Unlike what you might’ve thought, we’re not talking about coaching little league baseball today. Rather, using critical skills, the “must haves” to make you an approachable person. Let’s face it, if you’re not approachable, you’re not going to make a good coach.

We’ll begin with Interpersonal Communication—and it’s so important we’re actually going to talk about it more again in a follow up article. But interpersonal communication is such a vital tool when it comes to coaching because within it, you’ll find so much. There’s verbal and non-verbal communication. There’s body language. There’s dialogue with those around you. There’s choice of words, tone of voice, eye contact, gestures, and the list truly does go on and on. It’s with your interpersonal communication that you can make the greatest statements about your coaching.

Let’s make an example of it real quick, because we are going to dig deeper into the topic in a later article. I realize we joked about little league earlier but hang with me here.

You’re the coach of a little league baseball team. The game is close in the last inning and one of your best hitters is at the plate. You’re confident they’ll knock in the tying run. You’ve got the bench cheering them on. Parents are standing. The other team knows this kid is a hitter so they’re dead silent. The count is full and they’ve fouled off a couple balls. The next pitch comes in and although it’s in the dirt, your player swings and misses hard. Your team has lost.

Already miserable and likely kicking them self for swinging at such an awful pitch, your player turns toward the dugout to see you standing there, hands on your hips, shaking your head in disbelief that they’d swing at a ball in the dirt.

Now put yourself in your player’s cleats. Is that someone you want to walk up to? Is that someone you want to have a cordial conversation with?

Here’s the key though: is that someone who appears approachable?

Probably not… 

Interpersonal communication can impact every walk of life for us and being able to harness the power of it will make or break our ability to coach others.

To Be Continued…