Conversely when someone you coach doesn’t attain success you feel extremely disappointed.
Several weeks ago, I received an email from a former customer. It wasn’t the first time he’d contacted me since our initial engagement.
He was seeking help, feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, wondering what to do.
I listened, then responded with compassion and understanding.
This former customer is intelligent, he is disciplined (he’s completed several triathlons), his business has been very successful in the past.
Our past relationships have yielded very little progress for him or his business.
Our last short coaching engagement was last year. He hired me to help him Topgrade an office manager for his segment of the business.
We began the process using the Snapshot portal Topgrading provides to screen candidates. We received 10 qualified candidates who had submitted their Career History forms, and had the necessary Snapshot profile to conduct a phone screen interview.
This final screening interview made me feel very optimistic about the potential to help my customer finally break through a barrier that’s been limiting his company for years. He would finally have an A player committed to acquiring more A players to increase productivity, reduce staff, and achieve better results in sales and marketing.
The Call
After the interview with this candidate I sent a copy of my notes, including an intro in my email indicating, “We may have found your ideal candidate.” My customer responded shortly thereafter with a phone call. “We’re going to have to put this on hold Doug! The governor is planning to increase minimum wage here to $15, and if he does we’re going to strongly have to consider moving to another state. I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but there’s no sense hiring someone for this position if I don’t know where we’re going to be a year from now.”
My efforts to reason with my customer failed, “Mr. X, there’s no reason to be concerned with an increase in minimum wage. A year from now you won’t have anyone on your staff at minimum wage. You agreed you need to Topgrade your staff. Next year you’ll have less people, producing more, at an overall lower cost of compensation.”
Mr. X remained fearful. Even if it wouldn’t affect him, it would affect his brothers part of the business, the factory where their products were produced. His fear paralyzed him.
Plant your Seeds in Fertile Soil
Goldsmith, a highly successful executive business coach, offered his success wasn’t predicated on how good he is, but rather on how good his customers are.
In other words, who you select to coach or be on your team is more important than what you know, learn, and do.
Remember Jim Collins, “First Who Than What?”
No matter where you plant your seeds, they need fertile ground to grow. If you plant your seeds in weeds, rocks or sandy soil, your return will be far less than planting them in lush, fertile soil in the right climate.
Attitude, Discipline, Priority, Trends
Whether you’re the CEO, key leadership team member, HR, or simply someone who has a deep desire to learn, grow, and improve, my coaching and business experience suggest there are four key characteristics you need to acquire to succeed.
Here are four key ingredients for successful leadership:
If your business would like coaching help with your growing business, please consider
our help in reaching your goals. Please contact dwick@positioningsystems.com.
NEXT BLOG – ALIGNMENT
“Great Performance is about 1% vision and 99% alignment.” Jim Collins, Built to Last. In Above the Line, Urban Meyer dedicates a complete chapter to Alignment. Can a championship winning college football coach teach us anything about the value of alignment in our business? We’ll explore this next blog.