Tuesday 17 August 2010

Van Commenee

I love Sportsweek (Radio 5, 8.30am on Sundays). This weeks programme featured an interview with Charles Van Commenee (the whole programme can be found at the BBC website but you cannot get to his bit in isolation). He was asked to respond to various articles that have featured in the press about his tough approach to coaching. He did a great job describing how he adapts his approach based on the strengths of each individual, as you would expect.

Here are a couple of the articles that have been in circulation in case you haven’t seen them: one highlights other tough talking coaches; the other disputes the effectiveness of a tough approach in sport and contrasts the styles of Van Commenee and Andy Flower in particular.

…this has reminded me of the requirement to truly understand the strengths of each person we coach if we are to effectively stimulate them to perform to their potential in organisations. A 'one size fit's all approach' will always limit the scope of what an individual can achieve through coaching?