I interviewed my coachees to see what they found most valuable. In their words:
Access & Ease. Really high caliber introductions. Just the speed of that versus trying to find them yourself and going in cold.
Interviewees included: Investment funding, branding, economics for business, disruptors, transformations, team dynamics
A Friend. In a weird way, a friend. Over time and through the process of deep sharing and understanding between a client and a business coach, you can’t help but form some degree of friendship and attachment because they become people who know more about you than pretty much everyone else. Unexpected.
Frameworks. You get teachable frameworks with language and symbols that you could use internally in the company that helped you communicate better with the team and talk in a shorthand. It helped the teams align to insights. They give you ways to think and structure thoughts.
Focus on the Mission. Relying on them to help you prevent mission drift. Actually dragging you out of the present and back into the context when you get snowed under from things strategically.
While there is a part of not relying on them as it’s my business but, relying on them to say ‘this is what we are here to do’.
Handling it. If something comes up and you’ve got a coaching, a weekly call or bi-weekly call or a session, you can start to triage issues. It allows you to clear them out of your brain instead of carrying them around with you.
Keeping your mental whiteboard clear for what you really need it for instead of trying to solve something which is already easily solvable by somebody else.
Gifts. Unexpected meaningful little gifts that were again, little teachable lessons.
Perspectives. You can’t necessarily work through it by yourself. If things are happening that are beyond your competence or if things that require, or everybody as it really does, you have competence in one area, you need someone who’s looking at it from another perspective.
Reassurance. Reassurance and the comfort of having somebody I could say anything to. Which, in business, is a privilege because you don’t normally as the head of a company get to say anything to anyone, because you have to maintain appearance and face at all times. That’s hidden advantages of business coaches.
The sleeping easy at night factor with the stress drop of knowing that you had somebody to speak to.
Me to Them: What’s the last piece? The one you go, “Oh my god. I can’t believe I forgot this.”
Them: Well, my business coach was, I think the second or the third person I told about my divorce. They were the call after my parents. … I think the response was, “F**k!” Which was great. Life isn’t always smooth. Having somebody that has an eye on your interests, personal and professional, when shit hits the fan is invaluable because you have places of perspective and you have somebody there who’s there keeping you running or keeping the wheels on, or stopping everything becoming a big mess.
Also I think, someone to commiserate with. By commiserate with, in terms of just a source of empathy. It’s not necessarily grieving or commiserating, but it’s somebody who has empathy and feeling for your situation and what’s happening.
Me: the human side of business. These interviews remind me that as much as it takes 200 people to raise a child, so too for a business.
Interviewee profiles: founders/ C Suite, age 32-42, high growth companies over $10,000,000 in revenue with visions of a more human business world.
I mentor and coach business executives, business leaders and business founders through the growth journey. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I love being able to help people with great visions who have built the foundations of a business take it where it needs to go next.
Sometimes it’s pitching, other times it’s an internal issue or it may be simply the very real need for a sounding board and an ear that understands what your journey really is like.
If you are ready to be mentored and coached by me, book a time with me at Mentor and lets get started.