Coaching vs. Directing - How Does Improv Theater Suggest You Should Lead Your Team
An age old battle in improv that I believe resonates well with challenges we experience in the business world is the question of whether a team should have a coach or a director (in which case it should be called an ensemble). In addition there's the third option of the self coached team, which I will call committee from here on forward. Role
- Director: - "Mold" to vision.
- Coach: - "Catalyst", bring out what is there.
- Committee: Rotation, everybody takes turn coaching the team. Pro's
- Director: Clear vision, outside perspective, result orientation
- Coach: Most common, improve individual skills, goal defined by team.
- Committee: Cost effective, everyone has skin in the game. Con's
- Director: More restrictive, more static, "done" when objective achieved.
- Coach: No "stretch goal".
- Committee: Cements status quo, high frustration potential. Well suited when
- Director: Production quality ("broadway material"), time of fundamental change.
- Coach: Always (even in parallel with director), experimenting with new ideas, time of continuous change.
- Committee: Familiar format with experienced cast. I see strong parallels here with projects I have worked on. There are projects where the very detailed and methodology driven approach is appropriate. In other cases, the more laid back, catalyst type project manager will be more successful. (My experience suggests to consider the self managed approach only in cases of low complexity with an experienced team.) Let me talk a little bit about one term I used upstairs, which I believe is instrumental: vision. This is a term that you will find in management literature on "leadership", usually in combination with another term: voice. The leader has a vision and he has a voice to inspire others to follow his vision. This is what the director does. Often still in a collaborative way (remember we are still talking about improv, so when the rubber hits the road the team is on its own!). Take Second City, the famous Chicago Theater that gave us the likes of John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner, and many more. At Second City the director will come to rehearsals with a vision, but the cast comes up with the content. (It is still "their show".) A coach on the other hand is best defined as in Timothy Callway's "the inner game of tennis" ? he helps bring out what is already there, by helping others to find their voice. This is as noble as it is difficult, especially when dealing with an entire cast of actors (or professionals for that matter). While I believe I fall in the second category (don't most of us? Think that -I mean) I can fall back on methodology and process when necessary. I think that especially in times of great uncertainty people hunger for clear guidance. If it is not provided, then the most insecure, the most risk averse, those that can worst handle uncertainty and change, will assume leadership roles. Because they think they have to (compare dog training literature!) So, the coach needs to provide enough guidance to keep the level of leadership at a comfortable level for the team (the composition of the team of course becomes important here too!). Not too much, but not too little. One exception: In times of paradigm shifts ? for example a team moving from short form to long form improv or moving into more sketch like formats ? a director may be called for. If (s)he knows the territory! Beware of providing structure for its own sake! It is quite easy to fall into this trap. Humans love structure, the more uncertain, the more unfamiliar the situation the stronger that urge. Yet, as Peter Drucker, the great management thinker, correctly observes ? we live in the day of the knowledge worker. The boss does in all likelihood not know better what needs to be done than the knowledge worker. There is one more observation about coaching I want to talk about. In Improv, there is a monster called the "rules of improvisation": don't ask questions, don't block, don't play children, don't play old people, don't make jokes. I could go on for pages. You get the idea. Anything you observe about these? Right. They all begin with a don't. In my experience "don't's" are a bad instrument for coaching. A coach should help an individual or team discover what works. Help them find it out by themselves. (For extra credit: what would a director do? Right, the director should come prepared with a set of "do's".) Don'ts do not tell you what to do but that what you have been doing doesn't work. Nice, so now you're paralyzed. You stand on stage thinking "I should not talk about this", and "shouldn't I be making stuff up instead of thinking what not to do?". Or even "did this other actor just ask me a question, man this scene sucks"- From there on your scene will spiral on downward because you are "in your head" and worrying instead of acting in the scene. In conclusion, there is no one answer, but some observations to be made:
- Provide the appropriate level of leadership for your objective
- Provide a little more if you are going through great changes
- Make your advice actionable and positive
- Help team members (and the team) find their own voice Henrik Kiessler is currently global Manager for CRM at a large Pharmaceutical firm. He lives in Vienna, Austria. He likes to improvise, currently with ImproX http://improx.fesch.at
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
A Small Piece Of Carpet
Have you ever noticed how the way you feel about yourself sometimes depends on whether or not you get confirmation of your value from others? When you enter into challenging situations with a positive self identity you will discover that you are living your life with a greater sense of enjoyment and fulfillment.
Automatic Brain Works Overtime For You
Use all of your brain to be your most effective.
Are You Addicted to Anger?
Michael was raised in a home where anger was used to control. His parents used their anger to attempt to control each other as well as their children. Sometimes the anger erupted into violence and Michael and his siblings would get physically hurt. Michael never knew when one of his parents would suddenly become enraged, so the threat was always there.
Happiness and Work: Your Life Depends On It.
Early one morning, Robert awoke, made his wife of 41 years some banana bread, took out the garbage and called to cancel a doctors appointment scheduled for the next day. He wrote a note to remind his wife to pick up the dry cleaning. All things considered, it seemed like a normal day.
Media Underload! The Stress Reducing Psych-Diet
The war, taxes, the economy, increased health problems, crime on the rise, overwhelming divorce rate, corruption in corporate America, and, oh yes, Janet at the Super Bowl! Where does it end? With so much going wrong, whats going right in the world?
Addiction to Thinking
Randall sought my help because he was stuck being miserable and had no idea how to get out of his misery. In his life he had experienced moments of great joy and sense of oneness with all of life, but those moments were infrequent. He wanted more of those moments but had no idea how to bring them about.
Is Coaching For You?
