You’ll never see a football team run onto a field without
a coach at the sidelines. There’s a reason for that. Every
team needs someone to motivate and encourage, but more than that,
coaches hold players accountable when they don’t play by
the book.
Executive and business coaching has the same foundation, except
these coaches don’t call all the shots.
“
Business coaching is about helping business owners and professionals
clarify their vision for their business and set action plans and
get into action to achieve the desired results and goals,” said
certified coach Bruce Sandy of Pathfinder Coaching.
“
It’s about helping people get out of their own way to achieve
what they want in business and their careers. It is not about sitting
down and talking to a friend who will collude with you.”
The people who benefit most from coaching are those who want
to make some changes in the way they approach business. Typically,
coaches meet their clients, often by telephone, for about 45
minutes
a week over a period of about three months. They discuss what
the client wants to achieve in business, develop long and short-term
goals and then create action plans that will move the client
toward
those goals.
But being a coach isn’t the same as being a cheerleader.
Sandy said that it’s important to meet clients wherever they
are emotionally.
“
If I have a client experiencing a difficult situation and their
energy level is flat and they are filled with self-doubt, the
last thing they need is someone to be very up and positive, saying ‘buck
up, let’s go.’ I help them to begin to see the
light at the end of the tunnel and begin to move toward it.” On
the other hand, If their energy level is high, he matches that.
“
I went into it suspicious,” said coaching client Ruth Atherley,
partner in Aha Creative Strategies Inc., a public relations company. “I
had heard so much about coaches and didn’t know what the
coaching fundamentals were. I wanted to know ‘what is it,’ ‘how
do we get there’ and ‘what are you bringing to me.’ Those
questions need to be answered.”
Atherley needed to learn how to focus on her strengths in
order to grow the business and serve her clients better.
One issue
she faced was, being a new company, how could she and her
business partner go after bigger clients?
“
We worked on how we felt at the beginning and what was holding
us back,” she said. “We realized one year of experience
as a business isn’t one year of PR experience.”
Atherley met for an hour a week (at $100 an hour) for six
months with certified coach Ann Griffiths of Smart Strategies.
They
focused on how Atherley approached her business, then developed
overall
goals. Then they set small goals each week that ultimately
furthered the bigger goals. Atherley often had homework
to do between meetings.
She credits increased revenues and comfortable sales growth
to the work she did with her coach.
“
It’s one of the best investments we made in our company,” she
said. “As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we have
to think of ourselves as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. We’re
not Donald Trump, but we are responsible for the entire running
of the company and bringing in business.”
Coaching, said Ann Griffiths, is a collaborative venture.
Often, executives are so busy that they can’t see the forest for
the trees. “
We help them step back and see the big picture,” she said. “I
walk with them to get to the next stage; I guide, not tell them
what to do.”
She said coaching isn’t like therapy, where people come in
and just dump. It’s problem-solving, overcoming blocks,
and developing and meeting action plans. “The coach
has to be very focused on the client. It’s that
collaborative thing again,” said Griffiths. “Part
of the responsibility of the coach is keeping the client
accountable,
without nagging.”
She always asks clients at the beginning just how closely
they want her to hold their feet to the fire, or when
she should
cut them some slack.
Therapists, she said, deal with what is behind you; coaches
move you forward.
Finding a good coach means doing even more homework.
Clients should look for some sort of professional certification.
It means, at
the very least, that those coaches have met some minimum
standard to practice, and usually have a code of ethics
to follow.
Not everyone is cut out to be a coach. “In the end, underneath
it all, a person who makes a fabulous coach is continuously open
to their own professional development,” said Alison Hendren,
director of training and faculty at Royal Roadsuniversity’s
coaching program. Key personality traits, she said, include being “an
outstanding listener, who can put all their stuff aside
and focus on the other person.”
Henderson added that those qualities that make great
coaches are often difficult to evaluate at first, so
a professional
training program helps to separate the wheat from the
chaff. She looks
for
a level of experience in the workplace, a level of education
and good communication skills.
“
The number one thing is listening;” she said, “being
extremely good at listening for what is being said and
what is not being said.”
The second major ability of coaches is their knack for
clarity – identifying
the issues, challenging the problems and marking out
the steps that are needed.
But is it hand-holding?
“
Gosh I hope not,” she said. “How is that empowering
a person to go on? It’s not about having a coach
for the rest of your life.”
The coach to avoid, she said, is one who leaves you
feeling drained. If you feel the coach has their own
agenda or
is doing the most
talking, walk in the other direction.
“
I would interview two or three coaches and choose the one I feel
will support me and help me the most,” she said. “If
they are not doing that, find someone else.”
©Business in Vancouver
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