Richard CanfieldPodcast Host and IBC Advisor, Ascendant Financial · Authorized Infinite Banking Practitioner | Author of 4 Books

Why I Chose Coaching Over Being the MVP In My Business

25 Nov 2024 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:10

Richard Canfield explains why he stepped back from being the star performer in his business to focus on coaching and building a team. Using a hockey coach versus player analogy, he describes a 19-year transition to leadership where he accepted no longer being the person everyone calls on.

Do you follow football or hockey, Richard? Normal sport. You follow?
Yeah, yeah. I'm more of a hockey guy.
So, hockey. Where's the coach?
On the bench.
On the bench. He's not on the ice, right.
He can't go make the plays. He can't put the puck in the back of the net.
There you go. So what meant for me was I was the guy that visited everybody, went out and saw everybody, let all those things up. But I said, I'm going to be the coach. I have to come up. I have to come off the edge, and now I have to coach someone. So I started then to be able to build a team around me so that I could do what I did best and give up being a star player, because actually, Wayne Gretzky, unfortunately, is a great star player. That didn't make a great coach, but I felt I'd make a better coach than a player. So that's what's happened. So over that last 19 years or so, I moved myself off of the ice and behind the bench and coached my team. But that made fundamental changes, and you also had to get used to the fact that you weren't going to be the guy on call.