The Power of Coaching – the power of not going it alone!

I hope you’re having a great week and progressing steadily toward the achievement of some of your most important goals.  My recent message on “Secrets of the Success Superstars” generated a number of email responses and questions wanting to know more about what coaching really is and what it can actually do for you.  Realizing a good understanding of that is not something that should be “assumed” or taken for granted, I thank those who asked and offer my response below.  Most folks, both clients and non-clients, have found my description more detailed and more specific – as well as more enlightening – than most explanations they’ve received.  I hope you do as well and invite you to share your thoughts or comments below.  And if you have a very specific or personal question, please feel free to contact me.

As an Executive, Business Owner, or High Performance Professional – who knows better than you that nobody  should  be “going it alone” if they really want to be successful?  While it is possible for success to be driven by the vision and passion of one person, it is not a journey that one makes by themselves.  Successful people across a broad range of professions use coaches to help them play at the top of their game – and to play a bigger game. Top athletes, actors, singers, business executives, entrepreneurs, authors, technology innovators, and political leaders, among others – who are seriously successful, or serious about becoming successful – use coaches to develop and maintain the competitive edge that keeps them at the top of their game.

Top performers, and those who strive to be, understand it’s nearly impossible for one person alone to see or think “outside the box” into which they have blindly “thunk” themselves.  They recognize the power of synergy, and thrive on the increased ability to leverage their time, talents and resources that can result from a dedicated and focused coaching relationship.  Both they and their businesses grow much more rapidly as a function of their rapidly expanding vision, capacity and commitment to themselves and their success.  True top achievers recognize that “success” at the cost of imbalance in their careers, important relationships, and personal lives is not really success at all and is too high a price to pay.  They draw upon their personal evolution as a result of the coaching relationship to prevent piloting their ship of success into avoidable rocky waters.

Why do people come to coaching?  Authors Whitworth, Kimsey-House and Sandahl write, “People come to coaching for lots of different reasons, but the bottom line is change.”  A quote attributed to Confucius addresses this point in simple terms: “If we do not change direction, we are liable to end up where we are headed.”

WHAT IS COACHING?

Coaching is a professionally guided “process” in which people become immersed and from which they emerge better “trained and attuned” to think, learn, be, and do things differently – as well as to do different things – so they can achieve different results.  As a result of the process individuals and teams are better able to identify opportunities, tap into their potential, harness or develop needed resources, impact their environments, and cultivate habits of success vital to achieving winning results.  If it’s true that we become slave to our habits, then it’s critical we develop winning habits to which we can confidently and happily surrender and expectantly look forward to our success.

Coaching is an on-going collaborative relationship between the client and a dedicated colleague, mentor, supporter, challenger and “honest” friend – the coach.  To paraphrase famed Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, a coach is someone who helps you “see” what you don’t want to look at, “listen” to what you don’t want to hear, and “do” the things you don’t want to try doing, so you can “be” what you always wanted to be.  The focus of that relationship is you, the client, and helping you to “score” success as you define it and as you have the coach help you design it.  I call that “experiencing the power of success by design” because there’s absolutely a real power that’s unleashed by the coaching process and the clarity, purpose and focus it creates.

Coaching is about helping you overcome the obstacles and limits seemingly imposed by others, by circumstances and by yourself.  It’s about helping you see things as they really are AND as they really can be.  It’s about helping you make uncommon success your commonplace companion.  The objective of the coaching process and relationship is increasing empowerment of the client to generate strategically better and consistently purposeful results-oriented actions, development of consistent and natural application of habits that lead to success, more balance and fulfillment, and joy in the journey.  Life is a great place – and you can plan it that way!

WHAT WILL YOU GET OUT OF IT?

I will often ask clients what they would do if they knew they couldn’t fail and had all the dedicated support they needed.  How does unlimited possibilities sound?  How about the ability to dream again – BIG dreams – and the confidence in yourself to accomplish them? What if I could wave a magic wand (how do know I can’t?) and you could actually achieve all those things you’re worried about not achieving – what difference would that make in your business and your life?

Some of the things clients have reported getting out of “working out” and “training” together are:

• “Stretching”, satisfaction and SUCCESS
• Confidence, competence, and commitment
• A clear understanding of the differences as well as relationships between vision, values, mission, goals and strategies (too many people, even “experts”, use them interchangeably, and they’re not) – and the ability to use the right tool to propel you forward – farther and faster!
• Perspective, purpose and passion
• Clarification, creativity and collaboration
• Structure, strategy and support
• Training, techniques and tools
• A defined, designed destination – a road map for the trip – and action plans for the CAR
• CAR – control, accountability and results
• My 7-Step C.O.N.T.R.O.L. the Ball Success Blueprint System™

So, are you too often subject to the changing winds blowing “out there”, or are you charting a sure course for more certain success? More simply as Confucius would ask, “are you continually making the needed change in direction, or will you just end up where you are headed?”  Defining and designing your own direction and destination – just two of the steps to confidently gaining The Winner’s Edge.  And you don’t have to go it alone!