Business Coaching 2012 – It’s second week of the first month of a brand spanking New Year! You might have been gone over the Holidays, but now you are home and settled with all the Holiday things put way. So now what?
Very few people plan in the fall, so you might not have made any real plans yet. It is not too late, but it is important that you carve out some planning time now. You don’t want to let too much time go by just doing the same old thing. Why plan? No plan, no direction. Those with plans succeed more often than those without them. It’s proven as the best way to go.
Plus, how you start out is important. You want to set the tone for the year. Jump on it. Set your yearly intentions. Write out your Dreams. Know what you are going for, what is most important to you, how you want it and you to show up in the world. This is critical to fire your “rockets”! You want your dream to be so big and exiting that it fuels you.
If you feel unexcited about the year, it is because your goals and dreams are too small. Step up! Allow your dreams to excite you with the possibilities. Make your plan sweet and tantalizing to you.
Here are three business coaching ideas to bring it about. You will want to strategize the how, the goals, and create the systems to put it all together!
1. Masterminds: The concept of the Mastermind Group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in the early 1900’s. In his timeless classic, “Think And Grow Rich” he wrote about the Mastermind principle as:”The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.” What I love about a Mastermind is the synergy of energy, commitment, and excitement that participants bring to a Mastermind Group. The beauty of Mastermind Groups is that participants raise the bar by challenging each other to create and implement goals, brainstorm ideas, and support each other with total honesty, respect and compassion. It is a very bonding experience where all learn from one another. Each participant brings their best to the game, is supportive and acts as a catalyst for growth and sometimes plays the role of devil’s advocate.
2. Coaching: Wikipedia defines business coaching as: “Coaching, with a professional coach, is the practice of supporting an individual, referred to as the client or coachee, through the process of achieving a specific personal or professional result.” Coaching is differentiated from therapeutic and counseling since clients are in most cases considered healthy (i.e. not sick) and move forward based on their desires and strengths from their present situation. The structures, models and methodologies of coaching are numerous and are predominantly facilitating in style. In its purest form the coach mainly asks questions and challenges the coachee to find answers from within himself/herself based on their values, preferences and unique perspective. It is based on the client’s agenda. Today there are also coaching programs that will have an agenda and goals that the members individually work on achieving. Two years ago I took a program called 6 Figure Coaching which really make me step up and get some major things accomplished to take me to my next level. It was a program and we were able to meet on the side in small groups to reports success and talk about challenges and hold each other accountable, similar to a mastermind. There are many niches for coaching today, some of which include executive coaching, life coaching, business coaching, career coaching, mindfulness coaching, relationship coaching and wealth coaching. As more and more coaches develop additional niches develop for different interests and causes. Coaching is a great confidential partnership to help design and achieve goals and dreams. It provides accountability and focus by meeting weekly.
3. Buddy System: If these options are not available to you, you might look for a mentor you look up to who has achieved what you would like to achieve. Or someone who has the kind of character and success you would like to have.
Or you might look at your friends and relatives and see if there is someone with whom you can safely share your dreams with who is a good listener, supportive and encouraging. You do want to choose someone who would be willing to talk on a regular basis and be a sounding board for you to check-in with for your monthly and weekly goals and accomplishments. You will want someone who will honor your agenda and not try to stir you in the direction they believe you ‘should’ go. It needs to be someone who supports what you want and will give you support for what you want to create or where you want to go.
Sometimes you might belong to an association or network group that would be a fertile ground for beginning a Mastermind or finding a buddy that would be a great mutual fit.
The truth is we do better faster when have a cheering section, be it one person or more. Plus it just feels good!
Warning: Please don’t be a Lone Ranger. Thinking you can do it all by yourself is short-sighted, controlling and limiting. We need perspective and we don’t get that alone. When you think you have it all handled, you might. It is still great to have a sounding board who will give you honest feedback whether you are on the right track or not. If we think we don’t need anyone else to ‘help’ us, it is often our ego talking. I have seen people derailed and slowed down by being short-sighted, distrusting, controlling or too caught up in going it alone.
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