You’re pursuing a vision. You’ve got a long to-do list, and every day you’re making progress toward that picture of your future. However, how do you make sure you’re on track and advancing as quickly as possible?

Do you know this conundrum? I do. CoachNet (the company I run) is chasing a big goal: deploying coaching skills to empower leaders to develop the people around them. This kind of leadership development happens in one of two environments: inside an organization or as the startup of a new small business.

CoachNet is committed to four key ideas in coaching:

• High-quality coaching skills,
• Movement dynamics (leaders who make more leaders, so coaching has to be contagious),
• Neuro-friendly thinking coaching behaviors (you know, things like brain science/positive psychology and a deep commitment to exploring limiting beliefs), and
• Helpful use of data (leveraging data science and analytics in the coaching process and for the conversion of qualified leads).

I have a personal vision as well: I design devoted relationships/communities to unlock potential and launch lasting impact. Everything good happens in a relationship…and coaching directs the connection toward meaningful impact. I’m Christian, so following Jesus matters to me. My character has to develop, and I try to do that in relationships.

(There’s a whole team of folks who invest in me so I can stay on track…I have a pastor, an accountability partner, a counselor, a group of guys that are about the same things that I’m about, and a couple of different coaches. That’s what I have learned I need to keep it together. Being a husband, father, entrepreneur, and citizen requires a lot of effort!)

So, figuring out how to move toward the vision I have takes significant effort.

The tools you’ll need are a legal pad, your calendar, and a journal. My ritual revolves around a guideline I heard a few years ago: Divert daily, withdraw weekly, escape quarterly, abandon annually. I’m going to look at each of these sections.

Divert Daily
My days are broken into three sections: The MUST Dos, the It-Would-Be-Nice-Ifs, and the Stuff that Comes Up.

The MUST Dos: Every night, I commit to three things I MUST do the next day. I write them down as the last thing I do before shutting down for the night. I put my Big Three (which is what I call it) into my To Do List under the heading of Big Three.

The Big Three might be content development for my blog, new training materials or products, designing sales funnels, billing questions and sales opportunities, or other mission-critical activities. These activities force me to work on my business/vision, not work in the business.

Here’s the key: no quitting for the day without completing all three!

The Big Three gets two hours per day, without interruptions, every day. (No phones, no internet, and no distractions.) I force myself to work on the Big Three whether I’m home or on the road. Sometimes it means getting up two hours early so that I can finish the crucial items. First thing in the morning is ideal, but sometimes I go back to the computer after dinner (which is when I’m writing this post even though it won’t post until 11 am Eastern time).

The Pomodoro Technique frames the structure of these two hours.  Pomodoro is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.  Learn more

Stuff That Comes Up are all my scheduled appointments (either coaching or training sessions) and the things that need my attention that only I can handle. Initial contacts with potential clients or student issues are two examples. The critical distinction is that these are things that I can’t pass off to someone on my team, or the things that I’ve been contracted to deliver. The day can get away from me if there are too many things coming up on a day-to-day basis.

The final section of my day is the It-Would-Be-Nice-Ifs. I work on this list when, and only when, I finish the Big Three. All the email in my inbox falls into this category. Other items like long-term planning might also land here. Operational challenges that aren’t mission critical make up the majority of the It-Would-Be-Nices.

Most days are a combination of all three categories, and I evaluate the success of each day by finishing the Big Three. This mindset forces me to depend on my team, and to do the things that I uniquely can do. That’s the secret to building something that lasts.

Withdraw Weekly
Once a week, usually on Monday mornings, I take out my written vision. I did it by hand, on a legal pad. Handwriting lists taps into the neurological benefits of writing stuff down by hand. (See this episode of Daniel Pink’s Pinkcast for reasons why: https://www.danpink.com/pinkcast/pinkcast-2-2-why-you-should-take-notes-by-hand/)

When I have it in my hand, I spend 30 minutes (never more) confirming the progress I’ve made since the last time I checked in on the vision. Some weeks there’s much distance traveled. Other times I’m where I was the previous week. Then I set a couple of priorities for the upcoming week.

