Coaches' Corner~Analyticals

Analyticals are the most bothersome for me of all the personality types or social styles.  When coaching business owners, one of the things you assess is progress.  You do this by evaluating goals and backing up activities to see what it takes to achieve them, right?  The analyticals are in love with the process.  While the driver is purely concerned with results, the analytical is concerned with the process of getting the results.  They do like evaluating but not for the sake of getting the results they need but evaluating for the sake of evaluating.  They are usually in love with the steps involved and this is true even in relationships which we know is not logical.  The analytical believes he or she is being logical but this is not true.  They are governed by their feelings just like the rest of us but they are much better at justifying their actions.  The right/wrong/, good/bad paradigm is most difficult for this group.  The favorite word of the analytical person is ‘accuracy’ and the truth is it is more like their lifeblood.  As a coach, creating a new result for an analytical is most difficult mostly because perfection is his or her goal and they can really get bogged down in the steps involved in improving.

I recently lost 72 lbs by using a process known as Dr. Simeon’s Protocol and I underwent it with my wife.  This process required us to eat as little as 500 calories per day even though the food list had variety.  My wife got in to this thing with me and it was a resounding success.  The protocol had three phases and during the second phase we were to gradually increase our caloric intake to the normal 1800-2200 calories per day in 150 calorie increments.  In phase one, we had bought one of the fancy scales that allowed you to find out the exact fats, carbohydrates, and proteins depending on the food you ate.  You see, there was a four digit code for most foods and you weighed it on this fancy scale and you found out all you wanted to know.  I had been pretty neurotic during phase one eating exactly 500 calories and drinking just the right amount of water and abstaining from putting anything in my mouth with 15 minutes of taking the drops.  My wife was a gem as she painstakingly measured all the food and I dutifully ate just the right amount.  But then came phase 2.

We lost unheard-of amounts of weight during phase 1 and we were stoked.  All the measuring of food paid off and being reminded that it was time to eat ceased to be bothersome.  It was not bothersome because I was hungry and in fact I wasn’t hungry at all.  What was bothersome was being told what to do.  I must say that I hated it.  But I got the results and in phase 2, I did not have to worry about all that food restriction.  Toward completion of phase 2, when we were at more than 1500 calories per day, my wife asked me how many calories had I taken in this particular day.  I had no idea so I said so, “I don’t know, just ate some food.”  She had no patience for that response and reminded me that it was the day for 1500 calories.  You see, I, who am an expressive, reasoned that since I was not on the 500 calorie restriction, there was no need to count my calories, so it did not matter.  My wife begged to differ with me because she reasoned that you count the calories because you are SUPPOSED to count them.  This was a far cry from what I thought because I was not in love with the process, I simply did it when it was discovered.

When coaching an analytical person, be more personable than usual.  Keep in mind a chameleon is a good thing to be and so is being stern.  You will be required to keep things moving because an analytical will have you jumping out of the window by telling you how bac things are.  They are not even trying to be negative or nothing like that.  That is just the way they see it.  Do not waste time being angry with them but take their word about the necessity of intervention because they are natural evaluators.  And if you are an analytical who is a coach. Take another look at the blogs about the other personality types because you will need it.  Your standards are yours and yours only and be careful not to get afflicted with analysis paralysis because it is a huge deterrent to you evolving into an extraordinary business coach.