Coaching in the Shadows of Short-Termism

For the past 10 years, I’ve been immersed helping leaders and leadership teams develop more robust skills to help guide and shape their organizations, the markets they compete in, and the communities they operate in. I often see short-termism crippling boards, executive teams, and seasoned managers.

Short-termism is the infatuation with short-term projects, objectives and outcomes that produces a neglect of long-range initiatives. As a result, short-termism inherently brings with it far-reaching and often unexamined risks and many unintended detrimental consequences.

Are You Focused on Outcomes That Are Too Small?

As aspiring individuals and coaches alike, we are often inherently biased towards short term outcomes. Maybe as a coach, you’re looking ahead at six sessions where you are committed to quickly impacting your client’s life. Or, perhaps you’ve committed to six months to making some more substantive changes in your professional context and are eager to see the results. Or maybe the challenges you’re grappling with are changes that will inherently take you the next two years of concerted efforts to generate.