12 minutes
Coaching, not directing Learn what coaching does that directing does not, and when each is the right tool.
What you’ll be able to do Distinguish coaching from directing, explain what each produces, and identify the situations in which each is appropriate. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What is the most useful response? Document a next step for Coaching, not directing: In your next conversation about a difficult situation, ask three questions before you give one instruction. Two tools, different products Directing and coaching are both legitimate. They produce different things. Directing produces an action: the worker does what they were told. Coaching produces judgment: the worker thinks the situation through, decides, and is more able to do so next time. Because direct support happens almost entirely when no supervisor is present, judgment is what the work runs on, and coaching is how it is built.
Directing is the right tool when there is one correct answer, when safety requires immediate action, or when a rule applies. Those situations exist and are a small share of the work. The rest — the daily judgments about reading a person, stepping in, managing risk — has no single answer, and a worker who is told what to do in those situations learns only to ask.
Coaching or directing? "What do you think is behind the refusal?"
Choose a category Coaching Directing "Give the medication at eight as prescribed; do not adjust the time."
Choose a category Coaching Directing "What have you tried, and what happened?"
Choose a category Coaching Directing "Call emergency services now and stay with him."
Choose a category Coaching Directing "If you had to guess what she needs right now, what would it be?"
Choose a category Coaching Directing "The incident report must be filed before the end of shift."
Choose a category Coaching Directing Check matches Reset When to use which Direct Coach The default
One correct answer. A safety issue needing action now. A rule or a legal requirement. A new worker in their first days who needs the basics. In each case, say what to do, say why, and move on.
A judgment about a person. A situation with several reasonable responses. A worker who knows the person better than you do. Anything that will recur when you are not there. Ask before you tell, and tell as an option.
Coach, unless one of the reasons to direct applies. Most supervisors default the other way, because directing is faster in the moment. It is slower over a year.
Three questions before one instruction What you can change You control the ratio of questions to instructions in your conversations. Shifting it is the whole of the move from directing to coaching.
What to watch for Do not coach a safety issue. Direct it, then coach the reflection afterwards.
Your next step In your next difficult-situation call, ask what the worker sees, thinks and would do before you say anything.
Carry this forward Directing tells a worker what to do; coaching asks what they see, what they think, and what they would do, and develops the judgment the work depends on.
Directing is right when there is one correct answer, a safety issue, or a rule; coaching is right for everything else, which is most of the work.
A team that is only directed learns to wait for instructions; a team that is coached learns to think, and thinks when the supervisor is not there, which is always.
A sort separating coaching from directing, a tabs comparison, a scenario decision and a knowledge check.
In your next conversation about a difficult situation, ask three questions before you give one instruction.
Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Reset this lesson
Previous lesson Next lesson Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
