Q & A

You’ve been to events that include a ‘Q&A’ segment, yes? You attend a training of some kind and then have questions around what the speaker has shared. You expect this new knowledge can lead to change, perhaps reduced cost, product implementation, increased speed of achievement, more focused action and that’s great.

Yet, when it comes to your own unproductive habits or behaviors, why does not awareness of them come with the power to change them?

Try this for a simple answer: It’s not the most valuable knowledge you can have.

Unproductive habits are a symptom and, even if you recognize the habit as a flaw, you need to find its source; that’s what leads to solutions and change. How does that happen? Often by answering the difficult questions you find hard to address. This is how coaching displays its power: working with the professional who has gained your trust and then guides you, through a series of probing, non-judgmental questions, to answers that uncover the real change you want to make. Typically, that change is in beliefs, attitudes, expectations and assumptions that show up as behaviors.

Creating change in self-defeating behaviors is a long-term project; beyond the scope of any training program, workshop, seminar or audiotape.  Generally, training programs do not take into consideration the uniqueness of your existing skills, motivation or commitment, and  do  not usually result in radical shifts in your thinking and actions.  And, rarely does training come with follow-up support for what you’ve heard or learned. You generally go back to work, or go home, to an environment that hasn’t been turned on by the power of what you may have learned.  It’s pretty tough to keep your commitment to making necessary changes when you’re the only one who feels it.

That is why coaching, with its unique structure of continued support, convenience and complete customization, can provide the powerful results missing from traditional forms of self-improvement.  The coaching process supports you as you acquire new levels of learning, development, change, and achievement.  It is action-oriented and designed to propel you toward, and beyond, the goals you’ve identified as meaningful for you.

Most simply, coaching bridges the gap between knowledge and practical application using proven principles to provide the long-term benefits you seek.

So, back to ‘Q&A’: what unproductive habit is standing between you and a more satisfying level of achievement? And, what is the underlying source of that habit? That’s the question only you can answer. Not sure what other questions you need to answer? I have 50 to get you started; you can find them here.