What Coaches and Mentors Can Learn from David and Goliath
Assuming that a client facing a real disadvantage must simply lose to a better-positioned peer is the specific trap David and Goliath names; real disadvantages can become advantages when a client refuses to play by the expected rules, and real advantages can quietly become liabilities past a certain point.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
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The core lessons, applied to you
Help clients find a different approach instead of the expected one
A real disadvantage can become an advantage when a client finds an approach that plays to their actual strengths, rather than trying to match a better-positioned peer's approach directly.
A coach pushes a client to compete with a stronger peer using that peer's own approach, and the client loses confidence trying to win on terms that don't fit them.
Identify one client who's comparing themselves to a better-positioned peer, and help them find a different approach that plays to a strength they actually have.
Recognize when more support stops helping
More support isn't always better; past a certain point, additional structure or hand-holding can start working against a client's own confidence and problem-solving.
A coach provides so much structure that a client never builds the independent skill the structure was meant to develop.
Look at one client you're currently supporting heavily, and consider whether it's time to pull back a specific piece of that support.
Hold space for difficulty to build unexpected strength, without expecting it
Working through a real constraint can sometimes build a compensating skill or approach a client wouldn't otherwise have developed, though this isn't guaranteed, and a constraint can just as easily be purely a constraint with no silver lining.
A coach either dismisses a client's real constraint as pure weakness, missing what it might be teaching them, or assumes every hardship must be secretly building the client up, which isn't fair to how genuinely hard some constraints are.
Look at one constraint a client currently faces, and consider without pressure on the client whether it's building a real compensating skill worth naming and encouraging.
Build trust through voice, fairness, and predictability, not just authority
Clients follow a coach's guidance more willingly when they feel heard, feel the process is fair, and know what to expect, more than they respond to formal expertise alone.
Holding a client to a high standard and adapting the approach to fit them aren't opposites — the skill is finding what lets a client's actual strengths show up.
Name one thing, honestly
Is there a client whose constraint you've treated purely as a weakness, without considering whether it might point toward a different, better approach for them?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
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Run this for seven days
Look at one constraint a client currently faces, and consider without pressure on the client whether it's building a real compensating skill worth naming and encouraging.