Find Your Own Coach
During certain periods of my career, I spent a lot of time on planes, traveling for work. As a result, I listened to a lot of safety messages just before the flight took off. And the one line that always got me thinking was “please put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.” Basic and yet profound when one grasps the magnitude of it’s implication. In simple terms, it means do your own work before you help people with their work.
For people who coach people, this means that each of us needs to get routine coaching in order to be an effective coach. As a counselor told me once, “Never go to a counselor who does have a counselor. Everyone has stuff they need to work on.” The realization that we need coaching in order to be a better coach is based on the fact that all of us have areas that need improvement.
The challenge is that some people get coaching for a short period of time and come to the conclusion that they are “all better” and don’t need any more help. In essence, they have framed coaching as a way to fix something rather than a way to improve themselves. For them, they approach being coached with a “one and done” mentality.
But exceptional coaches know they need to continually get better, personally and professionally. They engage with their coaches even when things are going right, because they recognize that the goal of coaching is to learn and be open to thinking differently about oneself and the work they are doing. Over time, a coach who is routinely coached discovers a restorative niche where they can gain or regain perspective. And that makes them a better coach in the long haul.
To be continued Tuesday.
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