Coachable people can spot what they could have done differently, even with a bad boss. A study of 20,000 new hires found 46% failed within 18 months, with lack of coachability as the top reason. If you say nothing was your fault, that's the problem.
Here's a brutal test of whether you're coachable, and we should all take it. Think about your boss at your last job and ask yourself, what could I have done differently to make that relationship better? If your answer is nothing, or, well, my boss was the problem, that's the warning sign. Listen, even if your boss really was a jerk, was there nothing you could have handled better? The way you responded to their moods, how you raised concerns, how you showed up in meetings. In my Hiring for Attitude study and book, we tracked more than 20,000 new hires. 46% failed within 18 months, and the top reason was coachability. Coachable people can find something to learn even when most of the blame belongs to somebody else. If every bad outcome is always somebody else's fault, you don't get better. You just get a longer list of people to blame.
