The goal of coaching is ultimately to get people to look in the mirror step one and then take step two which is to take action on step one. The funny thing is very few people do step one very well. It's hard to be honest with yourself.

Here are a few examples of the challenges people have as it relates to being honest with themselves. Let's take a salesperson who's had a great year and when you ask that salesperson why they had a great year they tend to talk all about themselves. The next year they have a down year and you ask them what happened they tend to bring up extraneous things such as the economy or pricing issues or product issues. The funny thing is good salespeople sell during tough times. 

Let me give you another example. I coach high school and club volleyball and one of the things that we all battle is the issue with parents. They battle watching their kids sit on the bench or not playing and what's a parent's first instinct it's to fix the problem or help their child out. So many parents see their kids better than what they really are and having an honest conversation is tough but if we cannot be honest with ourselves we cannot be honest with other people. The greatest attributes a coach can have are a high degree of self-awareness and the ability to look in the mirror and realize one's strengths and areas for opportunity to grow. I learned a long time ago if you're honest you never have to remember what you tell people. Once we do this and we live by this people will respect and trust us even though they may not always like when we are honest but I think one of the worst things we can go through as leaders and people in general is having people question our integrity or trust.

One of the greatest opportunities we have as coaches and leaders is to help other people be honest with themselves. So often people will not do this in fear of crossing that line or running the risk of offending somebody when in fact staying silent is giving permission to other people non-verbally to continue down their path even when we see it's going nowhere. That is a shame which leads me to a book coming out that I think will help you by Josh Miller.

One of my favorite thought leaders in the industry is Josh Miller. I do not know Josh nor have we ever met face-to-face but every day on LinkedIn he will post a thought or concept to get you thinking and what's so amazing about his ability as he can take very short statements and really provide provocative thought and insight and the opportunity to be honest with yourself. Josh has a book coming out as I've provided the image below along with a link to Josh's LinkedIn profile and I would encourage you to follow him as some of his material is so insightful and he has an incredible ability to make an impact with small and targeted statements. Check out Josh here: Linkedin or on his Website.