There is something I have always believed: you cannot teach what you do not know. In coaching, as in most things in life, if you are unable to personally produce a high level of results, those around you are not going to have great respect for you as a coach or as a leader. That does not mean that you have to produce the same type of results and the same type of work that those you are coaching produce, but you do have to produce at a high level in the things you are responsible for. You need to be able to model high-level performance if you are going to ask for it from others. If you were previously a high-level producer in the type of work that the people you are coaching do, that is even better, but not essential. The bottom line is you’ve got to be able to produce at a high level to garner the respect of the people you are coaching.
