Let’s Talk About Coaching

I saw a post that stated, “I’m looking for a business coach to help me grow my business” and the responses on the thread were so over the top. It was person after person pitching why they’d be the right fit before they even knew what the person needed support with or what their business was – not to mention the personality aspect of hiring a coach. There was so much wrong with this thread.

The Coaching Relationship

This of course got me thinking about the coaching relationship. Coaching, as defined by Wikipedia, is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a coach, supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance.

Coaching is intended to be transformative in nature. It is intended to help someone achieve a goal, usually faster than if they went it alone. This is based on the assumption the coach is qualified to support the client and the client takes action. But what happens when it’s not transformative?

• Is it the wrong coach? 
• Is it lack of action tacking? 
• Is it just the wrong mix of personalities?

The promise and commitment in any coaching agreement comes from both parties. One must be willing to guide, lovingly call out when they have gone off track and offer them support and space along the way. While the coachee role is to be discerning about which path is right for them, consistently taking action and willing to face challenges along the way while being true to themselves.

So often in this industry, I see people who have read one book or taken one course or accidentally had a one-hit wonder success, step into a coaching role. Only to get lackluster results for clients or no result at all or even worse, a watered-down blueprint of their biz transferred to their clients. I saw this far too often during my agency days and it was a big reason why I said goodbye.

On the flip side, I have seen so many people who would join a program and allow their excuses and limiting beliefs and inaction to stall them and then point the finger at the coach and say this isn’t working when, ultimately, they didn’t even try.

Why hire a coach?

The reality is you hire a coach to help you get to where you want to be faster. However, copying and pasting someone else’s business into your own is a recipe for disaster. The advice of “hire someone two steps ahead of you.” is outdated and is the root cause of why so many entrepreneurs want to burn their business to the ground. This is a huge part of the reason why I’ve been studying human design for the last 18 months and why I’ve introduced it into my business coaching and strategy. We can’t simply copy and paste something into our own business from someone else. We are not the same person.

When we can better understand ourselves and how we are designed to operate, we can build a more aligned business. It is through the lens of human design, I’ve been watching clients take more consistent action, build a business model based on who they are and how they want to show up. They are simplifying their lives by saying goodbye to all the bells and whistles they “thought” they needed but actually made things more complicated.

Building a business can be simple when we commit to the process of owning who we are, our mission and the impact that we want to make in the world. You don’t always need more fancy funnels, more products or the latest and greatest trend to be successful. Less is often more. Simplicity, commitment and authenticity is the key.