a great coach’s four favorite words

The most effective development of your people occurs not in meetings or trainings, but in response to their questions and needs. When someone comes to you with something they’re not sure how to handle, don’t miss this golden growth opportunity by doing something easy and self-aggrandizing, like giving them an answer. 

Instead, train yourself first to ask, “What do you think you should do?” If their response doesn’t meet your bar, ask, “Well, what do you think I would tell you to do?” If their response doesn’t meet your bar, only then give them advice. 

After you give the advice, ask, “How would you avoid needing my help for something like this in the future?” and “Why do you think I’m advising you to do it this way?”

…

One of the best clinical legal professors in the country is Mike Wishnie at Yale Law School. He trains new law students to be world-class lawyers by guiding them as they represent real clients in real cases. Mike clerked on the Supreme Court; he’s brought and won major, historic lawsuits against massive government agencies; he’s tenured at the top law school in the land. He knows what he’s doing. Even more impressively, he gets baby lawyers with none of his credentials to get the same results he does.

Mike’s go-to move isn’t touting that platinum resume or telling those wayward 1Ls what to do. He often doesn’t have to say anything. Novices come to him for guidance and he just smiles and takes a sip out of a cheap old ceramic coffee mug. 

Screenprinted on the student-facing side of that mug is a faded old phrase:

What do you think?

-Ben & Eric