One of the best coaching books I have read lately is entitled The Coaching Habit – Say Less, Ask More and Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier, a management consultant and author based in Toronto, Canada. This book is targeted to organizational managers that use coaching tools in their management duties to create autonomy and empowerment with staff. I am finding much of the really good coaching literature is coming from this direction (in my opinion). This book also links to free internet content that further explains Stanier’s theories and experience. The reason it struck such a chord with me is that the material fits so nicely with my work in mission with Your One Degree, an unapologetic Christian disciplining program.
One of the critical strategic keys to coaching is helping managers and staff sift through all the good opportunities that come by, say No to most of them to have room to say Yes to the really critical opportunities. My experience has shown that “the opportunity of a life-time comes around every 28-30 days or so. After a few months the field gets really crowded. But I digress.
Learning to say No effectively is important, but it can be costly to on-going relationships. We want to say No to tasks, inanimate things, and say Yes to people. And there is a way that works. Check out this video that Stanier links to from his book and see if this helps you to wait patiently for the right opportunity to say YES to.
