STEP No. 1

What’s the difference between top-level business owners and mediocre ones? How about top-level and mediocre athletes? Bill Gates is at the top of his game and considered one of the best business leaders and success stories in the world. What are the secrets to his success? How about Tiger Woods? Isn’t he one of the best in the world. What did he do to get to the top and what does he do to stay there?

One of the things that they both have in common is that they both have a coach. If you think about it, it’s kind of strange. Why hire someone less successful in your field to help you grow and get better? What does Bill know that we don’t? Doesn’t he know more than a coach? How about Tiger Woods? Why would he hire someone who isn’t as successful as he is to help him become better? How does a coach help?

Successful business leaders know in order to optimize their business, maximize their value to the business and stay ahead of their competition they need to make time each month to step back from the business and assess what they’ve accomplished, where they are, where they wanted to be, and if they are on course. They need to think about what’s working in their business, what isn’t and then take action to move forward.

Enter the business coach. A business coach works directly for and with the company owner. A coach is solely focused on the owner’s success. The best coaches have years of experience both as business owners themselves and as coaches. They’ve come across a magnitude of opportunities and challenges and are able to help you successfully maneuver your business in rough waters and well as make the best of the calm waters.

So how does a coach help an owner?

  1. Vision – a coach will make sure you know what it is that you are trying to achieve, both personally and professionally. This can sometimes become blurred as you progress in business. Sometimes your personal vision and business vision are not aligned and working against each other. A coach will help you bring your vision into focus and make sure your personal and professional visions are aligned and supporting each other.
  2. Focus – When you have a clear vision it is easier to map out a path to get you from where you are to where you want to be, and the stepping stones in between you need to guide you there. But business sometimes takes over and before you know it you are off course and have lost sight of your next stepping stone or worse yet your goal. A coach meets you regularly and each time they do they work with you to make sure you are staying on course. There might be times when you need to pivot, and a coach will help you strategically think through what the pivot means to you and your business and how to integrate it into your path.
  3. Execution – Plannng is great and very important but over planning without execution is a waste. A coach helps you figure out how and when it’s time to execute and how to gauge the results of the execution before you move on to the next stepping stone in the plan.
  4. Accountability – When you work with a coach you’ll learn to work on your business as well as work in your business. You’ll set strategic long and short-term goals and the action items needed to achieve the goals. Each time you meet with your coach they’ll check and see that you have completed the action items you committed to achieving and discuss with you the results to make sure they accomplished your objectives before you move on to the next. Sometimes business doesn’t give you the time needed to complete the tasks and then you and your coach will figure out what needs to change in order for you to get moving forward again.
  5. Reflection – A coach helps you to look back at what has taken place in your business over the last week or two. They give you a chance to think out loud. They know how to ask important questions and get you to work ON the business instead of just in the business. This is the opportunity to brainstorm and strategize how you can continue to build a better business and a better life for you to live in.
  6. Growth – You need time to grow as a person, a business owner, and a leader. A coach talks to you about work life balance and works with you to insure you are taking time to grow in these areas. This area also includes health, both physical and mental and a good coach will work with you to make sure you’re taking time out to enjoy the fruits of your labors and live a healthy life.
  7. A Living Document – Most coaches keep records of their meetings and use them to see the progress the coaching is making. A “Monthly Progress Report”. Most business owners don’t have time nor make time to keep a running log of the business. It has many benefits though, such as a history of when things happened in your business, a record of your personal and business visions along with your mission statement, the goals and action items you and your coach set each month, even KPIs, just to name a few.
  8. Engagement – There is an important need in business to take time out from the day to day and work on all of the pieces we’ve mentioned so far. But even when a coach has a business owner right in front of them it is sometimes difficult to get them to engage. Their heads are full of all the things happening outside the door. It takes a really great coach to get the owner to change hats and engage in the coaching process.

You might notice two things about this list. First, it doesn’t mention what we work on in coaching and that’s because each company and company owner is unique and have different needs. Secondly, it doesn’t mention how coaching directly improves your business. This again is because each owner has different needs, and we focus our coaching on those needs. Some examples might be growth, business development, leadership development, business efficiencies, team building, marketing and sales, etc. The list is long.

But without a doubt, having a coach is the first step you can take that will help you move your business to the next level.

Steps 2 and 3 to come……