Are you getting any coaching?

I don't mean from a professional coach, per se. Just coaching. Are you getting enough? Chances are, the answer is, no.

We all need to have mentors.
Coaches.
Sounding boards.
People we can use to keep us on the edge.
People who will tell us when we are full of bull.

Who do you have? In what form does coaching take?

The good news is that getting good coaching and input has never been so easy. Unlimited long distance, free teleconferencing, online coaching, and even coaching by blog (see Rosa's free program that is guaranteed to help all managers and leaders).

It is only Tuesday. Make sure you seek coaching by the end of the week. Have a conversation that helps you move forward. Seek someone out. Ask him or her to be your coach or mentor. Some people use professional coaches and get a lot out of that experience - which is great. But that should not be your only source of coaching even if you are high up on the food chain. Imagine this:

A VP has a goal of being more inclusive. She knows this is an area where breakthroughs would make a big difference to her success. She asks Bob, a line level manager, to be her coach with regard to improving inclusion. She acknowledges that this is one of his strengths and says that she would like to learn from him.

What does this do?

1. Helps the VP improve.
2. Makes Bob feel great AND more connected to helping the VP be successful.

I know leaders sometimes hesitate to ask for coaching from people who hold positions lower on the org chart, but this is dumb and outright offensive. If the VP is lousy at inclusion, everyone knows it. There is no downside and lots of upside in being real about our weaknesses and seeking help.

What are you lousy at? In what ways do you drive people insane (you do, we all do)? Everyone knows the answer to these questions even if we are too dense to see or admit our weaknesses.

 

Let's get over that and get the coaching we need to be great. We can all be great with the right coaching.

Comments

[James Shewmaker]

My Monday Jan. 16th article at http://cohesiveintegrity.com discusses how knowledge is acquired and that without the acquisition of new knowledge, personal development comes to a halt. One of the ways in which knowledge is acquired is "guided experiential" learning. Both coaching and mentoring are good examples of "guided experiential" learning which can fuel personal development.

[Lisa Haneberg]

James:

Thanks for the link - your post is great. It makes such a difference when we reach out and become proactive about our own development.

[Rosa Say]

Aloha Lisa,

Thank you for sharing the good word. Pure and simple, coaching is about learning and not going it alone. There’s a combination of both things, i.e. personal effort and striving with coaching, which help us learn in better context: the growth we gain is in all four areas of our capacities; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual.

I like to say there is no better catalytic converter than learning for both growth and relationship reinvention, and as you have explained here so very well, coaching relationships have no boundaries and limits, only those you perceive and impose on yourself. I love the example you have given about the VP asking a line-level manager to help her: Been there and still there! I have received such wonderful coaching in our Ho‘ohana Community from so many, and it is a gift we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of.

Mahalo nui for this terrific article.
Rosa

[Lisa Haneberg]

Rosa:

I like the catalytic converter metaphor and you are right, our blog communities are excellent potential sources of input and learning from all walks of life.

One thing I love about blogging is that I periodically get emails from people all around the world looking for input and ideas. What a cool opportunity!

[chuck]

This is just such exciting stuff. Great blog.