You’re a professional. You’ve been in your business for years. But something is missing.You’ve lost the momentum, career now you’re discouraged. You need something new.
What you may really need is a certified business coach.
When you think of a coach, you think of sports, right? Most do at first, so this would be a perfectly normal assumption. All teams have a coach, from the Little League through the professional ranks. Even sports superstars have coaches. Larry Bird, and Bobby Orr had great coaches to guide them. Andre Agassi turned to Brad Gilbert to get him back to the top. Tiger Woods doesn’t do it alone he has a coach and a caddie to give him advice. Oh, and let’s not leave out Jeff Gordon who may drive the car, but Ray Everham masterminded three of his four Winston Cup championships. Just like these coaches, a business coach can help you break the static and move on to the next level.
“Coaching is a way of working with people that leaves them more competent and more fulfilled so that they are more able to contribute to their organizations and fin meaning in what they are doing,” said James Flaherty in his book Coaching Butterworth Heinemann, 1999.
A coach’s role is to teach, to guide, and to advise. A business coach most often services as plateau buster. Typically, you are a prime candidate for a business coach if you are 30-50 years old, you’ve been in you career for a while and you don’t know how to take it to the next level. Your coach will help you find your passion, your emotion, and then help you turn it into compelling goals.
Without a coach, most people will be stuck in the place, where there is little to no satisfaction. You either look to the past for guidance, which is dangerous. Just think, “history repeats itself!” About 75 90 percent of professionals, on the other hand, look to the present. Chained to your desk? No time to think? Want time management help? You end up going nowhere. And we all end up predicting and forecasting, but where does that go? It is based on guessing. What’s left? – It’s called *creating the future.*
**Creating Your Future**
Your business coach will help you create the future. Your coach will help you think freely, out of the box, so to speak. Here’s an example. One coach’s client was a very successful family attorney. He just was tired of the grind, and he didn’t know what to do. With the help of the coach, the attorney came up with a new mediation process in family law that helped him reenergize and reengineer his law firm into a new and exciting entity.
The coaching process helps you decide **what** you want, **where** you want to be. From this, you can strategize and create some pretty compelling goals. When the emotion is strong enough, it will be easy to set the goals. With your coach, you’ll decide what you want, how much it costs to get there, and the price you are willing to pay to get there.When you can answer these questions, you can move from the present to the future.
Your Coach is a New Set of Eyes
A business coach can bring you four things that others cannot: a fresh perspective, total honesty, accountability, and detachment.
Fresh Perspective
Your business coach can look at you and your situation with “new eyes.” Because the coach has no preconceived notions or issues with your situation, he or she can thoroughly examine what is happening and help guide you to a solution. It’s like hiring a proofreader. If your proofreader comes in, reviews the work, and finds the grammatical and syntax errors and the typos.
Honesty
You may think that your spouse is your “soul mate” and will be honest with you, but that’s not the case. Your spouse or close companion, friend, etc. has an emotional stake in your success. That person won’t want to hurt your feelings. And that person may not see the whole picture. Only a business coach can examine the situation and analyze it with brutal honesty. It sounds tough, but the process is tough. Its aim is to get you results.
Accountability
Your business coach will hold you accountable for your actions and assignments. If your coach asks you to make a list of your three most important life goals, he or she will make sure you do it. A mentor really won’t put demands on you. While your mentor is there to inspire you, your coach is there to specifically make you work on these areas.
Detachment
Your coach, unlike a spouse, a boss, a friend, or a mentor, brings you complete detachment from your situation. He or she can teach, guide, and advise without any emotional attachment, and help you see your issues and opportunities.
So, if you are ready to stop spinning that wheel, then you are ready for a certified business coach. You’ll find yourself starting the next half of your career . . . and your life! As always, we are here to support such a choice