The second step is what’s called the Painted Picture. A second 30-minute block focuses on what life will look like 5-6 years down the road. The key is to visualize the future in as much detail as possible. I pay attention to what I see in the visualization and write down the details in my journal. The final step is to evaluate whether what I saw fits my values and the vision I’m pursuing. When the details match, I add them to the picture I’m painting. When they don’t, I look for why. Sometimes adjusting the mental movie to be values-centric is simple. Other times the exercise points out flaws toward which I’m working. In that case, revisiting the vision document is the next step.

The last piece of Withdraw Weekly is ensuring that there is at least one-half day with nothing scheduled and no objectives to accomplish. My brain recalibrates during this Sabbath of sorts. Sundays are the typical target, usually starting with going to church with my family. The fastest way for me to get off track is to miss this sabbath time away.

Escape Quarterly
Four times a year, getting away from it all is the target. Vacations, silent retreats, or weekends away with my wife and daughter typify escapes. We love the beach and a few days at a resort are ideal, but the key is to put work out of my mind as far as possible.

Escapes become more critical as I get older. No matter how hard I try, I can’t burn the candle at both ends like I could when I was younger. My energy level links directly to how long since my last escape. My effectiveness and the customer satisfaction that CoachNet clients see grows out of the rejuvenation these breaks offer.

Abandon Annually
Once a year, a strategic evaluation becomes my focus. I visit the goals I’ve set, celebrate the completed ones, and choose what will get my focus for the next 12 months.

When a goal no longer fits the overall vision, I let it go. That’s the second abandon in Abandon Annually. Not punishing myself for giving up on a goal has been challenging, but releasing what isn’t moving me toward my vision frees up the energy to make progress on the things that will.

Learning to abandon what isn’t working is the secret sauce for building a business that lasts.

So that’s what gets it done for me. What’s your productivity plan? It may read like there’s a lot to the method, and there is, but discipline means choosing what you will do as well as what you won’t.

Give it a try. You can build a business that lasts, make an impact, and live a great life. Let me know how it goes for you!

As coaches graduate from coach training, gaining coaching experience begins to take more and more focus. The Integrated Coach Training process recommends targeting a specific client and using the coach’s expertise to super-serve the client of choice.

New coaches sometimes struggle with this focus, because integrating coaching skills means more focus on who the client is and less on what the client wants to do.

Lorenzo Lebrija, a development professional in Los Angeles and recent Integrated Coach Training graduate, wrestles with finding this balance. Recently, Lorenzo emailed that “People keep asking me to coach them on Stewardship/Fundraising because of my job and experience. I try to make it clear that coaching is NOT consulting. I think what further confused me was when I read about executive coaches who give “homework” to corporate clients.  Do I really need a specialty in my coaching?“

“So, here’s a question for you:  If we’re coaching the person, not the problem, does it matter to have niche knowledge?”

That’s a great question. Coach training focuses on drawing out of the client what is most important to them. The focus rests on client discoveries, thoughts, ideas, hopes, actions, and plans. The coach’s experience supports building clarity in the client’s mind.

One of a coach’s guiding maxims is “Coach the person. Consult the problem. Mentor the experience. Counsel the fallout.”

These four postures give a framework for optimal working relationships in a coaching setting. Handling the context in a coach-like manner stimulates understanding and custom tailors conversations to the situation. New insights become possible when the relationship centers on the client. Coaches commit to building clarity and meaning in evocative discussions. But coaches don’t do the work! That’s up to the client

So why does experience get so much experience as a coaching engagement launches?

During Integrated Coach Training, instructors often say “Your experience gets you hired, but your coaching skills get you re-hired.” A coach’s specific experience rarely changes the actual conversations. But working with a coach can be a daunting prospect, especially early on in the process.

