Team Leadership, Positive Interaction – Good Coach/Bad Coach

The Productivity and Positivity competencies are related. For example, your positive interaction with your team members can have a very real impact on productivity. The following exercise will show the immediate impact an effective team leader can have on productivity.

Good Coach/Bad Coach
Ask for six volunteers.
Based on your observation of participants divide the group into “coaches” and “players”. Leave the players in the room and take the coaches outside. Give the players these instructions only: “You will be assigned a coach who will ask you to complete a task. You will be blindfolded during this process.”
Assign a role to each coach:
Coach 1: You will provide no feedback whatsoever. You will simply say: “Okay, throw the clothespins (or tennis balls) in the bucket”. You may not tell your player where the bucket is. You may not tell them whether they hit the bucket or not. Do not be mean – just don’t give any feedback. You can say – “This is easy. I’ve been doing it for years…” Don’t answer questions, etc.
Coach 2: You will provide only negative feedback. Be mean. Say “You are going to throw these clothespins or (tennis balls) in that bucket. You better hurry too, because we can’t go to break if you screw this up.” When they miss, act disgusted. Say something judgmental like “You’re not very coordinated, are you?” or “You’ve got a bright future as a bench-warmer”.
Coach 3: You will provide positive, specific feedback. Instruct them to take their time, that there is no time constraint. Tell them where the bucket is, take their elbow and turn them to face the bucket. Before they throw – go stand at the bucket and say “Listen to my voice – the bucket is at my feet. Aim for me.” When they throw – tell them specifically where it landed. Make sure they know that you know they can do it. Encourage them. Help them adjust. Act as a “backboard” if needed to create early success.
Instruct the rest of the group to observe silently. Have the coaches go in order. Use a different color clothespin for each player. Move the bucket in between rounds so the players don’t know where it is.
When all three groups have gone, ask the rest of the group to evaluate the quality of the feedback of each coach.