What is a Business Coach*?

“A coach is someone who gets you to do what you don’t want to do, so you can be who you want to be.” – Tom Landry (Dallas Cowboys Head Coach).

Business coaching is not consulting
Business coaching is not mentoring
Business coaching is not therapy

Business Coaching is an extraordinary relationship between two or more people that commit to a common goal or future for a business.

Business coaches often ask tough questions and facilitate difficult conversations that produce opportunities for extraordinary communication and new possibilities.

A business coach is someone who works with their client to define what it is the client wants, what obstacles are in the way and how to dismantle them to get the client closer to what they want.

Business / Corporate / Management Coaching
Running a business is hard work—especially if you are on your own.

You have nobody to talk to about your business concerns, marketing techniques, or financial strategies. Keeping the "engine running" is totally up to you. You are the deciding factor in your success—and that's a lot of pressure!

That's why we offer business coaching. We give small to medium sized business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals an outlet for:
Addressing business concerns
Devising marketing plans
Making sense out of financial data
Keeping the business running smoothly
And much more

Business Coaching is a great way to work with a business professional who knows how to market, who knows how to run an organization smoothly, and who knows how to analyze financial data. You have an outlet for venting your frustrations, brainstorming new ideas, and working through problems.

Through the coaching relationship, we will work on:
Marketing – online and offline marketing techniques.
Service – keeping the customers/clients happy so they come back and refer your services to others.
Measurement – determining the effectiveness of past marketing programs, product/service offerings, etc. to make the most of future dollars spent.
Life – running your business effectively so you can have a life outside of your work that is also successful!

The Power of Coaching
Here are two quotes from one of my mentors:

1) “What you measure is what you stand for. What get measured gets done. You can’t change what you can’t see.” - Dr. S. Skiffington

2) “All coaches do not have to be psychologists. However, coaching is change, and change is a psychological process. The coach has to understand the psychological aspects of coaching and be confident and competent enough to deal with these. To do so requires personalized, expert training and supervision.” – Dr. S. Skiffington

Coaching is a partnership with a client. It’s a partnership in a creative and thought-provoking process that inspires them to be all they can be—to live up to their full personal and professional potential.

To be a business coach I have to have the proper attitudes. The most successful coaches are always coming from the following six orientations:

1) Relationships
As a coach, I strive to build positive business relationships with my clients. I do this by providing value to them, serving them, being the consummate professional, having total integrity, and standing for their success.

2) Outcomes
I focus on results. This may seem obvious, but it is not. Many business owners focus on tasks to the point that they sometimes forget where they are going. I help my clients focus on the end result, on the powerful, compelling future that they want to create. Sometimes I have to balance relationships and outcomes. If I push too hard for outcomes, I hurt the relationship and come across as coercing. If I focus too much on the relationship, I will not achieve the desired results, and will be perceived as too passive, as avoiding conflict.

3) Possibility
When others are stuck, mired in complaints and negativity, I create a sense of possibility. I am not unrealistic in what is possible, but my way of speaking and acting encourages people to keep pushing forward in the face of uncertainty and difficult challenges.

4) Dialog
Coaching is not about lecturing. It happens through a dialog with my clients. It is therefore essential to be sure that I have heard my clients, explored their issues, and tested my solutions with them. Sometimes I act like a mentor and provide frameworks and tools. But I am not running their business. I am not an interim executive. Even after providing advice, it is my job to stand back and let the client react, to listen actively to you’re their ides, and to develop a solution that works for them (not just for me).

5) Capacity
I am not working with my clients just to get it done. Rather, I want to help them improve their capabilities and performance over the long term. There are many ways to build capacity: letting my clients reach their own conclusions and insights; serving as an example or role model; training and teaching; providing challenging assignments; or even following the medical school model of “see one, do one, teach one.” At the end of the day, my best measure of success is that my clients don’t need me anymore, because their business is successful and they know how to take it to the next level thanks to my coaching.

6) Street Smarts
Finally, I have street smarts. I understand not just theory, but practical pathways to results. I have “been there and done that,” and I have stories to share about my (or my other clients’) successes, failures, and creative ways to improve results with limited resources.

To learn more about my coaching programs, click HERE

*Special thanks to coach Gary Henson and coach Andrew Neitlich for their input.