A Faulty Premise
Around twenty years ago, in the early days of modern business and life coaching, there was a premise that the client already knew what they needed to do, and the coach’s job was to help them uncover and reveal to themselves that knowledge.
Once that was obvious, the client would go ahead and do that thing.
That’s kind of simplified, but it’s the gist. In practice, however, that premise didn’t really stand up.
Why not?
Often the client didn’t know what to do.
When the coach did know, a teaching opportunity arose. A good deal of basic coaching practice occurs here:
How to find leads, how to close sales, how to build a team, how to manage your finances. There is a body of knowledge, but maybe the client hasn’t learned it yet.
One might say this is training, not coaching, but in truth, there is some of both.
But what about when the coach didn’t know either?
In my book, Formerly Corporate: Mindset Shifts for Success in Your Own Business, the concluding chapter defines three qualities of the successful entrepreneur, who
How does the coach help the entrepreneur strengthen these qualities and create money “out of thin air”?
By asking great questions without either having to know the answers already.
This is where the magic happens. Without anyone knowing the answers, the situation is rife with opportunities--for both the client and the coach, and their collaboration. Assuming someone has the answers, that the answers already exist, is a self-limiting approach.
What’s wrong with not knowing?
Nothing. I think the most successful and creative coaching relates to the concepts captured in the phrases, “Don’t Know what you don’t know”, or the “Unknown unknowns”. When there is trust between client and coach, figuring stuff out together can lead to unimagined, unheard of, results.
I want to teach a little bit here:
This “don’t know what you don’t know” idea seems to have originated in a personal development tool called the Johari window, developed by psychologists Luff and Ingraham in 1955, to help individuals understand themselves better.
Briefly, there are four panes in the Johari window—three about “knowns” and one labeled “unknown”.
And then there are the Great Unknowns.
Several categories and labels have emerged for ”Unknown”--
Over time, these concepts evolved and found application in areas as broad as project management, military planning, national security, and analytical chemistry.
Donald Rumsfeld, both the youngest and oldest Secretary of Defense, in two administrations, even titled his memoirs “Known and Unknown”.
Lesson over.
Back to the Qualities of the Successful Entrepreneur
Facing the unknown is a humbling experience, whether the unknown is in your psyche or the depths of outer space. Even picking which type of unknown you’re dealing with is sometimes hard, especially if you are examining your own self-knowledge.
It is good to have trusted companions, as well as guides, to help sort them out.
Let’s go back to those fundamental qualities I mentioned. These concepts define the entrepreneurial landscape, and they mostly live in the Great Unknowns.
Embracing Ambiguity:
Rather than seeing uncertainty as an obstacle, embracing ambiguity becomes a catalyst for growth. By shifting your mindset, you can recognize that the unknown holds a potential for discovery and innovation within it.
Curiosity is vital to embracing ambiguity. What if? and what next? questions about uncharted territory can make it seem more exciting and less fearsome. By seeking links among time-tested and newly-won knowledge, coaches and entrepreneurs together uncover new pathways to success.
Here again, two heads are better than one. The coach plays a vital role helping the client accept the need to change—resistance is a natural reaction when change is called for.
There may be more than one path to success, and choosing which can be hard, and risky, and ambiguous.
Accepting Volatility
Volatility --of the economy, the business climate, life’s circumstances—cannot be controlled. Fear may be a reasonable first response, but the sooner you accept the new situation, the sooner you can leverage it to drive innovation and growth.
Resilience—Challenges may be an opportunity for growth, but they may also feel like a setback. Setbacks are unavoidable, in life and business.
Adaptability and agility as circumstances change are other hallmark responses to volatility.
Change may be a temporary disruption, but this framework encourages you to use change and disruption to drive your business forward. Consider refining business strategies, exploring new markets, or taking a good hard look at the competition.
Volatility can be frustrating! All your best plans may go out the window. Here is one place where your coach may turn to empathy, or a good kick in the pants, or both. Because you’ve been working together, and your coach will know which one when.
Cultivating Creativity
Everyone has problems to solve. I believe that creativity and innovation are not luxuries limited to the “creative class”. They are necessary for solving problems, staying engaged, and achieving rewarding results. The fine artist, and the great musician may be recognized more widely, but the people who keep the farm machinery or the auto plant or the farmers’ market running are creative too.
One more thought: We don’t always get it right the first time, and must try again. The big word for that is iterative—try something, look at what happened, try a better approach from what you learned. Where entrepreneurs persistently refine and evolve their ideas, creativity becomes a dynamic force, adaptive and competitive in the business environment.
Getting Beyond the Here and Now into the Unknown
At the heart of my own philosophy is the idea that “when you are your only resource, your options are limited.” Or put more simply, "self-reliance is over-rated."
Back to the premise that the client always knows…I think that sells the client short. They come to a coach for help getting beyond themselves, for getting to the edge of what they could not yet see, and for the nudge over the edge into a "new known".
Isn’t this a Great Life?
Creating a product or service that is valuable enough to buy, charting your own course, redirecting as you go, taking risks, rolling with the punches, learning to humble yourself, learning to stand up for yourself, creating new options, and recognizing rewards beyond money--these are the grand adventures of the entrepreneur.
PS. I personally would have never arrived here without my own coaches and mentors and clients, and I thank them all.
