And how without a coach we often don’t see the bigger picture.
The one critical reason why we all need a coach is because sometimes our perception of a situation is skewed and one dimensional. We all need someone to assist us obtain a more balance perspective in life. I have true story to explain exactly what I mean.
James Bond, Fawlty Towers, Pirates of the Caribbean
This story actually occurred to two associates of mine. The two men earned a living building film sets. They had worked on James Bond, Fawlty Towers, Pirates of the Caribbean, and a host of other well-known programmes and films.
My two friends had just arrived from England and one of their first projects was to build a wooden tunnel under one of West Australia’s oldest heritage houses. They built this fabulous tunnel that children could crawl through, and see the wildlife that lived beneath this old house. Everyone loved the tunnel, except that it hurt people’s knees as they crawled. So the two English craftsmen returned to the house, to glue matting to the tunnel floor.
Fire Ball!
Whilst gluing the matting to the floor, one of the men shouted to the other “fire!”
The man inside the tunnel scrambled out just as a fireball flew passed him, singeing much of his face and hair. The two then ran outside, and stood watching the house.
Everything seemed fine, and they breathed a sigh of relief. Then suddenly the windows blew out, and the house burst into flames. The two newly arrived immigrants stood watching one of Western Australia’s houses burn to the ground. The two craftsmen didn’t have any insurance, and they were convinced they were about to be thrown out of Australia for burning down one of its most prized houses.
The two men, one with half his hair and eye brows burnt off and the other with his briefcase smouldering from the fireball, got into their van and returned home to pack their bags.
The House Now Lay In Ruins
A short time later the fire brigade rang them. Fearing the worse, they returned to the house that now lay in ruins. The fire chief asked them to follow him and he took them to the room where the fire had started. The only thing left intact was the pot of glue they had been using. The fire chief asked them if the glue was what they had been using, they replied “yes”.
He then asked them if they knew it was a banned product, and had been banned for the last twenty years, because of the fireballs it creates. My two associates said they just arrived from England, and had purchased the glue from a company in Osborne Park, a Western Australian industrial precinct.
There Are Always Two Sides To A Story,
The company in Osborne Park was sued for the loss of one of West Australia’s oldest buildings. The two smouldering Englishmen remained in Australia and purchased insurance.
The morale of the story is there are always two sides to a story and even the best of us can become a little one eyed and potentially make some critical career damaging decisions, and this is why we all need either a mentor or a coach.
Committed to hiring the right person the first time round and recovering all the costs of the campaign!
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David Osborne
David Osborne
www.profitablepersonnel.com
About David Osborne
Hi David, just goes to show how generalised assumptions like “If I buy it from a shop it must be ok” can be catastrophically incorrect. The trouble is, most of us have some unspoken one dimensional beliefs that limit us in some way and we aren’t aware of them until they bite us on the backside.
Hello James
Thankyou for your comment. Firstly I like the story because I can just see these two English tradesmen with singed eyebrows and hair being called back to a house they had burnt down thinking this is it they are in big trouble now. Secondly we often make assumptions without getting more information to support those assumptions. Let me give you an example, I coach business owners and managers who assume that they are naturally good managers because they own the business. However if they had undertaken a psychometric test that revealed the areas they need more “knowlewdge, training and mentorship in” then their businesses and personal lives would be in a far healthier state. For many business owners and managers the one dimensional unspoken belief is, if I am the owner or manager most of the training and coaching should be focused on the staff, this is a manager myth. The pilot of the ship steers the boat, without a complete picture of the situation he will run the ship a ground and that’s what happens to many business owners and managers, they neglect to get the full picture and that’s precisely why they need coach – to obtain a multi dimensional view.