Sometime, in the fog of uncertainty, we can use a bit of coaching. I like coaching; however, I need it sometime too! Today, it came in the form of a 'thank you' from someone I spoke to recently, encouraging her to follow a different route to her goals.
A young mother, who had decided after the birth of her children to stay home and pursue another path as a self-employed individual, was attempting to enter a program that would allow her the opportunity to work on her new business and get support and encouragement from business mentors along the way. After months of passing from one pre-qualifier to another, she found herself at a crossroads. A seemingly insurmountable obstacle had been thrown in her path and in her frustration; she couldn't see a way through to the other side. However, she took the encouragement offered her and ran with it!
Today, the 'thank you' was because the idea worked in her favour. But, she did all the work, so, I humbly accept with a joyful heart. God knows, I enjoy what I do, by His grace!
But, that got me thinking about coaching and where it fits in with your business goals on a whole. I believe it is every bit as important as some of your more tangible necessities to run a business. For example, most of you will have liability insurance. You hope nothing is going to go wrong, but, you provide yourself with a safety net in case it does. Coaching is your intellectual safety net. It provides you individually, or your team as a whole with a safe place to discuss your fears, reluctance, obstacles or frustration.
A coaching session brings out the best in you by ensuring that you’re not just seeing one tree in the forest. It provides you with answers, which mostly come from within, to the nagging questions about, what to do now, how to get past this setback, why continue when you’re not being appreciated, or, where a problem originated.
So, why don’t more people hire coaches? The first answer probably lies in the area of time. They don’t feel they have time. There are more pressing issues. Running the day to day of the business, instead of taking a good hard look at the business and determining what’s working, what isn’t and how to get onto a solid footing. The second is likely, “the coach knows nothing about my business”. That is probably true, but, irrelevant. A coach is there for you personally, not for your business. If you wanted someone to work on your business you’d go find an expert in that field.
Even people who coach have coaches. I personally have one or two people I know who will walk me through the emotions of my confusion. It helps and I wouldn’t want to do without it.
Can you do the same with a family member or friend? Yes! However, family and friends usually try to fix the problem for you or convince you that the problem you’re seeing isn’t a problem at all. There are very few natural coaches out there. Most are trained to do what they do. So, go on, find yourself a coach, give a try and see if you don’t get more from an hour with a coach than you did from all your discussions with family and friends.
Enjoy!
