Leaders create change and growth.  Leaders contribute.   Coaches who lead make a difference beyond the coaches who just manage.

Managers keep the status quo.  They are all about controlling things.  They are all about resisting change.

What do you think the difference is between what you have to do to become a coach who is a LEADER as opposed to a MANAGER?  Do you become a coach who is a leader or do you become a coach just works on managing your clients (which alone can be valuable anyway)?

My friend just told me ‘I’m becoming a better time manager’.

GREAT.

I’m not a good time manager.

Many leaders aren’t.

I’m lousy at figuring out what the next two hours will bring and how much ‘stuff’ I can shove into those hours.

I’m good, however, at seeing where we need to go, and committing my TIME (and ultimately other’s time) to getting us there.

I may put TOO MUCH time into it.

I may put time I didn’t have into it.

I may break other commitments because of it.  I may miss out.

But the change will come… and people will follow.  People will go with me on that journey.  Coaches will know what to do to become a coach because of the leadership I provide.

That’s leadership.

When Steve Jobs sat in a garage with Steve Wozniak, tinkering with electronic components to make the first 100 Apples BY HAND, they weren’t good time managers.

But they were great time LEADERS.

When Napster founder Shawn Fanning sat in his dorm room to create Napster, he was not managing his time.

When Michael Dell started Dell in a similar dorm room, he was not managing his time.

I could go on, but you get the idea?  It’s not how much of something you can do in an hour, or how organized your hours are that matters.  What DOES matter is WHAT you are going to do and making certain that your time is DEDICATED to the goal and the mission.

I remember when I first started my coaching practice.  I was running big trainings and I was also carrying a full client load.  I was managing my time pretty well, and I thought I was doing what I needed to do to become a coach.

Then I hit the wall.

I either lost a bunch of clients in one month that I couldn’t seem to replace, or I ran out of trainings to provide and then the coaching income wasn’t enough to pay the bills.  My coach finally asked me, “Jeff, do you become a coach who is a regular ‘on the phone’ coach, or are you going to be a seminar leader?”  I finally had to make a leadership decision…

What was I committed to and what mode of teaching and helping was I going to give up on?

I finally worked out that I would commit to being the best coach I could on the phone and that I would leave the motivational speaking to the gurus.  I ended up partnering with many ‘Guru Types’ and making both of us a lot of money, as well as understanding what I needed to do to become a coach that could make a difference for thousands.

Managers of time like to plan out their hours and minutes.  They can’t waste much time.  They can’t have any open time.  WHY?  because the time they are putting in isn’t very valuable anyway, so they have to dedicate all their time to the little value they can add so they can GET BY on what they’ve got.

But if only they would start LEADING rather than MANAGING their time, they’d find that they don’t have to worry about managing their time anymore, because they’ll just have more for themselves and everyone else as well.  In fact other good time MANAGERS will approach them and ask to help.

Do you Become a coach Who is More of a Time Manager?

If so, then you should link up with the leader type and follow their vision, because you’ll need it.  What you need to do to become a coach will be different than what the leaders will need to do to become a coach.

Managers need to keep the time and make everything tick like a clock for the leader… that’s valuable work to do to become a coach.

Leaders have to stop the clock and re set it when the new ‘time’ truly serves the needs of society in that moment… that’s a rare find.

Do you become a coach who is a time manager, or a coach who is a time leader?  Only you can say, but don’t miss the mark… Only time will tell if you’re right.