My clients,
CEOs of growing organizations accept that coaching is important. They freely
talk of the many different balls they are juggling and how focusing on the
important things can sometimes be challenging.
When asked
why they haven’t sought the services of a Coach; some CEOs say they don’t have
time to be coached, others say they don’t have a budget line to pay a Coach,
others say it’s not top on their priority list and others say they haven’t
found the right Coach.
CEOs of
growing organizations, I want to address you and say that Coaching is an
investment, the same way you invest in a good computer to work efficiently or pay
for advertising to ensure your products are known in the market place or attend
a training workshop to build your capacity.
When I
Coach you with business scale up as our focus, we start by having an overview
of the life of the business, what are the milestones, what are you proud about,
turning points (the ups and downs) etc.
I am
interested in your Vision and Mission and your key goals, I’m interested in
understanding how your strengths will help you achieve the goals. My work as
your Coach is to help you focus on your goals.
As your
Coach it’s important for me to understand how you view your business and your
involvement in it. I will ask you questions to stimulate your thinking and make
our work together more productive.
Along the
way, we shall review both the Business SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity
and Treats) as well as your personal SWOT. In Business and in life, the area
where we have the most opportunity for improvement and growth is not our
weakness but our Strength. The question is: How do I use this strength to take
my business to the next level?
The other
important exercise is nailing the business goals. According to Gerald Westerby
in his book, In Hostile Territory;
You cannot focus without an object to focus upon. You cannot arrive somewhere unless there is a ‘somewhere’ to arrive at. You cannot achieve a goal unless there is a goal. And you cannot have a goal unless a goal has been defined. Therefore, to achieve your goal- define your goal.
He goes on to say that when you
cannot define a goal, you consequently cannot define the path toward that goal.
Thus, without a goal you expend a great deal of energy pursuing multiple ‘fuzzy
goals’
My
experience with CEOs of growing businesses is that a majority of them have set
goals. The challenge is clearly defining those goals. Defining goals is not an
easy task as it forces one to consider where they will be after they have
accomplished those goals. Yet if you are unwilling to engage these thoughts and
facts, if you are unwilling to define a goal and consider your life actions
after the attainment of that goal, then your goal is fleeting; it is one that
you do not truly seek and one that you will therefore certainly never achieve.
After the
goals are clearly set the Coaching process proceeds to personal productivity,
personal effectiveness and life-work balance.
As your
Coach I will walk with you and we shall keep evaluating the progress.
My coaching
process is in six sessions that take about three months. The first consultation
is free, as it gives the CEO an opportunity to decide if they want to proceed
with the Coaching process to the end. A Coaching process is demanding on all
fronts as it must produce tangible results. It is however equally rewarding.
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