Lionel Messi, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant. When you hear these names, immediately you think of elite athletes - individuals s who have won and continue to win at the highest levels in their sport. They all have that in common, they're very famous, they're very high performers.
If you were to ask those individuals what one of the keys to their success has been, you'll find that every single one of them will tell you - it's been their coach, or coaches, because many of those individuals have more than one coach.
Now think about that. If athletes who are already performing at the very highest level within their respective sports, still benefit from coaching, why is it that in business, in the C-Suite, in senior sales leadership and management, and even in the sales field, people who are already performing well think that they don't need a coach?
One of things that's caused this type of thinking, is that we often think that people who are performing at a high level can better use their time sharing their experience with others and teaching others.
What research has shown, and the examples I've just given show that people who are already performing at a very high level can enhance their performance even more and perform at an even higher level when they have good coaching in place to help them do that.
Now, here's one of the reasons why. When a person or persons achieve a level of success, there's also a level of complacency that sets in with that. You know yourself, that when you're doing good at something, for instance if you're a sales person and you're watching this, or you're a sales leader and you're watching this, and you're performing good right now in your sales role, or your sales team is performing well right now, it's very easy to become complacent and think that, "well we're doing everything right. We don't need coaching because there's nothing we can improve in." We become complacent, don't we?
If that's the way that you think, that's okay, you're not alone, many of us think that way. But let me tell you the experience of Atul Gawandy, you can go onto Ted and watch one his speeches that he gave. Atul is a surgeon and he decided to hire a coach and he asked this coach to observe him during surgery, and to make notes that he could then provide some feedback for Atul. Now Atul thought that, he assumed that there wouldn't be a lot of areas for improvement. But what he actually was, the coach observed him and made pages of notes, many of these things being little improvements that Atul could make in the operating room, and when he made those little improvements, it transformed him from being a good surgeon to being a GREAT surgeon.
What lesson can we take from the experience of Atul Gawandy and of these elite athletes? Well it's this. The sports model proves that coaching people who are already at an elite level can help them perform at an even higher level than they already are. And that's why elite athletes all have coaches. And the experience of Atul Gawandy also shows that having a coach to help you who are already performing at a good level, see these little adjustments that you could be making so that you can perform at an elite level, that helped take Atul from being a good surgeon to being a great surgeon.
Now, hiring a coach could be compared to hiring a fitness trainer. If you wanted to get into good shape, or you wanted to lose weight, or you even wanted to train for some sort of competition, and you hired a coach, that coach isn't going to be able to help you if you're not committed.
So hiring a sales coach or a business coach or a coach for your C-Suite executives also won't bring dividends unless those people are committed to getting better, to improving. However, if you are committed to improving, and you're already performing well but you'd like to perform at an elite level, you can't do better than getting yourself a great coach. So, if you're serious about improving, if your serious and committed to getting better, a coach should be in your future. Whether you're a C-Suite executive, whether you're a senior executive in an organization leading a sales team, whether you're a middle sales manager, a frontline sales manager, even a sales rep, how committed to you to going from performing well, to performing at an elite level?
Think about that. Have a great day and I wish you all the success you can handle.
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Contact me: mike@mikeallisoncoaching.com
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Watch Atul Gawande's Ted Talk here: http://bit.ly/2mdi8Lx
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