What Do I Need a Coach For? I Got This!

Why do I need a coach? I don’t need a coach!

Which is exactly what I, and almost everyone who has ever had a coach, first said.

Until something changed.

Looking back, everything I touched had been a success.

All through my early career I saw awards, promotions and recognition as a high performer.  Even when I stepped out to exercise my entrepreneurial spirit, the success continued.

I took a retail concept from paper to successful exit in 18 months.
From store fit out to team recruitment, training and value delivery.

Me. No coach.

Establishing a national carbon consultancy with a headcount over 100, delivering carbon reduction programmes across multiple sectors.

Me. No coach.

Designing and delivering MVP asset management and tracking software to attract external investment ahead of full commercialisation.

Me. No coach.

Pioneering new data capture techniques. Trademark registration. IP protection.

Still me. No coach.

"I always felt something had been left on the table."

But on reflection, I always felt something had been left on the table.

The good team that could have been great. The successful product that could have been world leading. The exit that could have been retirement in my 30's. And more than anything, the version of me that never quite showed up. The version of me that wears a cape. I wanted to be that guy. 

That is when it hit me so clearly that I could not believe I had been missing something so simple.

I needed a coach. Why didn't I have a coach?

You see, we are coached all through life until one day, we are not. Then we are figuring it all out on our own.

We have had coaches for most of our lives so why change what works?

As children, our parents coach us.

At school, our teachers coach us.

In sport, our coaches …………. coach us.

At university, our lecturers coach us.

Then at some point we tell ourselves, "I’ve got this" and maybe you do. I did.

But ask yourself this.

What version of you are you leaving on the table? What's the 'cape wearing' version of you? Who is that person? What are they waiting to achieve?

Coaches have the luxury of viewing through lenses and angles that are not available to us.  Sure, you will eventually figure it out like I did, but why wait?

Let the shift happen now, not later.

I remember recruiting for a team and honestly, it was like a revolving door.  1 in and 1 out.  I couldn’t figure it out.  I was doing a good job getting staff in, the interviews went great and there seemed to be chemistry.  That was until my coach pointed out that what I was recruiting for wasn’t what the team needed.  I was recruiting what I aligned to, but the team did not need more of me.  I changed, the team settled and the revolving door stopped revolving.

I have been coaching for a long time now and I hear the same reasons again and again as to why ‘I don’t need a coach.’

Here are just some of them, together with what you might not be seeing and leaving on the table.

"I know what I'm doing"

I have enough experience.

Experience reuses patterns. A coach spots where you are solving today’s problem with yesterday’s thinking and when you reverse this, the difference shows up quickly.

Decisions land once. They do not return in the next meeting, and you stop being the person re explaining something that already made sense to you but isn't fitting with others.

I know what I am doing.

Of course you do.

Wouldn’t it be reassuring to validate this and not run on hope and conviction?  I know because I have been that guy.  Outwardly conveying absolute confidence whilst inside hoping ‘this better work’ only to see the same issues keep resurfacing.

A coach challenges your interpretation, not your intelligence. The result is blind spots are surfaced and dealt with. When that happens, problems do not just move, they close. People stop bringing you the same issue regurgitated in different forms.

I just need to execute.

Execution multiplies whatever sits behind it. A coach will work with you to surface where you or your team is moving in silo.  Once corrected, effort stops fragmenting and you no longer need to push harder to see things land.

"I don't have time"

I do not have time.

Then you are already paying for that because lack of time usually means decisions are sitting unresolved. This is unmeasured ‘cost of delay.’

Delay for your teams, your organisation and more importantly, you.  This one is the difference between achieving greatness today or in 5 years’ time, or maybe not at all. 

A coach forces those decisions into the open which means no more waiting. Are you ready for the best version of you?

I will figure it out myself.

You will.

But while you do, others adapt to the gap and fill it with;

·       Hesitation.

·       Second guessing.

·       Protecting themselves.

A coach shortens that gap which means your team spends less time interpreting you and more time acting, delivering, executing.

I have got AI for that.

AI will give you answers but it works with what you give it.

It does not see what you are not seeing.
It does not challenge what you are unconsciously protecting.

A coach works on the part AI cannot reach, the parts you cannot see.  Using AI is self-coaching which is what you have been doing all along until now.  The results will be no different.  This is a false confidence.  AI is a tool, not a solution. 

I have got people around me.

You do.

But are they neutral? Will they;

·       Filter

·       Soften

·       Protect

A coach does not. They WILL tell you that your bum looks big in that! Which means you hear what is not being said elsewhere and that changes the quality of every decision that follows.

I do not want to expose weakness.

You will not. You will expose distortion. And within distortion lies opportunity.

Removing distortion creates a shift that leads to better decisions and the ability to carry them differently.  The people around you respond to that before you even notice it yourself.

A word to finish.

A coach will not add capability that you don’t already have. They work with you to remove what is getting in the way of you accessing and leveraging it fully. For you, and those around you.  They are your biggest champion and supporter of becoming the best version of you.  Nothing left on the table. No more waiting.