More and more people have less and less time, but have greater demands both personally and professionally. This situation has resulted in the emergence of personal coaching within four basic areas: Financial, Physical or Fitness, Life or Career and Executive Performance.
Sheep Do Not Start Out Lost
Have you ever thought about how sheep get lost? Even with a shepherd, they still get lost. How does this happen? The one thing I know for sure is that they did not start out lost.
Greasing the Path to Success: Finding the Confidence to Step Up to Key Moments
Whether it's making a prospecting call to a promising business contact, giving an informal "elevator speech" to a networking group, or attempting to close a transaction, there are certain key moments when putting your best-dressed foot forward really matters. Some of life's fortunate people seem to be naturally at their best finding confidence under pressure. The rest of us have to learn.
Success Coaching - What Bill Gates and You Should Have In Common
He was just a teenager, but he was already displaying the powerful habits that would one day make him a billionaire.
Masterminding Success - How to Start a Masterminding Meeting?
Masterminding is about a group of like-minded, achievement-oriented individuals who come together to combine the power of several minds to tackle problems, seek advice and perspectives in achieving their goals.
4 Underused Hot Spots for Your Personal Branding Iron
I'll never forget what my mentor told me: "Don't communicate in any way to any person without the stamp of your personal brand."
A Beginner To Beginners
You may be just starting, or contemplating, your first online business. Or, just like me, you may be trying out yet another online business scheme.
Life Coach, Counsellor, or Therapist; - How do I choose?
Life coaching has become fashionable in recent years and there seems to be a big demand for what they offer. Counselling and many forms of therapy are also on offer, these may have been around for many years and have advantages to offer clients. Yet how do you choose which one to go for?
How To Overcome Stuck States In Personal Growth
Although many of us use self-help tools like affirmations, visualizations, NLP techniques, and spiritual invocations, we sometimes find that nothing happens. This, to say the least, is disheartening.
After many years as a psychotherapist, I found that the brain can be compared to a computer. Since the computer was founded to replicate some of the features of our brains, the analogy also works the other way.
In a computer, a corrupted file, a virus, or any other type of malignant software is sufficient to slow the computer down, create frequent crashes, and cause difficulties in opening certain files.
In a brain, a negative decision based on some troubling event is sufficient to create internal resistance. This resistance is unconscious and often defies the most valiant efforts by the conscious mind to defeat it.
While working in therapy or holistic practice is an excellent way to overcome blockers, internal feedback loops that prevents forward progress, it isn't always convenient and affordable to find the right person when you need him or her.
What do we do to move forward when we feel stuck? How do we debug the brain? And how do we do it on our own?
In pondering this question, I came across this marvelous technique by Karol Truman in her amazing book, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die?
She has created a script that speaks to your unconscious mind using a spiritual perspective. It's deliberately convoluted and confusing to the conscious mind so that the unconscious gets to work. Also, you don't feel anything after you're done, since it's below the radar of your usual awareness.
I'll give it to you here to try out. And, incidentally, if you feel that it doesn't work, recognize that this too is resistance and work on releasing your doubt (which is basically a fear of failure.)
Spirit, please locate the origin of my feeling/thought of feeling negative about (insert the feeling or belief you want to release here).
Take each and every level, layer, area and aspect of my be-ing to this origin. Analyze and resolve it perfectly, with God's truth.
Come forward in time, healing every incident based upon the foundation of the first, according to God's will; until I'm at the present, filled with light and truth, God's peace and love, forgiveness of myself for my incorrect perceptions, forgiveness of every person, place, circumstance and event which contributed to this feeling/thought.
With total forgiveness and unconditional love I delete the old from my DNA, release it, and let it go now! I feel (insert the way you want to feel here).
I allow every physical, mental, emotional and spiritual problem, and inappropriate behavior based on the old feelings to quickly disappear.
Thank you, Spirit, for coming to my aid and helping me attain the full measure of my creation. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you and praise God from whom all blessings flow.
How Can Sceptics Get the Proof They Need
Are you one of those folks that needs to figure-it-out all the time? Are you one of those Law of Attraction students who catches yourself saying things like, "I wonder how this is going to come to me?" or, "What do I need to figure out so I know what to do next (to manifest what I desire)?"
Attention Law of Attraction Students!
What in the World is Life Coaching?
In my speaking engagements I have often compared coaching today to psychotherapy in the 1920s. The level of public understanding of coaching, outside of people in a certain socio-demographic category, is still in its infancy. We are all so saturated with the language of psychoanalysis ? it's difficult to read a book or watch a movie that isn't premised on this shared language ? that we probably don't consider there was once a time when practitioners were asked:
Sometimes, It Just Takes ONE Conversation to Change Your Life!
I was thinking this morning about the importance of the profession that I am in. Besides doing various trainings, workshops and consulting, I also coach people. Coaching is a profession that continues to develop but it originally came out of the self help industry. Many of the first coaches were publicists, consultants, sales professionals, and financial advisors. Much of what these people loved about what they did was helping people figure out how to achieve their best.
How to be Your Authentic Self
Most of us play many different roles in the course of any given day. We could be Mom, Boss, Employee, Student or Friend, to name just a few. Very often we identify ourselves by those roles. When asked, "Who are you/" we say, "I'm a wife and mother", "I am a doctor and amateur photographer". We identify ourselves by how the world sees us, not by who we really are.
Being an Emotional Victim
None of us like to think of ourselves as victims. The term "victim" brings to mind a pathetic image of a person who is powerless. Therefore, It comes as a shock to most of us to realize how often we allow ourselves to be emotional victims. Having counseled individuals, couples, families and business partners for 35 years, I know that many of us are victims much of the time without realizing it.
|
