A Peak Behind the Curtain
How does coaching work in a small business? Here’s a recent coaching example.
First, it’s helpful to know that I practice 2 types of coaching – Causal and Situational.
Causal, not casual, (it is often misread) seeks to understand what is causing a result in your life.
Results can be negative and positive. We want to replicate the positive and change the negative.
Here’s a Real Life Example:
A business owner does not trust sales leaders with sensitive information and often goes behind their backs to meet with key clients. The result is a lack of accountability and ownership by the sales team. People feel undermined. There’s tension all the time.
Why is this happening?
Through coaching, I discovered that the owner had a trusted employee quit and take several key clients with him. It was a terrible time for the owner, as business suffered, and he was very hurt by the employee.
So the owner has vowed to ‘keep things close to the chest’ to prevent it from happening again.
We discovered the cause.
Then I shifted to situational coaching and we talk about real scenarios where this is playing out.
When I am coaching both the owner and the leadership we unravel this limiting situation from both sides.
First, I asked the owner how they feel about sharing this information. By encouraging vulnerability, the team can empathize with the situation rather than just be angry about it.
Then, I helped the owner to empathize with how the team is feeling about his behavior.
We then compared the risks of the current owner behavior against the perceived rewards and evaluated what the actual desired results were.
1. Where do you want to be?
2. Where are you now?
3. How do we bridge the gap?
The owner came to his own conclusion about his preferred path. I am not the judge.
The two options we identified:
1. If the owner decides to give more trust and autonomy I will work with the team to understand how they honor this and earn trust over time. I will also help the owner to stay true the desired result. Change is hard.
2. If the desire is stay the current path, I can help the team to brainstorm ways they can honor this choice but creatively find new ways to feel autonomous and satisfied in their positions.
Neither path is good nor bad. They key is being transparent, understanding the root cause, and helping all parties to work well together regardless of the path.
In this case, some employee may choose to leave. But I believe this is better than employees that are always unsatisfied.
My goal is to get you to where you want to be.
We weed through the limiting beliefs, fears, confusion, and stories that block the path.
If you are interested in 1:1 Coaching, schedule a consultation call today.
Coaching occurs twice monthly for 3-12 months. Packages are customized to meet your needs.
September start dates available now.
Coaching for Life, Leadership & Everything In Between.
