What lesson can we learn from the best coaches in the world?
What do world-class; truly world-class coaches do that set them apart?
Let’s take a look at the world of professional sports and assess what coaches at the highest level do that translates into the ministyr world. For instance, take one of the most successful football coaches in European club football – Zinedane Zedane. Not only was he one of football’s greatest players of his generation; but now is approaching his team’s third European Championship in a row. A feat that has only been achieved by Bayern Munich from 1974-1976.
For our purposes, what can we extract from what Zedane does that applies to how we approach disciplemaking and leader development?
First, Zedane understands the game.
Second, he knows his players.
Third, Zedane makes the right decisions at the right time.
I realize that I am making a leap to suggest that coaching in the sport’s context can have some relevance for coaching in a ministry context; but these are worth consideration.
Let’s take that second one today – Zedane knows his players. He knows their personality, strengths and weaknesses, what motivates and demotivates, how and when to challenge. What you also sense from Zedane is, he knows how hard to challenge to get the very best from his team.
When coaching disciplemaker and leaders, it is imperative that we know the people we are empowering. What I am suggesting is that we must know what makes a disciplemaker “tick” and how to help leader’s take that difficult next step in their development. Specifically a coach must know their:
- Personality
- Strengths and Weaknesses
- Motivator and De-motivators
These are just some of the complexities of the human beings that we are called to coach to make disciples and leaders.
Here are three questions for your reflection:
- What are the personality traits of the people you coach (for disciplemaking & leader development)?
- How do you challenge different people, differently?
- How do you motivate different people, differently?
Here are two coaching resources I have found helpful to help coach introverts and extroverts:
Coaching Introverts
Coaching Extroverts
