Fighting Through Eight Versions and Seeing What’s on the Other Side

Georgetown University's executive coaching program was no walk in the park. Every day, a student had to either be reading, coaching, being coached, writing, or in class for seven months. Some of us even had to go overtime.

I spent most of my time focused on the coaching requirements, writing assignments, and the readings. Yes, I did the readings. 

Our program director kept asking us about our coaching declaration: a short, declarative description of what unique perspectives we would bring to coaching. Among the other things to do, I de-prioritized it; I had an index card with something written on it on standby, just in case I was asked. But on every call with him, he wanted to know how I was coming along on my declaration. After I stopped focusing on why he was asking, I asked myself why I kept waving it off.

I was keeping the question at a distance because it was hard. In a world of thousands of coaches, what was I really going to bring to coaching that wasn’t already there? Nine versions later, I came up with an answer, at least for now. Each time I confronted the question, I came out with a better answer. 

Another hard question I resisted, and see others resist too, is why we exist, or what our purpose is at this point in our lives. It’s easy to parry that one as well, staying instead with what we need to do rather than who we need to be. If you can hang in there and answer it, what comes back can be pretty powerful.

Notice how you respond to the hard question. Turning into it rather than turning away from it will cost you some index cards, but it could be worth the time, effort, and discomfort.