Sales Leadership

CHAPTER 10Mindful Coaching: The Inner Game of Coaching Champions

Learning about other cultures and religions throughout the world fascinates me and honors one of my core values of honoring and respecting individuality, making a deeper, authentic human connection.

Needless to say, I've experienced many cultures and, I must admit, before traveling the world, I too had many cultural assumptions! Which is exactly the topic we're going to explore here. That is, how to identify and eradicate costly assumptions from your life.

I remember while working with Pfizer in Moscow, Russia, one manager shared an experience she had when calling on a customer in Britain. The customer said she wanted to table this discussion. Well, if you're from the United States, Russia, and many other countries, tabling a discussion means putting it off until another time. However, in the United Kingdom, tabling a discussion means to put it on the table and talk about it now. Imagine the confusion!

Assumptions happen not only geographically or across cultural borders but within our own country, company, team, family, and virtually every conversation you have, especially when coaching.

ASSUMPTIONS IN COMMUNICATION

If you're leveraging the questions in the L.E.A.D.S. coaching framework, you may notice how assumptions run rampant when coaching, and are quite often the root cause to many of the challenges, miscommunications, eroded relationships, lost sales, or roadblocks people face in pursuit of their goals. ...