Business Adrenalin - TWO IMPORTANT COACHING POINTS

There are two important points about business coaching that need mentioning:

• First: business coaching is not an event. It is a process; it is on-going. Business Coaches don’t just have a coaching session once and everything happens the way the business owner wants from then on. Business Coaches have many sessions where they coach the same skill over and over, often focusing on the basics. Look at spring training for professional baseball players, or pre-season training for professional football players. Here are professionals who have been playing the sport for most of their lives, and yet the focus at these training camps is on basics. It is this constant reinforcement that brings about improvement. Reinforcement shapes and builds desirable behavior. That means, as the business person slowly builds skills in some particular area, the Business Coach continually reinforces by feeding back observations in a positive manner. Business Coaches don’t just hold a one-hour session, cover all the important points then turn the individual loose to do his thing. Coaching takes time and repetition.

• Second: Coaches don’t play the game; they watch how the game is being played. They let their players play. That is very hard for some business owners to understand. The Business Coach doesn’t play the game; she observes how the business owner plays the game, then coaches for ways to play better. If you watch sports events, especially football or basketball, where are the coaches? They’re not out on the field but on the sidelines watching everything that goes on. In fact there may be several coaches on the sidelines watching and feeding information back to the players. And that brings up one of the most important skills that Business Coaches utilize: feedback. As Ken Blanchard, in his book the One Minute Manager says, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” It’s also the breakfast of coaches.