BUSINESS COACHING - WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE?

Clarifying what you want for your business

Our Business Coaching involves working with senior people in professional firms to achieve improvements in business performance and increased personal satisfaction for those involved.

One of the first things we do is work with you to establish what you want for the firm. This sounds obvious but it is often not agreed explicitly and instead different senior people have their own unspoken assumptions. Sometimes this causes conflict and frustration!

Getting a clear idea of what you want for the firm ideally involves an understanding of the values of the individuals involved, to ensure that they are in line with the business values and goals. If they are not, individual partners or other senior people may "sign up" to the plans for the firm, but their day to day actions will not be in line with them.

This is what causes staff to become frustrated and to treat any improvements with suspicion and cynicism. It is better to be honest about your values and deal with value differences between senior people at the start.

Turning the plans into reality

This can be the hard bit! But it will be easier if the plans take into account your personal values and aspirations. This makes actions in line with your business plan more "natural" and easier to motivate yourself to do.

However, at Templeton Finn we understand that client work has to come first. We can help break a grand vision down into small achievable steps that you can fit around your work. Individual partners, directors, etc can also optionally have Executive Coaching to help them work out and break down their individual barriers to success.

Communicating your plans

The most important way you communicate your business values is by acting according to them.

Nowadays your people expect you to communicate with them about your plans for the business. Over the last few years the bar has been raised significantly in terms of what good people expect from their employers. If you don't communicate well, you'll risk losing your best people.

Unfortunately, in any given moment, communicating with staff tends to feel less urgent that doing your client work. You need a plan for this or it just won't happen!

The most important way you communicate your business values is by acting according to them.

As well as helping you develop and implement your strategy, coaching for senior people in the firm can help you:

• Ensure your business values are genuine, and you can act according to them;
• Put in place a plan for communicating with staff, and timescales to stick to.

Need some instant help? See our coaching resources, including our articles and Coaching E-Book.