The Bottleneck Coach
You figured it out.
Mirror and Window, together. You can diagnose and inspire. You can show people where they are and where they could go. When you work with someone, they actually improve.
The problem: they only improve when you're there.
Step away, and the progress stalls. The insights you gave them don't stick. The improvements you catalyzed don't sustain. They need another session. And another. And you start to realize you've created a dependency.
You've become a bottleneck. The transformation runs through you and can't run without you.
Why Bottlenecks Form
The Bottleneck Coach is doing something right—transformation is actually happening. But they're doing something wrong too: they're centering themselves in the process.
This happens when:
- You diagnose but don't teach diagnosis. They learn what was wrong, but they don't learn how to see what's wrong. Next time, they need you again.
- You provide insight but not frameworks. They get better because of what you tell them, but they don't have a structure for generating those insights themselves.
- You adjust in real-time. You're good at adapting your coaching to the moment. But that means the coaching is stuck in the moment—it doesn't transfer to when you're not around.
The Bottleneck Coach creates dependency instead of capability. The client gets better, but only while attached to the coach.
What Scalable Transformation Looks Like
The Bottleneck Coach becomes scalable by building systems that work without them.
- Teach the diagnosis, not just the result. Instead of "here's what I see," teach "here's how I see." Give them the tools to mirror themselves.
- Create frameworks, not just insights. Frameworks are reusable. Insights are one-time. Package your wisdom in structures they can apply independently.
- Make your absence a feature. Build in periods where they practice without you. Check in afterward. Learn what stuck and what didn't. The goal is to see how they do alone.
- Productize. Can you turn your coaching into something that travels? A curriculum. A method. A set of exercises. Something that captures what you do in a form that doesn't require you to be present.
The highest form of the Performance Game isn't coaching—it's creating systems that produce transformation at scale. The bottleneck coach helps one person at a time. The system builder helps thousands.