Modestly successful is how I’d describe my high school athletic career. Honorable mention all-conference linebacker, conference champion in track and field, played two years of basketball, but not quite good enough to play on Friday and Saturday nights. You get the picture. There are probably a number of you out there with similar experiences and memories.

I guess I had some natural talent. I was strong enough. I grew up in Wisconsin farm country, slinging hay bales on my uncle’s farm in the summer. I was fast, but not the fastest, nor did I have tremendous endurance. I had my sports heroes, and tried to watch and learn from them. But I had one thing that made the difference between no memories and nice memories of my high school sports days, and that was good coaching.

On warm August mornings, I can still hear my old football coach, Mr. Noonan, yelling “Pick up the pace, Baltus!” “One more sprint!” “That was terrible….Do it again!” But just as important as that discipline and motivation was the ability of all my coaches to teach me the technique and the strategies of the game.

In business, the similarities are striking. We all have some ability and experience. We bring some talent into our business. We can watch others, talk to others and read about others who have done good things in business. And just as in our high school sports days, we can improve with the help of a coach to enhance our discipline, motivation, technique and strategy.

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons that coaching is becoming more important to business performance enhancement:

  • A coach is a mentor or confidant. When you are the owner or leader of a business, who do you confide in? The old adage is true; “It’s lonely at the top.” A coach can and should be a sounding board, a listener, someone to play back to you what he/she thought you said so you can hear it for yourself.
  • Accountability. My high school coach made sure I ran 100 yard sprints at the end of practice. It would have been tempting to slack off without his attention. Many business owners have good plans and good intentions, but fail to execute simply because other distractions get in the way of completing the most important things they intend to do. A business coach holds the leader accountable to their own goals.
  • Vision. It’s easy to forget “that vision thing”, as George H. W. Bush called it. We all get mired in the details of the day and fail to step back and remind ourselves where we wanted to go in the first place. A coach focuses on the vision or the goal first, and then helps us develop the actions necessary to reach those goals.
  • Objective feedback. Ever tried to tell your spouse, or your brother or best friend some of your dreams or fears. The feedback isn’t usually too objective, is it? A coach can take the emotions out of your fears and dreams and help you see them for what they are.
  • Source of ideas. Sometimes you just get stuck. The answers aren’t obvious. You haven’t been trained for “this”, whatever “this” is. How do your grow? How do you handle a sensitive employee issue? How can you cut back on working so doggone many hours? A coach has generally seen other options and is aware of other possibilities that you just haven’t been exposed to. Why not take advantage of that experience?
  • Coaching pays. Any good coach wants to help you make more money than you are going to invest in the coaching to help you do it. But here’s the tricky part… it only works if you are engaged and committed to the process. Here’s where the sports analogy comes into play again. The coach can only show you the exercises, teach you the game and motivate you. But you have to do the work and compete and play the game. When that happens you and your coach win!

There’s deep satisfaction that comes with success. Doesn’t it make sense to do everything possible to help make success more likely?