In NASCAR , the fastest car does not necessarily win the race.
It’s true.
In coaching, rushing to help your clients reach their goals is like roaring around a racetrack with a dangerously narrow focus on speed alone.
Focusing only on speed in a race can cause you to blow up your engine or spin out and hit a wall. Either result can take you out of the race all together.
Speed by itself is like awareness without learning: Potentially dangerous and counter-productive.
A race win requires strategy and collaboration. Pacing and timing. Planning and application of planning. Reviewing and adjusting. Knowing when and how to push most effectively – and when not to push at all. Understanding that focusing only on speed can knock you out of the running all together.
In NASCAR, the Crew Chief monitors everything so the entire team can learn from each experience. Why? So they don’t repeat past mistakes. So they can learn and apply smarter, better ways of pulling together. Why? ‘Cause that’s the key to a winning race: Helping everyone involved optimize individual performance so the desired result is achieved.
See anything here that reminds you of coaching?
Yep. Thought so.
Like a winning race team, coaching is all about helping clients create and sustain their own wins – based on the learning and growth along the way.
There is one big difference, however. Coaching is NOT a race to a finish line.
Clients want results, yes, and they often want them yesterday. So how do you support them with the deeper value of the learning when they remain focused on reaching a finish line as quickly as possible?
Short answer: Optimize their learning so they can learn more faster and rack up the wins they crave.
Longer answer: Learn how to help your clients learn more efficiently. Help them reach their aha’s and shifts more quickly so they can reach their results more quickly.
Sounds like a paradox: Stop rushing to reach the finish line with your clients and by supporting their learning, they may actually make better time AND have fewer crashes along the way.
If you’re ready for a power-packed pit stop on your coaching journey, check out my language class. The summer 2013 session starts on July 9, so if you register now, you’ll be with us when the green flag goes up.
