Why perfection gets in the way of real coaching

At the AJC Coaching Career School the live masterclasses have become one of my favourite parts of the program. Every few weeks I invite a coach I deeply respect to come, share valuable lessons from their business and coach live. These are people who don’t just talk about coaching, they live it. And every time our community walks away with something that changes how they see themselves and their work.

In the first masterclass of 2025 I invited back Amir Karkouti. Amir has been teaching in our school since 2022 and I keep bringing him back because he has a way of pointing us back to what really matters. He reminds us of our humanity.

In this session Amir talked about his early days as a coach when he believed he had to show up perfectly for his clients, using the right words, looking polished, always trying to give the impression that he had the answers. What he discovered over time was that the breakthroughs never came from that performance. They came when he dropped the act, admitted he did not know and stayed with his clients anyway.

Listening to Amir brought me back to something Steve Chandler once told me:

“Bring the thing you are most afraid to share into the session.”

It is a lesson I have carried for years and hearing Amir’s story was a fresh reminder of it.

And it is not just true for coaching, it is true for life. We often hold back waiting until we feel ready but the real transformation comes when we show up now just as we are.

So let me leave you with this: what might shift for you if you stopped waiting and gave yourself permission to step forward exactly as you are today?

If you want to feel what it’s like to be inside one of our masterclasses, watch this short clip from Amir’s session. It’s one of those moments you can’t quite explain, you just have to experience it.

With love and appreciation,
Ankush Jain
Coach and Author of Sweet Sharing – Rediscovering the REAL You