How will I fit Coaching In?

It’s not ‘coaching work’ – its the right work for your Business!

When considering a coaching programme there is generally the question: “How can I fit all of this extra coaching work in?”.

This question comes about because many Business Owners are already working long hours and are sacrificing personal and family time.  They see the work that is generated from coaching as ‘extra work’ on top of what they ‘have’ to do now.

The thing is that this thinking is based on current knowledge and capability and on what people are doing now and have perhaps been doing for a long time – which might not necessarily be the right things!

The Fundamental Pillars

The 3 fundamental pillars of business are Operations, Finance and Marketing.

Business Owners are generally focused on Operations and this is what consumes their time.  Over time the other areas of the business become neglected and although it is understood that these need proper care and attention it does not happen, and so a suite of bad habits form and the business never really moves forward.  In fact, it can become a trap from which the Business Owner can never escape!

Creating the right balance across the pillars establishes the foundation for future growth.

Where do we begin?

Like any good team we have to have the basics right and we have to break down the culture where you are the only one who can do the job, the culture where you are the busiest person.  I mean, what’s the point in having a team, doing all the work and being busier than they are?  Its not ‘Busyness’ but ‘Business’ after all!

We have to make sure that we deal with the fundamentals early on so we will start by addressing the following things:

1. Priorities – what is truly the priority for you to do each day, week, month – what are you going to focus on from now onwards?
2. Delegation – who in your team can do some of the work that you are doing?  If you stop doing some of the work and give others a chance to show you what they can do then you can free yourself to focus on the fun parts of the business
3. Systemise – If you are your own businesses bottleneck we have to work out how to remove you to let the business flow.  Get the knowledge out of your head, properly documented and then train the team on how the systems should work.

The Challenge

The challenge is that you have to choose to stop doing things you have maybe done for a long time which is a challenge because this is your comfort zone – where it feels natural and safe and where you will retreat to if the pressure becomes too much.

Of course, this is natural but it’s your subconscious that’s making the decisions here but we will help you expand your comfort zone by starting to do some new things.  These will perhaps feel uncomfortable for a while, but over time they will become more comfortable as your competence, capability and knowledge grows.  This is not an overnight transformation but like anything worthwhile – it’s worth the effort!

The Result

The result of these efforts is to reduce the time you spend on the Operational pillar of the business and increase your efforts in the other areas. Its not about adding work to your plate – it’s about shifting where you focus so that you can grow your business by doing the right things in the areas of leadership, goal setting and planning, financial and marketing strategy development, sales growth and transition planning so that you can eventually build a business that can work without you even having to be there.