Imagine that you are a coach who is helping a person to develop. You may have the skills to help them to improve as an artist, athlete, therapist or in another profession field.
This piece looks at an approach that sounds cerebral but can be effective. It can help a person to be calm, clear and do their best to deliver the desired concrete results.
Great performers often have the temperament, talent and technical skills required to succeed in their chosen field. They then apply these qualities to do fine work.
Having the right temperament and talent is crucial. But sometimes a person can be helped to perform best by focusing on getting the technical parts right. This can particularly be the case in situations that are challenging emotionally.
This approach may sound counter-intuitive in today’s world where there is a great emphasis on emotions. A person obviously needs the right temperament to work as a nurse, brain surgeon, bomb disposal expert, athlete or in another profession.
The key is to channel these emotions in a positive way, however, in order to do fine work. Sometimes this means a person can
Reframe things as technical challenges
rather than temperament challenges.
Different people do this in different ways. One person described their approach in the following way.
“I feel passionately about my work but this can be both a blessing and a curse. The passion drives me to improve but on occasions it can get in the way.
“Sometimes I do my best work when I reframe situations as a technical problem to be solved. I then focus on the specific things I can do to get a positive result.
“Being clear on the results to achieve, I use my head rather than just my heart. I then get great satisfaction from solving the problem and achieving success.”
Let’s return to your own life and work. Looking ahead, can you think of a specific situation where you may want to follow elements of this approach to help a person to develop?
What can you do then to help them to reframe it as a technical challenge rather than a temperament challenge? How can you clarify the technical aspects can that be improved? How can you then help the person to develop?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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