There is a myriad of business coaching out there… have you noticed the current coaching trend: an increase of business coaches, life coaches and mentors when you meet new people at business events?
The coaching industry seems to be doing really well, why? Because there are many different people with many different strengths, offering many different and personalised services that niche really well. Then there are plenty of business coaching options – webinars, online courses, online coaching, face to face coaching, Skype call coaching, Zoom coaching, pre-recorded videos, workbooks, work at your own pace… you get the picture!
Some of these coaches will suit some and not others, some of the way they do the coaching will suit some and not the others – and that is totally OK! What is not ok, is that you just blindly walk on in without considering how you work best and what sort of coaching you need.
Let me tell you a bit about my experience;
Online Courses
Before I had children, I was able to spend all my spare time after working hours to complete a self paced, online based Certificate 4 qualification in 3 months. It should have taken between 6-9 months to complete, however I was motivated as I was doing some temping work between jobs, and I had a 5 week holiday coming up that I wanted to have the course completed by – and I nailed it!
I thought I was fab at online self paced learning – so about 3 years ago I enrolled in Certificate 4 of Small Business Management. I had two years to complete the self paced online course. I was told that if I applied just 3-4 hours a week I would complete my certificate in 12 months… and in that two years I completed and submitted the assessments for module one.
Yep you read it right – two years to do one module! My circumstances had changed and where I used to be able to sit down and focus and smash out the learning and assessments, I was no longer able to do that!
One of the current coaching trends is online training and online workshops. If you are a person who is disciplined and can do this, that is fabulous, because you literally have the world of learning and mentoring at your fingertips! If you are like me… it gets a little trickier to find a coach that fits our requirements.
Why?
I had 2 children, and I was also running 2 businesses. There was so much other stuff going on in my life, and a myriad of things pulling at my time. Now, I realize that self paced online learning does not suit my lifestyle any more, but that wasn’t before I enrolled in online business coaching. I received weekly emails with an amazing resource of knowledge and application. All I had to do was 1-2 hours a week, and every week new content was delivered to me.
Yep, you guessed it… I did none of it! What a learning curve for me – AND – what a waste of money!
Do you find that you sign up to online courses and never actually do them? You are so busy working that you never seem to find spare time to sit down and do that online course? Or other things seem to be more important? If the answer is yes, then I would guess that Online courses are not good for you either.
Face to Face Coaching
Just a couple of years into our business in the vehicle hire industry, we signed up with Business Coaching with a business coach we met through a couple of other contacts we had in the business arena. After a year, we sat in a business summit and felt compelled to change over to another business coach, who was based in QLD. We went from monthly face to face small group sessions, to once a quarter group sessions in Perth, and 2 webinars in between.
The thing I learnt with face to face coaching with scheduled webinars are as follows
- A great business coach is absolutely amazing, if you apply yourself and take the learning on board.
- Business coaching is unreachable for micro businesses and small businesses on a financial level, unless they have a financial backing or funding it otherwise.
- Group coaching is fabulous for meeting like minded small and medium business people, great to develop a good network around you.
- The current coaching trend is moving away from this type of coaching, so it can get a little harder to find group coaching like this.
Do you need face to face coaching?
I have discovered that I need to physically go to a conference, seminar and coaching. I need to sit with people, bounce my ideas and questions off other people. This setting, with like minded people inspires me – and it also keeps me accountable.
The bonus is that the other people in these groups are brilliant for feedback, suggestions or ideas for any problems we are facing in business, or to soundboard any ideas we have, because they are on the outside looking in.
Additionally, treating live webinars as a face to face meeting, helps me to keep myself accountable to actually attend the meeting. If I don’t treat it as a live face to face meeting, I will find ways to allow this time to be stolen by other duties.
How are you with accountability?
Do you need accountability to succeed? I do. I need someone to follow me up and say ‘Hey Mel, how are you going with your xzy’. After a meeting, they will generally end with ‘Ok Mel, you are going to do xyz – but when will you have it done by?’
For me, accountability, and that pushing force behind it and the follow up, is where I get most value in coaching – any coaching, in any area of my life, not just in my business life.