Leadership and Coaching

I have been thinking of another business analogy and trying to tie it back into Ironman success. I have realized that my business career has impacted my personal life a lot more than I would have thought. I see myself as the sole shareholder of my own life, my own body, and my own mind. Just like there are stakeholders of a company such as vendors, customers, employees and the community, we each have our own stakeholders of family, friends, co-workers and training partners that are impacted by our performance and existence within each of our worlds.

Whether we realized it or not, once we flew the coop and left Mom and Dad's house, we got our first and biggest promotion to become CEO; chief executive officer of our own lives. A critical success factor that has been studied on CEO's is their ability to surround themselves with people that can execute their own vision and ideas. Sam Walton was a brilliant man and as a result of that brilliance, the world gets to shop at Wal-Mart anytime they want. But Sam didn't stock the bananas on lunch break. Sam didn't re-order the television sets that were sold the previous day. Sam didn't create, build and implement the satellite communication system between the stores, the distribution centers and headquarters in Arkansas . Sam didn't give the performance reviews for all the thousands and thousands of employees of Wal-Mart. Sam Walton had the vision and then he surrounded himself with people that were not only willing to work as hard as himself, but also capable of executing his vision.

Now at times, the CEO may not really know how to execute his or her vision and hence the need for other executives and consultants within the company. Such is the case for the Ironman athlete. We either do not know ultimately how to get to our goals, or we are not independent enough to execute a strategy that is in the best interest of our own goals (i.e. we get in our own way).

The key to ultimate success within Ironman is continued improvement over many seasons. To reach our potential takes consistent progress. Back to business.How many big companies do you know of that have stopped trying to make improvements, have stopped trying to earn more profits, serve more customers, increase quality or become more efficient? Can you imagine a CEO coming forward in an interview with Forbes to state; "I think we are good enough and the profits appear to be satisfactory. Therefore, our five-year plan is to coast for while and stay status quo. We believe our competition will allow us the luxury of easing off for a bit." I bet Donald Trump would say, "YOU'RE FIRED!"

Now the reality is, as I have already stated above, we are the one and only shareholder in our own stock (well maybe our spouses own half our asses but that's another topic). So truth be told, if we really want to coast for a while and not work towards any improvement or progress we have that right. Quite frankly, most people stop working towards personal improvement pretty early in life. They get a job, get married, buy a house, have a few kids and put life on cruise control. They don't have any accountability other than themselves and a nagging spouse (which is not an effective way of inspiring).

A coach is a wonderful success factor in achievement. Coaching provides accountability, even for a very motivated individual. Michael Jordan was a great basketball player but Phil Jackson provided the coaching behind the collection of World Championships. Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali were great fighters but had corner men and trainers. Olympic athletes are coached. I am actually quite surprised by the number of average age-group athletes that continue to go year after year without improvement and never put credence into the selection of a coach.

Here's a question for you. How many times have you succeeded at something on the very first attempt? I would guess that most people would say, "Not many." Beginners luck does happen once in a while but there's truth in the saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try and try again." But how many times have you heard a fellow Ironman athlete make the statement, "Oh, I tried a coach once but I didn't get any value out of it, so I stopped using them."

I have a few thoughts on a statement like that. Mainly, Ironman success takes years and years to happen. Most athletes hire a coach about three months before a big race and by the time the coach begins to understand the response of the training in the athlete from the training protocol prescribed, the big race is over or the athlete moved on to follow another protocol written in that month's triathlon magazine or something that their friend is trying. It's ridiculous.

Now that's not to say that if you immediately recognize that the fit between you and your coach isn't working that you should delay the inevitable and continue to frustrate one another. On the contrary, cut the strings and move on. But if the relationship didn't work out, work hard to "try and try again." In the relatively short Ironman career that I've had so far, I've had to go through more than a half dozen coaches. But I've learned something from every single one of them.

A coach is also independent enough to see warning signs or potential problems that we are either too ignorant to observe or we are fooling ourselves. When you start doing some heavy-duty volume, it's easy to get used to 'a constant state of fatigue.' Fatigue and soreness is an element of training for any athletic event, especially Ironman. However, a coach is someone who could observe the results of the daily training and recognize the warning signs and say, "Whoa, time to take some recovery and back off" or, "Hey, we need to actually push harder." Athletes tend to ignore the warning signs on themselves and have a tendency to keep working through the building fatigue. This doesn't allow them to recognize the actual tipping point. I'm certainly at fault of this myself and am very glad that I have a coach that is doing their job and keeping me on track.

