My friend Ed Cangialosi and I have followed similar paths a few years apart. We’re both alumni of Dickinson College and their Bologna study abroad program, and more recently alumni of Columbia Business School. We continue to cross paths, and it was so nice of him to feature me in his series on coaching based on my experiences working with students and alumni from both institutions, especially now in my work as a career coach for Columbia.
Ed works in gift planning for Columbia and also seems to be a life-long side hustler. When we first met, he did custom bike fitting and he’s now a racing coach. It was really interesting to hear how he has applied experience on the raceway with management challenges in his full-time job, and vice versa!
I think combining this idea of finding focus with developing your listening skills is super important for a coach. As I consider my conversation with Missy it strikes me that getting your students to take flight on their own is really why anyone should be interested in coaching. And when I think about my experience at the track when I’m one to one with my student in the car, my goal is to drive less and less from the right seat of their car, that is tell them less and less through our headsets about where to brake, how much to turn, etc., as I observe them picking up the tools I am teaching and applying them during our day. Like Missy, my favorite bit is when I see a student applying the tools they’ve learned in subsequent track days.
Ed Cangialosi
You can read his piece in full here.
missylafferty.com 