This was originally published in the Matthew Reed Coaching Newsletter. To subscribe to this register for website updates at the bottom of the page and you’ll also receive a free stress assessment.
Coaches have lots of tools available to them. The most often used one is really the most powerful. That is the tool of powerful, open-ended questions. I am inherently curious, so the process of asking questions is one of the favorite parts for me in the coaching process. Recently a coaching colleague asked me a great open ended question. He asked something like, “Matt, if you were developing a leadership curriculum, or a plan to help others really grow in leading their lives what would it include?”
My answer to him was really just to ask those interested in growth two questions: 1. What are you good at? 2. What/Who do you LOVE?
Where these two questions meet, is the place of your most important intersection. THAT is what you should be doing. That is the place of your life’s biggest impact. Take a moment to examine this intersection in your life with a quick ‘virtual coaching session’ and see if you can find out more clearly what you should be doing!
Circle 1: What are you best at?
What are the things that you are better at than most?
What are the things that people keep asking you do do over and over again?
What kinds of tasks do you find yourself volunteering for at work or in other areas?
What thing in your job is easy for you to do, that others find challenging?
Circle 2: What do you love?
What are the groups or causes that you find yourself reading about on the internet?
What kids of ministries/charities are you most likely to give money?
What group of people do you always find yourself gravitating toward?
What are the hobbies you daydream about while you are at work?
The Intersection: What you should be doing?
What would it look like if your job ONLY involved you doing the two or three things you’re best at?
If you were running a charity that helped the people you want to help, how would you deploy someone with your skill set?
Who is someone who is doing what you’d dream of one day? How’d they get there?
What is a way you could get paid for ‘doing’ your hobby?
Now, these questions are just a starting point for figuring out what you should be doing, BUT what a great starting point it is!
Big Question: What are your answers to these two big questions? How do you see your ‘intersection’ taking shape?
I am a life and leadership coach, a parent, a husband and follower of God...in inverse order. I love baseball, movies and cooking too!
