Creating a Coaching Community

I am not a fan of all the trendy new coaches.  I was a personal coach long before coaching was a profession.  In the seven years I managed athletic clubs our teams were responsible for growing the largest chain of fitness facilities in the Pacific Northwest serving more than 50,000 members.  Now it seems you can’t go anywhere without being accosted by a “personal coach” of some kind.

In 2009 I was certified as a coach by the same man who founded Sylvan Learning Centers; but Berry Fowler didn’t make me a great coach.  The seven years I spent managing athletic clubs taught me that the most effective coaching comes not from some “out of a box” expert, but from modeling the behaviors of our peers.    In contrast to today’s hand holding culture, we connected members with members.  Our role was to create communities, catalyze action, share information and respond to feedback.

Coaching individuals in isolation is like treating a drop of water in the ocean.  We are the product of our interactions both past and present.  Sustainable transformation requires focusing not just on improving individual performance but enhancing the interactions that support a process of continuous learning.  Quick fixes are quickly forgotten.  Lasting change is not the result of forcing new behavior but focusing renewed attention.  Once we   change the way we see, changing what we do is a natural outcome.  Any person within a target team can contact me by phone, email or chat.  Private conversations will be retained in confidence and public solutions will be shared for the benefit of all.

Most of the “coaching-teaching” we do takes place through Chatter, Yammer, Slack or an internal collaborative tool.  I have provided a detailed description of the system and twenty benefits that apply to using any virtual collaborative tool.  Here I want to specifically address the ten benefits of this resource that apply to coaching, training and reinforcement.

1. A single place that is 100% dedicated to:

   1. Developing leadership and communication skills

   2. Enhancing emotional Intelligence

   3. Learning from world recognized leaders in management and human performance

2. A virtual community that is not the responsibility of any one employee or department.

   1. There are no political affiliations

   2. No ulterior motives

   3. Is not subject to FOIA reporting obligations

3. A library of best practices articles, videos, audio podcasts and links.

4. An opportunity to gauge the pulse, needs and interests of the organization by monitoring, facilitating and catalyzing relevant conversations.

   1. Specific materials created by members of the Red Shoe Solutions Team

   2. Resources vetted by our team for their targeted applicability to your group

   3. Contributions from your team members

5. A place to post, test, improve upon and engage team members in developing representative illustrations.

6. A community to ask and answer relevant questions in a timely, transparent and searchable format.

7. A resource that can be set to alert participants specifically to postings, topics and people of interest.

8. Provides hosted security, support and training

9. Offers over 225 potential upgrades and add ons

10. A tool that is simple, free, portable, private, scalable, secure, specific