When an Executive Coach Sees Yellow
Twice a year I submit to a blood test. A lab analyzes the results and generates a highly detailed multipage report. I’m pleased with all the actionable information it provides and how easy it is to read. It presents all the data in one of three categories—high risk, intermediate risk or optimal—and color-codes each category red, yellow or green.
We’ve been conditioned since childhood to respond in specific ways to these three colors, so I congratulate myself on all the numbers in the green zone, think about what I must do to get the numbers in yellow back to green and plot strategies to deal with the (few) numbers in the dreaded red zone.
The same is true of the questions I ask in executive coaching sessions; in my mind, I color-code each response. I don’t spend a lot of time on the answers I mentally put in the green zone. Instead, I concentrate on answers that I color-code red. I have a tried-and-true questioning process for drilling down on red responses.
The challenge is deciding what to do with the responses that I mentally code yellow.
How to decide whether to move on or to drill down is a quandary for most executive coaches. Experience has taught me that three types of yellow responses are often smoke screens and worthy of more questions that might put them in the red zone:
1. “Yeah, we’re doing something like that.”
When I hear “Yeah, we’re already doing something just like that” it’s usually code for “there’s only minimal effort.” Consciously or unconsciously, the client is attempting to throw me off the track rather than deal with the emotional discomfort that comes with the questions about why they’re doing little or nothing about a serious issue.
2. Gerunds.
An article in Inc. Magazine quoted an army general who calls gerunds weasel words. They’re used to give an impression that there’s lots of activity happening to address an issue when there is really little or none. Gerunds undermine accountability, when there is no accountability, companies fail.
3. “I can’t do that until…”
If you’ve read Patrick Lencioni’s book The Five Temptations of a CEO, you’ll recognize this response as Temptation #3, Certainty over Clarity. There’s always one more step, one more piece of information required, before the person can act. They don’t understand that speed wins, and as often as not, their procrastination is a sign that action will take them far outside their comfort zone.
What can we learn and apply from these three examples?
If you sharpen your listening and questioning skills, you’ll develop your ability to drill down on category yellow replies to determine if there’s a fire blazing beyond the smoke.