The quote in the title is from Dr. Howard Hendricks. And it speaks to the connection Hip Socket strives to make between my work, coaching, and my passion, classical thought.
Perhaps you don’t have time to read the sales-oriented white paper at this site, but the statistics in the summary are damning. Two in particular:
- Sales trainees forget half of what is taught within five weeks.
- Training’s return on investment quadruples from 22 percent to 88 percent when reinforced by in-field coaching and reinforcement.
I see coaching as a modern iteration of that ancient art, dialectic. It is how Socrates and his intellectual descendants taught: “after much converse about the matter itself and a life lived together, suddenly a light, as it were, is kindled in one soul by a flame that leaps to it from another, and thereafter sustains itself.” At least, that’s how Plato is said to have viewed it.
(It would be a total lie to reduce the liberal arts to ROI. But, as it has been pointed out to me, the ancients would have used the arts to speak at memorials, in court and in the legislature. It helped a man be human–but it was practical as well.)
Manager, if you need help, check out the handout “How to Coach Employees” on Hip Socket’s Resources page. And give me a call. There is nothing like experiencing coaching to understand how it can help your people.