[OUTCOME BASED GOALS VS EFFORT BASED GOALS: WALKING A FINE LINE]

As a coach, you are walking a fine line: don't be to quick to judge people on their outcomes in the short term, but also be critical if the outcomes are not there after a longer period.

Things don't always pan out the way you want them to go. I just finished a training program, and my squat max went up by ... 0 kg (luckily, the snatch and C&J were better). So... did I fail?

If I had set myself an outcome-based goal, I should look at this as a failure. No change means no improvement.
If I had set an effort-based goal, I should feel succesful. I did all the required things, got plenty of sleep and relatively good nutrition.

This is just an example of how when coaching people, you should always look at the entire picture. The fact that my snatch and c&j went up, highly probably indicates there was some improved strength and power, but for some reason it did not show in the squat. Maybe I was tired.. Maybe my technique was off. But maybe my nutrition was less good than I think. Maybe I was not focussed enough during the workouts.
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Great coaches know which one of the following it was, set the right (kind of) goals and steer the ship in the right direction. A tough distinction to make!