Would-be entrepreneurs find business coaches who ask all the right questions
Realizing dreams in the game of life By Camilla Cornell (Excerpt)
Apart from giving startup businesses direction, coaches can help established businesses achieve goals ranging from increased growth to better organization.
Ellen Samiec, a personal and business coach with Breakthrough Coaching in Toronto says business coaches “are there to act as a sounding board and a thinking partner. I don’t impose a solution. I ask good questions so that they can figure out what works for them much faster.”
For Barbara Jones, a few sessions with Ms. Samiec helped her set priorities and gave her a sense that her business and her life were under control. Ms. Jones ran a Co-operators Insurance franchise in Midland, Ont., but in 1999, Co-operators took over another agency in town and began to parcel out the clients to Ms. Jones. Many were unhappy with the switch.
Her workload expanded at a time when, with two young children at home, she longed to spend fewer hours in the office. “I was frequently seeing a massage therapist and a chiropractor because of the tension in my shoulders and neck,” she says. “If I wasn’t at the office, I felt guilty. And if I was at the office I felt guilty for not being at home.”
Ms. Jones learned about Ms. Samiec from another agent who had been her client. Desperate for something to help her regain control, she booked a two-hour session, during which they talked about “where she was, where she wanted to go, and how we were going to get her there.”
Her dilemma was a common one among entrepreneurs, according to Ms. Samiec. “Most people get into business because they want the freedom of working for themselves,” she explains. “But often they turn into a pretty tough boss. They end up working horrendous hours sometimes six or seven days a week. I try to take that business to a place where they can enjoy it, and their life as well.”
One of the biggest problems was that Ms. Jones felt obligated to answer the telephone the minute it rang. “These were my clients after all and they deserved the best service.” Unfortunately, it rang non-stop all day, that made it almost impossible for her to get to the huge and growing pile of work on her desk, and completely unable to take the time to think about the direction in which the company should be heading. When Ms. Samiec asked how many of the calls were actually for Ms. Jones, she estimated it was less than half.
“The first thing I asked her to do,” says Samiec, “is to take an hour-and-a-half a day where she closed her door and let others in the office answer the phone.” That required a real shift in thinking for Jones, who felt she had to be there because these were her clients and she had to give them the best service. But, as Ms. Samiec pointed out, “she wasn’t serving them well if she was behind in her work because she was answering the phone or sending faxes. She needed to be focused on the things she couldn’t delegate. ” That simple change made a world of difference. “I felt like I had more time and was better able to deal with things,” Ms. Jones says.
Ms. Samiec also convinced her to take a lunch break, instead of wolfing a sandwich at her desk, and to wind down her day with a workout. “People think the longer they work, the more they get done,” says the coach. “But there’s actually decreasing capability the longer you work, because you’re more tired and less focused.”
Ms. Jones has a 45-minute phone conversation with Ms. Samiec once a week. She hopes to come up with innovative ways to bring in business, so she can continue to increase profit while working four days a week. “Ellen helped me put things in perspective,” she says.
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