Updated June 12, 2023
Anyone who is open to it and willing to do the work can be coached.
But you really need to ask yourself: Am I coachable?
Before answering that question, you need an understanding of what working with a coach will require of you.
Great coaches don’t just pump you up and tell you a bunch of encouraging things. We push you to work. We hold you accountable while encouraging you to also be accountable to yourself. We encourage the tracking of your progress.
I once heard a smart person ask this question: If Michael Jordan, who was the best player in the world needed a coach, why don’t you?
Michael Jordan’s coach with the Bulls was Phil Jackson, and his job was to mold the talented players he had into a team that could operate at a high level and win championships. In order for that to work, every player on the team – including Jordan – had to operate within the parameters their coach established. They had to accept Phil Jackson’s game plan, go onto the court and execute it.
What if Michael Jordan had said, “I’m the greatest player in the world and I don’t need a coach to tell me how to play”? That would have made Phil Jackson’s job impossible. But one of the things that made Jordan a great player was that he was coachable. He understood that playing basketball was his job and coaching was the coach’s job. He knew he and his teammates would be more successful if they respected the leadership and the accountability coming from their coach.
And it worked.
A person who works with a coach has to recognize that the coach brings support and perspective that the person himself or herself could not provide alone. The outside perspective is crucial, but so is the simple ide that some people are wired to coach while others are wired to perform.
If you can become part of the right coach/client combination, the results can be powerful. Find the right person. There’s a great deal of trust and collaboration involved, and not every coach is right for every client. But when the combination works, it can take you places you’ve never been before.
By the way, Phil Jackson expected Michael Jordan to work. And Jordan did the work because he knew it would make him better. That’s how it works when coaches and clients work well together.
Are you ready to be coached? Do you want badly enough to receive support to become better in the areas of your life that are important to you?
A great way to get your feet wet with coaching is through one of my Coach2GO digital coaching programs. Coach2GO digital programs walk you through a process similar to the process I use 1-on-1 with thepeople I work with everyday.
In this video from my days as a business psychology coach, I had the pleasure of talking about this very topic with Michelle Cohl of the Northstar Marketing team.
Are you at a point in your life where you feel coachable?
