What makes a successful Business Coaching client?

Yes, I suppose it does seem like a strange question. Surely as an experienced Business Coach I should be able to help all clients become successful & happy too? Seems that whilst I have a lot of success, it’s not always a given … And so I have been pondering why for the last few days.

To give you some insight, I’ve had several clients over the years win awards & just this week, one of my clients has been accepted into a Zero Carbon Challenge Accelerator, one has won Organic Product of the Year for the 2nd year in a row & two of them are finalists in the Beauty product of the year competition. On top of that I have had a thank you card & flowers & several amazing reviews on Google.

All that is wonderful & I am so happy for my clients & grateful for their thanks. However, more importantly, on a regular basis, I get to see clients who were completely overwhelmed, stressed out & ready to give up, rediscover their passion & recreate their business so that they once again love what they do – in business & in life.

And when that happens, I see my clients embrace their brilliance, achieve their goals in their professional & personal life & then my heart truly sings. That’s when I know I am doing something right!

Why then are there some clients that I have worked with where I haven’t been able to help them to achieve this level of success?

All of my clients have to be passionate about what they do – I won’t work with them otherwise, so that’s not it… What are the other key attributes that the Business Owners that have achieved what they wanted have had outside of this?

As an Entrepreneurial Business & Leadership Coach, who has 20 years experience of running businesses (successfully & miserably unsuccessfully!) & 9 years of Business Coaching with The Icehouse, Lightning Lab & my own coaching practice I have a large range of experiences with my own business as well as with thousands of business owners that I have worked with.

Seems there are 7 key things that I can easily identify:

1. They weren’t looking for a magic silver bullet or a magic formula

With so many people out there promising making your millions in less than 4 hours per week, people are convinced there is an easy way to make money.

Perhaps for those who are prepared to take advantage of other people, there is that opportunity but for those of us who genuinely want to have a sustainable, profitable & ethical business then I am afraid that there is no magic silver bullet.

It takes working smart without a doubt but also working hard.

If you are thinking about doing one of the million courses or workshops (either online or in person) that promise you this shortcut, then please do spend just 41 minutes taking a look at this Contrepreneur youtube video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC5cmW8O3L8.

2. They commit to a regular time for coaching

Yes, they put aside a time every fortnight to meet with me & only if something major comes up do they change this time.

This is because they value both their time & mine & they know that to get results they have to work on the business.

Committing to a regular time each fortnight shows a commitment to wanting to achieve success & also means that you regularly get a sense of achievement.

Even if you haven’t done what you had said you would do at the last session – then maybe you can use the time to understand why you didn’t – is there perhaps something more important that you should be doing?

Or maybe you just need a good kick up the arse – so it might be a short but useful meeting 🙂

3. They used their Coaching time wisely

They never turn up without an agenda & things that they want to get out of the coaching session.

I don’t drive the session – they do.

That’s not to say that I don’t broaden their thinking & help them to explore more than they expected, however they’ve already thought about what they want out of the session & this gives us a strong focus & a purpose for the session. This means we get the most out of each session.

Half an hour the day before thinking about what you want or need out of the session will improve the time spent together.

4. They did what they committed to… And more!

Every session we agree to a set of actions. They’re not for me – I couldn’t care less if they did them or not (well, not strictly true but it doesn’t really benefit me) – the ‘homework’ is for you as the coaching client. We agreed to them because we thought that they had merit, so if you do them, chances are they’ll take you one step further forward.

The clients that move ahead at speed have undertaken the actions, seen the results & probably been motivated to do more.

5. They committed to time for themselves

That’s right – you can’t get things done unless you make time to do them.

It’s said that if you were working efficiently on your business you would spend 10% of the time working on the past (sending out invoices, reviewing results etc), 70% of your time working un your business (the stuff that is your core competency & is worthwhile spending your time on) & 20% working on the future (strategic planning & establishing what you need to do to take the business forwards).

So, in the 5 days of the week that we have for work, 1 of these needs to be committed to spending time working on the business & on yourself.

Those that succeed commit this time for themselves.

6. They understood gratitude

Gratitude strengthens our emotions. Gratitude reduces feelings of envy, makes our memories happier, lets us experience good feelings, and helps us bounce back from stress.

Taking the time to be grateful each day

If you don’t believe me then check out this article which shows the 31 benefits of gratitude & how it can change your life – https://www.happierhuman.com/benefits-of-gratitude

7. They were willing to learn & accept help

They were open to doing things differently

If you’d think you meet the criteria & want some help to get to the next level then please contact me & let’s have a chat.

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