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There are many reasons to work with a personal coach and
literally hundreds of things you can work on their assistance.
Here are the TOP TEN:
1. You will set far better goals that motivate you in a
healthy way.
Did you have Goal Setting 101 in high school? Probably not!
Enter the coach, who is an expert in helping you to identify
and set the goals that you really want, not the ones that are
wishes or pipedreams that you've been recycling or that mirror
the goals of your parents, society or Madison Avenue. Choosing
the right goals for you is an art and the coach takes the
necessary time to help you clarify your personal values, so
that you have something really solid on which to develop your
goals. Value-based goals are naturally motivating, but it
takes good coaching to get to these.
2. You'll accomplish goals and tasks and projects much more
quickly.
One of the reasons that people hire a coach is to save
themselves time. Working with a coach, they learn how to be
far more effective, efficient and productive in everything
that they do, including their job/business or personal
projects. We humans just aren't that naturally effective, even
if we think that we are. The coach has the tools and
techniques to share with their clients so that things get done
in half the time. (Even the coaching process is efficient --
on the phone, 1/2 hour a week, reasonable fee.)
3. You'll make fewer mistakes in your business life or in your
personal life.
The old model of learning from your mistakes has deteriorated
to be more like: How else will you learn if you don't make
mistakes? This is too expensive, in our view. With a coach,
you have a third eye, someone who's been there and who has
coached others in your situation, and an expert in getting the
job done with the minimum of fuss (called learning curve,
mistakes, errors in judgment, wrong tunnels, etc.). The cost
(emotional, financial, time) of making mistakes has become
very expensive in the past decade. A single mistake can ruin
you in today's hyper-paced business environment. Some clients
use their coach as an inexpensive insurance policy.
4. You'll move up to the next level of your professional and
personal life
Almost everybody is moving up the ladder of business success,
personal development, awareness and emotional balance. The
coach can help you see where you are right now and point out
ways to grow and get where you want to get to. Or, if you're
not even on the ladder, the coach can guide you to it and help
you get started on your path.
5. You'll reduce the number of problems you have and better
resolve the problems that are left.
The first step in solving a problem is to ask yourself why you
have this problem at all. The second step is to ask yourself
why you have problems at all. The third step is to get on
track to having no problems -- becoming a Problem-Free Zone (PFZ).
This is not a joke. Being a PFZ is becoming even more
important along the path of sustainable success. You cannot
afford to have problems, period. Life's too short and problems
are too expensive. A well-trained coach can help you become a
PFZ.
6. You'll likely make more money in your career, profession or
business.
Clients don't keep paying their coaches just for the fun of
it. Coaching, like every other professional service, needs to
improve the financial bottom line and it does. Coaches are
trained to help clients to leverage their ability to make
money, i.e., getting a raise, choosing a better career,
starting a business, improving profitability, adding more
value to their customers, proper pricing, productivity and
others. Sure, coaching is personal, but it almost always
includes a strong financial aspect.
7. You'll be a lot happier and this happiness will last.
Coaches know how to help you to reduce stress, integrate all
aspects of your life, simplify or downshift, and reorient
around what makes you the happiest. What good is increased
productivity and profitability if you're not happy?
8. You'll be much more effective and influential with others:
family, business and personal relationships.
Communication makes life. A coach is an expert communicator
and trains clients on how to come across better, relate well
with others, listen aggressively, influence, coach, motivate
and support others. There are over 100 communication and
listening skills that clients can learn from a coach.
9. You'll become much more attractive to others -- on the
inside and on the outside.
Selling, as a profession and as a proven technique/process, is
on its way out. Why? … Because humans are getting better at
choosing for themselves and better at buying. Humans will
respond less to advertising and selling techniques and instead
be drawn to a product or service and they will be more likely
drawn because of who is offering the product or service. This
process is called attraction and Coach University wrote the
book on it (called Irresistible Attraction). It's real. It
works. And it will replace much of the promotion, marketing,
selling, “enticing” and other very expensive budget items.
Remember, the world (consumers) is rapidly eliminating
virtually all waste and inefficiencies in how business is
conducted, products are sold and how services are delivered.
Selling and mass marketing, while certainly still very
effective right now, is on the hit list. Attraction is the
next generation of selling and the well-trained coach can help
you and your business get on this track immediately.
10. You'll have a better life, not just a better lifestyle
The term Quality of Life has become overused in the past few
years, but the trend of Americans seeking to create a much
better life for themselves is accelerating. In fact, people
are re-examining what they had assumed a good life was
(married, 2.3 kids, nice car, secure job, church on Sundays, 3
weeks of vacation a year) and are now creating their own life,
often breaking the rules and flying in the face of
conventional wisdom in the process. A coach has been trained
in the Life Design process and has already made the kind of
design changes in their life, that their clients are just now
beginning to make.
By Thomas J. Leonard (thomas@thomasleonard.com) Copyright
1997, 98, 99, Coach U |
