Let me entertain you

That might work for Robbie Williams but it doesn’t for me nor, ultimately, for my customers.

As a coach I meet my customers where they are at. If they are grumpy then we work with grumpy. It’s not my job to entertain them to get their energy up; that would be masking the issue, brushing it under the carpet, icing on dogs turd – looks nice from the outside but stinks underneath.

You see, how you are ‘in here’ with me is probably a reflection of how you are, ‘out there’, in your business. Behaviours tend to be consistent across different contexts. Great if you are energised, not so great if your energy is flat and you are hacked off. So I am going to meet you where you are at, reflect it back to you, often through the impact you are having on me. Chances are if you are having that impact on me you could be having that impact on other people. Then we can work together on how you want to show up ‘out there’ – so you can make the impact you want to make.

Yesterday was session number two with a new customer, a leadership team running a £500m business. In the period since we first met they had dramatically ramped up business output; brilliant progress and they were buzzing. The energy in the room was fantastic and they set themselves really challenging objectives for the next few months.

We all got stuck in, it was fun, no need for entertainment. I left inspired and excited to meet up with them again in late November. And I am confident they will inspire their people between now and then.

It’s not always like that, indeed this team may well come back in a subsequent session down in the dumps following a period where the wheel has well and truly come off. It’s tough out there, it’s probably going to happen. And if and when it does we will work through it and they will come up with a plan to get back on track. If Robbie Williams  was in the room he may try to entertain them and some of them may enjoy it while it lasts though the day after the wheel would still be off and they would still be grumpy. No doubt it would be great to tell their people about meeting Robbie Williams though I doubt many would be impressed hearing about the leadership team jolly, given the things that need addressing round here.

So I will meet you where you are at and then we can work it together; we will have a few laughs along the way though let’s be clear this is business. I’m going to leave the entertainment to the likes of Robbie.