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Great Athletes Have One. So Should You

Written on September 3, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Business, Personal Growth

home_mortgage We were thinking about mentors and coaches recently. In our discussion, we defined them as follows:

A mentor is an informal advisor. A coach also offers advice, but in a more formal way because you’re paying for their services.

We’ve both had a number of mentors and coaches in our lives. Both have been immensely valuable! That’s what prompted our discussion.

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Going where you haven’t gone before

However, since we don’t pay for the services of our mentors, we don’t talk to them as much. After all, we don’t want to abuse the privilege. We’ve talked with our coaches much more frequently, usually every week in fact. It’s part of the agreement we had with them when we signed on for their services.

We love the quote by Bill McCartney, former coach of the University of Colorado. He said,

“Coaching is taking a player where he can’t take himself.”

It seems that behind every great athlete is a great coach – from Michael Jordan to Michael Phelps and a bunch of other outstanding performers not necessarily named Michael!

What a coach can do for you

In this age of personal branding, a coach can do the same for us – take us where we can’t take ourselves. We’ve found that our coaches save us time – we get where we want to be faster because they help us identify what’s most important.

Bigg Success is our baby! We’re very close to it. Our coaches bring us that outside, objective point-of-view that is necessary to help us move forward intelligently.

We work for ourselves. A coach gives us someone to whom to be accountable. We’ve found that it keeps us on our toes. We work ON our business more than we would otherwise because we’re forced to prepare for our weekly sessions. It’s like having homework!

Our coaches also ask us questions that we’re not asking ourselves. We’ve found ourselves looking at our business and careers in new ways – ways we wouldn’t have uncovered on our own to go back to the quote.

How to find a coach that’s right for you

Along the way, we’ve learned a thing or two about finding a great coach. Now we look for someone who has reached a level we want to reach. For example, we recently attended a convention for people with online shows like The Bigg Success Show. We met a man who is very successful with his show. We’re talking with him about coaching us so we can understand how to replicate his success.

Another coach we’ve had, Liz Strauss, was referred to us by a mutual friend. We started following her blog and saw that she was hosting a conference. We attended her conference and got to know her more. We hired her to coach us. She’s been incredibly helpful in pushing us to a higher level.

Mentors are valued advisors that contribute to your success. Coaching is still catching on. Athletes figured it out a long time ago. Now the rest of us are getting it. It takes a small investment to hire a coach, but there are BIGG payoffs for those who do!

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Next time, with the Republican Convention wrapping up, we’ll talk about elephants. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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(Image by terren in Virginia, CC 2.0)

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Are You a Leader or the Leader

Written on May 27, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Leadership, Management, Success

Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles. They three-peated – winning three championships in a row in 1991, 1992, and 1993. That hadn’t been done for about thirty years. After that run, because of the unfortunate death of his father, Michael stepped down from the game he loved.

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Now Scottie was the leader of the team. The Bulls did well during the regular season, but weren’t able to win the bigg prize. In the spring of 1995, Michael announced he was coming out of retirement. The Bulls and their fans were elated. Perhaps no one was happier than Scottie.

The Bulls didn’t win the prize that year, but they were fully ready by the next season when they won the first of three more titles in a row – the repeat three-peat in 1996, 1997, and 1998.

Scottie struggled at times as the leader, as #1, but he thrived when he followed Michael’s lead. Sometimes it pays to be #2. Because after Michael returned, Scottie reached the height of his game again and became one of basketball’s all-time greats.

Know your own strengths.
You may be perfectly suited to top management, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should be #1.

Know how you complement other people on your team.
We’re talking about Michael and Scottie as if they were the whole team. The Bulls didn’t become one of the greatest teams of all time just because of these two players. It was the whole team and the coach that accomplished this great feat.

Realize that you may achieve greater success by being #2.
Scottie didn’t win any championships without Michael. Of course, Michael didn’t win any championships without Scottie, either. Being #1 doesn’t mean being the only one. They were both successful on their own, but together they achieved bigg success.

Sometimes the best way to insure your own bigg success is to work with someone who drives you to step up your game because they play at such a high level. Then the two of you both become more successful than you could ever be on your own.

Scottie was a leader, too
Scottie was a leader even when Michael was around. That’s part of the reason Michael was able to do as well as he did. Michael even commented one season that Scottie was the best player in professional basketball.

But when Michael wasn’t there, Scottie wasn’t his same old self. His demeanor was different. He didn’t seem as focused. Michael lifted some of the weight off of his shoulders so he could excel at what he did best.

So we’re not saying that you shouldn’t be a leader. It’s just that some people are better off not being the leader.