You Don't Need Me For The Answers

Since I started coaching a bit over two years ago, I have told my clients, I don't have your answers. In fact, I have told them (often much to their dismay) there is nothing that I can tell them that they can't find in a book at the library, on the web, or quite honestly, in their own mind. One of Seth Godin's recent blogs, "Your Nuts If You Believe Me" drives home the point once again.

You don't need a coach to provide you answers - if you read my blog from a couple days ago, "Why Do I Need A Coach" you learned that a coach does a whole lot to help you reach your goals, least of which is trying to run your business for you - or do the work / providing answers for you.

If you want that kind of help, then hire a consultant, get a business partner, or hire someone to come in and run things for you - but a coach is not what you want or need.

Many times, my clients will contact me and ask me what they should do in a certain situation - about sales or marketing, about a troubled employee, or about an issue with a customer, etc. They think that I have all the answers - or they think that they pay me to provide them all the answers. They want the magic solution that will fix all of their problems.

Do I have an answer for them? Sure, but I rarely share it, because providing answers is treating the symptoms. Giving them my answer might help right this second to treat the symptom, but will rarely solve the problem. They don't need my answer - they need to know how to find their own answer. They need to create a system / process that will fix the root problems in a business.

So, instead I steer them to their own solutions.

If it's a question about the direction they should go, I usually direct them to their own constitution - their mission, vision, commitments (the principles upon which their business is founded) and their goals. I ask them what they think they should do within the scope of those documents. And to their own surprise, nearly every time, they find the answer. If not, we work on finding it together.

If it's a question about best techniques or tools that should be used in a given situation, I help them find the tools that will work best for their unique situation. Sure, sometimes, I provide the tools - but more often I share ideas and techniques that they choose from to help them create a solution that works for them.

One thing I've learned from 20 years in the military and 9+ years of raising children, is that commitment to a process is much stronger and the value gained from that process is much greater when an individual is guided to a solution, choosing it on their own, rather than being told to do it or being given it by someone else.

The key is that a coach's or mentor's job isn't to be the solution to the problem, but to be the guide that helps you find the solution to your problem. Giving you the solution creates dependency, while helping you find the answers promotes independence.

So don't look at your coach, mentor, or even your leaders to open door to solutions for you. Instead look at them as individuals that hand you the keys to unlock the doors to the solutions that you choose yourself. It's not what a coach provides you specifically, but instead, it's what a coach does to help you learn how to help yourself.

Small Businesses Hurting From Failing Economy

As my first Blog on my new Blog site, I've decided to go right to the heart of the problem for small businesses today - "blame it all on the recession." Every where you turn, that's all you hear, the recession is killing small business. Or "The customers just aren't coming in any more." In fact, the link from the Headline of this blog takes you to a Newsweek article that talks about all the woes of small businesses all around the country and how devastating it is to our economy.

Times are tough, there is no doubt about it. And based on the news media and all the politicians bold enough to speak on the subject, things are NOT getting better anytime soon. But the truth of the matter is this, you can blame your woes on outside circumstance and believe that you have no accountability in your current situation or you can look take control - figure out a solution and move forward.

That sounds crazy I know, but no matter how bad things get, people still need to eat. They need to buy gas, drive their cars, get them fixed, buy new clothes or maybe even take their family to see a movie. And someone has to provide all of those services - why can't it be you.

In any economy, businesses that can't adapt to the changing conditions will go out of business. Unfortunately, in today's world, we seem to believe that the Government should bail them out. But that doesn't fix the fact that they aren't running their business in the manner necessary to succeed in the new economic environment.

Everyday, men and women of all walks of life are spending their money. It may be less than it was 6 months ago, but the are still spending money. How are they spending it? Why are the spending it? And where are they spending it? These are all questions that every business owner needs to ask, if they wish to survive - not just in a bad economy, but in a thriving one as well. And once they find the answer, they need to find a way to get these potential customers to spend it in their store instead of where they currently are - not because your business provides the best product or the fastest service - but because your business provides the product and / or service that the customers want.

That is the essence of business - regardless of the economic conditions. And that is the essence to running a business that is "recession proof".