Mentor Coach: Colin Lee
28th Jun 2023
Recalculating Route
Last night’s training reminded me of my first experience with a GPS 21 years ago in the US.
Although it wasn’t my first trip to the US, it was the first time I navigated with one instead of the map.
After getting into the rental car, I keyed our hotel address into the GPS and left the LAX. According to the GPS, the ride from the airport to our hotel was around 30 minutes.
In the US, the driver’s seat is on the car’s left, opposite of what I was used to. So, I drove extremely carefully (and slowly) lest I might drive against the traffic flow.
I was super focused on driving safely. So ‘in the zone’ that everything, including Linda’s voice, faded into the background.
Linda’s the name we affectionally gave to the GPS’s voice.
“You missed a turn!” my friend screamed.
Did I?
Yes, I did. And not long after that, I heard Linda say, “Recalculating route…. Make a roundabout turn at the next exit.”
After a while, we were back on the highway again. But this time, I was determined to follow all instructions from Linda.
My determination paid off. Linda’ was pleased, for she kept quiet for a while.
So, I thought.
Although I exited the highway at the right turn this time, I heard Linda’s “Recalculating route…” a few times subsequently.
Consequently, a 30-minute car ride turned into two hours. The only ‘bonus’ we got from my ‘in the zone’ driving was to see some lovely places that were not in our original itinerary.
I remember telling my friend it would be nice if the GPS were smart enough to prompt us something like,
“Your check-in time is six hours away. Do you want to explore other places first instead of going directly to your hotel?”
Linda
or,
“You’ve missed the exits a few times. Did you change your mind and want to explore other places first?”
Linda
That was 20 years ago.
In hindsight, even if the GPS could do that, I’d still have stuck to my original goal of going to the hotel first.
Where’s the connection?
From a coach-and-coachee’s point of view, I, the driver, was the coachee, and Linda, the GPS, was the coach.
When a coachee is focused and knows exactly what he/she wants, the coach’s job is much easier – be a GPS and guide the coachee toward his/her goal.
Of course, if the coachee’s goal requires him/her to engage a trainer instead of a coach because it’s skill-based, it’s also a coach’s job to let the coachee know.
In the Wheel of Life role-play, I was a pretty easy coachee because I played this 20 years ago, and secondly, I truly knew what I wanted and had only one goal (Health & Nutrition) instead of three, as Coach Colin asked.
But what if a coachee keeps changing his/her focus throughout the coaching process?
The Barking Cat
Here’s where my dream of the perfect GPS comes into play.
Be proactive enough to ask the coachee, “I noticed you’ve changed your focus. Did something change since the last time we had our discussion? Do you want to want to explore this new goal or stick to the same one we discussed during our last session?”
Flexible GPS
That was my takeaway from last night’s training is this:
Be clear enough to coach the coachee in the right direction. But flexible enough to accommodate the coachee’s change of mind and ‘recalculate route’ whenever necessary.
The Barking Cat