Niche experience can put the client at ease, especially before they will sign on with a particular coach. Coaching the person during the actual session is what coaches do, but the door won’t always open without specific, in-niche experience.

As I watch the coaching industry change, the days of the generalist coach seem to be coming to an end. Virtually every masterful coach has a specialty, and that usually informs the clients the coach serves more than what happens during the actual sessions. Understanding what and who you want to be coaching makes a difference.

Finding your niche takes time. All coaches have sweet spots and understanding yours improves effectiveness. Counterintuitively, having a narrow window for who you’ll coach makes it easier to find clients that fit what you want to be doing.

So niche experience matters, but it matters most BEFORE the actual coaching begins. As an example, a lot of startup leaders see my experience them because they know that I’ve been a founder several times in multiple industries. BUT, the difference maker in the sessions is that I’m a good coach NOT that I’ve been a founder.

Don’t hesitate to talk about your experience, outside of coaching. What you’ve been through has made you who you are, and that’s one of the reasons your clients come to you. Your niche experience informs your questions and guides your listening. And your niche experience accelerates the sales process because it puts your client at ease. You’ve changed because of your experience. Your clients can change because of it too!

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What is coaching? The CoachNet team answers this question more than any other.

Let’s make three distinctions: 1) Coaching is not the same as being a coach. 2) Integrated Coaches (what CoachNet develops) live in a distinct category of their own. And 3) Coaching carries a unique definition. I’ll dive a little deeper into what this means as we go.

What Is A Coach?

Try this simple definition: A coach is someone who chooses to invest what themselves in accelerating someone else’s development or accomplishment.

Coaches are people. Coaching is what we do. But we don’t stop there. Coaching is also HOW we do what we do. It’s a skill set, a mindset, and a lifestyle.  Every coach wants to see other people live out their potential.

The best coaches have a specialty or a niche that determines who they coach and how they coach. We measure by monitoring when and how our clients accomplish what is most important to them. As coaches embrace new skills, a simple shift moves to front and center. Coaches shift from searching for the right answer to searching for the right question.

Being a coach means you are helping someone else do what they feel called to accomplish. You’re not doing the work for them; you’re greasing the wheels so they can get started doing the work themselves.

You might offer your experience, your skills, your time, your insight…it could be anything. There are plenty of places where the broad term “coach” is the right one.

What Is An Integrated Coach?

Coaching builds on how you think about yourself, the people you connect with, the problems you face and how you manage it all. Once you make that part of your life, you’ve integrated coaching into your worldview. Coaching becomes part of your essence, and it oozes out of you.

Integrated coaches have a skill set that uses their experience to listen deeply and ask the best questions they can. It’s not about statements or directions. Coaches explore with the people they coach (whom we’ll call clients). Over time, coaches draw action steps and meaningful commitments out of their clients. Integrated coaches don’t even have to think about it. Coaching becomes part of who they are and how they experience the world around them.

Anyone can learn coaching skills. But integrated coaches work at their craft so that the behaviors of a capable coach become habits. It takes work. Coach training should speed up that process. Practical training is a part of the integration, along with mentoring, experience and ongoing assessment of your skills. The developmental process falls into stages.

In the first stage, you learn the skills. Trying new approaches reveals what works for other coaches and what suits your style. This season connects information and application. You shed longtime behavioral patterns. You don’t always get the results you want, but the journey matters as much as the outcome.

The first stage can be confusing, and you’ll have moments where you wonder why coaching is so tricky. But this season doesn’t last long. Your skills accelerate as you find more and different clients. Embracing a sense of experimentation shows you the kind of coach you can be. The season ends as a glimmer of transformation shows up, for you and the people you coach, whether your working with friends, co-workers or even a family member.

