Hot Coffee Coaching

I had a conversation recently with a potential coaching client, Mark.
Mark was six months into a new position at a new company that had never had that
position before.
He was working 70-hour weeks and
was exhausted, stressed and unhappy.
Think about that for a minute:
He was in a new position with a new company that had never had that position before.
I had to ask:
If you’ve never done this job before and your company has never has this position before,
how do you know it takes 70 hours a week to do?
He didn’t like my question and we didn’t end up coaching together.
The situation has stuck with me, though, because it seems too often we create our own problems.
One way is by collapsing facts and assumptions.
Mark’s co-workers assumed what they thought he should be doing in this new role and gave him project after project to complete.
Mark assumed if they asked, he had to deliver and added each project to his ever-expanding to-do list.
Before long, he was failing at his own work and the work the others gave him.
He was exhausted, stressed and unhappy.
And, that’s a fact.