Explore – Discover – Collaborate – Act
“Stephen’s work…has been an integral part of preparing us for the expansion in business we are now experiencing… his focus on conscious leadership has enabled us to move rapidly into the marketplace and realize remarkable growth and return.”
-Joe Brooks, President and C.E.O. ForeFront Builders Corp.
- A coach is a combination alter ego, experienced mentor, tough love partner and sparring mate. Coaches welcome healthy conflict because in that experience new learning thrives.
- There are all kinds of coaches. Vetting a potential coach is critical to a successful hire. Ask for examples of coaching successes and coaching ‘failures.’ Ask about academic background relevant to the task you face, ask about the coach’s business interests – what wags their tail; ask about availability – if a coach is working too much, your needs and your company may not get the attention it deserves when inevitable crises occur.
- Start with where you think you want to go. In a good coaching relationship you’ll probably take many detours, after all, knowing what you want is not the same as knowing what you need.
- Coaching is a partnership. When the need for an alternative route or path occurs, good coaches invite masterminding – a tough look at reasons for, benefits possible and willingness (time and money not the least of ingredients in ‘willingness’) to go as far as needed to succeed.
- Once you’ve vetted a coach and hired them, you’ll do a fair amount of masterminding in the early stages of your relationship in order to align your purpose, expectations and abilities. (I once coached a man who early on told me the ‘real’ reason he wanted a coach was to successfully separate himself from a business partner to whom he owed a great deal of money thereby forfeiting his debt. “I’m not the guy for you” I told him and ended our relationship.
- You’ll need to talk about practical matters: frequency (coaching contacts); method of charging – hourly, weekly, by the project– and what to do if your relationship goes south. A good coach has ‘been there, done that’ and will not be threatened by tough love questions. And if everything goes really well, a good exit strategy is important. You don’t want your team feeling abandoned.