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The 4 Qualities of Australia’s Best Business Coaches
Business coaching has become more and more accepted as a development
opportunity for Australian organisations but how do you choose the one business coach
that will be the most compatible and give you the best results?
At the moment Australian organizations are being flooded by many people that claim to be a business coach.
They are promising to be the one that will make all the
companies problems disappear if only we would just listen to them and use their services.
Many are fantastic sales people that spin a great story about their business coaching and mentoring
skills and have well versed lines of influence to the unguarded employer. While many are worth
their salt there are equally as many that have little experience and know how to guide an organization or
leader to their preferred results.
So how do we know how to discern the good from the bad and could there be some guidelines or values that
can help an employer make the right decision when choosing their business coach?
The first point for consideration is what I call the “values fit”. Does this business coach share the same or
similar values to that of the organization in their business coaching approach? Are their business
coaching methodologies aligned and congruent to the expected behavioural norms of the company?
The second aspect is the degree of understanding of the issues at hand and the experience of the professional coach
in working with that type of challenge. It is all very well to have a logical appreciation
and grasp of the issues but that is very different from knowing the right path that will lead to a
successful outcome. The professional coach can see a clear path forward and knows experientially
what will and won’t work.
The third component is the personal dynamic or connection between the business coach and the
participant. This is particularly important when it comes to one on one professional coaching. A good rapport
is vital in facilitating open and honest discussion. Professional coaching is not prescriptive and therefore
communication flow is mainly from participant to business coach and not the other way around. For this to occur, a
safe comfortable environment needs to be present. This will not be possible without the right dynamic and
connection between the parties.
The fourth factor in evaluating a business coach is in their business coaching structure and
process. Take a look at the process. How many sessions are there per stage and do they differ
from one stage of the business coaching process to the other. A well structured business coaching program
divides the sessions into logical stages incorporating all aspects of the challenge at hand. For example;
skills and capability requirements, behavioural components and sustainability factors. Each of these stages
requires different time lines and hence a variation in the number of sessions.
It is also recommended that a reporting agreement be included to provide a full update of how the business coaching program
is progressing.
These four qualities of the business coaching expert is certainly non exhaustive however
they can be a good indicator of the success factors that can enable your business coaching requirements to be
met or even exceeded.
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