For lots of us, the idea of working with a business coach feels like a far-off or lofty goal. It’s a someday venture, but not today. Not with your current budget, workload, company position, or future goals.
The truth is, there’s never a better time than the present to work with a business coach. Anyone, no matter their field or ambition, will see the benefits of working with a business coach, both in and out of the board room.
Need more proof? Here’s how everyone can benefit from a business coach.
Make and Achieve, Better and More Productive Goals
Only 8% of people actually achieve the goals they set. That’s due in part to people’s ability to set vague and unrealistic goals. When people set goals that are more specific and challenging, they’re more frequently completed.
A business coach can help you to create these smarter goals, making it more likely that you’ll follow through. And with a win under your belt, you’re more likely to keep the momentum going.
Consistent, Actionable Feedback
It’s hard to see yourself clearly. Research shows that we have a limited sense of self-awareness. You can’t give yourself effective feedback or see your own blind spots and the input you’re getting at the office can come with bias and baggage.
When a coach gets to know you, they can provide unbiased, constructive feedback that serves to benefit your growth. What’s more, your business coach can work with you to take the feedback and help mold it into actionable growth. Not only can this feedback loop lead to personal growth, but it might also help you see yourself more clearly. They serve not only as a resource for growth but also as a sounding board for when issues arise. Working together, you can take a step back, process the feedback, look for paths to growth, and get a better view of who you are now, and with hard work, who you can become.
Getting feedback from those who observe you is critical to good coaching, and the feedback a business coach provides is unlike any other.
Build Your Strengths
Business coaches can help people discover the values others see in them that they often miss on their own. There’s a value in the unique perspectives each one of us brings to the workplace, but it’s rare for individuals to successfully identify them on their own. However, defining your strengths can set you apart in business. We’re great at being critical to ourselves, but it’s harder for us to pinpoint what we really excel at.
Coaches can help you identify what sets you apart (you might not even know what things make you unique), and how to use that gift more efficiently. Like a diamond in the rough, you’ll work on honing this natural skill to make it truly shine in your workplace performance.
As those strengths begin to shine through, a business coach helps you build on them, deepening your skill set to better tackle the hard problems that arise when building or running your own business.
Respond to Your Weaknesses
It’s usually easy for a person to identify what they’re bad at, whether it’s responding to emails in a timely manner or delegating tasks on a daily basis, but it’s often hard for us to do anything about it. Sometimes it just feels like you’ll never change, relying more on strengths, which in turn makes your weaknesses, well, even weaker.
A business coach can help you work on your weaknesses, strengthening them instead of ignoring them. On our own, it can be hard to get the ball rolling, but with the support of a coach, the path to growth may be clearer. Once you can identify a weakness, you can properly address it; whether that be working to strengthen it on your own, or learning to delegate to those with relevant skills. Awareness is just the beginning of the journey, but it creates the opportunity to address weaknesses in many possible ways. With some effort and the help of a coach, your weakness doesn’t have to stay weak.
Grow Your Business
Hey, we wouldn’t blame you if you’re working with a coach to grow your salary, business, or bottom line. A business coach helps harness your potential for growth, teaching you to turn those teaches around and ask for more. That could mean sharpening negotiation skills for the big contract, or simply working through ways to accelerate outreach and growth. A business coach has the tools to help you grow as a CEO, business owner, or entrepreneur. You’ll work together to form a strategy, leveraging strengths, weaknesses, and the growth you’ve made as a tool to seek more.
There’s no right or wrong time to employ the help of a coach. If you feel it may be out of your reach, think again. That’s probably a sign to get started.