As consultants navigators who provide professional services as “coaches” we often answer a battery of questions prior to starting an engagement. Some of the best questions however are never asked. One of those questions is “If you believe in the effectiveness of a coach, then who is your coach or consultant?”
I have two coaches right now, one formal and one informal. On Thursday, I started a growth coaching process with a long-term friend, Glenn Smith. Glenn is a strategic thinker whom I trust and respect. I want him poking around my life and ministry model. He has a simple system to help me write down my personal and ministry goals and a quarterly track where I can check in and be held accountable. The second individual, Jim, is one of the few people I can go to who has more experience and a proven track record of building an organization very similar to Auxano. In this case the value of his insight is particularly huge because Jim speaks to the nuances of our growth challenges. I can ask questions that he can uniquely address and he can share learnings that have a burning relevance. He has essentially been leading ten years “ahead of me” and has twice as many consultants in his ministry. There is no question that any great leader will value outside input. As Deming says, “profound knowledge comes from the outside.”