Coaching Isn’t Telling People What to Do. It’s Getting Them to Want to Do It.

There’s a moment every coach hits, whether you’re working with a cyclist, a new trainee at the warehouse, or a kid learning to ride for the first time, where you realize that telling people what to do doesn’t actually work.

You can write the perfect training play. You can explain the science. You can point to the numbers. But if they don’t want to do it, none of it matters. And if they do want to do it, half the time you could’ve said anything and they still would’ve figured it out. 

Coaching isn’t about commands. It’s about buy-in. 

I’ve seen it in cycling. I’ve worked with riders who had all the gear, all the tech, all the data, and none of the fire. They’d show up. They’d half-commit. They’d blame the plan, or the weather, or their FTP not climbing fast enough. And I’ve also coached riders who had old gear, chaotic schedules, and a million excuses not to try, but they wanted it. And they got better because they chose to. 

I see the same thing at work.

You can walk someone through the process a dozen times. You can demonstrate. Quiz them. Repeat yourself. But until they understand why it matters, and until they decide to care, you’re just noise in the background of their day. On the other hand, if you make them feel like their success is their own? Like they’re growing, not just following directions? They lean in. They start driving the process instead of being dragged by it. 

Motivation doesn’t come from authority. It comes from belief.

Belief in the task. Belief in the outcome. Belief in themselves. 

That’s the difference between managing and coaching. 

Managing is making sure boxes get checked. 

Coaching is building the kind of mindset where people start looking for boxes you didn’t even ask about. 

I’ve coached riders who hated intervals until they realized how strong it made them feel at the top of a climb. I’ve trained employees who didn’t care about safe loading procedures until it was tied to making sure they got home uninjured to their kids. You have to connect the task to something that matters. 

Coaching isn’t “Do it because I said so.” 

It’s “Do it because now you want to see how far you can go.”

And sometimes that’s the most humbling part. Because when you coach well, they don’t need you forever. They get stronger. Smarter. More confident. And eventually, they start coaching someone else. 

That’s not failure. That’s the goal.