Coaching can elevate an organisation into the first division, says Paul Kearns, but how do you avoid a training own goal?

Sometimes on a Saturday afternoon I wander over to a playing field near where I live, where I can watch up to 20 games of football in full swing. Admittedly the quality of each game is highly variable and the sizes, shapes, fitness levels and abilities of the players on view defy any attempt at simple categorization. Nevertheless, I guess every single one of them is passionate about the game and, even though they know they are just performing in front of an occasional passer-by like myself, they probably still harbour a dream of playing at Wembley one day. In fact, some of them probably bathe in the happy delusion that they already are. One thing none of them is short of though is advice and coaching coming from the touchline, including the referees, and it doesn’t seem to bother any of their self-appointed coaches that the person next to them is shouting totally contradictory instructions.

As with management, plenty of football spectators think they are experts but their experience would not necessarily help to substantiate such a claim. Even if they had a certificate, indicating they knew what they were talking about, would it be worth the paper it was written on? I actually hold an FA Teaching Certificate, signed by their director of coaching no less, that doesn’t even have a date on it and I have never, ever taught football skills. That doesn’t stop me being absolutely convinced in my own mind that my views on the quality of English football are as valid as anyone else's.

Yet we all know even great footballers don't always make great coaches: one only has to look at the high turnover of football managers to see plenty of evidence of that. Coaching and management are very different skill-sets and on those rare occasions when we get exactly the right mix it produces a truly different but wonderful animal (as a Leicester City supporter I would cite Martin O’Neill as a great example).

Coaching, as with most aspects of people management, is a double-edged sword and one that can be particularly powerful or detrimental depending on who is wielding it. The plethora of 'coaching' organisations that still exist is a clear indication that we have not yet established what makes a great coach great, or a good one acceptable. We don’t even know who the worst coaches are. At least in football the premiership is a pretty clear indicator of when coaching seems to be working, and is not reliant on bits of paper. A track record of success will always be the most convincing evidence.

One thing that can be said for certain though is 'you need glasses referee' if you can't see that coaches who aren’t focused on results aren't coaches.

Paul Kearns specialises in measuring the value of the human contribution to organisational success and teaches real evaluation around the world. He is the author of the CIPD’s best selling 'Evaluating the ROI from Learning'. Visit www.paulkearns.co.uk