Coach... It's About Simplicity Insight Leadership!

To Coach is about ecouraging leadership and the best of best...

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.
- Tim Duncan

When it comes to being a coach and/or performing we want to talk about how “Good” is the enemy of the “Best”.

What... Good is an enemy? Oh yeah, that’s what I said… the reason is when we are satisfied with the “Good” or the “Better” is when we fail to do our “Best”. Hence the “Good” is the enemy… right?

Therefore, to be a Coach it is important to understand… coaching & performing is not about winning or losing… forget about that. It’s about being a team that is interdependent on one another to not only be “Good”, or maybe even “Better”, but the “Best” they can be!

So if it’s not about winning or losing, what is the job of a coach? Let’s look at some examples;

1. Basketball Coach – the job here is for the coach to give the team captain and/or forward players optional instructions about what the plays should be. The coach is not in the game, he or she is on the side line and relying on the team to accomplish and perform their best… the coach is encouraging leadership!
2. Football Coach – the job of the football coach is to give instructions to the team through the quarterback. The quarterback is the one who calls the plays. Again, the coach is on the sidelines making the calls and plays, with high reliance on players to care them out… the coach is encouraging leadership!
3. Olympics Coach – when the Olympic performers get to the Olympic Games they have already been coached. They already have what it takes to win and there may not be a lot the coach can do at this point to make the difference. The Olympian is now drawing from within their inter-self to be the best they can be… the coach is encouraging leadership!
4. Lastly, for the athlete to win or lose is not the point and not the job of the coach. The job of the coach is teaching the athlete to be not good, not better, but the best leader they can be. The smart and best coaches know that athletes who are the best leaders will be the best of the best… winning is a product and crown of that best!

You see based on the thinking of some, they would not agree it is not about only winning, because most people are conditioned to believe to win is the most important thing—to win is all there is… they will say!

However, it is important from the Simplicity Insight point of view that winning or losing is the least of our concerns. We are about creating an environment were everyone is a winner regardless, you create a culture were winning is not the main focus… but certainly is the end product… it’s the reality of the challenge to be the best we can be that counts… the focus!

Now the best coach is looking for the 3rd Alternative… when the whole becomes greater then sum of its parts… when we find an alternative that is best for everyone… when we all can find our voice and crown of self-actualization. And even when you lose you win since the coach is always encouraging leadership learning.

So from a leadership point of view, we realize the best coach knows they are on the sideline and understand their job is to teach the performer to do the right thing… the right way… for the right reason.

And certainly the coach who knows it is not the good, not even the better, but requires the best from whomever it is they are coaching. The coach understands the person or team has the responsibility to be a leader and exist only in a “Culture of Interdependence Fixated on Purpose”—the purpose is to be the best they can be and where “Simplicity on the far Side of Complexity”… is the winning model!

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