At some point in our lives we are going to need guidance. If you’re a business owner you would’ve stopped reading this post by now based on the first sentence. That’s because a lot of business owners think that if we can start the business on our own then we can achieve our goals on our own there is no need for guidance… that is until we get into a certain area in our career I like to call, “blah”. You know what blah is its that area where you’ve achieved some of your goals and you want to move to the next stage in business but you can’t quite get there for some reason.
You then decide to hire a coach, pay your money and don’t take any of your coaches advice. As a result you find yourself out of your money and you still haven’t achieved the goals you set out for the business… why is that? Are you coachable? If not I have a few tips that can get any business owner for any type of coaching on the road to infinite coachability, take a look:
Trust- Trust is a two way street not only do you have to trust the person that you’ve hired to guide you in the right direction, but they also have to trust that you’re going to follow their guidance. Once the trust is eliminated from the relationship then things can go wrong so before you decide to pay someone schedule a fifteen to thirty minute coaching session for you to get to know specific things about your coach such as, what coaching model do they use, do they have a coaching model, what type of personality do they have, what makes them qualified to coach you. My motto is trust until you have proof you can’t trust them anymore.
Client Participation- Any good coach who wants their clients to achieve results will require some form of client participation. Client participation can involve replying to an mail, submitting a document, answering a call, completing any task given. If you’re not up to it then you’re not ready for a coach. When a coach requires participation they are getting you prepared for your end result by keeping you active in the process. Make it a point to reply and in a timely fashion if needed. If you can’t reply timely follow up and send a quick message letting your coach know why you can’t they’re running a business just like you so they will understand.
Transparency- I think this is the hardest part because transparency involves you revealing things that nobody else knows about your business, and even about you. To be able to reveal your true self to a total stranger is hard, but it is needed. Not only is it hard to tell another person but its also hard to hear for yourself. When you hear the state of your business that’s when you face the total truth about what type of business you have. Your coach is there to help not hurt so you have to be sure to honestly reveal where you are in business and where you would like to be.
Commitment- Nothing is achieved without a solid commitment in order to achieve your goals. Sometimes its not so pretty and you feel like you are going through a terrible storm that will never end, but it will. There is sunshine on the other side of those clouds but you have to commit to getting there and that is going to take some hard work.
Are you coachable?
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