The Benefits Of Business Coaching

There are specific actions that can lead to business success – business success is defined by the business owner, not the business coach. However this usually includes a range of tangible results and outcomes, such as stronger teams, better processes, more time and strengthened management and leadership capacity.

Most business coaching leads to improved profits, either greater profit, more consistent profit or similar profit for less effort and stress – a more efficient profit.

Very often business owners see business coaches as a cost, however it is really an investment that will pay back many times over for many years to come. The best business coaches will be able to understand how profit is generated and make suggestions on how to increase the profit by more than the cost of their services, making them self-funding.

Going beyond that, the business owner gains insights, strategies and tactics that they can, if they chose to, implement time and again during their business career.

The benefits of business coaching are financial and non-financial with short-term and long-term benefits.

Employing a business coach is an investment – and if you want to realise all the benefits, be sure to find someone who understands numbers and profit!

The best business coaches get a deep understanding of the business and the business owner – understanding how the business model works and the goals of the business owner.

All their work, support, suggestions and advice is tailored to the needs of that business, supporting the business owner to build on its strengths and mitigate its weaknesses.

Business coaches use their experience to get to the heart of the matter and focus on the actions that will make the difference. Working to remove obstacles to the business and enhancing the driving forces for growth can lead to a significant boost to business growth.

Where a business owner has an aim in mind, but not sure how to make it happen. The business coach can help formulate an efficient and effective plan and enable the entrepreneur to execute it. Business coaching enables fast feedback with ideas and suggestions so that the business owner can take corrective action.

A good business coach has a well-rounded view of business and how businesses work. They have a sufficiently broad base of knowledge and experience that they can get to the heart of the matter quickly. This enables the business coach to gain insights into the actions that are most likely to produce the desired results and success.

The combination of the business coach and business owner is a formidable team. The business coach’s broad experience of many different strategies, approaches, businesses and other sectors combines with the business owner’s in-depth knowledge of their business, practical experience of what has worked and what not and invaluable insights into their customers’ thinking, to produce insights and action plans that are bespoke and tailored to the individual circumstances, with a greater chance of success.

It is a formidable combination that produces results greater than the sum of the parts.

A good business coach takes the time to work collaboratively with the business owner and a successful business coaching relationship works best when the entrepreneur fully plays their part in the team, taking advantage of the resources on offer.

Business owners are inevitably the key leaders and mangers in the business. As the business grows there is an increasing need to understand that difference and ensure that the necessary skills are learnt and the is sufficient balance between the two.

A business which is over managed and under-led can do the wrong things very well and will struggle to grow and develop.

A business which is over led and under managed will be full of good ideas and impressive strategies which are never fully or effectively implemented.

Strategy IS execution!

A good business owner will understand the stage of development that the business is at and will help to ensure that the business owner is developing both their leadership and management capacities.

It is now well established that many training courses and business books have limited effect because of two factors – people don’t implement what they learn, people forget what they learned. There is a thing called the “forgetting curve” which shows that knowledge has a half-life and rapidly decays.

You need to be reminded of what you’ve learned and how to apply it – this is called “spaced repetition” and is a key benefit of business coaching. A series of business coaching sessions over a period of time (say 6, 12 or 18 months) gives plenty of opportunity to revisit key principles, gain new insights, implement new approaches and reflect on their results.

It ensures that relevant learning is embedded.

It’s not so much the hours spent with the coach that makes the difference but the days and weeks between the sessions when you are implementing things in the real world. Instead of you going down the forgetting curve, you are going up the learning curve and your business is going up the growth curve!

A good business coach will feel confident in working with you to problem solve. Their experience and knowledge, coupled with their personal interest and commitment to seeing you and your business succeed and their knowledge of problem-solving techniques will enable you to find solutions to challenges and problems. No doubt a resourceful business coach will be keen to find answers to challenges that they haven’t come across before – after all your business and your situation will have unique aspects.

As business coaches are external, they can see the bigger picture and the context of the business perhaps more easily than the business owner can. They can provide a more objective, professional and dispassionate perspective, perhaps giving feedback that the business owner can not get from anywhere else. This rounded and holistic approach can encourage the entrepreneur to also take a step back from time to time and critically appraise their situation and progress.

Very often working with a business coach requires new things to happen in the business and you as a business leader need to take your team with you. Change management is a skill in itself and a good business coach will have managed change themselves and know the problems first hand. As a business owner feeling comfortable with leading and managing change will stand you in good stead for the future of your business and the engagement of your team.

If you are managing change in your business then you can download a free change management toolkit here…

A good business coach can enable the business owner to further clarify their aims, objectives and goals, to be clear on the purpose of their chosen direction. This in turn enables them to focus on the right actions to take the business towards those clear aims. It is seeing the detail in the context of the big picture which provides for more efficient working and more purpose-driven action.

A professional business coach can act as an impartial sounding board, enabling decisions to be based on thorough logical thinking, aligned to the business aims and goals. This means that the business owner can be confident in the decisions they take, enabling them to be bolder than might otherwise be the case. With clarity and focus also comes the inspiration needed to keep going and to follow through even when the going may be hard and challenges come along.

The best business coaches are able to unlock all the benefits of business coaching with you and engaging you as the business owner at both the head and heart levels.

Coaching is widely accepted by many professional bodies as a key method of developing people and improving business performance, for example the Chartered Management Institute recognises the value of business coaching and mentoring.

To summarise, the main benefit is that the business owner knows what to do, why they are doing it – and they actually want to do it. They are able to take the right action with clarity, focus and determination, which dramatically increases the chances of success.

Andy Turnbull is a qualified account, a Fellow of his accountancy institute and he is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. He has been recognised as a Fellow of both institutes, as he has a broad and deep understanding of business, finance, management and leadership, strategy, and marketing and digital marketing.

Andy is able to take a holistic view of your business and with you create clear picture for the future and focused plan of action to get there. By exploring with you your drives and hopes, you will tap into your inner motivations giving you the inspiration and renewed enthusiasm to carry you and your business forward with confidence.