Soon the second stage starts. You learn a LOT about yourself and begin to apply those learnings to clients and potential clients. Feedback tells you what’s working and what’s not. How you listen and ask questions deepens and changes. Your clients make extraordinary progress, and you find yourself thinking, “I KNEW this would work!”

During the second stage, you try out the disciplines that work for coaches and discover your coaching niche.

The third stage is one that not every coach experiences. With enough time and repetitions, coaching becomes effortless. You default to listening, asking questions, and drawing actions out of your client.

When a client engages a coach, things happen. Achievements accumulate. The client learns about themselves and the world around them. Things change. It’s powerful. Coaches make things happen.

So, What Is Coaching?

At surface level, coaching is the power to help people learn about themselves, get unstuck and get moving forward toward what they want. Coaching is a mindset that makes things possible for other people. What things? Virtually ANYthing.

Coaching can help you start a business. Coaching relationships explore new ideas or practices. Maybe strategies to parent your kids. Or the process of patenting a new product. The right coaching relationship might close a chapter in your life. If you name it (when being coached) or get someone else to put words to it (assuming you’re the coach), a coaching relationship and process helps build clarity and choose ideal actions.

When I’m coaching, I see possibilities that I don’t see otherwise. So do my clients. When you dig under the surface, coaching becomes a relational way to grow, make sense of the world and solve problems.

Coaching is both vigorous and valuable. I can charge for it. I can use it to make a living, or sometimes, I can give it as a gift.

Coaching is a lifestyle. It touches everything. It’s like listening to music…always there, capable of adding a lot of beauty, meaning and experience to your life, but you’re not always even aware of it.

Coaching is a way of life. It fills the cracks of your relationships. Before you know it, you’re coaching all the time. Coaching gives structure to your working relationships.

Coaching flows out of how you think about yourself, the people with whom you connect, the problems you face and how you manage it all.

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Since you’ve read this far, think about these two questions:

Do you need a coach? (Because you’ve got something you need help to happen.)

Or…

Do you want to become a coach? (Because you want to help make someone else’s dream come to life.)

If you answered yes to either question, you’re ready for coaching.

And I think you can do it.

(Some of these ideas originally appeared in my book Coaching Hacks: Simple Strategies to Make Every Conversation More Effective. I wrote it in 2017.)

There is an entire section in the bookshop called “self-help.” What we really need is a section called “help others.”
–Simon Sinek

Personal development is a hot topic. Google it. (I got “About 135,000,000 results (0.71 seconds)”.) Personal development focuses your energy and effort on improving yourself, either through building up your strengths or addressing weaknesses. The rewards are obvious. You learn. Your capacity increases. You get better. Personal development works.

But what if there’s a better way? I think there is, but it’s not for everyone.

The challenge with all the personal development opportunities I found during my Google search was how selfish the process was. Yes, YOU get better. Yes, YOU learn. But your development grows capacity by addition. When you improve, one person changes. Incremental changes require time to add up to something meaningful.

When you factor in that personal development ignores the context, the limits to this approach quickly become significant. Even if you learn something life-changing, your actions reach only so far. And there are substantial limits to the impact that one person can have.

One of my coaching clients focuses our time on his interpersonal skills. When we invest in helping him handle his relationships efficiently, he improves, and he produces higher quality work.

But this focus misses the real benefit: his colleagues ALSO work at a higher level. Better relational connections invite more feedback, more authentic vulnerability, and more transparent accountability. Conversations touch topics that would off limits. Not only does he benefit, but his co-workers do too.

Viewing his development through a collective lens changes the conversational focus. How will his words and actions affect his team? What can he do to both learn a new skill AND pass it on to someone else? The both/and mindset multiplies his impact. Measurable change accrues more quickly and positively impacts culture.

(In my coaching practice, I define culture as “a group of living relationships working toward a goal, measured by values observed in words and behaviors.” A special nod of thanks to Dan Coyle (@DanielCoyle) and Bill Woolsey (@BillWoolsey). )

Don’t exclusively focus on your personal development. Make the shift to PEOPLE development. When you commit to people development, you use your gifts, energy and opportunity to impact both yourself AND the people around you. You must work on yourself to make a difference for others. Stopping there unintentionally limits your impact.

