The other day, I was speaking with a client who works in the financial services sector. Out of that discussion came some powerful insights worth sharing. We were discussing how we might measure the value that he derives from coaching. (Note: If you’re not having that discussion with your coach, chances are you’re not maximizing the value of your investment.) What came up in our discussion was the notion of trend lines.
In coaching, trend lines represent a simple but widely misunderstood and underutilized concept, so allow me first to share the basics.
First and foremost, in order to establish a trend, there must be data. In other words, it’s difficult to evaluate what we don’t measure. If, for example, you establish a goal to increase revenue, then tracking income and expenses is necessary in order to assess your progress. Or, if your goal is to establish more work/life balance, you might track the number of hours you work each day or week, or conversely, the number of hours you spend engaged in fulfilling activities with family and friends. Only after a meaningful metric has been established can we evaluate whether our trend is upward, downward or flat.
In an up-trend, a line is drawn under successive higher lows...forming a upward trend line.
A trend line drawn across successive lower highs depicts the down-trend.
Adding a bit more nuance to these definitions, it takes at least three successive points to confirm a trend line. Two points can offer only tentative information about the existence of an emerging trend. Another way of looking at it is that it takes time to establish a trend. Short term fluctuations are of less value in determining a trend than are long term patterns.
This brings me to the primary point of this post. Life has a way of throwing us curve balls. Despite our best efforts to impact our lives in positive ways (however we define positive) there will be upsets. We will have a string of successes that we consider an upward trend and then encounter a setback. The mistake is to interpret that setback as the indication of a downward trend. Or conversely, we can have one or two successes and conclude that we’ve established a solidly positive upward trend. Neither is true until we’ve collected sufficient data over sufficient time to feel confident about the trend.
Why am I taking the time to describe this concept? What practical value can be derived from understanding trend lines?
First and most obviously, if you’re not establishing the metrics by which you’ll assess progress, you won’t truly understand whether progress is being made, much less your rate of progress.
Second, by tracking these metrics over time, short-term gains or setbacks can more easily be contextualized appropriately. Rather than spending significant time and energy on processing a singular event, we can more easily recognize the outlier as an aberration and move on.
Finally, we can incorporate a new practice into our behaviors. In coaching, the practice is called “clearing.” In meetings, it’s called “checking-in.” These practices allow us to share whatever is top-of-mind and potentially in the way – a recent failure or disappointment, perhaps – so that we can choose our focus more consciously.
It’s been said before and bears repeating: The most successful people in life are not those who succeed at everything they do (such people do not exist), but rather, those who accept the inevitability of occasional setbacks, rapidly recover emotionally, glean what can be learned, course correct and keep going.
What if we learned consistently to set goals, measure progress, detect trends and celebrate the process and learning along the way? How might that alter our experience of life?
