How many real people have you heard say, “I need to hire a coach!”? Nobody! Nobody wants to endure being coached! Improvement often requires a lot of work. Isn’t meeting with a coach an admission that you’re not as good as you think you could be?
However, EVERYBODY wants to be a winner! Everyone wants to succeed. In response to any given situation, we all want to achieve clearly desirable outcomes! We want greater freedom, and we want the respect of our peers, our bosses, and our direct reports.
What do you think it means when people ask you, “What do you think I should do?” That’s a way of saying, “I want to achieve some particular outcome – please help me think about how to get there.”
Having a coach is merely a means to an end. The desired outcome is success, achievement, or at least clarity in the face of uncertainty. Stretching beyond our comfort zones – our current limitations – is required to make improvement.
When you experience a few months of support from a good coach, you usually undergo a major growth spurt, your self-awareness expands, your imagination and creativity intensify, and your willingness and ability to serve expands to a new level.
Maybe you’ve gotten by in the past because you are naturally gifted, but you realize now that there is greater potential to be tapped. Or maybe you feel you are being underutilized; you’re not quite sure how to step up and be recognized for greater challenges.
Perhaps you want stronger relationships with family, friends, or colleagues at work--maybe with your boss or your direct reports. Maybe you want to set and achieve higher goals for yourself.
Who provides the inspiration that causes you to push yourself to greater heights? Does your existing environment provide all the intellectual stimulation you need or can handle?
Who is holding you accountable for the promises you make to yourself? Who cares that you actually follow through with the hard work that is required to make progress?
Ecclesiastes 4:9 says: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.” A good coach is able to help you grow from your current level of performance to a superior level of competence and confidence.
Coaching is a high form of customized learning. The coach creates an environment where you are free to generate and explore options, capitalizing on your strengths to achieve your aspirations.
Your coach helps you move from where you are now to where you want to be, asking thought-provoking questions and evoking answers from your own awareness and perceptions.
A good coach deals with your agenda, sees you as capable, and assists you with discipline, holding you accountable for following through on the actions to which you commit. In his highly respected book The Next Generation Leader, Andy Stanley has a section devoted to “coaching.” In it are these powerful words: “You will never maximize your potential in any area without coaching. It is impossible. You may be good. You may even be better than everyone else. But without outside input, you will never be as good as you could be .... Don’t be deceived by measuring your leadership against what others are doing rather than against your God-given potential.”
Nobody wants to endure coaching. But who wants to miss the opportunity to reach their potential?
Dennis Hooper is a leadership development coach, inspiring leaders to stretch the individuals under their authority. Call him at 478-988-0237, or send an e-mail to dhooper2@juno.com.
