DYK # 37: Did you know… coaching a sports team taught me new lessons about CX consulting?
While my day job, and my work at Melanie Disse Consulting are all centred around CX consulting and technology advisory, I also have another, unpaid job that I recently started. I’m coaching a V6 team, a Waka Ama (NZ term / or Outrigger Canoe) team in my spare time.
I’m doing this because I spent a lot of my life as an athlete, across waka ama, surfski and kayaking. With a wealth of knowledge, expertise and considerable skills, I was asked if I’d take on the job as team coach.
So last weekend, my team qualified for the IVF (International Va’a Federation) World Sprint Championship in Singapore later this year, with a gold and two silver medals at our New Zealand National Waka Ama Championship.
I’ve been coaching the team for a few months now, with the prime focus on the World Championship later this year in August. The first hurdle was to qualify at the National Champs, and I’m proud to say that we achieved this first milestone!
You may be wondering now why I bring this up in our January DYK. Fair question.
While my day job and my business are centered around CX consulting and technology advisory, I noticed some pretty strong cross-overs between my sports coaching and my consulting work with clients.
Firstly, I started my consulting business since I had wealth of knowledge, expertise and considerable skills (yes, I copied that from above), and I wanted to share that with others.
Secondly, I wanted to support those facing a CX challenge by offering my help, advice and guidance.
I’ve always greatly enjoyed consulting and working with my clients. It gives me great joy to advice, support, and build something that’s better than what we had before. It’s all about progress, applying your skills and knowledge to help.
I’ve noticed over the years that my approach to consulting is indeed more coaching centred. I like to explain it as “I’m teaching you how to fish, rather than doing the fishing for you.”
There are of course times when I am doing the “fishing” for my clients, for various reasons. It might be a bespoke project, resource constraints, or the client simply wants it done, and not learn how to do it themselves.
Let’s look at what separates coaching from consulting:
Coaching empowers clients / people / teams to find their own solutions through learning and self-discovery, teaches skills, and transfers knowledge. Coaching focuses on mindset and long-term growth.
Consulting, on the other hand, provides expert answers and implements solutions for specific problems, often involving defined projects and technical or strategic expertise.
While coaching is client-led and developmental, consulting is expert-led and solution-oriented, with coaches asking questions and consultants giving direct recommendations.
Depending on what the client needs, we adjust our approach. Often, it ends up as a hybrid approach.
The reason I lean toward a more coaching centred consulting style is that I hold a lot of expertise and knowledge, but I’m not part of YOUR organisation. I’m not always there, and when I leave, I want to make sure you (my client) has the skills and knowledge to continue successfully what we’ve started.
Too often we see consultants swooping in with great ideas, starting work, and it all falls apart when they leave. I don’t want that for my clients.
In the case of my sports team, I simply can’t jump in the boat to help them. They’re an age group team and I’m not in their age division. I have to coach them to achieve the best result they can achieve by themselves. It’s such a great challenge, and it reminds me so much of my consulting work.
And it’s a great learning experience for me as well. I’m new to coaching sports teams, I’ve only ever been on the athlete side, and that for many years. I was fortunate enough to have many extraordinary coaches during my time. One coach in particular stood out for me, she became a great friend and mentor. That’s why it’s even more special for me to coach this year, since I’m coaching her V6 team. It’s a chance for me to give back, after receiving so much from her over many years.
What’s in it for you?
It also comes at a great time, with me writing my first book “CX is a Team Sport”, giving me the opportunity to combine my athlete background in high performance teams with my CX consulting work, and now coaching as well. I think of the book as a vehicle to teach clients (or anyone who buys the book!) how to build high-performing CX practices for their organisations. If that's something you’re interested in, keep following us on LinkedIn or get in touch.
It’s too early to tell how I’ll stack up as a waka ama coach, though one thing is for certain: I do enjoy coaching as much as I enjoy my consulting.
For any questions, and if you’d like to have a chat about how we can support YOU in YOUR CX journey, just get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
#CX #Customerexperience #CXTeamSport #customercentricity #coaching #consulting #HighPerformanceTeams