Smart Thinking
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XNick Bolton E-mail: nick.bolton@www.thesmartschool.co.uk Info: Nick Bolton is founder of the Smart School and provides the vision, passion and energy that makes the school such a unique place to be. Within the school he now heads up the unique Rapid Results Business Coaching programme and delivers some of the Master Classes.Posts by the author (30)

What’s your delinquency rate?

Many  years ago as a young bank manager, long before I discovered coaching, my number one priority was to maximise the amount of profit generated from lending money in the branch I managed.

One part of my targets was something rather quaintly called “delinquency rates”.  This was the percentage of people my branch lent who were in arrears.

Now, you might expect the ideal result to be a delinquency rate of zero with no people in arrears.  I certainly did and I was very proud to see our delinquency rate reducing as I focused on quality lending.  But I was in for a surprise.

I was told my delinquency rate was too low!

“What? You mean you want me to have people in arrears?” I thought.

But what I found out made perfect sense.  If my delinquency rate was too low it was because I was playing safe and not lending to people who might pay back for fear that they wouldn’t.  I was cherry picking the easy, safe bets.  And I was missing out on opportunities to grow my bank’s business.

Now here’s the thing: it’s no different in life! We have our own “delinquency rates” of how we take risks.

And so when I hear that someone doesn’t have a challenge in their life I always wonder what their “delinquency rate” is!  To what extent are they taking the easy option and playing it safe.

If a coaching client is finding things too easy is the coach challenging them enough?

If a coach feels they have no challenges with the clients they’re working with, perhaps the relationships are too comfortable.  The client maybe getting results but could it be even more powerful?  Or perhaps the coach can challenge themselves with clients who present tougher issues.

If your life is a breeze and there’s no challenge, what are you missing out on to allow that be the situation?

Sure, it’s nice and feels good.  It’s comfortable and you can give yourself a pat on the back.  But are you growing?

Ask yourself what opportunities you’re missing out on to keep your “deliquency rate” low.  How are you avoiding risk to stay safe?

I had to learn quickly that the bank wanted me to take risks for its longer term success.  Looking back now you might question whether they pushed it too far! But the principle is still sound and I for one make sure I no longer take the easy options at the expense of long term growth and potential.

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