For most of us, coaches have had a profound impact on our personal and professional development, especially if we played sports in our youth. They have helped us deal with adversity, take advantage of opportunity, learn from mistakes, better understand our strengths and weaknesses and grow as leaders, managers and human beings. In a real sense, because of them, none of us has achieved success, or even happiness, entirely on our own. By providing guidance and wisdom, coaches have played a significant role in directing us along the journey of our lives.

While Yoda is a great story figure, the original Coach appeared in Homer's Odyssey as the trusted friend of Odysseus, who asked him to look after his son, Telemakhos. Coach then served as a guide to Telemakhos in his search for reunion with his father. Thereafter, time and again in literature, the coach appeared at the outset of the journey as a helper, equipping one in some way for what was to come.

Today, because of healthcare’s workforce issues, tight labor markets, and competition for competent people, organizations must not only recruit and retain talent, they must also develop it. They must become coaches of people they employee and those they hope to employee. Leadership in healthcare organizations now clearly requires that executives demonstrate the desire and ability, as Yoda did, to serve as wise and knowing guides to others in their organizations.

What Coaches Do

Effective coaches want to be coaches. They have a genuine desire to share their knowledge and experience and to give something of themselves back to another. As a result, they gain personal satisfaction from serving as a guide on another person's journey. They also demonstrate three critical capabilities.

First, effective coaches give support to the people they take under their wing. Here's what you can do for your protégés.

v  Commit time. Share your most limited resource. Agree to meet, not just when it's convenient for you but also when the protégé needs you.

v  Show empathy. Demonstrate a genuine interest in the protégé as an individual. Work to feel the protégé’s concerns and to understand his or her hopes and aspirations.

v  Listen actively. Eliminate distractions to focus your full attention on the person you're coaching. Ask questions to make sure you understand what he or she is saying, probe for insight on the protégé’s situation and help the protégé clarify his or her own thinking.

v  Serve as advocate. Represent your protégé to others, argue on his or her behalf and defend his or her efforts.

v  Express positive expectations. Continually encourage your protégé. Remind the protégé of his or her abilities, potential and purpose. Help the protégé recognize his or her future prospects.

v  Build trust. Prove trustworthy, and thus build trust, by maintaining confidentiality, providing candid feedback and honoring commitments you make, like meeting times.

The result of giving support is that the protégé feels special. By demonstrating these capabilities, coaches make those they guide feel uniquely seen, and this allows for an open and mutually trusting relationship to develop. Under Yoda's guidance, Luke counts on his coach's wisdom, trusts his advice and comes to feel like a Jedi Knight.

Second, effective coaches offer challenges to create an environment of learning. To offer challenges:

v  Assign tasks. Extend your protégé’s comfort zone by having him or her take on new roles and responsibilities. Create situations that require the demonstration of new thinking and the development of new skills.

v  Engage in discussion. Serve as a sounding board for the protégé. Question the protégé’s assumptions so as to stretch his or her thinking, ask questions that invite reflection and continually ask what he or she is learning. Also, provide candid and constructive feedback that helps the protégé better assess his or her own strengths and weaknesses.

v  Debrief teachable moments. Look for those rare opportunities that provide powerful new insights, then help the protégé to fully assess and analyze those insights. Teachable moments may occur spontaneously, and the observant coach makes the most of them when they happen.

v  Set high standards. Clearly communicate what you expect and the quality of results that you want. Hold a protégé to high standards of performance.

The result of offering challenges that create valuable learning opportunities is that the protégé begins to think afresh. More important, the protégé begins to grow and develop. Yoda sets out one challenge after another for Luke to help Luke manage himself better, hone his skills and more fully appreciate his responsibilities to use The Force for good.

Third, effective coaches provide vision that helps the protégé catch a glimpse of his or her own possible future. To provide vision:

v  Serve as a model. Your very position, role or status serves as a powerful example of what may be possible for others. The presence of the coach thus gives proof that the journey can be made. The coach as role model provides a realizable goal for the protégé.

v  Provide a mirror. Your own experience serves to illustrate what the protégé seeks to accomplish. Be worthy of imitation. Looking at you, the protégé should see something of himself or herself in the reflection.

v  Chart a course. Play a key role in helping the protégée look ahead and chart his or her own course in life. By helping people understand and appreciate their own unique gifts, you assist them in overcoming obstacles and taking advantage of opportunities.

The result of providing a vision is that a protégé gains confidence in his or her own abilities and eventually achieves independence, even from the coach. Yoda helps Luke believe in his own abilities and set out as a more determined and self-assured individual, who can continue to learn and grow without his coach as his side.

How to Fail as a Coach

Real coaching is difficult. It's more than advising, more than coaching, more than giving directions. It requires taking responsibility personally for the learning of another and making a commitment to that person's growth and development. Consequently, it's easy to fail as a coach. Here are some certain ways to kill a coaching relationship.

v  Don't allocate time. Let other priorities take precedence on your personal agenda and only give a protégé fleeting attention.

v  Lecture a lot. Instead of listening, talk continually. Instead of helping a protégé learn from a situation, be prescriptive so that a protégé does things your way.

v  Tell war stories. Emphasize all the important things you've done, all the battles you've won and all the results you've achieved. Don't let the protégé’s experiences interfere with your own.

v  Criticize everything. Tear the protégé down at every opportunity and never be satisfied with anything he or she does. Withhold any praise or recognition.

v  Avoid mistakes. Don't let the protégé make any mistakes. Interfere with any efforts that might not succeed.

v  Breach confidentiality. Share your protégé’s confidences with others, talk behind his or her back and don't keep promises.

Back to our analogy, if we consider that The Force of the Star Wars Saga is our natural law given by God and available for each of us to use when we take the initiative to use it, we can understand how Yoda was able to coach Luke to first understand The Force by giving him challenges. At first Luke mostly failed, but he gradually learned his lessons and to overcome. Soon Yoda was guiding Luke through real-world experiences in the use of The Force. Finally, in the end, Luke had developed the leadership skills to not only muster the natural laws of his universe, but also to lead the diverse individuals and cultures to overcome their challenges and succeed.