Longer Term Coaching

10th January 2013

On one or two occasions recently, I have heard coaches say that they feel that their role is to teach their clients how to do things, and then to wean them off, once they have the knowledge and stand on their own two feet. In fact they go so far as to say they have failed if they are still working with them for more than a year. As most of my clients have been with me for at least two years it made me wonder if I was doing something wrong, and that I was perhaps not helping my clients as I should be. But after some soul searching I realised that in fact the long term relationships which I have deliberately brought about are what I believe coaching to be all about.

Of course there is an element of teaching my clients skills, which I should be able to achieve well within a year, but that is not really what my coaching beliefs are about. The point is that most business owners know what is wrong with their businesses. Most of them know what they should be doing, but the gap between knowing it and doing it, is huge, and that is where I come in. Holding my clients accountable to take the actions we agree on at each meeting is what makes the difference. But just because I teach them a new skill, or help them expand their knowledge doesn’t necessarily change the way they are (as indeed most of us are). The loneliness of being a business owner, who is answerable to no-one as such, means it is so easy to give yourself excuses, and avoid doing all the things you don’t like doing, and that never changes.

So to have a coach who you trust and respect, who will hold you accountable, be your mentor and be your friend where appropriate, is surely worth keeping for as long as you want your business to grow.

---

Comments are closed.