Who needs a coach? The Successful Leader or the Aspiring One?

Posted on February 09, 2017 by Joseph Prabhakar, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Who needs a coach?

The easy answer would be everyone. However, some hard proof will help. A list of people who had or have coaches is a good starting place for this conversation:

Andre Agassi, Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo dicaprio, Serene Williams, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Bill Clinton…..

The list could go on and on. Now, it is easy to look at the list and dismiss it instantly as a long list of celebrities. A long list of successful people – one’s who seemingly never failed anytime. Or pause to think, if they would have been celebrities or achieved so much all by themselves. Or if they have been all consistently successful with an every rising career. Everyone on this list – had a fall – some one too many times – but picked themselves up – and lived to tell a proud story – out loud for the benefit of the rest of us.

Celebrity or not – I needed an executive coach – and I went and got one. Did I really need a coach? Let’s see -

1. I was a successful executive in a Fortune 50 company
2. I was doing everything that a career focused executive was supposed to be doing – climbing the corporate ladder, corner office….the works.
3. Money was never an issue. There was more than plenty to go around

So, if everything was going in my favor – why did I need a coach? And that is the whole point I am making here. Here are three reasons, why I needed a coach in the first place.

Success breeds Complacency: That clearly is an oxymoron. You would think success breeds more success. Puts you on the ascending direction of the career ladder. Gets you all the material benefits you want. True. True. True. However, success is also blinding. And in that sense, success also lulls you into believing that you are doing the right thing. That the path you see is the path that is right for you. The ignorance that success breeds could be damaging in some big ways – and most of us don’t wake up soon enough to realize that. The more you succeed in your career, the more we get lost in the nitty-gritties of our jobs. The mundane details that keep us engaged and occupied sometimes for 16 hour days – enough to convince that we are doing something important for the company and hence the society. The single-minded focus could be so blinding that we get incredibly hungry for more power, more responsibilities not to mention all the trappings that come in the form of a corner office and fat bonuses.

But the speed of growth could have negative consequences in many ways. Some include:

1. Career burnouts – The utter exhaustion that comes out of focusing on growth and the proverbial rat race.
2. Losing interest – The lack of interest in spotting bright, interesting and soul satisfying opportunities that are looming on the horizon.
3. Outdated skills – You have been doing the same job for so long, by the time you realize the world has moved on, it is too late. Your skills are outdated and are no longer relevant
4. No network – The sixteen hour days have essentially ensured that you have no time to reach to anyone for help, feedback, support outside of the small circle of people that you work with within your own group every single day.
5. Declining knowledge – Milestones and projects have been so on top of your work priorities, that you forgot to keep your knowledge current. Whether it is happenings in your industry, reading the trade journal, knowing the trends, keeping track of the startup activity in your domain – you find yourself completely out of touch with reality.

This and a hundred other reasons are the downsides of success in your career. So – yes – success does come at a cost. And yes, it makes you complacent enough to believe that you are doing all the right things for yourself and your family.

Lack of accountability. Remember, I was the smart dude. The guy who knew everything. The leader who worked so hard, that the organization gave bonuses in between the year to keep me happy. So – conventional wisdom would say, I would know what to do and how to do it – when it came to my career path. I certainly knew what to do. And for years, I would try to do it. Only to realize one day, that I just could not do it all on my own. For the simple reason that:

1. I was blind to my own faults. I had a way of justifying everything in my mind. Every slip, every mistake, every failure was always justified.
2. My compassion for myself was so great, that I always forgave myself. I was my best friend. And as a friend, I said “no worries dude, better luck next time”. And the next time never came.

On and on. The lack of an accountability partner meant I was on my own, galavanting, and reveling in the comfort of the job that I had for years.

Lack of dedication. I knew what to do. Every time I came up for air, I would also see the need to do things and change my trajectory. However, what lacked was setting aside the focused time required to getting things done. With the pressures of the job, taking care of the family, not to mention the time spent on sleeping and eating – I just did not have the time to spend on thinking about myself, my future and the plans I have for it.

What I had was a terrible combination – great success which blinded me totally, no accountability to anyone except myself and the total lack of committed time for my own priorities. As brilliant it was – it was also totally damning, and painted me into a dark corner where I was completely oblivious to the need for pulling my life together.

Then through a stroke of luck – I woke up one morning and realized, I had to fix myself. And that was only going to happen if I got myself a coach.

Get one, I did. And the rest is history. The best decision of my life. Hands down.

If you are the successful kind – you certainly need a coach. I did. If you are unsuccessful in every attempt to get your life together – like me – you certainly need a coach.

Here is my point. If you could have done it yourself – you would have already done it. Having not done it thus far – another five years could pass by before you come back to read this article afresh, one more time and realize it is too late.