Business and Executive Coaching by Ben M. Bartlett

Here's an important asset to help you build your business and improve performance

Almost every top sports team or sports star has at least one of them. As do 88% of CEOs at leading companies surveyed by the Harvard Business Review. What do they have? A coach.

Why a coach? It's simple. Coaches help individuals and teams to accelerate performance and get better results. And, the best coaches, sometimes referred to as super coaches, use their skills to transform average performers into superstars and champions.

In the business world coaches are known mainly as business, executive or high performance coaches, while the term "business mentor" is also used. Nonetheless, provided he or she has the right expertise and skill set, a good coach can help you to:

Increase sales revenue and profitability.
Solve critical performance issues and problems
Improve organizational and personal productivity
Develop your skill base and talents
Build stronger leaders and managers
Improve sales and marketing processes

Where do you find a good business and executive coach? That's a challenge because the fact is, excellent coaches are few and far between. Put another way, there are a lot of unqualified, poorly skilled and inexperienced people calling themselves coaches.

Some people think that buying a coaching franchise, attending seminars or being a member of a coaching association automatically makes them a good coach. Wrong!

And, there are so many varying definitions as to what a coach actually is and does, it can become quite confusing.

What to do? If you're looking to hire a business or executive coach to help you improve business and personal performance, I recommend you look to the field of sports coaching for some guidelines. In other words, consider the attributes of the top sports coaches and apply these as a criteria.

Attributes of top coaches – Introducing the Super Coach Model

I've studied the careers of some of the world's greatest sports coaches including Graham Henry (Rugby), Phil Jackson (Basketball), Wayne Bennett (Rugby League), Hank Haney (Tiger Woods' former golf coach) and Sir Alex Ferguson (Football). While these coaches differ in many ways, they have some common coaching attributes.

Based on my research I've identified the top attributes of super coaches, and these form my Super Coach model, illustrated here:

By way of explanation, the super coach attributes are:

Talented analysts. Top sports coaches do their homework. They study the opposition. They survey competitive conditions. They analyze with a vengeance. As an example, Graham Henry, one of the world's top rugby coaches, is renowned for watching rugby videos for hours on end…trying to glean useful bits and pieces of information from his analysis. Indeed, when it comes to doing their homework, all top sports coaches can often be obsessively fastidious.

Why is this analysis so important? To coin a phrase from the medical fraternity…effective diagnosis precedes proper prescription. Key point. Look for a business and executive coach with a strong analytical mind.

Skilled strategists. As outlined above, diagnosis precedes prescription. And in sport, prescription refers to the development of appropriate strategies and tactics. Top sports coaches are highly skilled strategists…developing the game plans (strategies) and plays (tactics) that give their teams a winning edge. Key point. Find a business and executive coach with expertise in taking their analysis to form the right strategies and tactics.

Technical expertise. Top sports coaches have tons of knowledge and expertise residing in their brains, built upon their accumulated experience and learning. They intimately understand the sports they coach and most have played their sports to a high level. Key point. Like top sports coaches, the best business and executive coaches are very knowledgeable – both experientially and theoretically – and have demonstrable track records in applying that knowledge. In other words, they walk the talk. So find a coach with high levels of technical expertise and a track record to boot.

Strong Soft skills. No point having tons of technical ability, but lacking the all-important soft skills. According to Wikipedia, "Soft skills is a sociological term relating to a person's 'EQ' (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people." (source: Wikipedia). So in a nutshell, soft skills are those skills that refer to our ability to get on well with others. Key point. Find a coach with strong soft skills

Master teachers and trainers. Top sports coaches are great teachers and are highly talented in developing their players' skills. They understand differences in learning styles among their players and use a multi-sensory approach to passing on knowledge and up-skilling. Key point. Great business and executive coaches are also excellent teachers and trainers who understand and apply core principles of learning and skill development.

Good understanding of organizational structure and culture. Top sports coaches understand the roles that structure and environment play in building a high performance and highly motivated team culture. Key point. Find a business and executive coach who understands principles of organizational structure and culture, and how this impacts on performance.

Excellent mentors and advisors. Top sports coaches are excellent mentors who know how to bring out the best in individuals and teams. They have an excellent understanding of human behavior and psychology, are great listeners and sounding boards. And, they use these abilities to help others improve performance. Key point. Find a business and executive coach who knows how to mentor others.

Personal leadership. Top sports coaches have a high-level of personal leadership. They recognize that leadership is not about the title, it's about the person. They are prepared to make tough decisions and lead from the front. Key point. Find a business and executive coach who has strong personal leadership skills.

In summary, top sports coaches are passionate about high performance, combining their attributes with those of others to build a winning team. They thrive on taking a blank canvas – in the form of a new team – and then molding, shaping and turning that team into champions.

The combination of skills, minds and plans leads to improved performance and creates and builds a track record of success. And it is the track record of success that determines how good a coach really is.

