Greatness Contd…
Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. Some being in great is at times the consequence of the environment they may find themselves in. The importance of environment is very well-captured in the case of Bill Gates in Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers’.
What comes first? Good or Great? Or is it Good to Great to GOOD! More so, from the Coaching perspective? From a client’s perspective, “no client is un-coachable”. But from a coach may find a client un-coachable. From the coach’s perspective, that is. But then, the coach’s perspective has no relevance in the realm of Coaching. As such, client is truly the King. Extending the logic, the client is not bad, can not be bad. He is already good. The fact he is at coaching is proof thereof. The journey is to Greatness and beyond. Veritable a journey, not just a destination ( at greatness). That stage is BEING GOOD.
Sachin Tendulkar:
India is a cricket-crazy country. In 1990’s there were two hot talents in school-cricket in Mumbai, the cricket capital of the country. Both scored huge records, playing together. They had contrasting styles. Both played for country, one of them for over two decades and still going strong. The other for very for a short period. Today, one of them is considered to be a God of Indian Cricket, whereas the other is forgotten. Both were great talent. But one of them went on to become an icon. In an era, where international sporting greats are embroiled in controversies, this legend stands out. He was great. But he transcended that level to become ‘GOOD’. He is Sachin Tendulkar!
Leaders:
Gandhi and Hitler were contemporaries. Gandhi is an inspiration even today, not only in India, but the world over. Not the latter. Both were great leaders, but only Gandhi transcended greatness to become GOOD. Abraham Lincoln, ‘was reserved, awkward, gangly and had personal humility. But he had a goal of preserving the union, even if 600,000 people, including himself, had to die to accomplish that.’
From Indian mythology, the villain Ravana was credited with all 64 branches of knowledge. Rama had only 32 of them. Both were great warriors, repositories of knowledge. But, Ravana was driven by ego, greed, etc.
There is another perspective. To quote from Marshall Goldsmith’s book (What got you here won’t get you there) even Michael Jordan, a great basketball player, was a mediocre baseball player and had a tough time keeping up with golf (not used words verbatim). The point is that you need to be great at one thing for which people will know you but you need not (& can’t) be great at everything.
Is it applicable to Corporate arena ? In Indian context, two great greats were Dhirubai Ambani and JRD Tata. The latter always worked with a vision ‘to give back to society 10 times more than what we take ‘. He has been awarded with the highest civilian award in the country.
Steve Jobs wanted to give the best product and customer experience. His vision went beyond financial sustainability of his company.
What enables this shift from Great to GOOD?
A key differentiator is ‘discrimination’, perhaps a skill exclusive to human beings. Great people are influenced by individual discrimination. The Good leaders are driven by fundamental or holistic discrimination. The ability to look at collective good vis-à-vis personal good. Other related factors are empathy and being self-less.
Self Application & Coaching Application:
Man is essentially good. He therefore ought to lead a life of goodness.
When I got this perspective a couple of years back, I stopped pushing my son “to be great in whatever he does”…A ‘Sachin Tendulkar’ of the field he choses, the best on all parameters. Now I visualize him to be GOOD at anything he does. That was a huge relief for both of us, and he may be of greater value to society (=GOOD).
It was easy to extend the same to work-place. We were still aggressive, focused and results-driven… but the approach was different. The method was less crude and short-term, more long-term. We thus evolve to a more coaching role that from a bossy manager.
This is a huge shift in the self-awareness of the coach. As a coach, when I am aware I am already great and the journey is towards ‘GOOD’, the perspective changes. When we approach coaching with that kind of self-awareness, the coach becomes a super, duper Coach, virtually dancing the client to Being GOOD.
Hence, in Coaching scenario, this should come natural. The moment the coach is able to accept the client as ‘already good and closer to greatness’; the process can focus on moving from great to GOOD. That may open up unexpected doors paving way to a very beneficial coaching-session. For example, a simple, but powerful technique we often use in our coaching sessions, Visualization. The client may be often getting bogged down with small irritants, which prevents him/her to go to a higher level of awareness and being. But, when we help the client to visualize him moving from Great to GOOD, it will help him see possibilities. That is the power of Coaching Process, when we do active listening, ask questions based on the client’s pointers, we use power-tools and stick to the process.
Conclusion:
It is good to be great, but great to be GOOD!
GOOD is comparable to ‘being’ and great more like ‘doing’. Being is an extremely broad concept encompassing subjective and objective features of reality and existence.
In both personal effort and coaching application, the goal should be to transcend the level of achievable greatness to go for collective GOOD. Hence, much stress on being with the client, empathetic, active listening, non-judgmental. At that phase we will be at peace with ourselves.
Be a Good Coach and facilitate the client to become truly GOOD…
Biblio & Acknowledgement
Good to Great – Jim Collins
Dictionary.com
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=377
Marshall Goldsmith, ‘What got you here won’t get you there’
Gandhian Thoughts
Wikipedia
ICA Forums
Various quotes
Ram Ramnathan, Mentor Coach
Be ever in joy, in service, in doing good and being good.