Your development sets the ceiling for how others develop. Impact multiplies when simultaneous growth happens for more than just yourself. Shifting your mindset to include the people around you moves you from addition to multiplication. Growth can occur on several fronts. You change your results and set a new standard for those around you.

In a recent team meeting, my colleague observed that my stress response is often to snap at the people around me. It’s true, and I’m not proud of it. With my coach, I will work on my responses, partly because snapping is not how I want to treat people.

But if I stop there, the impact quickly hits the ceiling. Evaluating my interactions will be helpful, but shifting also to watch how different reactions open possibilities for the rest of my team will teach me more. Every conversation can go differently, and my change can also change the experience other people have. Committing to people development brings greater change into reach.

The people development lens takes a bit of work. Becoming aware of behaviors that impact others starts the process. Checking in with trusted voices tells you what you might do differently. Making new choices at the moment sounds easy, but behavior patterns run deep. You won’t always get it right the first time. But stay with it. Your leadership presence changes over time.

With repetitions, you unlock potential in the people around you. With consistent effort, you grow and so do teammates who see the change in you.

Discuss the changes you’re pursuing. With feedback, you can change more quickly. Developing this kind of openness completes the shift. The entire team’s progress accelerates.

We believe the world rewards individuality. But what if we were actually in this together? Making the shift to people development moves us from growth by addition to growth by multiplication.

Onward. Farther faster. Together.

In a recent post, we looked at how a frame helps your client get clear about the results of a coaching relationship. Read this post first if you missed it.

But what goes in the frame? Think about what you have on your walls. What do you put in a frame? In my house, we have a lot of wedding pictures, family photos, and art.

Coaching clients envision where a preferred destination then intentionally work toward that future. Stephen Covey would call it “beginning with the end in mind.” Masterful coaches call this “putting a frame around your future.”

But many leaders worry less about the destination and more about the here and now. Making a commitment to living and focusing on day-to-day decision making adds power to your actions. Think of it as living or working in a values-based way. Wherever those values take you is the destination toward which you’re heading.

Coaching clients gain essential clarity to design better actions. Your values drive your plans. Your energy goes into the here and now, and tees up your future. Your focus nails what’s most important to you, and you go wherever your values take you. As you move, a picture or snapshot of what your future will look like begins to develop.

This kind of coaching requires a different posture than using a frame. You’re not JUST looking forward. How can you factor in the starting point? A side-by-side comparison of where you are and where you’re going begins to frame out the route from Point A (starting point) to Point B (the vision in the frame.)

Deep understanding of values helps you choose meaningful actions. Adding action to actions cements client commitment and virtually guarantees progress on what’s most important.

Consider an old-school Polaroid photo. During the conversation, the image becomes clear. Coaches might even use powerful questions to shake the client’s perceptions (like the old process of moving a Polaroid around to accelerate the chemical reaction that develops the image). Coach and client work together to get a sense of what life looks like at this moment in this place–a snapshot of the current reality. Then the conversation shifts to comparing the changes that show up in this photo and previous mental photographs. A side-by-side comparison shows how you’re coaching is producing change–and growth over time!

Some key coaching questions for the snapshot approach:

* What are the core values to which you’re most committed?
* How do those come to life in your daily behavior?
* What can you do today to live those out?
* Who else might live that way? How can they help you?
* What now/next?

The most significant challenge in working with this model is permitting the leader to pre-determine your destination. Think about this as learning to be comfortable being driven by values. Wherever living out your values takes you, that’s your vision. Not the way we most often operate, but potentially a great way to grow people through coaching. This method carries implications for coaching in a postmodern world, but that’s a topic for another post.

Where do you see snapshots improving your coaching?