How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 304

The who, what, when, where, why, and how script is straight forward.
But, simple doesn’t always mean easy. It’s simple to talk a good game
and then begin losing pieces of the covenant as time passes and
circumstances change. Constructive confrontation is a dynamic process.
The who, what, when, where, why, and how are discussed and then
written down, hopefully in an online format that can be sent back and
forth between the team leader and the team member. That way the
document can be revisited and revised as often as necessary to keep the
team member firing on all cylinders and operating at maximum
efficiency and effectiveness.
Confrontation
If enterprise leadership lacks a spine about anything, it’s the resolve to
confront. A well-crafted covenant between team leaders and team
members is only as good as the team leader’s commitment to support
each team member through consistent and constructive confrontation.
To give executives, managers, and supervisors the benefit of the doubt,
no one probably taught them how badly they are cheating themselves,
their direct reports, and their organizations as a whole, when they fail
to confront in a thoughtful, methodical, systematic, and strategic
manner.
The craft of constructive confrontation is so rare that few have seen
enough of it to adopt it through imitation. Typically, once goals and
objectives are set in most organizations, team members and team
leaders fly off in different directions, aware at some level that there will
be no follow through. Constructive confrontation is the consistent
revisiting of the skills, habits, and activities agreed to in the
commitment stage. If team leaders fail to shoulder this responsibility,
team members not only have the opportunity to disconnect from their
commitments, they have a person to blame—the leader.
Consistent and constructive confrontation is not a burden to be
endured by the leader or the team member. It’s an obligation each has
to the other. It’s also an opportunity to propel things forward and build
enthusiasm. The leader owes it to the team member to make daily,
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