The Importance of being Coachable
I still remember so vividly, just like it was yesterday the first day I attempted to drive Mums bright yellow mini with the black racing stripe.
No automatic transmission with this little beast of a car! A whole 990cc of power under the bonnet….
It’s safe to say she wasn’t the fastest car on the road and when you hit 100km per hour (for these of you in the USA 62 miles per hour) it was like hitting warp speed. Everything and I mean EVERYTHING used to rattle and make noise almost like it was going to come apart.
As I mentioned my first time driving it, there was Dad sitting next to me, probably as nervous as I was trying to give me instructions on how to keep the car going and not stalling.
I remember the feeling of thinking ‘Yeah, yeah, I already know hot to do it’. Brushing over what Dad was trying to teach me which resulted in the car constantly bunny hopping and stalking to a halt… time and time again.
I think I was trying to show Dad that I already knew what to do, “I didn’t need any coaching!” I was all wrapped up in my ego and trying to look good and cover up my insecurities of not knowing what to do and stepping out of my comfort zone.
The reason I was inspired to write about this today was I had a similar feeling come up for me today…
I was speaking to someone on the phone that I had contacted about some coaching on investment strategies and planning, this is something I have not done a lot of yet, so thought it would be good to get some guidance from someone that has the experience and success already. One thing I have learnt is never take advice from someone that doesn’t have what you want, because if they haven’t got it, how do they know what it takes to get there?
So these feelings/thoughts crept in, just for a moment… sitting in the mini.
“Do I REALLY need this coaching?” “Am I ready”? “I’ll just work it out myself, that way I can stay in my comfort zone”.
It’s amazing how old situations can become such powerful emotional anchors, both useful and not so useful.
This time I managed to catch my “little voice” in the middle of its rant to me. I could clearly see that it was just this old fear of stepping out of my comfort zone into something I didn’t know a lot about!
The question I asked myself “Am I Coachable?”
ABSOLUTELY! “Am I prepared for someone that can see what I cannot yet to guide me and fast forward my results?” ABSOLUTELY!
A good coach can see the pitfalls the little differences and tweaks to make to get a GREAT result instead of an O.K. result or poor result.
This isn’t to say you still won’t make mistakes to learn from, of course you will, we all do.
If you have someone that is a master of their craft or more skilled than you and they are prepared to coach you, be very grateful!
Be coachable, acknowledge you don’t know it all and be prepared to suck up all that useful information like a sponge!
Ask yourself an important question “Am I coachable?’
If you answered NO, do yourself and your coach a favor and tell them, so you don’t waste anymore of your time or theirs.
If you answered YES, fantastic! Tell your coach you are hanging to learn and apply their wisdom! The choice is yours!