I am sure you have all heard someone use the phrase “don’t be a slow coach”
It is often used to pull up someone who moves and works slowly, takes time and plods along.
As individuals grow, they are often urged to do things fast – eat fast, get ready fast, finish fast get results fast and so on.
Fast leaders
As leaders grow, they make a virtue out of speed and make slowness a sin. They demand speed – they often demand that they need it now!
They:
- Multitask, often with minimal attention to each action and often missing out on the human side
- Constantly pushing for quick actions and results with little time to reflect
- Being keen to quickly decide and judge the rightness and wrongness of things and people
- Being in a hurry to offer solutions and answers and tell others what they should do because there is little time to waste discussing
- Being impatient for results and seeking instant gratification
In many ways, would you agree that fast leaders are often considered good leaders?
Slow coaches
Coaching unlike leading, by its very nature is slow work. So, good coaches are in general slow coaches!
Even the process of becoming a coach is among other things the process of slowing down!
What does slow mean?
- Being mindful and having the ability to do deep immersive work, especially with others
- Prioritizing reflection over action
- Nurturing the ability to accept others for who they are and suspend judgment
- The ability to merely hold space for exploration and asking questions and avoid offering solutions
- Being comfortable to wait for results and accept delayed gratification
Fast leaders and Slow Coaches
When these fast leaders need to really perform critical leadership tasks like think strategically, drive innovation, read and respond to market changes, create and share a vision, lead people, empower teams, they tend to struggle. Because these call for reflection, deep work and consensus building. They call for asking great questions and listening.
That is when such fast leaders benefit from working with a coach, often a slow coach.
Similarly, when these fast leaders wish to transition to become coaches, the unlearning and struggles are enormous because they have to slow down. But they do make the transition eventually.
However, many coaches continue to deal with the past life pressures of doing and speed. So many focus on the doing of coaching rather than the being of coaching. Such coaches tend to leave money on the table.
The world of course needs fast leaders as much as it needs slow coaches who can help fast leaders find balance.
In fact, fast leaders who become slow coaches take a more empathetic view to the lives of the fast leaders they coach!
That is why some of the greatest fast leaders join our PGPEC program because we help them transform and become great slow coaches!
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/egg2oq3EdtQ
