The State of the World in 100 Hours of Coaching

Not surprising, but reaffirming, perhaps.

I recently reached a milestone: my first officially-logged 100 hours of Coaching.

To mark the occasion I thought I’d partner-up with AI with an initial task of simply organizing my notes. These notes were a combination of things I jotted down during coaching sessions and all of the questions from our TBWA\GLP “Coaches Corner” program, a new internal podcast, which opened up the inputs to an even more global audience.

I had originally created this summary exercise just for me, but after seeing the data, I believe it might be helpful for you to see as well.

Now, I work with a variety of clients.

Some are internal throughout our agency collective. Some are external. In all, it’s a collection of folks from around the world with a variety of roles: founders, entrepreneurs, and artists, to corporate types — CEOs, CMOs, Creative Directors, Strategists, Finance people, you name it. 

Last bit before I get to the results, Coaching sessions are confidential. So the inputs are all based on summary notes. Nothing personal. In addition, as mentioned above, I added some public questions which came in through our “Coaches Corner” programming. This was a powerful tranche of data since it comes from all over the globe from employees and executives at all levels and all different disciplines from across the enterprise.

All in all, I imported about 20 pages of notes, from roughly 9 months of conversations into ChatGPT.

Ok, onto the results.

I’ll start with the overriding sentiments: Frustration, Uncertainty, Overwhelm…and Desire for Growth.

No surprise here: This is Coaching’s bread and butter.

I also see this as the natural way of the “VUCA” world we live in. VUCA is the acronym that stands for “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.” (By the way, if I were to start a rock band today, I would call it, “VUCA.”) You can read more about VUCA (the concept, not the band) here.

Next up, I tasked ChatGPT to pull-out the 5 most-used adjectives from the notes.

I like the way the AI summarized the data so I’ll post it verbatim below.

    1.     Creative: This word is used to emphasize the importance of creativity and innovation in various contexts, such as work and personal growth.
        2.      Busy: Describes the individuals’ hectic schedules and the challenges they face in managing multiple responsibilities.
        3.      Challenging: Highlights the difficulties and obstacles individuals encounter in their work and personal lives.
        4.      Overwhelmed: Expresses the feeling of being overloaded with tasks and responsibilities, which can lead to stress.
        5.      Mediocre: Describes the quality of work or team performance in some instances, indicating a desire for improvement and excellence.

These adjectives reflect the range of experiences and emotions expressed in the notes, from the desire for creativity and growth to the challenges and frustrations individuals face in their careers and personal lives.

I pressed this adjective thing a bit further and created a Word Cloud. (See below.) I was pleased here because of the use of the word “Creative.” Given both AI outputs, it demonstrates the power of creativity as a way out, or a tool to use in these “VUCA” times. This is not simply a data thing, this is what’s happening in real life given that I am in these conversations.

In fact, I spend a lot of time with people reminding them to think creatively. Literally saying, “Is there a creative solution here?” Or “Let’s be creative — what would a perfect day look like; what is ideal?”

There’s a bit of science here. Creative thinking opens up the right hemisphere of our brains. We dream a bit. We “visioneer” a bit and suddenly an answer or positive outcome materializes.

The final piece to this AI-milestone experiment I’ll leave you with is the 5 overarching themes of these 100 hours (and Coaches Corner questions). They are:

1\Career Growth and Development

2\Work Relationships and Communication

3\Location Change and Career Progression

4\Personal Growth and Well-Being

5\Business Management

The point to all of this is, first and foremost, you’re not alone. We are all living in this VUCA world and it’s not easy to navigate.

What has been interesting for me to see is that even though each of the people I work with is very different with their own unique circumstances, there are universal challenges.

And, perhaps not surprising, a universal solution: creativity.

I can’t wait to see what the next 100 hours bring.