Do I need a coach?
So there I was. Standing in line with seventy eight other guys all waiting for our turn. Each one of us excited, nervous and chomping at the bit to see what we are capable of. The intensity is high, the energy is wild. The smell of gym chalk, sweat and ammonia is in the air. We all have spent years training and competing. Each one of us has qualified by either winning or getting top three in a regional competition that year. Most of these guys have traveled a pretty good distance to be here. We are in line to see who can carry a five hundred pound sandbag twenty five feet the fastest. This is the last of five events at the US Strongman Nationals competition 2023 in Dallas Texas.
We slowly worked our way through the group, one by one each man took his shot at being the fastest. Each man gave it his all. Two of the guys in the group broke a few fingers trying to grip the heavy fabric the sandbag was made of. Several tripped trying to sprint backwards while dragging this monstrosity of a implement. Each man was totally focused on the event at hand, the only thing that mattered in life at that moment was that task.
It was eventually my turn. I was twenty fourth to go so it gave me time to watch the other guys attempts. I watched who did the best and figured out how I could shave off a few seconds when it was my go. The judge would allow you to set up in front of the bag before the whistle. I stepped out, gathered myself and went over the steps one last time. The judge looked at me, stop watch in her hand and asked “competitor ready?” I said “yes” and the rest was a blur. I don't remember bending down, what the material the bag was made of, the weight of it or who was screaming around me. All I remember is going through the cadence of steps I created in my head. The process I ingrained in my body through training was all I could focus on. I knew all I had to do was repeat exactly how I trained day after day, week after week, month after month, one more time.
All of that training, all of the food, all of the time out of the gym focusing on repairing was for a fifteen second stent of intentional effort. In fact, each of the five events only lasted a few seconds. Each man in the competition was focused solely on the task at hand. There was little to no talk about training models, dietary constraints or recovery protocol. Each one of these guys was competing on a national level but were not focused on the daily tasks of getting there. Their only focus was being present.
The athlete is not able to be the coach during competition. The athlete is only able to focus on doing all they can to complete the task at hand. This is paramount for the athletes ability to press themselves as hard as possible. The only way the athlete can put his entire effort into the movement is to remove himself from the coaching position and totally embrace the competitor mindset. He has to be the warrior, not the leader. He has to step away from taking control and trust that the training was sufficient. By releasing the structure of planning, model creation and programming to a coach the athlete can take all of their mental and physical effort and dump it into completing the task given to them. The coach is not performing the task for the athlete, the coach is leading the athlete down the most efficient road for completing the task.
Each one of these guys has a coach, leader or mentor that helped them get to that point. Each one had someone to ask questions to, slap them on the back and scream in their face as they were lifting. Each man was focused on the task and their coach was focusing on the scoreboard, the form and the next event.
The best athletes have coaches, the best CEO’s have coaches. They have them because the abilty for us to coach ourselves to the highest levels of our capabilities is almost zero. We will never push ourselves as hard and as calculated as a good coach will. We are to in the mix emotionally to make this happen. A good coach is able to see our capabilities even if we can’t. They can then calculate the percentage of pressure to apply to get to the next level and know how and when to apply that pressure. We are subject to our own internal negative talk tracks. A coach is a third party non emotionally bound driver unaffected by our talk tracks. They see the goal, they create the path and only ask that you apply the effort.
This is where I think the misstep happens. We assume that we are the great master and commander of our ship and we need don’t need help. An article in CEO Magazine read:
“No one in the organization needs an honest, close and long term relationship with a trusted advisor more than a CEO.” Kador reports, “great CEOs, like great athletes, benefit from coaches that bring a perspective that comes from years of knowing [you], the company and what [you] need to do as a CEO to successfully drive the company forward,”
We view business success separate from athletic success. Unfortunately we are very misguided in making this distinction. We assume since we are not playing a sport then the responsibility to be our own coach is required. We are still subject to our internal talk tracks during stressful situations or usiness deals that are of high value. There is very little difference between a boardroom and a competition. The boardroom presentation is an accumulation of days, weeks and months of planning (training) for the pitch. Each section of the presentation is developed intentionally. When you are presenting you are focused solely on repeating what you practiced in that training. Each statement, slide, paper, booklet, graph and number is placed according to achieving the goal. Just like it was for me as I walked up to the line for my last event, the situation was planned out months in advance. All that was required was for me to repeat the steps.
So the question is, do you need a coach?
The short answer is no.
You don’t need a yacht either. But it would sure be cool to have one.
The long answer requires a few questions.
Do you feel like you are capable of doing the planning, developing and implementation of your goal and subsequent goals by yourself?
Are you able to make non emotionally based, logical decisions in situations that affect your company consistently and efficiently?
60% of CEOs in growth oriented companies have coaches.
95% of the top Fortune 500 companies CEOs were athletes.
There is a close connection to success and being coached.
The connection is made when we decide to be coachable. No matter your level of success you can always benefit from talking through your plans.
Getting a coach doesn’t mean you are going to rocket to the top of the Forbes 500 list tomorrow or ever. It does mean though that you are going to be able to grow faster, sooner.
