LEARNING TO RIDE A BICYCLE
“Thriving kingdom leaders are like pure gold. They are very valuable and they are quite scarce. Loving, fruitful and multiplying leaders are works of art, masterpieces fashioned by the hands of God himself. Like trees bearing fruit in season, their leaves don’t wither and they fulfil the call God has for their lives (Camacho, Tom. Mining for Gold (p. 11). IVP. Kindle Edition).” I like the way Mr. Camacho compared “thriving kingdom leaders” to purified gold because I believe that the level of purification (as gold) determined the level of scarcity, the level of loving and the level of fruitfulness of a leader in his/her leadership role; and most of all it depends on how much a leader yield himself/herself to the process of purification. Mr. Tom Camacho in his book, “Mining for Gold,” taught me three important points: (a.) God’s way of selecting leadership, (b.) God’s way of preparing leaders for their leadership, and (c.) God’s way of leading leaders through their leadership.
Coaching is defined as, “to give advice and instruction to (someone) regarding the course or process to followed (https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coaching).” Joe Frodsham, a member of the Forbes Coaches Council wrote in his article, “Six Success Essentials of High Impact Coaching” that within the last two decades, leadership coaching has grown at a rapid and has become so popular and that the revenue from this kind of business in US alone will be over $14.0 billion (Forbes Magazine Nov. 22, 2022). Frodsham continued by stating that in order for a coaching to be impactful and successful, it must include these six essentials: (1.) outcome focused – goal oriented, (2.) relationship enabled – mutual trust, (3.) assessment driven – self-discovery, (4.) timed – existence of a balance level of urgency, (5.) short feedback loops – progress should be reviewed, and (6.) measurable – there should be improvement.
I would compare the relationship of the coach and the participant to a parent teaching his/her child how to ride a bicycle. It started out as the parent hold and push the bicycle until while instructing the child to turn right as the bicycle leans left and vice versa. Then as the child improves, the parent gives a last push and still giving the child instruction to turn the handle left as the bicycle leans right or turn the handle right as the bicycle leans to the left side. And within the training sessions, the child fell, crash and even some scraps and scratches to go along. And the most important element is the existence of trust between the child and the parent. The child will trust his/her parent will be caring while the parent will trust the child that he will be able to follow directions and be kept out of danger. The mutual trust would be that the goal would be accomplished.
I believe the essential element of coaching or being coached is existence of trusting relationship between the coach and the participant. And within this context of leadership, a coached leader must trust in: (a.) following God’s way of preparing leaders for their leadership journeys and (b.) following God’s way of leading leaders through their leadership journey. And in process of preparing leaders for their leadership journey, I like the way Mr. Camacho introduced it in his book when he quoted Malachi 3:3, “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.” This refining and purifying process would be the preparation process for a leader for the leadership journey.
Secondly is the leading process. In the apostle Paul charge to Timothy he said, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:14-17).” In this leading process, a lesson learn from Paul and Timothy is that following God’s leading leaders in their leadership journeys is by continuing in the word (that have learned) because it is the main sources of teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
At the end of Mr. Camacho book, “Mining for Gold,” he described what a thriving leader is, which he believed that it should be the goal of coaching leaders or coached leaders. He said that “our goal in Mining for Gold is to develop godly and thriving leaders (Camacho, page 171 kindle).” He then continued to describe flourishing leaders as: “(1.) Flourishing. They are growing and developing vigorously, (2.) Planted in community. They put down roots and build deep and lasting relationship, (3.) Doing God’s work. They commit themselves to seeking his kingdom and his righteousness first, (4.) Bearing fruit. They are living from their design and thriving from their sweet spot, and (5.) Being continually renewed. They are experiencing freshness and renewal regularly. He termed this as “fullness” of being coached.
