Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
I was recently reminded how coaching is the universal immediate performance-improving technique. It is so good that it does not have to be executed perfectly to be effective. Yet there is one way you can blow it, no matter what your intentions.
Let’s say you are looking for an experienced individual to turn in an intermediate deliverable on time, but the individual has surprisingly failed to do this on more than one occasion recently. You are sick of getting burned because this deliverable is awaited by a number high-level leaders who – you are pretty sure of this – use it as a measure of your effectiveness. What’s your immediate reaction? It may be boiling in oil, but let’s go with you begin to manage the details of the task, closely controlling the individual’s work and reviewing in detail multiple drafts.
That would be blowing it. This approach is too tyrannical and lends itself to misinterpretation of your intentions. The experienced individual will not understand or accept the new low trust and low expectations in the relationship. To make matters worse, you miss a chance to help the worker to self-direct so that you can leave work early for once.
Think about a better way and in the next post, I’ll describe a better approach to a coaching solution.
Posted on: February 17, 2008 09:46 PM |
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