Zooming In to Zoom Out
The Coach’s role in seeing the big picture
When I was in college competing as a member of the varsity lightweight crew program, my focus was usually on the little stuff: the near-in challenges and opportunities that present themselves to all of us, most of the time. Was I prepared for the next grueling workout? What was the status of my back injury, and how would it impact my ability to race the following weekend? How would I make weight at the weigh-in on Friday? How did I feel about being in the second varsity boat, and what could I do to move up to the first varsity boat? Pretty typical stuff for a college athlete and representative of what Co-active coaches often refer to as a client’s “little agenda”.
The moniker isn’t meant to diminish the importance of these daily/weekly/monthly areas of focus and concern; rather, it helps distinguish these types of issues from “big agenda” topics that require a sort of metaview. The big agenda for coaching clients is less about what they are doing, what actions they are thinking about executing, or how they want to be held accountable. It is more about how they are being, what they are becoming or what they want to become. It’s about seeking out the state of being that makes them feel most alive and most like themselves, or the vision of themselves that they are yearning for.
As a coach myself now, I am always on the lookout for clues to my client’s Big Agenda. What vision do they hold out for their future selves? What values consistently rise to the surface in their behaviors? What circumstances make them feel most vibrant and alive? How do they want to be in relation to themselves and to the world? While our time together is often occupied with items from the Little Agenda, it is our mutual responsibility to “zoom out” occasionally to see the bigger picture, the unspoken question: “what do I want my life to be?” The discussions and actions planned, taken, accounted for (“zooming in”), that help move the client forward, must be in service to something else - what is it? It’s part of my responsibility to hold both agendas in mind and collaborate with my client to be sure that the myriad activities, requests, inquiries, and challenges that we agree upon as activities from session to session are leading in the direction of the Big Agenda.
I listen for the word “should” when my client is talking about actions he or she is contemplating. I will stop the discussion and ask, “where is ‘should’ coming from’”? Often, the client isn’t even aware he or she used the word. I want to determine if the sense of duty or obligation that is associated with “should” is coming from something internal (a core value that would be supported by the action contemplated, for example) or something more external (like a sense of duty to live up to the expectations of others). I am simultaneously thinking about zooming in to the Little Agenda (“doing”) and zooming out to the metaview of the client’s Big Agenda (“being” or “becoming”). Both are important. Action and accountability lie in the commitment to action; and accountability is part of the Little Agenda. But doing without being can become a sort of lifeless puppet show without vitality, joy or sense of fulfillment.
Sometimes the Big Agenda reveals itself in hindsight; looking back down a mountain after you’ve climbed it can give you the bigger perspective. The challenge for coach and client alike is to project forward (without the advantage of data, lived experience or altitude), articulate what the Big Agenda looks like, and tie the week-to-week activities to this bigger, zoomed-out vision. This is an essential core to a successful coaching alliance.
I don’t recall ever thinking intentionally about my own Big Agenda in the context of rowing, but I know that during those four years, I went from being a stringy kid who was daunted by the prospect of being a little fish in a big pond, one who hadn’t really been pushed to find his potential and talents yet; to being a young man with discipline, respect for my health, an amazing group of friends (lifelong friends, as it turns out) and a sense that I could accomplish anything if I wanted it badly enough. Crew wasn’t the only thing that facilitated this gradual but unmistakable transformation; the college academic and social experience, summer internships, and the inevitable biological changes that occur between 18-22 all had an influence, surely. But crew was a big part of it, and I wonder whether my coaches could see my Big Agenda, and those of my teammates, and just didn’t talk to us explicitly about it. I can ask them; we are still connected 40 years later.
For self-reflection:
What is YOUR Big Agenda? What vision do you hold out for your future self? How do your activities and near-term goals link to that larger metaview of how you want to be?