IN one of my coaching engagements for a mid-sized family business last year, I recall censuring a next generation business leader in a QBR (quarterly business review) for failing to deliver on his performance targets.
The results were dismal and instead of owning up to the debacle, he ended up pointing fingers at his subordinates. While he was trying to absolve himself of any responsibility, I stood up and showed him two slides.
Slide 1 came from Tom Landry.
“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who makes you see what you do not want to see, so that you can be who you have always known you can be.”
Slide 2 came from lightboxleadership.com
“Accept responsibility for your actions. Be Accountable for your results and take ownership of your mistakes.”
The role of a business coach is to challenge business owners by way of visioning, accountability and encouragements. It also helps organizations enhance their operations, sales, marketing, management and so much more. Most importantly, just like a sporting coach, a business coach will make you focus on the game.
Business coaching is extremely effective in creating successful actions designed to move the business owner in a positive direction. It is the partnering of client and coach in an extraordinary relationship aligned towards achieving big goals set in milestones. In my years of experience coaching organizations all over the world, a good example of a focused plan is to align organizations and its executives toward a possible listing in the stock exchange in the immediate future.
So, what exactly is business coaching?
1. It is clients who are ready to make changes and improvements in their business. It gives the entrepreneur a business partner who doesn’t necessarily share in the business profits. Anyone who’s ever had a business partner knows that partnerships are rarely equal. With a business coach, you’ll receive unbiased strategic advice for a retained monthly fee usually covering a number of hours, not 50 percent of your profits.
2. It is about speed, action and accountability. Think about all the workshops and conferences you have attended where you learned a new technique or strategy that was never implemented. Your business coach will help you get it done and hold you accountable, but you must be ready to take action. The client does the work, not the coach.
3. It challenges the status quo and exact governance. Your business coach asks, “What are your challenges? What are you not doing? When are you going to do that?”
4. It promotes clarity of roles between the owner and the professionals consistent with corporate as well as personal values. When your values are aligned with your business, greater success is possible.
5. It helps the business owner create a shared vision and mission for the organization. A business owner with a vision is much more likely to succeed than one that doesn’t know where he’s going.
6. It helps the business owner identify opportunities. A business coach can help you to see an opportunity you may have passed up.
7. It helps the business owner see his business through a different pair of eyes. A business coach can see what you don’t see.
8. It brings out the best in the entrepreneur. Have you ever had someone truly interested in your success? Business coaching will push you out of your comfort zone, take you to your limits and in the end you will embrace it!