Are you coachable?

I was having coffee with a friend, a marketing guru at a local company. And he laughed, saying “I don't think I'm coachable.”

It was an offhand comment, but it’s really an important self-observation. And it actually begs other questions: What makes someone coachable? And what does a coach actually do?

Interestingly, if you aren’t coachable, you probably wouldn’t even wonder about it. Because you may not be in a coachable state (at that moment) if you don’t believe change is possible or necessary.

People in this state are probably aware that things aren’t as effective as they could be, but they really don't see proactive growth and change as a solution. They think that it will happen some other way, perhaps organically over the course of time.

So how do you shift your own mindset to think of yourself as coachable? 

You can reflect on a few questions:

• What level of desire do you have to gain awareness?  And then...

• What level of desire do you have to dig a little deeper? And then turn your learnings into action?

The challenge stems from people thinking that coaching comes when something is wrong with you or that you have to be “fixed.” And with that thought process...who would really want to partake in it proactively? 

If you have a desire to further reach your potential, take action, and grow... then you likely are coachable. 

Coaches work from the outside to pull out what’s inside. An effective coach will help you develop a roadmap for looking forward. 

An effective coach will facilitate a forum, frameworks, and a process to help you reflect and then build awareness. Typically in the form of goal-setting and understanding what's important to you, as well as why it's important to you. This is where the integration of your personal and professional endeavors emerge.

At the heart of it all, effective coaches and “coachees” partner to create desired change. To explore what’s possible. To grow. 

So when my friend laughed and shared that he didn’t think he was “coachable,” I respectfully disagreed. His level of awareness is there. And so is his desire to change. It’s really just a matter of his mindset and strategy of how he wants to grow and make that change.

The good news is that there are many ways to do so. But labeling oneself as “uncoachable” without supporting evidence is not an effective one.