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