People often ask “what is business coaching?” and in truth there are lots of ways to describe it.  In this post, Lee Duncan a well respected business coach that I have worked with for the benefit of my clients, will focus on four elements that work together to get results in any area of your life. 

Business is all about getting results.

For most of us, this means achieving a level of financial success from the businesses we create.  The principles of business are actually quite straightforward, although in practice it often turns out to be more tricky.

A formula that’s useful to focus the mind on what to do next is

Attitude+Goals+Knowledge+Action=Results

The first key to success is attitude.

Henry Ford famously said, “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right”.

Just think about that for a moment. If you start out with the notion that you’re going to fail, you will. I know of a psychologist who calls this a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It works the other way around though too, which is far more exciting. If you believe you will succeed, you probably will. As a business coach, it’s clear that many clients need some help to have confidence and a positive mental attitude.

Next up, you’ve got to have a goal.

A goal is like a destination for a taxi trip. When you jump into a taxi, the driver wants to know where you’re going to go before he’ll move off. That’s just the same as your brain. If you want to get somewhere with your business, you’ve got to focus on where you want to go before you can move towards it. Goals should be set to be stretching, but achieveable.

The third part of the formula is to have the correct knowledge.

Many of us know what we should be doing to be more successful, it’s just that we don’t do it. On the other hand, sometimes we simply don’t know how to do something and so we remain stuck.

By attending seminars, reading books, listening to CDs and watching video, we gain knowledge. With practice we can turn this knowledge into skills that help us to achieve our goals. Skills like how to write effective sales letters, or how to create a blog, or how to manage staff effectively, can all be learnt by anybody. Great results can also be described as the successful application of the right knowledge. Make the effort to get the learning habit, you won’t regret it.

The final step on your way to results is to take action.

Great ideas are simply notions until somebody turns them into reality.

If you’re an ideas person who finds it hard to bring your ideas to life, you’re a dreamer. If you have no ideas but keep turning the handle and expecting different results, you’re a madman.

The happy middle road is where success lies – a great idea combined with the right actions, taken relentlessly day after day, to achieve success.

When any single piece of the formula is missed, you’ll struggle to achieve your desired results. That’s where business coaching comes in, to help you bring all of these things into alignment for you.

When you achieve results, no matter how big or small, take the time to celebrate and enjoy your successes. Too often in life we beat ourselves up for failing and don’t notice what we have actually achieved. Start to notice how good you are, how successful you are, and you’ll be successful more often and in bigger ways.

Read about the kind of results that Lee’s clients enjoy in a story from a member of the Chris Cardell marketing club who also works with Lee. 

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.

On Friday I attended a planning workshop run by Andrew Kureishy an award winning business coach. 

Andrew is a valued client of mine and his invitation to join his GrowthCLUB for the day was welcomed but to warrant time away from the office I had some expectations for ROI (typical accountant mentality I’m afraid, but I do understand the value of my time)

My primary objective was to see Andrew in action.  As an avid networker and an accountant that believes in adding value beyond the financial numbers, matching a coach’s style with my client’s personality and needs is just as important as understanding the services he offers and the knowledge he can share.

Obviously, I hoped to gain some personal benefit also.  When getting involved in structured learning, I do not expect to be able to absorb all of the information on offer or claim to be an expert by the end of the day, but to take away just a few new ideas or key pieces of knowledge makes spending the time attending worthwhile.

During this day, I achieved my primary objective and will certainly be recommending Andrew’s work to others. I was able to network with a dozen of his clients who were all very complimentary and felt that the money they had invested had been recovered several times over.

I also learned three or four things that I can apply to my business in the next few weeks. I’d like to share two of these with you.

Prioritising

The first is simple.  The things that make the most impact and therefore demand priority are not necessarily the things you want to do. 

The Action planning workshop used techniques to drill down to just three primary goals for the next 90 days as it would be difficult to focus on more than that in such a short time frame.  These three goals were ‘SMART‘ tested by Andrew and it quickly became apparent which of the three I had to make my priority even though it was the goal I favoured the least as the task at hand is boring in comparison, amongst other reasons.  This process was easy but far from comfortable and I’m less that pleased with the result but I know clearly now that if I reach my target it will have a big positive impact on my work, my position in the firm and ultimately the bottom line of my office P&L and once I have got this task under my belt I will be able to move on to more self-fulfilling goals.

I’ll let you know on 31st March 2010 whether I attained my target !

Time Management

Andrew was quick to point out that whilst diaries, priority task lists etcetera were helpful they are simply tools to make our work more effective.  To really master time management replace the word ‘time’ with ‘self’ and remind yourself of your goals.

The group decided that poor time self  management was a result of:

• a lack of discipline, focus and/or delegation
• firefighting rather than prioritising rationally
• poor organisation skills
• avoidance of important tasks / procrastination
• being influenced by other people’s priorities
• unrealistic customer demands
• a needy / untrained team

Andrew challenged this and questioned our motivation.

How defined are your goals?    Does your dream have clarity? 

His advice was to create an avoidance list and ask yourself questions that will help your brain move from negative emotions that promote procrastination to logical thoughts that put the issues/tasks in to perspective.

If you would like to know his seven top questions to promote logical thinking to support your positive attitude, contact him at andrewkureishy@actioncoach.com

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.