The Coaching Habit That Backfires

The Coaching Habit That Backfires

Good intentions, bad outcomes fix this before your best reps disengage.

You’re doing the right thing: showing up in 1:1s, reviewing calls, giving feedback. You’re coaching. That’s what great managers do, right?

Yes, but here’s the catch: too much fixing kills performance.

The most common coaching habit that backfires?
👉 Constantly telling reps what to do instead of teaching them how to think.

When every session becomes a checklist of corrections, reps stop owning their deals and start relying on you to solve them. It feels helpful. It looks like leadership. But long-term? It builds dependence, not dominance.

Elite coaches don’t just give answers. They train judgment, pattern recognition, and decision-making. That’s how you build salespeople who win on their own—and scale without you handholding every move.

Time to upgrade your coaching style from fixer… to builder.

5 Fixes to Coach Smarter (Not Harder)

1. Ask Before You Tell
   “What do you think you missed?” builds critical thinking. “Here’s what you did wrong” builds silence.

2. Coach the Rep, Not Just the Call
   Teach the underlying skill, objection handling, discovery depth, control, not just surface-level feedback.

3. Use Film, Not Just Forecasts
   Review recordings together. Pause. Break it down like game tape.

4. Set One Target Per Session
   One rep. One behavior. One focused improvement. No shotgun coaching.

5. Track Coaching Impact
   Connect sessions to pipeline movement and win rates. If it’s not moving numbers, it’s not coaching.

Better coaching isn’t about more input. It’s about smarter, tighter reps who think fast under pressure.

Sales Systems University
Where high-performance coaching builds closers, not codependents.