions to get your workforce moving more…the ideas are endless. Every business wants active staff who are happy and healthy, because inactivity and poor physical and mental health are the biggest threat to business productivity.

Question 4: And what benefits do you think the coaches themselves get from giving back in this way?

Mel: When you are providing a service for somebody else and that person flourishes from what you have given them as an experience, it is twice as satisfying as doing it for yourself.

Because you are getting personal satisfaction as well as the satisfaction that comes from getting positive feedback from them if they have appreciated what you have done for them. It’s a happy place when it works out.

Emma: Earlier on I mentioned self-actualisation which leaders will know is the top level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Giving back to others, in this form through coaching, provides people with a feeling of value and self-worth. Couple this with physical activity and social connection (even though currently physically distanced) and you have rich combination which increases people’s emotional, physical and mental well-being. I know I am biased but it is like a wonder drug!

Question 5: What kind of mindset is held by those who benefit from coaching the most?

Emma: Cultivating a growth mindset culture is critical in coaching as there is an intrinsic relationship between belief in your capacity to learn and develop, and your level of achievement and success.

It is another area UK Coaching is keen to work with the business community on in 2021, as too many people are still limited by a fixed mindset when it comes to their view of coaching, believing you have to be fit and sporty to coach. Ask someone to explain what a coach looks like and most people will tend to describe a white male in a tracksuit – probably on a pitch and shouting! Actually, children’s first experience of coaching is usually with a female coach in school, and coaches are more likely to be the people who children turn to in times of need, not shouty beasts!

We want to collaborate with business leaders to help them change their mindset and make them realise they have lots of staff with the necessary qualities to be a coach. It is in the interests of every business to reinvent themselves in this way and support staff to unlock their full range of skills.

Mel: People may think that my focus with Adam (Peaty) is on continuous improvement. But what I’ve learnt is that it is really important to periodise growth. There is a certain amount of time that you can be in your ‘grow zone’, but unless you spend some time in your ‘know zone’ then actually you’ve not consolidated and started to use the learning that you’ve acquired. So, I see it as a four-year journey with Adam, where I am quite aggressive on my growth in the first two years, consolidate in the third, and then I use it effectively in my fourth.

That’s how you build confidence and how you build proficiency at that new skillset, because there is the danger of running on to the next thing… and the next thing, before you have consolidated what you’ve learnt and had the chance to apply it. And it doesn’t have to be a four-year periodisation, it could be four weeks, where you learn something for two weeks, then own it for four.

For more information on UK Coaching, please go to https://www.ukcoaching.org/ . To find out more about how your organisation can collaborate with UK Coaching in this area, please email Emma at eatkins@ukcoaching.org. To gain more of an understanding of Mel and Adam’s aims over the next few years, and in particular Project Immortal, please take a look here