In my summary, I would say that effective coaching or Highly impactful coaching can also be achieved through trusting in the refining process (as in gold) and trusting in the leading process which is the self-immersion in the edification through God’s word. The essential element here is the TRUSTING or giving of oneself. Then this could lead to the “fullness” of being coached.
References:
(Camacho, Tom. Mining for Gold (p. 11). IVP. Kindle Edition)
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coaching)
Frodsham, J. (2022, November). Six Success Essentials of High-Impact Coaching, Forbeshttps://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2022/11/22/six-success-essentials-of-high-impact-coaching/?sh=8ff0dce3a74a
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Timothy%203&version=NIV
About the Author
Noel Liemam
11 responses to “LEARNING TO RIDE A BICYCLE”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Noel, I like your take on coaching being like teaching a kid to ride a bike. I’m going to have to keep that in mind.
I’m curious, do you use coaching in your current role? If not, how do you think you could use coaching principles?
Thank you, Ms. Kim Samford for the input. In my current role, I have not been coached or coach anyone. I only think of coach in association with sports but never in terms of life coach or career coach. Thank you for the question; it made think about the benefits of coaching in my current role and to utilized it.
Thank you!
Noel, I would echo Kim in saying that the analogy of having a parent/guardian teach a child to ride a bike is brilliant. Thank you for that.
What stuck me was the simplicity of it all. Consider how common this phrase is: “It’s like riding a bike.” It’s a way of saying, “Oh, that, yah, it’s simple…it’s like riding a bike.” Often leaders will complicate the process of leadership development, rather than keeping it very simple, doable and replicable.
Would you agree regarding my assessment of “simplicity,” or have I dumbed it down too much? I’m seriously curious about that.
Thank you, Mr. John Fehlen for your comment. I like to think of it in simple term or illustration so it could help me understand the concept. My “riding a bicycle” illustration does not fully explain coaching, but it helps me to visualize it. Therefore, I totally appreciate your assessment.
Thank you!
I have to remember that a huge part of coaching isn’t just in the finding of the gold (the mining process) but the refining of it.
As we are reading about threshold concepts, specifically about liminality, that refining fire is absolutely essential to help the gold be all it can be.
When you talk about trusting in your summary, are you referencing trusting God, trusting the coach, trusting yourself? And how would that work out in the coaching process?
Thank you, Mr. Tim Clark, for your comment. I like that, “refining fire is absolutely essential to the gold be all it can be.” it is absolutely true!
In the refining process, as leaders are refined by the Master refiner, I would attribute the trusting in the relationship to be, trusting God. And in the coach and coachee relationship, I would say a mutual trust.
Thank you for re-emphasizing this, it made me think more about it.
Thank you!
Thank you Noel for your blog. I like the analogy of learning to ride a bicycle that you convey. It reminds me of the process I learned to ride a bike when I was little. It also reminds me of when my wife and I taught our children to learn to ride bikes several years ago. You correctly described that the essence of the process is to cultivate trust, that is, to believe in our abilities and also to believe in the people who guide and motivate us. I am sure that when you emphasize the importance of trust to grow because we first start everything with God, as Camacho said on page 32, right?
Love the analogy of the parent teaching a child to ride a bike. . . The element of trust in the relationship is key and often takes time to develop. You also stated that a determining factor in the coaching (mining) process is on the part of the leader/individual and how much they yield to the process of purification. The ability to trust and yield are crucial in the mining process.
Thank you, Ms. Cathy Glei. I may be wrong, but I believe that without trust, yielding would not be possible. Thank you.
Noel, I also loved the connection to riding a bicycle and the trusting relationship between parent and child and your comparison to the coaching relationship. I am wondering if you can say more about the child falling and scraping a knee and what that does with trust on the parent and how can we utilize the “getting back” up and restoring trust? Do you think this is possible in a coaching relationship? I’d love to hear more!
Thank you, Ms. Jana Dluehosh, for the idea. I ended right there, but you are right about the getting back after fallen is a wonderful idea. I never thought about, thanks for the input.