I have also heard some athletes say that their coach just gave them a plan and didn't do much else. Well, that may have been true. My questions might be, "Did you make an effort to communicate with your coach what you want out of the process?" Some people just like to take a training plan and run with it. I think they are short-changing themselves out of the real benefits of a coaching relationship but that is their choice. Some people might also seek motivation. I do believe that a good coach does provide motivation and encouragement but I also believe that real motivation and desire must come from within.

I also think that we have to realize truthfully that we impact others as much as we are hoping they impact us. Imagine for a moment that you are a coach. How draining would it become if every time you heard from a particular athlete, you heard excuses, hardship, problems, lack of motivation and no enthusiasm for the sport? I get this at work with my clients and I could tell you that I just can't tolerate it. I end up firing the client because it's just not fun working with somebody like that. It may be bad for immediate profits but I'll often take and keep clients that have less gross profit margin because I could see their desire to improve themselves and make something happen. I get a lot of satisfaction seeing and helping somebody to improve their financial lives. It makes me happy and it makes me feel fulfilled with my work. Working with a negative or unmotivated person is like having a glass with a small hole in the bottom of it. You could fill the glass up and possibly have it overflowing. But soon enough, the glass is empty again and requires constant filling. That's very frustrating.

It's a lot more fun to work with somebody who is trying their hardest than somebody who has more natural talent but is very negative or less upbeat. I've done some coaching in my past with little kids and also taught introductory accounting to college sophomores and I would say the same thing. It's a lot more fun and satisfying to help some little kid that is just trying their heart out rather than trying to motivate some kid who's out in left field picking his nose, looking up at the clouds and complaining because it's hot outside. What kind of athlete are you? Are you a drain or a source of fulfillment for your coach? Yes, I know you are paying your coach a lot of money and you expect them to do their job, kiss your ass and stroke your ego. News flash, whether it's Ironman coaching or life in general; nobody likes a negative draining @ssh*le. (I seem to be writing this morning with a little "testy" tone. Well it's raining outside and cold and I'm supposed to be doing a run this morning. You'd be cranky too). I'd also like to share something that I learned the hard way in business; good advice can get expensive. Bad advice can get really expensive.

Finally, much to the surprise of the business world, research has shown that well known, celebrity like CEO's that are brought in to take a company to 'the promised land' were less effective than CEO's that were hired from within. This one sort of surprised me too because I would have thought that if a CEO was well known as a leader and a success, that they would have immediate credibility and an ability to repeat that success with any company that they stepped foot into. Not so.

I think the same could be said for Ironman coaches. I am not saying that a well known, celebrity coach can't be the one to 'take you to the promised land.' But I do think that one of the most important success factors is how well you click with your coach, how well you work together to reach your goals and how invested the coach is in your personal success (along with how willing you are to do the work). Bottom line is, "Do you enjoy working together and are you having fun?" Again, you have just as much to do with the success as the coach. Coaches cannot perform miracles.

The coach doesn't need to be a former world champion (although that could be a great help). The problem is that a former World Champion only has twenty four hours in a day and seven days in a week as well. They can only handle so many athletes. So it might not be reasonable to expect that Dave Scott or Mark Allen are other notables are going to be able to 'click' with every single age-grouper that wants to throw a couple of hundred dollars a month their way. Dave and Mark know what it takes to succeed, that's a given. But there are other coaches that can help you achieve your goal even if they haven't won 'the big one. Heck, Nadia Comaneci was the first female gymnast to nail a perfect '10' in Olympic competition on her way to an Olympic gold medal and immortality in the sport. But I seriously think her coach at the time (Bela Karolyi) who later went on to coach some of the United States most successful female gymnasts could even do a summersault getting out of bed each morning if he had to.

But I'll leave you with Bela's most famous words that he used time and time again with his female gymnasts (and you have to imagine him with one hand on the young gymnasts back, the other hand being a tightly clenched pumping fist and in a very strong Romanian accent), "YOU CAN DO IT!"