I have been fulfilling my portfolio role of Development Director for two companies and coach supervisor for 8 years now, and I still have a problem with selling the idea of how coaching can support small businesses. Selling and coaching doesn’t go together and people should see the benefits, rather than being sold to, anyway. We are all experts in what we do; let me give you an example.
Andy Couchman (couchmans@mac.com) is a property maintenance services expert who can turn his hand to anything around the house, as well as being an actor and rock star (www.vertigomusic.co.uk). Andy was doing a number of simple tasks (for him, but not for me) last week, and did a fantastic job refurbishing my shed and ensuring my fence will stand up for another 5 years. (Saved me a fortune compared to my neighbours who replaced everything as new!) One small task was to put back a rubber seal or tyre on a wheel on a sun lounger.
We bought this sun lounger about 4 years ago and basically, it had one broken wheel which we had tried to put back together, a bit like a jigsaw by applying a lot of glue. This had been quite frustrating, so we went back to the retailers to try and get a new wheel only to be told they didn’t make them anymore (I wonder why!) to be fair, they did give us a £60 refund, which was fine, but I still had this dodgy wheel. So Andy had the job of somehow putting this rubber seal on a wooden wheel which was only going to collapse again. So what did Andy say and do?
Take the other wheel off, of course, so the sun lounger is not quite as easy to move around but does that really matter for a sun lounger that effectively cost us £80
So besides being totally inept from a practical point of view, why didn’t I see this simple solution? Probably because I am too close to the situation and needed an alternative perspective. This is what coaching can do for you; give you time to reflect, sometimes be asked challenging questions and come up with ways of working and pricing that previously you might not have considered. Coaching is also totally confidential too, so if you have missed something which is totally obvious, like my wheel, nobody else will know about it!
Last week I received feedback from one of my coachees on the coaching they had received –
For me coaching was like President Obama using L’Oreal shampoo while wearing Nike trainers because…
“Yes I can”
“Because I am worth it”
So
“Just do it”.
When you do a professional job, how do you feel? As a coach I get a tingle down my back, particularly when I get feedback like this.
How can I help you to see the obvious?
How can I help you make more money or give you more time to focus on the areas you want to?
I love coaching and doing a professional job.
How can I support you?
Please contact neil@nvwsolutions.co.uk, see my website www.nvwsolutions.co.uk or telephone me on 07970 225058.
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