Working with a business coach can have a huge payoff for any business owner who is trying to grow their business, improve their skills or try new opportunities. But to enjoy the payoffs, it is critical to not only find a good business coach but also go into the coaching relationship with the right mindset. You have to be ready to do the heavy lifting and abide by the laws or good practices of coaching.
It’s all about you
When you partner with a coach, never assume that it is their responsibility to make you successful. On the contrary, it is your responsibility to find the right coach who can help you get to where you want to be.
A lot of entrepreneurs reach out to work with business coaches with an expectation that the coaches will make them successful. They put in very little work and expect the coaches to do all the hard work for their businesses. That’s not how coaching works. If you want to be successful with business coaching, you should drop this mindset.
Put simply, you control your destiny. If you are not ready to put in the work or follow the suggestions of your coach or delay in implementing the recommendations that you get, you may not see the results that you anticipated. So, understanding that it is your actions that will create for you success is critical.
- Build trust
Building a strong foundation of trust is important in nurturing a coaching relationship. A business coach is somebody you can talk to give you advice, support, and guidance on business issues while also helps you explore new ideas. Therefore, building trust boosts confidentiality in your interactions with the coach.
- Appreciate feedback
Successful business coaching starts with having an open mind and honest self-appraisal of your leadership style, strength and weaknesses, potential challenges and personality traits. By staying open to feedback, your coach may help you become more self-aware and identify potential blind spots, which in turn boosts your decision making processes and ability to lead effectively.
- Create a conducive environment
To get the most out of business coaching, you need to create time and space to focus and reflect on your discussions with the coach. If you are going to have a face-to-face conversation, ensure that you create a quiet, private room for the meeting. If you are going to have a phone coaching session, ensure that you take the call somewhere you are not going to be interrupted. And if it is an online meeting, turn off notifications from social media, emails and mobile devices.
- Be ready to think outside the box
Business coaching programs tend to work better for entrepreneurs who are ready to get out of their comfort zones. Avoid having a narrow focus because it will limit your perspectives and opportunities. A good business coach will help you see the bigger picture of things so that you go beyond your comfort zones. So, be ready to stretch in new areas, seek fresh opportunities, and look at your current challenges at different angles.
- Be ready to take action
Business coaching only benefits people who can clearly communicate their visions, create working plans with their team members and execute it successfully. To be successful with coaching, therefore, you need to create time and spaces to grow beyond the level you are today.
Of course, your schedule is busy, but when will things change if you cannot do things that will go a long way in reducing your businesses’ reliance on you? If you want to enjoy the freedom and growth that the right business coaching program can help you enjoy, then you should be ready to let go of any kind of excuse and fully commit to taking action. Of course, you’ll have setbacks and mess a long way, but focused and intelligent action will help you scale your business fast.
Final Thoughts
Investing in business coaching can be the wisest business move that you can make today. It can make a huge difference in the trajectory of your business if you embrace it and put on the work to stay on course and challenge yourself to improve while seeking new learning opportunities.
About Carson Derrow
