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Today more than any other time in our history there has never been so much information available on how to create, grow and maintain a really successful business. Information encircles almost every type of entrepreneurial pursuit imaginable. There are books, webinars, and courses available with great content, presented in a readily digestible systematic manner that’s easy to comprehend. Yet there is such little success that comes from it.
Part of that could be not everyone completes the book or the training. Then of the people that do complete the training, many take little or no action to create the meaningful result that were wanting to achieve. The few people that are consistently able to take action with their newly acquired knowledge do achieve amazing results.
So it’s not that there was anything wrong with the training which was provided it was provided equally to all.
Yes, there’s always things that could have been done better but this does not get away from the fact that only a small number of people actually benefit from the training. Some training organisations are well aware of this. They are constantly selling the next book, webinar or course as means for the people who didn’t achieve the result that they wanted. They sell to these people suggesting that they were just missing the secret X and with it they have the magic key that unlocks everything.
Others, involved in training freely give away their methodology for achieving results because they know how few people will end up acting on it. These businesses offer coaching programs that coach people on how to go about putting their methodology into action. Think about all the famous chefs that have created recipe books and tv shows that show step by step how to create the dishes which they serve in their restaurants. Even though thousands of people know how to cook the exact same meal for a fraction of the cost, people still fill the restaurants.
How many successful sportspeople, teams or athletes can you think of that don’t have a coach?
Why would so many professional sportspeople be coached if it didn’t help them?
So, what is about coaching that helps people move ahead simply put “coaching helps you get out of the way of yourself”. Yes, we are each master at doubting ourselves, putting ourselves down etc, and at the other end of the spectrum thinking, we are invincible and totally right all the time. A coach helps you to navigate through and around these obstacles, we place in our way so we can keep progressing towards our goal.
When I first started coaching, to start getting clients I approached people in the company where I had been working to see if they would be interested in being coached. What I found was those who were excelling in their job already had coaches. This should have surprised me, but I wasn’t because I had been exposed to the power of coaching from an early age.
When I was growing up on a dairy farm in New Zealand, I would work on the farm in the school holidays. Each month my father and a group of other farmers in the local area would meet on the farm of one of the farmers in the group, and in the school holidays, I would join them. A business coach would be there, and they would walk around the farm and discuss how to overcome obstacles and make improvements.
Back at school, I travelled to school on the school bus. The bus would travel past many of the farms of farmers in the monthly discussion group and other farms not part of the discussion group. Even as a 10-year-old, from the bus window, looking over the tops of the hedges I could clearly observe the distinct differences in pasture and cows of the farms of farmers in the discussion group over those that weren’t.
The difference coaching made was obvious as a 10-year-old. To the farmers, the difference coaching made was also obvious it was there in black and white in their bank account when they got the payout from the dairy factory. One farmer who bought a farm out of the district would travel just to remain a part of the discussion group to continue the coaching. This farmer went on to purchase many other farms.