How Business Coaching is Like Parenting
When I pay attention to how I parent, I become a better coach. The two experiences have many similarities:
There’s a lot at stake.
The success of my kids and the success of my clients are a persistent weight on my mind. I welcome and love the responsibility; both are ridiculously important to me. I must be at my best for both.
Both have a quality of mystery.
While success and failure have big implications, there is no singular formula to getting it right, in business or as a parent.
They are the thrill of my life.
I remember the first times I laid eyes on Josiah and on Gabriel. I also remember that initial conversation with my first client. Not to be equally measured, both have their galvanizing significance.
Parenting
Parenting tends to be an innate drive — an unconscious urge to satisfy a biological need. Similar to our drive for food, sex and thirst, parents are driven to care for their kids as a matter of instinctual self-preservation. Yes, we screw things up sometimes, but that impulse is there.
Coaching
Coaches have a similar, inherent tenacity when it comes to our clients. Just as our children’s success is an extension of our own, so are our clients’.
Coaching is not for everyone and neither is parenting. I don’t know if being a parent makes one a better coach. I do know, for me, the vulnerability it takes to be a parent has sharpened my edge when it comes to coaching.
In addition to one-on-one coaching, we do intensive, off-site events. We spend up to a week connecting with our clients in a high-performance environment. We partner with them to produce results right there in the room. It’s the most challenging thing we do, and it’s in real-time. It’s exhilarating.
Other parenting/coaching parallels:
We’re involved in their progress.
We comfort them when they’re down.
We encourage, cheer and course correct. (Accountability partnering is essential.)
We take pride in their accomplishments.
We let them take residence in our hearts and minds.
We love them when they win and when they lose. We love them for who they are, who they are not and for who they are becoming.
~ Brett
Fundamental of the Week #19: FIX PROBLEMS AT THE SOURCE
Address issues by discovering the root cause rather than focusing on the symptoms or the consequences. Continuously seek improvement by developing long-term solutions.
Momentum Consulting offers executive business coaching, top-level executive consulting, team trainings and team offsites to build and transform your business to the next level. Inquire about business consulting and leadership coaching today.
