What is a Business Coach, and Why Does Your Business Need One?

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What
is a Business Coach, and Why Does Your Business Need One?

 

Running a business
by yourself can be overwhelming and can sometimes feel lonely. The pressure is
always on the shoulders of the business owner since they make all the
decisions. It is not right to ask your employees to help you make decisions
because that could make you look vulnerable, and you may lose credibility. So,
who can you turn to? A knowledgeable mentor or coach is an extremely valuable
resource for business owners. Contracting or hiring a coach can get you the
personalized advice and support you need to help you make the tough choices
needed to make your company a success.

 

What can a business
coach do for you?

 

Busy business
owners are so tied to their businesses that they may fail to see what’s right
in front of them.
As
an outside spectator, a business coach can objectively see a business’s
internal and external concerns. They can help an owner improve understanding on
what changes are needed and can guide owners in constructing an actionable plan
to yield desired results. Business coaches are usually expert entrepreneurs or business
executives, who have experience growing a successful business, and share their
experience with other owners and executives to help them reach their business
goals. Having a coach by your side is invaluable as they provide insight and
help you navigate through the hardships of running your own business. Coaches
can help you define your goals, create strategies for growth, create strategies
to revive a struggling section or brand of your company, among many other
things.

 

Coaches will:

 

·        
Keep
you accountable.

·        
Help
you set measurable goals.

·        
Create
strategic plans to reach your goals.

 

 

A coach will keep you
accountable.

 

An important
element of business coaching is accountability. The same way you would not
catch a basketball coach running drills on the court, you will not catch a
business coach doing the work for the business owner. Instead, they will be
there to keep you accountable and focused on your goals. However, coaches will
not do the work for you, but rather walk you through the steps needed to do the
work yourself. They will keep you motivated on your goals and commitments and
will be there to talk things through and highlight things that you may not have
noticed. Business coaches will meet with business owners on a regular basis to
make sure they keep them accountable.

 

 

A coach will help you set goals.

A business coach will help you set
and track goals by establishing key performance indicators that will make the
road to reaching them transparent. Usually, a business owner is too busy to
keep track of their progress and can get lost in the daily routine. This is
where a coach steps in to make sure the goals are measured, and progress is
occurring. A coach will keep track of your performance and measure your
progress to ensure that you are on track to reaching your desired outcomes.
Many business owners have given credit to their coaches for helping them set
goals that make them successful. 

 

A coach will help you build actionable plans.

After identifying what a business
owner wants and where they would like their business to grow, a coach will
assist with planning and prioritizing your goals. They will also create a
strategy to help you progress closer to your goals. For a business owner to be
invested in their business goals, coaches will seek to understand why these
goals are important to the owner and how reaching the goals will impact their
personal lives. By tying the goals in with personal achievements and passions,
the business owner will be more inclined to stay on track and work towards
achieving the goals set.After clarifying the business owner’s vision, a
business coach will support in arranging the various goals by priority. They
can also help owners determine which items are just regular tasks and which items
are long-term goals. Once this is known, the coach and business owner can
create strategic plans to reach their objectives.

 

Business coach or business consultant?

Overall, a business coach will ask the
right questions to gather information on where your business is, where you want
your business to be, and create an action plan to get you there. Their job is
to empower the business owner to work towards their business goals. A coach can
sometimes be confused with a mentor. The difference here is that a mentor will
provide advice, while a coach will provide advice and define a plan to get you
to where you need to be.

On the other hand, a business consultant
will help a business owner by providing advice and solutions to their problems.
They will share their experience, give professional advice, and help create
strategic plans. In other words, while coaches are there to inspire and get you
to the next level, consultants often will do more of the work on the business
owners’ behalf.

Again, a consultant will not only
provide advice, but also help you get the work done. This is a great asset to
have, but what happens the next time you run into similar challenges, will you be
equipped to handle them yourself? Coaches will not only provide advice, but
they will also help you determine what is needed, provide a plan to reach your
goals, and keep you accountable while you work to get to the finish line.

About the Author:

John Mattone is the
world’s top executive coach and authority on Intelligent Leadership (IL), the
world’s best executive coach, and the creator of the IL Executive Coaching
Process and Certification. John Mattone is globally respected as a uniquely
distinguished top leadership coach authority who can ignite and strengthen a
leader’s inner-self and talents, which enables them to realize four
“game-changing” outcomes that they can leverage in their business and life:
Altruism, Affiliation, Achievement, and Abundance (The 4 A’s).

 

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