Has Coaching Gone For a Burton?

Photo by Julie Elliott-Abshire

Finally the FA in England has given the go-ahead for their Academy at Burton.  But what will they be doing there?  I have read that the purpose of the Academy is to train and develop coaching capability, particularly at grass roots level.  This will in turn give youngsters the technical skills the England team is currently so desperately short of.  Many commentators have said that these skills need developing at an early age and by the age of 21 it’s already too late.

So how good is the coaching right now?  Not good enough and certainly not in sufficient depth to develop the undoubted talent that exists right across the country.

And what happens to those young talented footballers?  How do they learn, if not from good coaching.  The few English players that make it to the biggest stage do so in clubs where they have the opportunity to learn from the best players in the world.  However only a small percentage get the chance as instant results are needed and too often the result is a player fails to reach their full potential because they do not get the opportunity to test themselves at the highest level.

So what’s happening in your own business?  How do you use coaching?  Maybe you don’t use coaching at all or perhaps only as a  performance management tool – a way of getting people back on track.  If you don’t use coaching or only in limited cases then you are missing out on a massive opportunity to increase bottom line results.

If you see coaching as a cost effective development strategy to improve performance and build a committed, highly engaged and productive workforce, where people have the opportunity to build a career; then how good is your coaching capability? 

If there are insufficient coaching skills amongst your managers, or your managers do not provide a challenging yet supportive environment, your own staff will not fulfil their potential.  That is a cost to the business on so many levels, including productivity, retention and recruitment.

I’ve just developed a coaching development programme accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Development.  I believe that when coaching is done well it is one of he best and most cost effective ways of improve performance and results.  Drop me a line if you’d like to know more.

Measuring and Valuing Talent

Photo by Jonathan Ruchti www.sxc.hu

Dr Bill Gerrard is an international authority on sports finance. He has developed player transfer and wage valuation systems for use in the football industry including squad valuations for various football clubs. He has written widely published academic papers on a number of topics - interestingly on player transfer market, measuring player quality and coaching efficiency. 

What struck me more than anything were the comparisons with the way player talent is measured and valued in sport and what happens in business with talent acquisition, development and management.

Dr Gerrard highlights the difference between sports such as cricket and the various codes of football (soccer, rugby).  Cricket, Dr Gerrard contends, is more easily measured due to the clearly differentiated specialisms, e.g. batting and bowling where performance is easily measured.  What is more difficult, is measuring individual performance in invasion sports such as football where the goal (J) is to move an object from one end of a playing field to the other.  Individual contributions in this arena are far more difficult to value; and Dr Gerrard has spent several years developing a system that can measure and value player contribution.

Dr Gerrard has worked with top football and rugby clubs in England, Scotland and overseas, using his system to measure contribution and identify improvements.  Part of the philosophy is to focus on the positive and he has found that teams that focus on the positives perform significantly higher than those who focus on failure.  These high performing teams use failure as an opportunity, learning far more quickly and effectively.  Their cost ratios are also far better.  For example, one team consistently had top 5 finishes, but the costs of achieving the result were more than 50% lower than the teams above.  As professional sport is also a commercial business Returns on investment are a key consideration.

In the same way, we also use a system developed over many years to measure and value individual performance in organisations.  Our model is called the Four stages of Contribution and was developed at Harvard University.  It is now used by successful organisations worldwide to develop and retain high performing talent at every level.  The four Stages model has a lot in common with Dr Gerrard’s approach to developing sporting talent – great minds clearly think alike!  If you would like to know more about how you can measure and develop talent and improve performance in your organisation, I’d be pleased to explain the concepts and approach to you.  Droop me a line and I’ll send you some information.