Why use a business coach
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When my 50th birthday came flying over the horizon to welcome me into what even I have to admit is middle age, I hired a personal trainer. I knew that even though I was a regular gym user, it was going to need a more coordinated approach to fitness if I was going to avoid the sags and bulges that your fifties so often deliver.
Now, two years later I have run the London Marathon, numerous half marathons and when I look in the bathroom mirror, see the muscle toned torso I wished I’d had 20 years ago. I attribute all of the credit for this physical transformation to James, my personal trainer. Even now, when we have achieved so much, he remains unsatisfied with my progress. Love handles have crept onto the agenda!
The secret of my success is the discipline of knowing that someone is holding me personally accountable for my fitness regime. I am being guided towards the right activities, encouraged to set achievable short term goals, then made to feel bad if I don’t quite meet them.
Of course every successful sportsman has a coach; it’s a well known fact that a strong, intimate coaching relationship helps you win the race. Less well recognised, is that it’s just the same in business.
Sports coaching works because we can only attain peak performance of someone we trust is there encouraging us along. It can’t be a friend or relative, and certainly not your lover. That brings too many complications into what needs to be a straightforward, focused (and somehow intimate) relationship. Business coaching can deliver the same.
My only problem with business coaching is the many people I meet who claim some ability in this area. Too many business networking events are populated by in my view damaged individuals seeking to solve their own problems by raking over yours. They breathe garlic over as they enthusiastically tell you what they can do, without pausing to gain even the slightest understanding of what you might want from a coaching relationship. In other words, coaching is good, but please choose your coach carefully!
Also recognise, that hiring a business coach, as with hiring a personal trainer or sports coach, is not for the weak or failing. Only those confident of their ability to succeed will really benefit from a good coaching relationship. Delegating responsibility for your failure is not a job for a business coach; more one for a clairvoyant or therapist!
Of course books can take you some of the way. As author of both a best selling ‘self help’ book, ‘The Life Plan’ and a very popular business guide, ‘The Entrepreneur’s Book of Checklists’, I know from reader feedback that books can kick start the improvement process. However, a £12.99 book is never going to deliver the same impact as a £500 per month business coach.
Finally, in my view you need to pick the right time in your evolution as an entrepreneur, or your businesses journey from birth to sale, to really feel the benefit of a good business coach. Be specific in your objective and ask a number of possible coaches how they can help you achieve them. Remember that it’s as much about personality and chemistry as it is qualifications.
Where would I look for a business coach? Simple; I’d ask the most successful people I admire to tell me who’d helped them and then ask for an introduction. Now it’s up to you; go for it!
© Robert Ashton 2007
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