The Growth Coach

The Hidden Benefits of Coaching

There are many hidden benefits of business, life and personal coaching.  While therapy, consulting and training are more familiar concepts to most people, coaching is still a relatively new concept to many people. So, let’s contrast therapy, consulting and training with coaching.

Having someone to talk to about your life is often called therapy when those conversations are focused around diagnosing an emotional problem and healing your psychic wounds.  Having someone to talk to about your life is called life coaching when those conversations emphasize identifying options, developing clarity, finding purpose, setting and accomplishing goals, setting strategies and being accountable.

Having someone to talk to about your business is called consulting when you are turning over your business problems to someone else who recommends and/or implements solutions to the problem.  Having someone to talk to about your business is called business coaching when those conversations emphasize clarity, purpose, goals, strategies and accountability in the context of your business.

Participating in group learning is often called training.   Training imposes knowledge on the student and is teaching.  It typically does not lead to lasting changes in thinking or attitudes, which are the hallmarks of long-lasting change.  Learning that emphasizes drawing solutions out from the student and takes into account the individual’s learning style is often called coaching.  Frequently coaching emphasizes behavior modification, reinforcement and accountability to achieve positive, sustained results.

Typically, people who are considering a coaching relationship might be experiencing one or more of these issues/themes:

•    Too much to do, too little time
•    Working too many hours
•    Feeling like a prisoner to the business, employees, etc.
•    Lack of clarity of vision, direction, priorities and goals
•    Struggling with growing pains
•    Battling cloudiness, confusion, and growing complexity
•    Not facing reality – no honest exploration of issues and solutions
•    Not having fun/getting burnt-out
•    Struggling with personal relationships
•    Consumed by “clutter” and low-priority distractions
•    Not focusing on high-priority issues
•    Not focusing on “what they do best” and enjoying life
•    Feeling out of control
•    Trapped working “in” instead of “on” the business
•    Lacking a marketing mindset and plan
•    Stagnant sales
•    No business plan or planning process
•    Ineffective leadership (more doer-ship than leadership)
•    Confusing activity with accomplishment
•    Employee management issues
•    Focusing only on problems, not opportunities & solutions (rut, negative zone)
•    Exhausted from wearing multiple hats, serving multiple roles
•    They are the bottlenecks and growth-inhibitors in their business
•    Chained to e-mail, cell phones, pagers, etc.
•    Serving as “jack of all trades”, master of none
•    Don’t see the business as separate from them, an asset to be optimized
•    Caught in a reactive, tactical, putting out fires, day-to-day oriented mode
•    Good technicians masquerading as business managers/owners
•    Wish to grow the business but don’t know how
•    Knows what to do but doesn’t do it – lack of discipline and accountability
•    Business not properly structured and organized
•    Exhausted being a director, control freak, perfectionist, etc.
•    Wasting money on non-productive advertising
•    Not creating a business, creating a very demanding job
•    No business system, they are the business
•    Can’t be vulnerable with their spouse, peers, co-workers, etc.
•    Keeping the fears and frustrations to themselves
•    Feeling lonely at the top

With so many issues or themes to choose from, people might seek out a coach to help them move beyond these issues.  There are many hidden benefits to coaching. 

Here are 33 hidden benefits of business coaching are to: 

1.    Help define and focus on long-term strategy.
2.    Help attain higher performance from their teams.
3.    Help solve immediate, sensitive personnel problems.
4.    Accelerate growth on the job.
5.     Improve the existing culture of the organization.
6.    Increase the business’s ability to leverage time.
7.    Improve the way the business comes across.
8.    Discuss the business’s ideas in the inkling stage.
9.    Get an outside opinion from someone with no vested interest in the outcome of the situation.
10.    Expand upon, clarify and clearly language the business’s vision.
11.    Have a secure, safe and confidential outlet to vent, when necessary.
12.    Point out what the business owner/manager cannot, will not or does not see.
13.    Living your life more fully
14.    Living life with more purpose
15.    Feeling more fulfilled at work
16.    Achieving goals – feeling a greater sense of accomplishment
17.    Reducing worries, stress
18.    Overcoming behaviors that hold you back in life and business
19.    Accomplishing more in less time
20.    Working less time
21.    Working smarter
22.    Achieving better work/life balance
23.    Removing isolation or loneliness
24.    Increasing free time, personal time and freedom
25.    Increasing financial success, money and business value
26.    Achieving more peace of mind
27.    Increasing clarity (what’s really important to you)
28.    Improving focus and simplicity
29.    Creating better balance in your life
30.    Having more fun and fulfillment
31.    Creating more healthy relationships
32.    Being accountable to achieve dreams and goals
33.    Taking time to reflect, plan and set goals

The focus of coaching is to assist you in making the personal and business shifts necessary so that you and the organization are more productive.  To summarize, coaching is an effective tool for:

•    Developing leadership and organizational skills
•    Thinking through strategies
•    Improving your ability to trust and commit to action
•    Staying on track while you deal with what comes up in the moment
•    Identifying obstacles that prevent you from reaching your goals
•    Developing a vision of where you want to be
•    Making lasting change in the way you work or live
•    Improving the quality of your relationships with colleagues
•    Increasing your focus

Coaching is different from consulting.  Coaching is different than talking with a friend or peer.
Coaching can be intensely personal, yet it is not therapy. Coaching is about achievement; therapy is about healing. Therapy moves a person from dysfunctional to functional. Coaching moves a business person from functional to extraordinary.