Stephanie was coaching a product manager at Google, Marcus, who was preparing to pitch a new health tech idea to his executives. He had done the work. The research was solid. The opportunity was real. And like many strong operators, his instinct was to lead with the facts. During his discovery process, Marcus had interviewed a nurse, Sarah, who shared something surprising: She logged into her system about 100 times per shift. Marcus dug deeper. Each login took about a minute… That’s more than an hour and a half in an 8-hour shift spent just logging in. That’s a compelling data point. But it's not enough. Data alone doesn’t carry weight unless people feel what it means. So we worked on how he delivered it. We didn't change the numbers. We just changed the experience of hearing them.
Stephanie was coaching a client, Lindsay, who was frustrated with one of her employees. The employee wasn’t looping in the right people at the right time. Lindsay’s conclusion was simple. “He’s just lazy. He doesn’t care if the right stakeholders are involved in the process.” So Stephanie asked her a different question. “What have you done to make him care?” She paused. “Well… I explained how important it was.” Voila! It was clear, logical, and direct… and yet completely insufficient on its own.
Most check-ins drift into the same tired patterns and scripts: Light chatter: “What’s going on?” Project updates: “How’s project X?” A half-hearted attempt to help: “Anything you need help on?” A vague attempt to connect: “Is there anything else on your mind that we should talk about?” Rushed, pushed or cancelled meetings Check-ins fall into these predictable habits because both parties show up and wing them. Clarity is non-existent. People don’t have a clear sense of why they’re there, what they should get out of the meeting, and how best to use the time. How often do you walk into these meetings with no agenda or sense of purpose? This is a wasted opportunity.
Many of the people we coach are people leaders who are stressed about supporting their people in the midst of (massive) organizational change. Then pile on the fact that they’re often losing resources and being asked to do more with less. We hear comments like: I don’t know what to tell my team that will be helpful when I’m frustrated and overworked myself. Leadership just keeps asking for more. How do I keep them motivated? We don’t have any professional development money for them. These leaders think that they have to show up with the answer to everyone else’s problems. They want to be able to provide a solution that will give their teams clarity and direction. They know that’s what their people want. And yet, they’re often ignoring the most critical tool in their arsenal.