I’ve written before about the situational leadership framework, a model of both learning and coaching that helps make sense of how new skills are acquired, and the adaptive role managers must play in supporting their teams.
The four roles managers can play are:
- Directing: tell people what to do, how, and when (S1)
- Coaching: guiding, advising (S2)
- Supporting: nudging along a skilled person on a task that they might not want to do (S3)
- Delegating: they’re off and running (S4)
From the perspective of the team member, there framework has a simple 2×2 of skillfulness and willingness:
- Unwilling and unable (S1)
- Unable and willing (S2)
- Able and unwilling (S3)
- Able and willing (S4)
Though simplified, this is a nice shortcut for framing our development of different skills and the kind of support we require: how good (or bad) am I at doing this new thing? And how willing (or unwilling) am I to do the work?
Recently I was watching a squash coach teach a high backhand volley to a teenager. The coach explained the principles, gave some specific pointers, and then demonstrated. His synchronicity from seeing the ball to the energy he transferred from legs to torso to shoulders to racquet was a sight to behold. Pow!
Then the teenager stepped up, got fed a high ball to hit, and…barely connected. It was a jumbled mess, all wrist and arm going every which way, with the contrast to what he’d been shown all the easier to see from outside the court.
And what did this experienced coach say, seeing this mess?
“Great job!!! Nice work.”
I kept on waiting for the “and…” or the “but…” because there were a hundred shifts that were required.
And then I realized what I’d just seen: the teenager had just shifted from S1 to S2, had just gone from unwilling to willing, and, since we have loads of time, and since sustained motivation matters much more than skill today, the right response is just that.
I applaud your willingness.
I stoke the flames of your belief in yourself.
I encourage you without reservation.
The technique you’re trying to build…that will come later.
Right now, at the start of this journey for this skill on this day, my job is to say “Yes!”
