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A coach may be just what you need to improve your gameIain Macfarlane
Unfortunately, not everyone will be successful. Excuses include bad luck, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, not being clever enough, not having a "business brain," not having enough capital, and many other negatives. While the concept of business coaching began to be noticeable in the 1950s and '60s in the U.S. primarily in the sporting fields, business coaching can be traced to leadership development programs in the 1980s. There is certainly no question today that superior coaching has become a weapon of professional and Olympic athletes. A sporting coach is action oriented and results oriented, and measures success by the actual winning scores achieved, not by talking about possibilities. The sporting coach also will push an athlete to achieve optimum performance, will provide support when the athlete is exhausted, and will teach the athlete to execute plays that the competition does not anticipate. The sporting coach will make the athlete run more laps than he or she feels like doing. The coach will tell the athlete the truth, and the athlete will listen. Similarly, the role of the business coach is to educate business owners to generate the actions to provide superior competitive results and measured business performance through guidance, focus, ideas, processes, support, encouragement and accountability. The business coach will help the leaders of businesses with their business and personal goal setting, sales, marketing, advertising, management, team building, operational productivity, financial management, and many other business related activities that can produce measurable activities to generate improved profitability. Business coaching involves activities that can be specifically measured, because if you can't measure the results, particularly financial, you can't tell if you are improving. There is no doubt that business owners in today's world are finding it harder than ever to have the knowledge to keep pace with all the changes and innovations that are accelerating each year. And as the world of business continues to move faster and becomes globally more competitive, having a business coach is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. Bob Nardelli, CEO of Home Depot, in July 2002 said, "I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities." People who are exceptionally good in business are not so because of what they know from their own experiences. They are successful because of their insatiable need to know more. The problem with business owners who have failing or poorly performing businesses is that they spend their time and energy defending what they think they know. Business coaching is about processes, education and learning, establishing business and personal goals, and is focused on continuous activities to generate measurable results. It can be applied to any type of business, whether it be manufacturing, retail or services, it can be in any industry category, and it can be business-to-business or business-to-consumer. However, the most likely candidates to benefit from business coaching tend to be owners of small through mid-size businesses where the owners have greater control to make specific changes to the business through their own highly motivated desire, and personal risk, versus executives of larger corporations with corporate staffing infrastructures and less personal financial risk. The primary benefits of business coaching are to generate a rewarding experience for the business owner and to take the owner's business to another level of financial performance that is consistent with the owner's personal goals. The owner needs to be able to work ON their business and to control the direction of the business as the visionary, strategist and as the entrepreneurial motivator, not to be working IN their business as a technical worker where they feel the business is "out of their control." "I don't make enough money for the effort I put in," "I work too many hours," "I don't have enough time with my family" are typical situations where a business coach can be very productive. The business coach will help the business owner examine values, develop and maintain a vision, challenge beliefs that may negatively impact on business and personal performance, cope with pressure and stress, and maintain focus on achieving desired results by taking specific actions. iainmacfarlane@action-international.com madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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