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Coaching star performers

Star performers and high achievers in general can be demanding of any coaching relationship. They are often people who have achieved significant success in their career or profession, whether that is in business, the arts or sports. Failure and mediocrity are not feelings they are used to, in fact really successful people often fear failure and find it difficult to deal with. This can make them tricky to deal with in a coaching relationship as they have high self-belief and high expectations. Any coach working with a star performer, no matter what the field is, will have to be credible and confident in their own right to build a meaningful, trusting and respectful relationship with their coachee.

In this chapter we will identify some of the reasons high achievers can be challenging to work with and will suggest ideas for building good-quality coaching relationships with typical star performers.

Behavioural traits

High achievers very often display some or all of the following behavioural traits that can make them complicated and challenging to work with. They are often:

• Highly self-assured. This is often displayed by their poise and composure in interpersonal situations. Their confidence in their own area of expertise is demonstrated by their knowledge, skill and capability in a wide range of different business settings.
  
• Ambitious. They have a strong desire for success and are usually highly motivated in whatever they take on, often to the extent of single-mindedness.
  
• Competitive. They can display a competitive spirit. Not necessarily with other people, but often competitive in that they want to beat the odds or improve on past performance. They may be keen to learn new skills and approaches to contribute towards even greater success.
  
• Challenging. They often think very quickly and adapt to new situations with ease and are driven to meet the high expectations they set themselves. They often approach their career and day-to-day work differently to their colleagues as they are always on the lookout for learning opportunities where they can improve themselves.
  
• Goal driven. They want to have stretching goals and targets so that they have the feeling of constant growth, development and achievement.
  

High achievers and star performers can also demonstrate the darker side to their character in that if they overdo any or some of the above characteristics they can appear to be selfish, arrogant, confrontational, aggressive and possibly a bit of a loner. Another danger that star performers can face is the possibility of being derailed. Research shows that there are several aspects of derailment that could apply specifically to star performers.

One is being over ambitious. Ambition itself is positive but there is a danger that some excellent performers set their sights too high. These are the performers who perform well but are not quite as good as they think they are! Other derailment factors are alienating people on the way up and thinking more about promotion than the job itself. There can be a tendency for star performers to think only of themselves and their personal goals and forget that they cannot make it alone. If they alienate colleagues on their way up, then there will be plenty of people to help them along when they are on their way down. Overreliance on one key strength, such as a natural talent, skill or pure energy, and in addition an overreliance on one particular sponsor or mentor, can derail a star performer. So when you are coaching a high achiever, it’s worthwhile keeping derailment issues in mind so that you can be on the lookout for any potential derailers. Then help your coachee to recognise them as such and to work through ways of ensuring they don’t fall into the derailment trap.

Thoughts to consider when coaching a star performer

Many of the skills, techniques and approaches already covered in this book will help you when coaching high achievers but the following ideas and tips may be appropriate to ensure a truly good-quality relationship. Star performers will expect their coach to be highly skilled and experienced and to work with them to further improve their performance. This means that certain aspects of the coaching relationship will come into greater focus. These include:

• Relationship building and making a connection between the coach and coachee. The coachee will almost certainly expect the coach to demonstrate capability in the areas that they wish to focus on. So, for instance, if a coachee wishes to talk about how to handle fellow board members they would typically expect their coach to have had significant board-level experience themselves either as a coach for others or as a board member. There needs to be a good connection between the coach and the star performer at a personal level. Building trust and mutual respect will be paramount.
  
• Contracting to agree the focus and processes that you will adopt when working together. Features of a coaching discussion with a high achiever will be:
  
  • Challening your coachee to continually explore, improve and develop. Focus on stretching them.
    
  • Helping them to see the actual outcomes from the coaching sessions. Work with them to explore what has changed and improved and how they will continue to incorporate this into their day-to-day work.
    
  • Being prepared to offer feedback, both positive and negative, about your perspective on how they are performing. Any negative feedback should always be accompanied by ideas to explore for improvement. Positive feedback should acknowledge their ability, skill and achievements.
    
  • Being willing to follow their lead in terms of the agenda for any session. Have your antennae on high alert for cues and clues that indicate the coachee is ready to move on to something different. They tend to want a fast-moving discussion and may not feel the need to dwell on issues once they believe they have ‘got it’.
    
  • Being courageous. Some high achievers may have already achieved a lot, but they may not be quite as good as they think they are! In our conversations with top coaches from the world of sport we have learned that many successful performers have a somewhat inflated view of their capabilities. This also applies in the business world. Top performers often focus their efforts on very narrow criteria, for example they only focus on results and forget to take care of their relationships with their colleagues and support staff. This can result in them being regarded as somewhat aggressive and possibly regarded by some as a bully. This can mean that someone else may have to get involved to pick up the pieces. So, it is essential for any coach to be courageous and be ready and willing to challenge the coachee’s opinion of themselves.
    
  • Making your coaching session about the coachee’s needs. They must feel that they are in control. Early on in the relationship you should explore what their dreams and ambitions are and how they believe a coaching relationship can help with this. The focus should be on the future.
    
  • Not shying away from the difficult areas. It is important to help a high achiever identify any blind spots, overdone strengths or self-limiting beliefs – these are the areas that could trip them up at some point in the future. High achievers can and do plateau and some completely derail. Your job as a coach is to help the coachee avoid these possibilities.
    

Coaching a high achiever can be incredibly rewarding for the coach as it can test and stretch you as well as the coachee.

Tips for success

• Find out what the coachee’s dreams and ambitions are.
  
• Ask them to talk about their strengths and then ask what the flipside of these strengths might be, and how these might come across to others.
  
• Be prepared to challenge your coachee and ask them if they could do even better.
  
• When questioning star performers, don’t just ask about their own performance, ask about how it affects others.