“The Industry”

In response
to my post on change and innovation Victor Hall wrote the following: I have followed your
blog for over a year now, and am aware of your opinions on what the industry is
doing WRONG. Conversely, I am very interested in what you see RIGHT with the
industry. Can we highlight and capitalize on the progress the industry has made?
Victor my perspective is quite different, I am a coach and coaching is not an
industry. To me it is a profession and that implies professionalism. It is
teaching and mentoring. Industries build objects. Nothing I see day to day is
doing anything to dispel my viewpoint. In fact just yesterday evening a friend
of mine who is a very good coach at a major Division I school called to tell me
about a golf fitness seminar he had just attended. One of his statements was
that everything in the seminar was geared to what you had to do so you could
charge more. That is sad, I understand we all have to make a living, but isn’t
it about getting people better. If there is a positive out of all of this it is
that there is now a greater awareness of importance of training. Even that has
somewhat of a downside because that awareness is based on sensational
advertisements that lead people to believe that there are magic results at the
end of the rainbow. Victor I wish I could more optimistic, but I cannot.