Article • September 12, 2019

How to Coach It When You Can’t See It

By Karen Foster

Glasses in front of a eye chart.

What goes through your mind when someone mentions the word “coaching?” If you’re like most people, you probably think about a person instructing on a skill or a behavior to another person. And, that skill or behavior — whatever it may be — is probably observable.

For example, you might think of a parent teaching their child to ride a bicycle or a basketball coach teaching a new player to dribble or a district manager teaching a sales representative on how to use a new visual aid. In each of those cases, the coach can physically demonstrate the desired behavior and then observe how the learner performs it.

But what about unobservable behaviors, like thinking? Here, we look at the differences between observable and unobservable behaviors and offer some guidance for coaching unobservable behaviors.

Read the full article here.