Now that the big game is over and, whether your team, won or lost, it’s obvious that good coaching was key to the Kansas City Chiefs’ win. As John Madden, who led the Oakland Raiders to their Super Bowl win said, “Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear.” From the youngest age, to the end of their careers, people are coached. Coaching is a way of life – particularly when it comes to safety in your fleet.

Coaching Your Way to Fleet Safety

When embarking on a coaching program, it’s important to understand where to start, which can vary depending on your role within your organization. Once you’ve decided where you will start, it’s important to understand what is effective coaching and how to measure the results of your efforts.

It’s imperative to follow a prescribed process to ensure that all drivers are coached – and measured – in a timely and unbiased manner. As outlined below, the three steps to coaching effectiveness are:

1. 1. Prepare
      Preparing for each coaching session ensures that you know what you will discuss with each of your drivers, how you will present the information and what you expect from your driver. It also ensures a level of professionalism so that drivers realize the importance of the coaching sessions and will approach them in a similar manner.
   2.  Coach
      The best way to start a coaching session is to show the driver his/her video and ask them what they see. Let them explain what occurred and then discuss the situation. This helps ensure the driver is aware of what occurred and why you are coaching on that occurrence.
   3.  Summarize
      It’s important to make notes of your coaching session. It’s easy to forget what was discussed and the agreed-to next steps to ensure safer driving. With appropriate notes, you can remind your driver should the behavior continue and need further coaching.

   These steps are fundamental to our easy-to-use coaching workflow and have delivered unparalleled results for fleets of all sizes and industries. You don’t need to waste your time trying to find the drivers who need coaching. Nor, do you need to waste time trying to understand what areas need improvement.

   Measuring Coaching Effectiveness

   Once you’ve begun coaching, it’s important to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. The key to driving your program results are actionable analytics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The three KPIs essential to manage your program and ensure your focus is on the right person, at the right time, are:

   These KPIs enable your organization to align top to bottom on performance metrics, understand “better or worse” and focus on what needs improvement. This makes it straightforward and easy to operationalize – enabling your managers to actually save time because they are talking to the right drivers about the right skills that need improvement.

   The impact of this approach is that fleets often experience collision frequency reductions of 50% or greater in the first year of deployment. And, they continue to see results in subsequent years because they have a standardized, consistent approach.

   Whether working with drivers or players, coaching should be consistent, frequent and impactful. This SuperBowl it looks like the Chiefs’ had their coaching plan dialed in. Can you say the same for your team?