A few months back, I spoke at a local networking event and I was asked to speak on the topic "How do you know when you need a coach?" I offer business coaching for entrepreneurs and I received a lot of positive feedback after my talk and realized that I needed to share it here. Coaching used to be a fairly unknown service industry, many still don't know exactly how life and business coaching can help them as entrepreneurs. Although the coaching industry is growing, when you should seek out coaching can still be unclear.
How to Know When You Need A Coach
Oftentimes people begin to seek out coaching when they are stuck, lost, scared, afraid, or unhappy. These feelings can feel scary and harmful -- but there can be beneficial motivating and creativity factors that go along with them. However, feeling happy and comfortable can be harmful, leading to complacency and stagnation. All of these states of being can be both beneficial or harmful and a Coach may be useful or essential. A Coach can help you to identify and change the areas in your life and your business which are unfulfilling or unsatisfactory. You and your coach can then begin to take the steps to get the results that you want, while also maintaining focus on what is working and going well in your life. Focusing solely on the negative without embracing the positive at the same time is a recipe for more negative thinking and poor decision making.
1. You are ready to face the challenges ahead: face fear, learn something new, become better. You know you will succeed more with someone to help you navigate through the tough stuff.
Maybe you are facing a major transition in your life. That can be scary and frustrating in and of itself. You need someone unbiased to talk to. A good coach will create a safe environment so that you can see yourself more clearly and more honestly. You need to be able to see your thoughts, behavior, and actions so that you can keep what's working and adjust what's not.
You can’t always talk to your spouse or loved ones about what’s happening with your business, and how to make it grow and succeed. Bounce your ideas off of your coach and get honest feedback. You can start moving forward with the help of someone you know you can trust to tell it like it is so you can move your business and life forward. Often, our business affects our personal life or our personal lives affect our businesses. I believe we need to work on both together. I also offer a group coaching program for entrepreneurs to feel less isolated and alone in building their own business. It's a community of support with others going through the same issues as yourself.
2. You procrastinate and you aren't exactly sure why.
A business coach will help you to understand your behaviors and help you to correct them along the way. I have an unconventional way of seeing procrastination and my methods with correcting procrastination are unique. I often teach entrepreneurs how to work with their behaviors rather than against them. The reasons why we procrastinate are often as important as the fact that we've been procrastinating. A coach can help you uncover the reasons why.
3. You are susceptible to stress or live a high-stress lifestyle.
Do you live in a constant state of frenzy? Maybe you feel stuck and have had the same goal for years and years with little achievement to show for it? This is often an indicator that there is something deeper that needs to be addressed and released. If this general feeling of stress is happening in many different areas in your life, including your business, the issue often needs an outside perspective -- fresh eyes and assessment of the problems to help get you unstuck. If you frequently doubt yourself, this is often a good sign that you need a coach to help you get out of that pattern. Entrepreneurs especially need a coach to help them balance stress in their lives and work.
4. You feel overwhelmed by your business or daily life and they bleed into each other instead of flowing together.
Moving past feelings of overwhelm require specific actions and reframing the beliefs that got you into an overwhelmed state in the first place. All the different areas of your life and your business can contribute to feelings of overwhelm. Knowing what area to prioritize and work on first for maximum results takes knowledge and expertise that you may not have. Professional coaches have a lot of experience working with feelings of
5. Your limiting beliefs and "old tapes" are getting in your way and holding you back from moving forward and taking action.
Letting go of the past will help make room for your future. Coaches can identify the gaps and blind spots you may have that are keeping you from getting where you want to be from where you are now. This includes being able to see and identify your strengths and weaknesses. We often have ingrained belief systems that are causing problems or frustration. Without awareness of those blind spots and beliefs, it is impossible to resolve them on your own without help.
A Coach will work with you as a guide to release the beliefs that are not working in your favor and will help you strengthen your positive belief systems. Our belief systems can make or break us as entrepreneurs. Business Coaching will help you as an entrepreneur to build positive belief systems that contribute to your success.
6. You have an idea or vision of what you want but no plan or process to get you there.
What got you to where you currently are won't necessarily get you to where you want to be. Coaches provide accountability and structure to support you in the process of creating the outcomes you want. Having accountability to someone on the outside of your life, business, or inner circle is often extremely helpful. Your friends and family may be sick of hearing about your problems and they may not be equipped to help you.
A coach will help you to create a plan to achieve your goals and desired outcomes. They will also help you re-evaluate the plan or strategy that you may have already mapped out for yourself. A Coach can help you monitor your progress and adjust your plans when necessary.
7. You have lost momentum, or never had it in the first place. You feel like the brakes are on and you can't get going again.
Maybe you struggle with the follow through and action piece of achieving your goals. A coach will encourage your progress and success. Their own success as a coach is directly proportional to your success. We challenge you to take intentional action and modify your behaviors to move you forward towards your goals. We like to see you do things differently than you've done them before. Your comfort zone is a handicap and you will need to shake things up to get new and different results.
8. You need efficiency to get what you want, but you can't see what adjustments need to be made to maximize your efforts and your time.
You are hoping that becoming more efficient will ultimately save you time and aggravation down the road. A coach will help you become more efficient in your life and your business. Efficiency often saves you time, money and loads of stress. Becoming more efficient also helps you achieve your goals more quickly.
9. You lack the confidence in yourself to make your goals happen.
We, as Coaches, challenge you to take intentional action and modify your behaviors to move you forward towards your goals. We like to see you do things differently than you've done them before. Your comfort zone is a handicap and you will need to shake things up to get new and different results. Coaches can often see and hear what you can't see in yourself. We ask the right questions to gain the necessary insights.
A Coach can help you to review
10. You are discouraged or unhappy with where you are in life, maybe it's your job or career, your relationships, your hobbies, your social life.
Being dissatisfied is hard to get out of on your own. Maybe you aren't taking care of yourself like you want to be. You aren't seeing the results you want in your business or life.
A coach will help you to identify and focus on what's important and what you really want in life and your business. Coaches help you to prioritize the important and cut out the rest. They help you see what is truly possible for your life.
You need to be willing to invest in yourself: With your time, energy, efforts and financially as well. Coaching is not easy, simple or cheap. It's an investment in yourself and your future. Your dreams and goals are worth it. You are worth it. Oftentimes meeting with a coach is free at first. You can meet with them with no obligation just to see if they can help you. Also asking your colleagues who they recommend can help you to find the right coach for you. Ultimately you are the only one who can asses if they are the right coach for you. We are here to help the right people. Not every coach is right for every client. Personally, I
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