Serendipity and Strategy

This is kind of an unusual posting. It is more philosophical than most, and more personal. This blog tends to practical comment and advice. While I stray a bit with this, it has a business objective.

I have a coach. She is an accomplished professional in her field, whereas I’m more of a practical businessman who happens to coach business owners. She reads coaching books, and studies coaching as a discipline. She speaks, writes, and belongs to coaching organizations.

She told me a few weeks ago that the International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations (ICCO) was holding a lab in San Antonio. She had to be out of town, but suggested that I might be interested. I registered, but also held a few alternative schedules open in case I left after the first hour or so.

It turned out that this was a meeting of top Executive Coaches. I capitalize the term, because to them it is very well defined, and quite distinct from business coaching (which I do) personal coaching, life coaching or the other flavors currently popular. They coach leaders on how to lead. It was an interesting and very talented group.

It also turned out that the meeting was to discuss the future direction of ICCO. The discussions were confidential, so I won’t discuss them in more than the general context of the conversations as they apply to my point here. I really didn’t belong there, but they were willing to have me and I was willing to stay. (That’s the serendipity.)

Much like my colleagues in the Alternative Board®, these were talented folks who had real lives and real experiences before deciding to coach leaders. One woman had helped negotiate the Romanian break from the Soviet boycott of the LA Olympics. Another was a former intelligence agent who was the technical consultant on a major action thriller. One fellow coached people who were newly famous; one coached political appointees in the Federal government. Another employed almost 200 people in a side business in Viet Nam, while another was Tennessee William’s former bridge partner. You get the idea. They were interesting folks.

What was more interesting was their perspective on their business. They held a fascinating discussion about the future of coaching. They were considering how their service offerings might need to change. The discussion included a world where the American economy and dollar were no longer preeminent. Coaching a new generation of leaders who wouldn’t commit the same hours to business the Boomers found acceptable. Multicultural leadership- both in the US and the need to understand the tenets of leadership in other cultures. Coaching in an environment of chronic high unemployment, where employers might be tempted to invest less and replace faster in a buyer’s job market.

I live in a world of small business. Like my clients, things happen fast and the margin for error can be thin. I can (and have) been summarily fired by a client the day after he tells me that I am the most important factor in his business and life. I try to help business owners look at their world strategically, but too often “strategic” means not only this year, but next year too. Beyond that is too far out to worry about.

I realized how seldom we have truly strategic conversations. It was a pleasure, and I came away determined to be more strategic in my work with clients.

Then I realized that while we discussed all those macroeconomic and social trends, the really smart people in that room had no more idea what to do about it than I did. In the end, they were small business owners too. But at least they are thinking about it.