If you were to take a close look at your company or organization, how on-task would you say it is? What I mean is, what percentage of the activities taking place within actually help deliver its goals?

If you’ve been around for a while, the answer usually is: very low.

Over time, organizations accumulate sludge.

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Yesterday my uncle Amine Adib passed away.

I could never figure out who he was. Some people knew him as a journalist, others as a businessman. But everyone saw him as a larger than life figure.

I knew him as the uncle who always insisted on knowing how I was doing at work, and who would always demand that I dream bigger.

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So much of the management world is focused on the “what”.

Consultants, business schools, articles, and books all try to answer “what” questions. For example:

• What should our strategy be?

• What emerging technologies should we focus on?

• What is the best way to structure our business?

The “what” is about the destination. It’s about where it is that we think we want to be further down the road.

Very few focus on the “how”:

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The explosion that rocked Beirut on the 4th of August has left me unable to say anything for the last three weeks. What was there to say that hasn’t already been said? It was senseless, unjustified death, pain and destruction. I felt hopeless. I had nothing good to say, so I decided to remain silent.

But I’ve chosen not to remain silent anymore.

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In front of my house, adjacent to our driveway, is a small grass area. It is probably no bigger than 2 square meters, or the area a small car might occupy (I know because my brother-in-law once parked his car on it), and we pay our neighborhood gardener a small amount to look after it. This small grass area is adjacent to an equally small grass area of my neighbor’s. We have lived in this house for almost 7 years, and during those years we have employed the services of four different gardeners to look after this tiny plot of grass. Why so many? For one simple reason: our neighbor’s grass always seems greener than ours!

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James (name and details changed to respect his privacy) is, by most measures, a successful executive in a multinational company. He has a senior position, makes good money, is married to the woman he loves and has two beautiful children. He works with interesting people and his job lets him travel the world. When you meet James the thought that comes to mind is that he’s got it all, and he certainly plays the part. He talks about the projects he’s led and the successes he has had. He shares with enthusiasm the details of the latest meeting with a famous figure, or some world leader.

In our first session together, I asked James why he thought he needed coaching. He answered that he thought having a coach is a great way to become even more successful (which is true!). This answer, a variation of “I’ve come this far and I want to go further”, is one I hear often. And it’s an answer that seems obvious, after all we’d all like to move forward in life.

After working with James for a few weeks it became clear that he was running out of steam. He wanted a coach because he wanted someone to push him. He was losing his internal drive, and this was frightening for him. He wanted someone to help him do what used to be natural and exciting for him, but was no longer so. I could sense in James a feeling of no longer being truly happy about his life.

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We each have a perspective on the world, an unconscious itch that we’re all trying to scratch. It might be the desire to seek success, the approval of others, or a feeling of safety. But because this perspective is something so deeply a part of each one of us, we don’t realize it’s there. It’s an invisible part of our reality.

Part of my role as a coach is to work with clients to help them understand their perspective of the world. After all, what we see determines in a large part how we react. Understanding how they see the world, and how it is different from how other people see it, is often one of the more powerful “a-ha” moments my clients experience. Not only is it powerful for self-awareness, but it’s also a great way to know how those you lead act.

In my coaching sessions, I build this understanding by watching out for patterns that repeat in my clients’ interactions with their world. I watch out for managers who are continuously frustrated by their team’s performance, or clients that regularly complain of not being understood.

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COVID-19 has thrown our plans for 2020, and maybe even 2021, down the drain. Almost everything that we’ve intended for this year has been put on hold. Maybe that’s why so many people are calling this period “The Great Pause”, as if we have put our lives literally on pause and are waiting for someone to press the play button.

The reality, however, is that our lives are not paused. The months are still passing, and they won’t be added to the balance of our lifetimes.

There’s another way of looking at the world we’re in now. We’re not living through a Great Pause, but rather a Great Transition.

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