Overcoming Resistance to Failure

How does an ACE Coach keep students from failing? They don’t! They help them acknowledge the failure and recover by engaging the Growth Mindset to improve (Dweck, 2006).

There is a delicate balance between an ACE Coach guiding from the side and students taking responsibility and holding themselves accountable for their own outcomes. The natural tendency is to provide advice and counsel, which is the opposite of guiding from the side.

How a coach responds to a student that is performing below a 3.0 CUM is critical. When a student has a failure, it is important for the coach not to express concern or disappointment or take it personally as a reflection of their skills as an ACE Coach. Instead, it is an opportunity to reflect on what could be done to improve as a coach. The four ACE Pillars applies to coaches as well as students. 

The pride of accomplishment should come from the student applying the four ACE pillars and their ability to use them effectively. Any failure is an opportunity to exercise or stay in the Growth Mindset, inspire curiosity to find out why, and redoubling their efforts to improve. 

Guiding from the side prompting students’ critical thinking to solve their challenges requires patience, and there is no time limit on how long it will take the student to resolve it. 

 Student outcomes are linked directly to the ACE Methodology of Coaching. To ensure compliance with ACE’s methodology, new prospective coaches don’t train alone. A senior coach is assigned their first year for support and to guide the trainer coach back on track.  

It’s like a musician who has learned a piece of music and has misplayed specific phrases for years. They must retrain their memory to the new phrases, which takes time, patience, focus, and practice to rewire muscle memory – but once done; the musician can play the music correctly. 

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset, The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.