Most of you reading this are already “in the game.” Some are not, and are looking for a new team to play on and for, or even a different game.
Maybe you are saying, in the words of John Fogerty, “Look at me, I could be centerfield.” Or you are just happy to be on a team.
But let’s talk about this role of Coach. And about how a coach can help you play the game you want to be playing.
Not An Athletic Supporter
Unless you’re employed as a professional athlete in some sport, it’s unlikely that you have a coach at all.
You likely have a manager, or a senior executive, or a board that you answer to, that determines “if you get on the pitch” or not.
But you don’t have a coach.
It’s most likely that you’ve gotten limited or no coaching in your career.
Maybe you’ve gotten some task coaching from a more experienced team member. Or a brief “leadership” coaching from a manager that cared about you and your potential. Or even some “corrective coaching” (bleh) from HR or management.
Never a true coach, someone committed to helping you improve.
“It’s Dangerous to Go Alone”
Much like the advice from The Legend of Zelda, you’re better when you have support.
When things get tense like they are now, you often hear “put your head down, do your work, keep your eye on your own goals.”
Advice like this discourages you from collaborating, from working with others who can help you do and be better.
Against the Flow
The biggest wins often come by moving against the herd.
In times like now, “pulling back” and “hunkering down” become the norm.
You can make the biggest headway by growing when everyone else is contacting.
Working with a coach supports your growth and helps you make consistent progress towards greater freedom, choice, and power.
Working towards Freedom
The greatest power you have is your freedom to choose and to act.
You grow up inside of systems that teach you to give away your freedom.
And give it up for an illusion of control.
You build unconscious habits around a set of coping strategies.
Strategies like Laying Blame –
“…blaming other people or external circumstances for our problems, misfortunes, failures, and meaninglessness is not an insight in the ‘true’ nature of things, but merely a cheap and eventually ineffectual form of escape. To blame others merely means making a decision to avoid the responsibility which ultimately and inescapably is one’s very own.”
– Peter Koestenbaum
I have found The Responsibility Process® to be a uniquely powerful approach to take true ownership of freedom and break the coping habits. The Responsibility Process forms the heart of my coaching approach.
I want to work with people at all levels and stages of their career. I don’t expect a first-time manager to have the same financial backing as a C-level executive, and want to try to meet committed people where they are now.
Go to stopcoping.com and choose a time to talk about your desire to grow, about coaching, about your freedom. Get in the game you want to play.
You can stop coping and start growing. I can help.