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| How to Get a Free Personal Coach | |||
| Published in the December 2001 SalesSense Inside View Newsletter. |
Are you mad? Traditional tests include talking to yourself, hairs on the palm of your hand, and looking for hairs on the palm of your hand. Here is an alternative definition. Madness is doing the same things and expecting to get different results. Many years ago, I entered my first half marathon. Some of you may consider this a sign of madness. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I hoped that it would motivate me to take more exercise in preparation. It didn’t work. By race day, I had managed only a few two or three mile training sessions. You can imagine how poorly I performed and how incapacitated I was afterwards. I tried the same strategy the following year. Although I did a little more training, the result was much the same. On my third attempt, I had some help. Two friends who lived close by also wanted to run a half marathon. Running together meant that none of us could shirk a training session. We had a duty to call on each other. Often one or two of us would not want to run but felt obliged to. For most of our planned training sessions, at least one of us would be enthusiastic. Our semi public commitment helped us persevere. In the end, we trained effectively for eight months. As you might imagine, on race day our results were much more satisfying. Changing how we react to any given situation is very difficult. People mostly do the same things, no matter how much they know they should act otherwise. How often have you wondered why you said what you said, or justified what you did, after the event? If you always think before you speak, and consider what you say, either you must be an awe-inspiring communicator, or very quiet. We carry out most of our thinking and decision-making unconsciously according to scientists. Read our earlier article, ‘Scientists Reveal Sales Secrets’ for the details. To change how we behave, we must begin by changing who we are. To become a top sales person, you have to become a personality who can achieve greatness in sales. You can choose not to change. If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got! If you are satisfied with what you have, you are truly rich. If you want more, you have to change on the inside first. Don’t try it alone. All top athletes either work in a team or have a coach. Many have both. You don’t have to have the wealth and resources of Gerry Halliwell to afford a personal trainer. It need not cost you any money at all. The first step is to be clear about the change you want to affect and the results you want to achieve. Create a written description of the person you want to become and the things you will do. The focus of this article is not ‘goal setting’. There are thousands of books, audio tapes, tips, and quotations to help you set goals more effectively. In this article, I want to focus on the ingredient that most of us forget or are too proud to consider, getting help. Once you have a clear and well-defined target, find someone who is similarly motivated and share your goals. What you need is another person who will ask you the difficult questions, and help you stay focused on your declared outcomes. In return, you do the same for them. Your self-development partner could be a friend, a colleague, your boss, or your partner in life. To decide if someone qualifies ask these three questions. Is he or she committed to personal change? Does he or she want you to succeed? Could you share your goals with this person? The process for mutual support is quite simple. Meet or speak once a week, to discuss progress. At each meeting, tell your partner what you have achieved in the previous week, and what you plan to achieve in the following week. Each of you must play devils advocate for the other, and test if the planned actions are realistic. Each of you must ask how the planned actions move the other towards their declared goals. Allow at least one hour for this conversation. Your coach does not need to be an expert in your field. He or she does not need to be at the same level. Acting as a coach for the Prime Minister involves the same questioning skills you would use to support somebody who has just left college. All that you need is bi partisan commitment to the process of effecting personal change and a little persistence. Remember the old saying, “The race is not always to the swiftest team, but to those who keep on running.
Article by Clive Miller
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