It’s a volatile climate for business these days with countless businesses having a really hard time growing profitably. Many of these entrepreneurs have the spark of ideas but lack a systemized way to drive their business. They spin their wheels, working on the day-to-day operations and minutiae, without having the luxury of taking a break to look closely at the key factors that will drive profitability and add value. More often than not, they are slaves to their businesses, instead of being in control.
These business owners need a coach. A coach is a seasoned professional with a toolkit for helping business owners grow their business more profitably, and create a valuable enterprise that runs on its own, without needing the business owner to be present1.
A number of companies that are successfully navigating the treacherous business climate today owe a lot of their success to their business coaches and executive coaches who are keeping them on track and helping them stay the course to realize long-term growth and profitability.
Coaching is often a misunderstood profession with a number of myths surrounding it. Oftentimes, people assume coaching means mentoring, cheering, therapy, talking and an otherwise “soft skill”. Coaching is also regarded largely as a “first world” luxury. Nothing could be further from the truth.
A key point to note is that business fundamentals stay the same across continents, industries and climates. Indeed, a focus on costs, crafting a compelling strategy and defining aligned activities to grow the business are universal prerogatives of any business owner.
Coaching, when done right, gives the business an unbeatable edge by equipping the business owner with a toolkit, and an orientation that helps produce consistent and repeatable results. By focusing on executing strategies and improving the bottom line, coaching has, time and again, proven to be one of the most successful management approaches a business can take. Coaching helps entrepreneurs revisit their aspirations and consider flexible approaches to solving a problem. Business owners, no matter what their geographic location, can benefit from the systematic, conscientious and committed guiding that a coach can provide.
The ideal coach is a trusted advisor, a practice partner, a voice of reason (as one of my clients likes to call me), one who will observe objectively, listen actively, share and solicit feedback, and work to build agreement.
A business coach will help a business owner in numerous ways, including:
Help with setting concrete goals and specifying a time period to realize those goals
Keep the business owner accountable to achieve those goals within the agreed time period
Help with profit and growth strategies to increase business value
Objective assessment of the business along key performance indicators
Identifying efficiencies that can be realized in various operational aspects
Acting as a trusted partner when it comes to hiring decisions
Reignite the spark that got the business started
Crafting strategy and business plans by taking a big picture view
In short, coaching focuses on exploring ideas with a trusted partner who has a stake in your business’s long-term health.
It is also important to make a distinction on what coaching is NOT:
Coaching is not an opportunity to criticize behavior and actions, rather it is a way to identify and develop more effective ways of doing things
Coaching is not a dictatorial way of laying out actions to get results, rather it is a way to guide people toward goals
Coaching is not about being an expert or a boss with all the answers, rather it is a collaborative process of sharing information and agreeing on outcomes
Coaching is not about therapy or trying to address personal issues, rather it is about inspiring and supporting people to keep their spark alive
Coaching is not about being a mentor or cheerleader for your business, rather a coach is your reality check when you seek to attain the goals that you agreed upon at the start of the engagement
Coaching is certainly not an outsourced accounting, business plan writing, or other external functional resource (although almost all coaches are subject matter experts in their areas and can provide specialized services under a different contract)
In short, coaching is NOT about preaching, directing behavior, or exerting authority to meet some immediate need and hone in on one discrete outcome. It is really about helping business owners become as successful as they can possibly be. By looking at your business objectively along various dimensions like costs, profits, short-term and long-term strategies, tactics and growth, your business coach has the same goal that you do: continued and sustained success. Adapted from Center for Executive Coaching and Andrew Neitlich
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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in October, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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—About our writer:
Preeta Raman is a senior high-technology manager with extensive experience in Silicon Valley companies like HP, AMD as well as a couple of startups. She has MBA and Engineering degrees and has worked in software engineering, marketing and alliance strategy roles. She has advanced project management certification from Stanford University and is much in demand as an expert at helping companies grow their profits and increase the value of their businesses.
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