Business and executive coaching with a unique difference

In order to help a client achieve better results, my view is that business and executive coaches should have the skills and attributes outlined in the Super Coach model. Further, you should use the super coach model to identify the best coach for you.

If you're seeking improvements in your business and personal life, ask about my business and executive coaching service.

As you may have guessed by now, this service is unique in that it applies the Super Coach model principles and practices, as used by top sports coaches.

Inherent in this philosophy and models is the view that business and executive coaching consists of a number of approaches to help a client improve performance. Therefore coaching can include such interventions as consulting, mentoring and training.

With this service I have taken my knowledge and experience in the areas of business strategy, marketing and high performance, and merged it with my background in sports and fitness coaching.

Coaching is offered in the following areas:

Strategic Thinking and Planning
Strategic Branding and Marketing
Strategic HR and High Performance

As you know, these areas form the basis of the strategic business growth grid and represent the three keys to improving business performance. So let's look at them more closely.

Strategic Thinking and Planning. With this coaching module you and your team will be coached and learn how to improve the most valuable business and personal development skill – strategic thinking and planning. You will be taught how to apply the principles of design and visual thinking to improve your ability to analyze, identify the right strategic choices, set goals, and to develop more effective plans. Specific skills taught include:

The key differences between "In the trees" traditional thinking and planning versus "Above the forest" visual thinking and planning
What to look for when forming a strategic planning team
The best ways to gather market intelligence and research material
How to conduct an effective SWOT analysis using visual analytical tools such as grids, matrices and process visuals
How to establish a hard-to-imitate competitive position
Keys to building an effective revenue stream model
How to correctly identify competitor strengths and weaknesses
How to better prepare for, and counter competitor threats
How to harness the power of Pareto's 80/20 principle
Innovative decision-making techniques
How create simple, yet powerful strategic plans using my one page strategic planning system

Strategic Branding, Sales and Marketing. In this area you and your team will be taught how to strategically improve your sales and marketing. You will learn how to take a process oriented approach to improving sales and marketing performance, which in turn will improve your ability to generate more effective brand awareness, and convert that into sales. Skills taught include:

How to identify attractive market segments
How to build compelling business and product/brands
The formula for creating winning products and services
Developing a powerful strategic brand
How to design an effective sales process
How to generate better brand awareness
How to improve opt-in rates
Steps to improving sales conversions
How to increase your customer retention rate
How to sell more, more often to existing customers

High Performance Skill Development. As highlighted in the Strategic Business Growth grid, the key ingredient in any business development initiative is human behavior and performance. In this module you will be coached in several key high performance skills such as leadership (personal and business), teamwork, communication, working effectively under pressure and goal setting. Skill areas include:

How to align your strategy with your personal values
Why personality and values conflicts can destroy morale and performance – and how to fix it.
How to develop the right organizational structure
How to hire the right people with the right values and skills
Strategic Time Management – How to dramatically improve productivity and save money by taking a strategic approach to time and task management
How to lead under pressure – stepping up to the plate when the heat is on
How to develop effective performance management systems
How to effectively lead multi-ethnic teams

Two more reasons why you should consider this service

1. Underpinned by the principles of Strategic High Performance. This coaching service is underpinned by the principles of strategic high performance. These laws dictate that any performance development initiatives must be strategically developed. That is, initiatives must align with environmental, strategic, organizational and personal factors in mind.

Few coaches take these critical factors into account when coaching clients. Most focus primarily on motivational or skill issues. Unfortunately all the skills and motivation are of little use to an organization when say for example, that organization's competitive strategy is all screwed up.

A key principle of strategic high performance is that skills coaching and development cannot be conducted in a vacuum. Put another way, you must not neglect the overall strategic factors that dictate and drive performance. You do so at your peril. And as the strategic high performance grid shows, optimal performance only occurs when both your strategic choice and tactics/execution are good. That's what gets you in the green zone.

2. Skills Development, Not Just Motivation. Yes, this service focuses on skills development, and not purely motivation or theory. In other words, these services:

· Are not “hypey” motivational sessions. Put simply, they’re not like training sessions where you go along and get all fired up, yet several days later find that the fire has disappeared.

· Do not contain ivory tower theory, silly methodologies or highly technical jargon that you may find in a 600-page university textbook.

Also, this service is highly customized. There are no thinly disguised seminars, workshops or licensed materials in the forms of books, manuals, video tapes, CDs and the like. You get custom-designed analysis and custom-designed solutions.

The very best in coaching

With this coaching service you will learn critical skills designed to help you improve business and personal performance. I will also teach you how to better balance work, family and self, so that your overall performance is much more balanced.

In sports, good coaching can do much to improve an athlete’s skill levels. The same principle applies to business and executive coaching. Simply, good business and executive coaching will improve your business skills and those of your team members.

For more information on how to get the best out of a coaching relationship call 0064 9 534 9314. Also, ask for a free copy of Why Coaching Sucks, a special report on the business and executive coaching industry.

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