Chapter 48.
Coach Your People
to Complete

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

—William James, Psychologist/Philosopher

If your people become more and more burned out and fatigued, it’s up to you to help them redirect a course of action that leads them to the completion of previous projects.

Once, long ago, we went to hear Cheryl Richardson give a presentation to “Coach U” over in Phoenix, and it was the first time we went to one of her meetings. We didn’t know her or anything about Coach U, but we settled in for the talk.

Richardson stood up and said to all of us, “Can you come up with a list of the top 10 things that are incomplete, that need to get done in your life? Can you come up with that list?”

Of course, everyone could. So we did. We all wrote 10 things down! And then she told us a story to illustrate how she coaches her clients. She said she had a massage therapist who came in to see her, and she said to him, “What’s the issue?”

And the client said, “I need more business.”

She said, “Okay, I want you to write down the top 10 unfinished things that you need to complete in your life.” And the client wrote them down.

Then she said, “Now, I want you to make a commitment that you will get those complete.”

And the massage therapist said, “Okay, but that’s not why I’m here to see you. I’m here because I need more business.”

Cheryl Richardson said, “I know that. Get this done, and you’ll get more business.”

And her coaching client said, “What? This doesn’t have anything to do with getting more business.”

Cheryl explained, “Actually, everything that is incomplete in your life is what I call an energy drain. And that is stopping you from creating more business.”

“Well, that doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Cheryl said, “I only do this for a living!I counsel lots of clients, who all have this same thing. Are you willing to try it? If not, let’s forget this relationship.”

“Well, okay, I guess, yeah. I need to get those things done anyway.” So he made a commitment to get three of the 10 done by the next meeting.

The following week, he reported back in and said, “I completed my assignment.”

And Cheryl asked, “What happened?”

“Amazing! Even before the first week was over, three new people have called me out of the blue, and filled up my calendar.”

And Cheryl says, “That’s how it works.”

We never forgot that lesson, and have re-taught it ever since. It’s not just that your people have got all those incompletes out there, but the underlying thought of it, the subconscious knowledge is the energy drain.

It’s draining their productivity, imagination, and vitality away. Help them clean up those incompletes and their motivation will surprise you.