How and why coaching works

This article is written by someone who has done some advertising with us – and I know it’s obvious where he is going with the article.  But I really like it as an example of why and how having a business coach works.  Maybe if you aren’t ready for formal coaching you could try and build an informal mentoring relationship with someone.

I got to thinking the other day, after completing my daily 5 mile run, how much my running had improved since working with a triathlon coach.  You see before I took up working with Alan, my triathlon coach, I would simply go through the motions of what competing in the triathlon was i.e. I would go swimming,  running and cycling, not always in that order.

But what was occurring was every time I was competing in an event the timings were there or there about the same. 

As a recruitment business owner does that seem like your business, that you are there or there about the same month in year after year? 

So I decided I would contact a triathlon coach.  He established with me what my goal was for the triathlon event and then he suggested what I needed to do to reduce my time and improve my performance by 20%. He told me that he was going to share with me what successful Triathlon competitors do, and if I did the same I would get similar results.

So one of the things he suggested I should do was look at the different areas of the event and improving my performance by approximately 7% in each area.  In fact he even suggested that he could improve my performance by 15% in the running event alone.

My first action step was to improve my performance when running up hills, so he got me to find a hill and run up the hill until I was absolutely shattered and I felt I could do no more.  And the first time ran up the hill and my heart was pounding, his voice went through my head and I heard him say “run on your toes and pump your arms”.  And I also was aware of the negative conversation I was having internally, i.e. “this is hard work” and “I am dying”.  Alan had pointed out that having a negative conversation served no benefit to me it was more important to have an empowering and more positive conversation, such as “the pain that I am feeling now is weakness leaving my body”, “this pain is just for a minute of my life”. 

What I find interesting about this whole experience of working with a coach is that when I did the hill work on my own I would do 5 hill runs and then run home.  However, when I worked with my coach and he was behind me shouting encouragement (at least that is what he called it) I could do 9 hill runs.  Did my heart bound? Did my lungs feel as though they were about to burst? Was I drenched in sweat? Yes I was.  But the point is with the coach at my side shouting encouragement and helping me focus on my desired outcome, my performance improved by nearly 100%. 

So let me ask you a question as owners of recruitment businesses. How much do you think your business would improve if you had a coach standing at your side shouting encouragement and sharing with you what successful recruitment business owners do?