Coaching and Mentoring

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As I am about to walk into another session of HeART to HeArt Sales Management and Coaching, a thought enters my mind saying people will ask me the difference between coaching and mentoring. It is a common question because many are still learning and will always continue to learn new disciplines.

Coaching is when you work with a ‘client,’ not a ‘coachee’ as many refer to the partner, to help him achieve a specific set of goals in a specified area within a chosen period of time ad with the outcomes having a measurable and beneficial impact on the client. In coaching, a coach does not teach, does not instruct, and does not impart any part of his own beliefs or choices at work or in life upon the client.

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Sales Coaching, a Calling

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The real value underlying coaching others, especially your sales teams, is the fact that while you are helping, guiding and nurturing others into being their own best and unleashing personal resources for personal success, is that you as a coach, as a leader learn thrice as much. These are just three of the things that happen to YOU when you coach others:

  • Your own insights into the finer nuances of selling skills multiply exponentially.
  • You become a more cautious and a careful person and develop an uncanny ability into seeing what others need, what others say and how others express themselves.
  • You also learn to assimilate information in a dynamic and a holistic way.

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I hate brocolli!

I hate brocolli! I hate the sight of it. I hate it’s name. “Brocolli?” What is that? It sounds like some tropical disease. Like, “He’s got brocolli between his toes. She’s got brocolli in her armpits.  But then again, we do know its good for us. Its green and healthy for our insides and for our cancer fighting cells. And, some claim, it adds and multiplies brain cells.

Similarly, in my work-life there are things that I know that there are things we must do which will be good for us. Like learning to and keeping proper accounts. Learning to and keeping proper records and files of projects and programs. And, for professionals and small business owners like me, learning to build an active website and sustaining, nurturing it over time.

I hate brocolli!

I hate brocolli!

I knew this. I was told this, many a times, years ago by colleagues and friends in the industry and yet I kept thinking _assigning this to a professional or a professional team would be the smart thing to do. And, boy was I ever wrong! Nearly every other year, I’d look for to outsource this work and they’d come back and pick my brain, have me do the thinking, the brainstorming and making the website work for me and my business. ” At first I was doling out money in spades and getting aesthetically impressive returns. Then I tightened my fist and began to get function but no charm and no ease. All through, in the back of my head, I kept thinking…”I wish I was computer savvy. I wish I understood the internet as well as they do. I wish I were Generation X or Y or Z. I wish I weren’t a late-bloomimg baby boomer baby! Grrr!

Website building, maintenance and the world of internet marketing loomed over me like a huge clump of rotting brocolli.

Yet, a small voice kept telling me, “Go ahead, take a bite and start chewing. Go ahead, roll up and your sleeves, tie a nappy around your neck and dig in!

So, two week ago, I rolled up my sleeves, put a nappy around my neck, put on my reading glasses, plugged in the earphones and hauled my lap top closer to me and began clicking, punching, rewinding, undoing, doing, highlighting, reading, taking a power nap in between, and clicking, punching, rewinding, undoing, doing, highlighting, reading, listening until it began to make sense, until it began to take shape.

What you are browsing through right now is a still a rough draft, a skeleton of what is yet to come and grow. In essence, not only am I learning to eat my brocolli but I am also learning to plant, grow and make it flourish organically. That’s the way to go when it comes to learning and succeeding at something you consider hard and something that you figure you can set aside and a let divine intervention resolve it for you. No sirree! It doesn’t happen that way.

Can this same principle be applied for accounting, book-keeping and or maintaining records. Yes!
Nothing is more empowering and liberating than tackling any and all kinds of huge, ugly brocolli clouds that loom over you and slow you down. Hate that brocolli? Eat it first! It’s good for your soul;)

InSights on InSights

I didn’t start out to be…but over the years, I have become a serious learning addict. I started out as wanting to teach, train and inspire others but the process required taking in, processing, reflecting, accepting, experimenting and acting upon concepts and applications. Over the years, my capacity to do all this_ taking in, processing, reflecting, accepting, experimenting and acting upon grew massively. Today, at the close of nearly fifteen years of doing this the neural synapses continue to cut deeper pathways and the pleasure I keep getting out of this continues to grow. This, little act of putting out a blog is a part of the journey.

Some people may ask, why do this, to what end and purpose? To that I’d respond “Great question, many times I ask that of myself too!”

The answer is simple: If one is a farmer then they farm so that they can eat and feed others. If one is a mason, then one builds so he has shelter and others have a home. And, if one is an architect then he builds bridges so people can cross and get to where they have to go. At the core of my heart, I love teaching and this little act of blogging is one of the necessary tasks of a modern day teacher. It is supposed to challenge me then nourish and develop others at work and in life.

Yeah, that’s the insight on these InSights!

Appreciative Inquiry