When Does a Coach Need a Coach?
At first thought, it may seem a little odd to think you might need one, if you are a coach yourself. After all, you’re the expert, right?
You may wonder how it would look to your clients if they knew their coach was also being coached. Imagining they might think something like, “Yikes, don’t they know enough yet?”
But just because you’re in the coaching field, don’t think you don’t need coaching. Did you know that psychiatrists are required to speak to other psychiatrists? Life coaches need life coaches, too, just as a personal trainer can benefit from hiring a personal trainer. We’ll almost dig deeper and give more for someone else.
In this article, however, we’re going to focus on business coaches. Why would you need a business coach? Let me ask it another way:
Do you want your business to grow?
Having a business coach at every stage of your business is essential. They can assist anyone with any kind of business because they know the process. They can spot holes in any business processes that you overlooked. It could be anything from billing inefficiencies, social media recommendations, brainstorming product ideas, or helping you see that it’s time for you to hire a VA (virtual assistant) for some of your tasks.
They can also be an excellent sounding board because they’re non-judgmental and can offer clarity and perspective.
Your Coach as Your Accountability Partner
Maybe you have a plan in place for creating a signature system program, online course, or a physical product. Having a coach as an accountability partner is a wise investment.
We all tend to work more efficiently and get more done when there’s a deadline looming, but if we’re the ones setting that deadline and accountable only to ourselves, how easy is it to let it slide and simply set a new one? (My hand is up.)
Rather than moving the deadline, having an accountability partner, especially someone to whom you are paying money, can help keep your productivity on track. Accountability is necessary for many projects, not just in product creation. Your coach will hold you responsible for meeting the deadlines of whatever goals you’ve set together or for yourself.
Your Coach As Your Guide
A good business coach will have the ability to challenge your thinking and goals and stretch you just beyond your comfort zone. Or maybe way outside of it, but a little at a time. We never grow inside our comfort zone - it just doesn’t work that way.
A coach will encourage you to explore new things, reach for more, and show you the path to get there. We all experience fear, especially when stepping ever so slightly outside our comfort zone, but really, who wants to stay there forever? Boring. And if you’re in business, you need to grow. A good coach can help you.
Your Coach As Your Mentor
When it comes to hiring a business coach, always choose someone at a higher income level and greater level of success. Find someone who has already traveled the path and knows the way. Your coach will teach you the skills you need to be successful based on real-life experiences.
Oftentimes they’ll also assign tasks to you because they know the next step you need to take to get you where you want to go. They see the whole picture and know how to help you get there.
But It's Expensive!
That is true, and it's rough financially when you’re just starting, but you don't have to get the most expensive coaching program out there. There are some good and affordable coaches around.
A good coach is worth the investment because they’ll shorten the learning curve and save you lots of time, frustration, and, in the long run, money. They’ll help you get where you want to go in the best way possible. Or you can spend years spinning your wheels, re-inventing those wheels, and end up no saving any money after all.
Finding the Right Coach
Ask around. Get personal recommendations, and look at the coach’s qualifications and accomplishments, not just what they say they can do. They should be relatable in some way, too. Listen to your gut feeling about them.
Be honest and clear with them about your goals and the time you’ll have to put their recommendations into practice. We tend to collect a lot of head knowledge, but if it stays there - nothing changes. It’s scary taking action, but again, that’s the place where growth happens.
You also don't have to stay with the same coach forever; sometimes people outgrow each other, and that's perfectly fine and normal. Select another coach for the next phase of your growing business!
The right coach will be worth every penny you invest in him or her. I highly recommend getting one if you're serious about growing your business.
Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to leave your comments below.
If you would like help with your website or social media content, give me a shout! I'd be happy to discuss your project.
Thanks for reading.
