Thursday, September 8, 2011

My Russian Coach


One day she was just the student splashing next to me in the water aerobics class.  The next she was our instructor, and boy did that class change!  She’d been a swimming coach in Russia.  She had trained kids for the Olympics, and she meant business in these Y waters.  Suddenly this was hard work as she paced the deck, cajoling and sweet-talking us:  “Come, my darlings!  You can do this!  Do one more!  You are wonderful!  More!  Harder!"

It was fabulous.  I was doing More! Harder! and getting better and having more fun than with the Jazz Hands vanilla routines we’d been doing.  While I could barely strut, the bod was also looking better.  Then she was gone after a few weeks – no explanation – and we were back to our mild Muzak moves.  Sigh.

I never forgot how great she made me feel about my possibilities in the water.  She had performance standards and a belief that I could meet them.  She was relentless and I got better than I thought I could be.

Clients learn quickly that I push and believe in them.  I don’t mince words about their reality or their truth. These are scary times, and hand-patting just won’t get them safely through thrashing waters:  the 4000 resumes that are their competition, the fewer jobs that require clever or elbow strategies, getting to the desired next level where the game plays rough.  You have to be able to compete in this environment.  Come on, my darling!  You can do this! 

If you have a coach, I hope it’s a pushy one.  If you don’t, but you need help with an uber challenge – getting a job out of town, changing careers, deciding whether to keep your faltering business open – enlist the aid of your own Russian coach, someone who will push and believe and never let you off the hook.  That’s what gets you to the Career Olympics.

You’ll be a better fishie for it.

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