When you coach your clients around insight, you’ll change their lives. For ever.
A client of mine is a former sales executive, who became a coach.
A couple of years ago, I shared with her a subtle distinction that has resulted in her first million dollar client. She heard me say:
Stop coaching clients who you can inspire and coach clients who inspire you.
She asked me how she could do that.
I suggested she begin a research project, interviewing the most successful leaders she knew.
At the end of each interview she should ask, “Who’s the most successful leader you know – and would you mind introducing us?”
Over time, she built her confidence at being with leaders of some of the most successful companies on the planet.
She slowly built a network of incredibly high-level CEOs. They trust her because she listens so deeply to them.
Over time, she began to create value for them by making an introduction, sharing an idea, or offering coaching. Eventually, some of them became her clients.
She just texted me that she’s signed her first million dollar client.
Life looks one way. You have an insight. And now it looks completely different.
Perspective
You are on a planet that is traveling around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 miles per hour. It’s rotating, at the same time, at a speed of roughly 1,000 miles per hour.
Incredible. But you don’t notice it, right?
Your clients don’t notice all sorts of things in their life that are holding them back. Your clients can’t see opportunities that are right next to them. That’s where you come in.
Three examples of an insight moment
- Tell me, what are these diagrams?
Does it help if I tell you they are each a view of the same object, from a different angle?
They are drawings of a pyramid, as seen from the top, from different side angles and from the bottom.
Once you see it, you see it. That’s an insight moment.
- Can you see the arrow in this FedEx sign?
You can either see it, or you can’t.
If you can’t see it, staring at it might help but it probably won’t.
When I share this image in a workshop, there are always a handful of frustrated people who can’t see the arrow, no matter what.
But then I show them the image below.
And the room is filled with this sound,
“Ohhhhhhh!”
Once you see it, you see it. That’s an insight moment.
Once you see that little arrow, you can never go back.
You’ll see that arrow on every FedEx truck that passes you and on every FedEx package that arrives at your home, for the rest of your life.
- Here’s a classic photo of the Egyptian pyramids.
They’re in the midst of a desert that sprawls for miles in every direction, right?
Not exactly.
Look at the photo below. They are just half a mile from Giza, the nearest city.
That’s perspective.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s an insight moment.
Insight. Applied.
The other day, I was coaching a leader at one of the biggest tech companies in the world. She has a background in healthcare and was considering going back to it because she is lonely, surrounded by so many tech people.
I asked her if she’d ever heard the phrase, “Don’t be the best in the world at what you do, be the only person in the world who does what you do…”
She replied, “Ohhhhhhh!”
In a flash, she saw that she could go back to healthcare and become anonymous, or stay in tech as a stand-out expert in her field.
That’s an insight moment.
When you coach a top performer around insight, everything changes. They don’t need you to help them create a 17 step plan. They rush out to take action.
On my How To Coach A Superhero program, I was coaching a woman whose life was massively altered when one of her sons was born with a facial disfigurement. She’s a part-time teacher, she spends a great deal of time helping mothers in similar circumstances and she also runs a non-profit that raises awareness of facial disfigurement.
She’s an incredible woman.
And when I heard that she didn’t ever take home much money for her and her kids, I asked her a question to provoke her thinking.
“Why aren’t you being paid to share your story at the world’s top companies?”
She thought I was crazy.
“Why would they ever listen to me?” she asked.
I replied, “Are you an expert in handling challenging circumstances? Are you an expert in navigating uncertain and complex situations? Do you know how to teach people to thrive amidst chaos?”
She looked me in the eyes and didn’t hesitate.
“Absolutely.”
“Do you know how much leaders at top corporations would pay to have someone help their teams handle challenging circumstances, navigate uncertain and complex situations and learn how to thrive amidst chaos?”
She replied, “Ohhhhhhh!”
That’s an insight moment.
A few weeks later, she had her first speaking gig at a billion dollar corporation.
You don’t see the world as it is, you see the world as you are…
When you see your world differently, your world changes.
To be a great coach, help your clients see their world differently.
To be a truly great coach, look at what everybody else can see and say what nobody else would dare to say.
Love. Rich