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As the COVID-19 pandemic swells, we have no idea how tomorrow’s news will impact our daily lives and the people and organizations we care about most. Yet we each still need to function – take care of family, do our jobs, support our friends and communities, and stay physically and emotionally healthy.

As a coach, I feel like a navigator – in the front passenger seat with GPS tools and the freedom to look around. I have access to information and perspectives without the pressure to perform that my client faces. When a coaching session goes well, my client clarifies priorities and is energized to act on them. I believe we can all be better navigators for ourselves if we focus on what is most important. Here are two universally useful guides, always at your disposal, to complement your situation-specific considerations.

You know that feeling!… An in-your-face problem has you feeling stuck. You’re disappointed in yourself and maybe resentful toward others about the situation. Moreover, the “stuckness” is keeping you from being fully productive and feeling competent on your other responsibilities.

This quarter, I offer you a page from the playbook of the US women’s national soccer team. As I watched their final match to earn the World Cup championship (again!), I was in awe of how they are continually fueled by their desire to win, with their focus or energy never waning.

My quarterly coaching insight is again inspired by yoga. But you don’t have to like or do yoga to appreciate this. Sometimes, we care so much about something – and are so sure we know the best way to achieve it – that we try too hard.  

A recent coaching client, call her Anne, was a productive and ambitious over-achiever with expertise and results that top management highly valued. But she had been told she could be so brusque and direct that colleagues at various levels found it hard to work with her. She was described as sometimes intimidating, condescending, exhausting, and emotionally unpredictable. Not good!