Starting up is hard. It can be a lonely experience. It’s often a thankless task. And even your friends and family will let you down on occasion. So how can we claim that coaching is a sure thing? Can we really promise a fool-proof way to improve your experience?
Straightforwardly, at We Coach You Grow we believe the answer is yes.
Any number of organisations, individuals, evangelists and hucksters are lining up to take your money in exchange for a promise to improve your skills as a startup leader. Some even brand themselves as ‘coaches’. So let’s define our terms. By a ‘coach’ we mean someone who’s been trained through a reputable coaching course, accredited by a national or international professional body.
This means that they’re highly trained in a particular skill, and that skill is coaching.
They are not (necessarily) a highly experienced business leader. Nor need they have completed a six-week correspondence course in startup methodologies (though some of those could be great). Their skill and experience is in coaching: the art of getting the best performance out of people. Helping you do your job better, by definition. So for someone to have succeeded in coaching you, they have to have helped you become a better startup founder.
Will you end up knowing more about your chosen industry? Perhaps.
Will you have a book brimming with relevant contacts by the end of your programme? Take it or leave it.
But will you be more empowered and able to do your job as a leader, inspirer and day-to-day everything-doer, and to a higher standard? Yes.
So it’s easy, then? This is a question I get asked a lot. If I’m so confident that coaching can deliver for everyone, I must think that it’s a cheap trick. Wave a magic wand and the improvement will just happen. Sorry – not so fast!
The truth is that coaching is hard work.
As much for the client as for the coach. Many clients describe the hour or ninety minute sessions as the most mentally taxing of their day, but also the most stimulating and rewarding. Two sides of the same coin, if you ask me. That mental exertion doesn’t just disappear. The skill of the coach is to keep that energy directed with laser-focus on the areas the client sees as needing effort to deliver improvements.
Session-by-session that direction and applied action will deliver results. The coach is there to support it, keep the work on track, help remove blockages, measure the success and help the client to understand when it’s necessary to change direction.
With this careful, scientific-method-based approach, the process cannot fail!