Keeping up the Pressure

26th February 2015

Last week I was in a coaching session with one of my clients, when I was reminded of how important coaching can be, and how it works in so many different ways.

In this particular instance, the business is going well. Turnover and profits are far higher than when we started (up 100%), controls are in place, systems are being written and staff gradually taken on to help take away the day to day tasks from the business owner. In fact things are generally looking pretty good. However, there is a very real risk of everything becoming a little too comfortable, and focus being lost, and ultimately the end goals set not being reached (and of course the long term financial goals were set for clear reasons).

This is when as a coach I can’t let my client off the hook. Lots of praise of course for what he has achieved, but now comes the really hard bit where I have to remind him, and push him to take the extra him to take the steps needed to build things to the level where he is no longer integral to the business i.e. the business enterprise which can work without him, which after all is what he says he wants.

So I have to set him tougher targets, mostly now on the sales and marketing front, so he can bring in the next level of business which will allow him to employ the key person to run the business for him. This in turn frees up more time to target more key businesses, and gives him the flexibility and freedom that he is looking for.

To get him to do this I have asked him to monitor all his numbers, calls made, visits made, meetings held, and new customers taken on, so I can challenge him if he does not do enough in between each of our sessions to hit his targets.

So if you have goals which always seem to just out of reach, ask yourself “am I getting too comfortable, and no longer pushing hard enough?” If the answer is yes, but you still can’t motivate yourself to go the extra mile, perhaps you should think about taking on a coach.

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