Test Your Philosophy

My career took a change in path recently when a long term contract failed to be renewed. Impact of COVID, politics, outside influences...who knows? What I do know is its time to move on.

The process of moving on has many complex inter-related parts, which I may expand upon at another time. What has been interesting is the job interview process.

While I haven't done many, I did do one last week that was conducted by an internationally renowned S&C coach. As a general comment, and I did say this to the person involved, it was a fantastic conversation more than an interview.

What struck me was the insight of the questions with respect to seeking to understand the fundamental constructs of not only my coaching philosophy, but also my management and inter-personal interaction philosophy.

Prior to the interview I did reflect on a few things, but I wouldn't say I specifically prepared in anyway, given the interview was over teleconference and I had no idea how it would be approached.

So, how did it go? Well I have no idea the result from the interviewers perspective (yet). What I do know is that I never hesitated or stumbled for an answer, and the flow of concepts that supported my perspectives were effortless. Why do I bother sharing this?

Just like anytime I've had a visiting coach, academic or medical professional in my environment in the last 25yrs, I saw this as a chance for personal review. Are my ideas cohesive and coherent? Can I connect the jigsaw pieces that link technical proficiency and management? Having external professionals critique your work is critical for growth. So I saw the interview as simply a chance to challenge my ability to communicate my story.

How did I do it? As I've written and spoken about many times over the years...a clear and concise personal philosophy provided the launching pad for everything I delivered.

So what did I learn? The experience reinforced with absolute clarity the benefit of developing, defining and nurturing a strong personal philosophical base that defines your coaching, management and inter-personal skills. I can not overestimate to any professional at any level, the importance of clarity in this space. It will assist you day-to-day in your practice and, should the need arise it will most definitely help your convey your professional value be it in a job interview or a private investor pitch.

Take the time to commit your philosophies to paper. That way they have a level of  certainty to them. Philosophies that are not committed in writing (private approach) or spoken / "blogged" about (public approach) are too easily subject to frivolous changes driven by insecurity.

If you can't rationalize your own perspective on a subject go out and learn about it and form your own philosophy. This is a self-generating model...if you don't know something or lack confidence to commit to an idea...go and learn about it. Preferably not on social media!

Whatever happens with my interview, I can say that I produced a series of responses to the absolute best of my ability and failure to win the position would be due to something that I can't control and I'm not going to worry about.

Go and coach well!!!

JW