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Nate Baker's Newsletter #98

"The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential."

The Culture Rep

Essential Reading for All Developers

You Don’t Need Permission to be a Great Coach

December 6, 2024 | Read on my website | Read time: 4 minutes

Coaching is artistry, never forgery.

At your best, your coaching mirrors art more than anything else.

But the truth is, we are rarely given permission to pursue our best selves as coaches, which forces us off course and ultimately stunts our growth entirely.

This has massive repercussions that play out daily within the coaching community:

• Loss of intuitive feel
• Burnout
• Disempowerment
• Lack of enjoyment in the process
• Adoption of winning as navigation
• Reliance on non-development practices
• Failure to reach coaching potential

You weren’t meant to be a copy. You are meant to be an artist. You cannot be your best if you refuse to be yourself.

And if you need it…

Let me give you the permission to embrace your best self as a coach.

As well as a 4-step flywheel, The Developer’s Learning Process, designed to unlock your artistry every day you coach.

Step 1: Expose

Expose yourself to as many interesting environments and ideas as possible.

You need both practical and theoretical learning opportunities. Pursue anything that sparks your curiosity—whether it’s intriguing, unconventional, or potentially valuable to your development. Compare these insights against your current knowledge and intuitions to refine and expand your understanding.

Next question: What new connections, patterns, and intuitions are starting to emerge?

Step 2: Explore

Take those new intuitions and make sense of them in your own way.

Creatively connect the dots between your current intuitions and the new layers you are incorporating. This is where knowledge begins to take form. This is a creative act—do not copy and paste.

Next question: How has my understanding improved, and what is the plan to incorporate it into my environment?

Step 3: Create Clarity

Integrate the new learnings.

Chisel the idea into its clearest, most reduced form. Then integrate it into your Game Knowledge—the sum of your understandings, principles, and ideas around development. This step transforms something originally outside your understanding into something uniquely your own.

Next question: How can my increased understanding be used to develop my team further?

Step 4: Artistry

Be an artist.

Transmit your new learnings to your players so they can continue on their path. Through experimentation and refinement, you’ll learn the best way to teach these concepts, which will push you toward your potential—and your players closer to theirs.

Next question: How can I further increase my Game Knowledge? What new challenges must I now solve for, and what are the next areas for improvement?

And that will take you back to Step 1.

The Developer’s Learning Process is the largest lever we have for pursuing our coaching potential.

Final Words

Coaching is not copying someone else’s work.

Coaching is the process of finding your own way.

• Guardiola DID NOT become Guardiola by copying Johan Cruyff.
• Mourinho DID NOT become Mourinho by copying Bobby Robson.
• Klopp DID NOT become Klopp by copying Wolfgang Frank.
• And Cruyff, Robson, and Frank were not copies of anyone else.

They simply cranked The Developer’s Learning Process an incredible number of times.

Coaching education’s job should never be to teach us how or what to think. All that does is create listless copies. Licenses are often given based on the ability to copy and paste a methodology…

That most times isn’t even theirs to begin with.

Coaching education’s main purpose should be to create artists. To teach how to take an intuition and transform it into art. To provide the canvas and materials while offering guidance and support along the way.

This is the only way to be your best.

To paint your masterpiece.

So, one more time…

You don’t need permission to be a great coach.

You just need a process for exploring your art.

And you don’t need to be the next Guardiola.

You just need to keep spinning the flywheel.

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Injury Time

A Chance to Connect Before the Final Whistle

This Week's Question:

Reply to this email with your best response and we'll keep the conversation going next week.

Have a great weekend, and good luck with your next step.

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To Development,

Nate Baker

Founder of The Developer’s Way​
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P.S. Whenever you are ready, there is 1 more way I can help you (find out more by clicking the image below)👇:

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