Coaching is not for everyone because not everyone is coachable. Are you?
No one coach is good for everybody or can enable the transformations a person needs to go through to achieve desired goals. You must you find the right coach for you, granted. You also must be coachable.
Baseball players have batting coaches and catching coaches and running coaches and other kinds of coaches as needed. If you have embraced coaching as part of your developmental process, you know that you do better if you select the right coach for the right accomplishment at the right time.
However, your success or failure with a coach may not be because you picked a bad coach or a good coach who just happened to not be the right one for you. Coaching outcomes also depend on you, the coached. This is a collaborative, synergistic process between two people. Both contribute to outcomes.
Here are 4 considerations and guidelines to help you decide if you are coachable:
- There is a difference between being “doctored” and being “coached.” If you’re in counseling, you get a diagnosis and the process is primarily remedial. If you’re in coaching, no diagnosis is needed and the process begins with you just as you are, moving you along to where you want to be, using what you already have to get there. A good coach will make suggestions, give you new information and teach you skills that enable your peak performance. Can you take suggestions with out being defensive?
- Are you an “SOS” person? If so, you’re probably a good candidate for coaching because people who are “Sick Of Struggling” (SOS) with their status quo are ready to make changes. They are motivated. There is a difference between contemplating change and making changes. Contemplation is a phase that most of us go through but does not need coaching. When you’re ready for strategic action that will make things better for you, you’re ready for coaching.
- Some people settle for what they have, believing there is no alternative. They have given up hope. If nothing else, a good coach is going to challenge your static, flat-world view and remind you that you do have choices. Do you choose to have hope for your better tomorrow? Do you know you do not know it all, that there are more skills sets for you to learn before you give up?
- These questions will help you decide if you’re coachable. Be honest with yourself:
- Can you take instruction even if at first it seems odd or not what you expected?
- Do you have the time to put into a project that is coached? Meaningful changes in human behavior takes at least six months of focus and concentrated effort.
- Can you tolerate being outside your comfort zones? Can you tolerate ambiguity? A comfort zone forms around anything we do for any length of time. Comfortable zones are comfortable because we’re familiar with what’s in them. That has nothing to do with whether or not a particular comfort zone is good for us or gives what we want. We usually resist getting out of comfort zones.
- Does good self-care appeal to you, not just physically but in all ways? Success at any goal requires you to be fit and in good shape.
Fundamental law of success in any part of life is that we learn how to make great things happen. This is true whether it’s learning to move from crawling to running or move from Main Street to Wall Street or from unhappy and miserable to content. We are not born great. We develop greatness by acquiring the necessary skills. To learn and develop, we need a teacher, a mentor, a coach. Left to our own devices, few of us can really pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.
Word of caution: don’t start a project with a coach you’re not able or prepared to finish. That’s like stopping major surgery halfway through the operation. Not a good idea.
If you were to select me as your coach, I will only be successful if you are successful. So sure, I am happy to take your business. However, if coaching is not for you, both of us would not be happy with the results.
“Coachable” means you are ready to learn and change some things that are holding you back.
Give Coach Paul a call and let’s get started: 913-991-2302. I can help you sort this out and get clear if indeed you are coachable.