If you missed part 1, click here.
Coaches don’t want to get railroaded.
Let’s talk about a few ways to avoid disaster.
2 questions and a recommendation.
How will I be measured?
Know exactly what you’re getting into. And how you’ll be measured.
If you ask the GM…
How will you measure my success?
And he sputters and spins his tires, then he doesn’t know. Any hesitation or uncertainty, know he’s making it up on the spot.
And if that’s the case, you’ll actually be measured by wins and losses when things get difficult.
Coaching for an organization that doesn’t know why it exists is the first thing to avoid.
Why did the person I’m replacing get fired/leave?
This is a question you hope the GM can answer without looking around the room, saying “ummmmm” and dancing around for some politically correct reason.
As a coach, you can also employ the “skip levels” idea from part 1 and call the former coach yourself.
Don’t just talk to the person trying to hire you. Talk to the guy that worked for the guy trying to hire you.
Get the total picture. Don’t just cherry-pick the good stuff the GM will tell you. Do your own due diligence.
Encourage the GM to “come around”
Explain that your style is different than most. That your vision is different than most and that you’ll need a long runway to execute your plan on… Then you’ll need to encourage the GM to come and see it for themselves.
If he’s sitting in the office all the time while you are implementing an intentional system of development and the GM doesn’t see it... Then you aren’t going to get that runway.
That GM has an idea in his head of what a typical practice looks like. What a typical meeting looks like.
But if your edge is in doing it differently and better, you’ll need them to see you executing on that.
Black Box Testing is results.
White Box Testing is process.
Let them in on your process.
Demand to be white box tested.
What Else?
How else can coaches avoid being black-box tested?
What other white box testing ideas do you have?
Would love to hear your thoughts. Comment or reply.