Why we want to help you fail and be stubborn

In our last email, we described Sally’s self-leadership as coming over time and from using many different strategies.

The question we ended with was how she managed to develop that self-leadership.

Sally did what every top performer does. Among other things, she got expert coaching.

Expert coaching is something that all top performers swear by. But it’s a special kind of coaching.

In fact, research published a few years ago showed that among superelit Olympians in the 2016 games, one factor and only one factor differed between winners and losers when it came to coaching.

Can you imagine what that factor was?

The coach-athlete relationship.

Elite athletes with equal talent but who did not medal, viewed their coaches as great on technical and tactical support only.

On the other hand, the coaches of superelites who took home medals satisfied the athletes’ important emotional needs by acting as friends, mentors and unwavering supporters—in addition to providing superb technical support.

So what’s the take-home message?

Self-leadership and being your own best coach clearly is all about the self. But if you want to be the very best you can be, you need people who also have your back in more ways than just the technical or tactical.

Which is why we designed Be Your Own Best Coach as a group coaching program and created the SPRINGS approach.

The SPRINGS approach is our coaching method to help you. It’s an approach we’ve used with thousands of people, who have been amazed at the results.

Solution-focused: Solution-focused practice shifts attention from problems and deficits to the strengths, skills, and resources that you already possess, and then helps you amplify and grow them.

Person-centered: Person-centered means you are in control of your life, your agenda, your goals, your dreams. Being person-centered means we help you find what works for you to deliver the results you want using methods that fit with your values, needs, interests, and preferences.

Relationship-based: Be Your Own Best Coach gives you key skills to immediately forge relationships with others in your cohort. These relationships will nurture, support, and celebrate your journey toward your dream.

Impact and outcomes-driven: Be Your Own Best Coach gives you science-based methods to chart your course and gauge your progress so you’re sure that what you’re doing makes the difference you’re looking for.

Novelty and curiosity-building: Novelty and curiosity are part of our evolutionary hard-wiring and support behavioral flexibility and complex decision-making, which ultimately boosts the likelihood of success. So, novelty and curiosity-building are at the core of Be Your Own Best Coach.

Growth-oriented: A drive for autonomy, purpose, and mastery, key aspects of being growth-oriented are what distinguish humans from all other animals. Be Your Own Best Coach capitalizes on the work of Stanford University’s Carol Dweck, whose work on growth mindset has been adopted by leading organizations across the globe.

Science-based: Science gives us the best shot at success in a world in which there’s so much to learn. Be Your Own Best Coach is grounded on the most current and cutting-edge discoveries from psychology, cognitive- and neuro-science, behavioral economics, behavior design, and human performance.

To summarize: Our unique SPRINGS approach informs the way we work with you.

When it comes to being your own best coach and how you work with yourself to build great self-leadership skills, it also takes a method, tools, and techniques.

In our next email, we’ll share insights about that method with its tools and techniques. You’ll learn more about what makes our Be Your Own Best Coach group-coaching program so powerful.

Deborah & Glen

P.S. If you're just joining or want to catch up, we'll include links to all the previous emails we've sent in this launch email series at the bottom of each one:

  1. Announcing Be Your Own Best Coach 4 (4/29)

  2. Why Procrastination Sucks, But Isn't Your Fault (5/2)

  3. How to Avoid the Negativity Bias Trap (5/4)

  4. Why Stress, Procrastination, and Conflict are the Easy Way Out (5/6)