Player verses Client

In sports it is the player who scores the points. The sports coach works with, develops, and supports the player. The coach’s job is to help players develop their inherent natural ability. Ultimately, on the field, it is up to the player to be successful.

In a helping relationship, such as therapy, or twelve-step recovery program, it is the psychologist or leader who supports the client. There is the basic assumption that somehow the client is broken and the coach has the ability to “fix” the client or to fix the client’s problem.

Six sigma practitioners are smart people selected for their capabilities and their abilities to get things done. The Six Sigma coach’s role is most frequently to help the belt think outside the box, to examine alternatives, to act as a sounding board for ideas, to encourage, and to support players to bring out their inherent natural ability. The Six Sigma coach isn’t trying to fix anybody.

Six sigma coaches are, hopefully, smart people, too. It takes considerable skill and patience – especially when the coach has seen a similar problem or issue before – to ask the kinds of questions that will spur the player to develop a way forward toward a solution that works in the given situation. The great temptation is to offer suggested ideas and by implication guide the player to the coach’s perceived ideal solution. The wise coach remains centered, still and open to the player to allow the player the time to process and arrive at a solution the player can own and implement. The wise coach sees a player not a client.

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