1. Someone told you to : Don’t hire a coach just because you feel like you “should”
I don’t agree to coach someone who has been told to get business performance coaching. This is usually a person who has upset the applecart at work. They have faults galore , and nothing or no one seems to be able to get through to them. So, their boss or the board decides, let’s get someone else in to fix the problem. Someone who can talk some sense into them.
Nope. This will not work. You really need just one thing to benefit from coaching —a willingness to change. You have to have realised change is necessary and positive and that it’s something you want. Maybe you are sick and tired of who you are and are ready for some kind of system reset. Or maybe you now realise that the feedback you have been getting is actually true. Without this motivation, no coach is going to be able to make a difference with you.
Because really good business performance coaches are a substantial investment. I’m not going to stroke your ego and make you feel like King of the hill ( or Queen). My job as a coach is to point out all of the damaging stuff you are doing that no one else is going to tell you (because they don’t want to get fired). I’m not here to make you feel amazing. I’m here to push and poke and reveal the parts of you that you don’t want to see. The bits not on your CV. The bits you put in a box and forget about.
Having a business performance coach isn’t about you talking and talking and talking. That means there is a lot of listening and doing. If you don’t want to do the work, I am not for you.
4. You don’t have time for personal or organisational change
Don’t hire me if you are not going to make my time with you a priority. If you are so disorganised it takes weeks to find an open hour on your calendar just to get started with coaching, if you have no room for reflection and experimentation, if you don’t have the bandwidth for change — if any of these sound like you, you’re not cut out for coaching, at least not right now. If you are going to turn up for our sessions out of breath and unprepared haven’t looked at your notes or completed the actions we contracted this isn’t a good use of time for either one of us. Best to wait until there is some breathing space in your calendar.
5. You don’t really want anyone to know you are working with a coach
If your environment is one where having a business performance coach is equivalent to admitting a weakness, that you need help, you are unlikely to succeed. When you hire me it is helpful to have access to the whole business. To see how you are with your team and how they respond to you. Without this kind of access I can’t really see the whole picture.
This means you’re going to have to be willing to tell your team that you are working with me and that they are going to see some changes.
