Common Challenges of Working With a Business Coach

Running a business can be frustrating. Even with a large team of brilliant minds around you, it can easily get lonely. When it does, who do you turn to for guidance?

An experienced mentor is perhaps the most valuable resource you have as a business owner. According to some experts, hiring a coach has an ROI of 10-49 times the cost.

Hiring a coach for personalized guidance can help you make the hardest decisions to build a successful company.

The right business coach will boost your confidence, help you regain focus, improve your leadership, get you out of a comfort zone, and help you make more money. However, there are some common coaching challenges that are worth noting.

Lack of support

According to HBR, business coaching can be traced back to the 17^th century when politicians relied on Monks for emotional support and guidance.  A business coach is supposed to hold your hand until you achieve your desired level of success.

They should hold you accountable and support you all the way. Unfortunately, this is not the case sometimes. Some coaches may not be skilled enough to give you the kind of support you need.

This is why you should insist on the one whom you can easily confide in and trust completely.

Support means different things for different people. Some are okay with an authoritative leader while others need to view their coach as a pal. Find your sweet spot and get the right coach who will satisfy that need for you.

A bad working relationship

Another great challenge business owners face when working with business coaches is developing a good relationship with them. Perhaps the coach is too intimidating and pushy for their client to handle or the coachee wants to be spoon-fed by their coach too much.

Sometimes, it is simply a case of a mismatched team right from the onset. The best solution for a bad working relationship is to talk over the issues with your coach and establish grounds of working better in the future.

If all your efforts seem futile, it may be better to look for a coach that matches your needs.

Lack of a clear training plan

Before coaching a client, a business coach should develop a specific training plan for their schedule, time, and goals. This plan should be easy to follow and understand.

As a business owner, the plan will be like a compass, helping you determine the timelines for everything including time on your feet, time of recovery, threshold, and more.

When this plan isn’t clear or isn’t drafted in the first place, trouble will arise. After all, failing to plan is planning to fail.

Unreal expectations

When you hire a business coach, you expect them to bring value to the table. They should bring the best in you, give you a shoulder to lean on, push you to greater heights, you name it.

However, sometimes these expectations go overboard. Many clients, for instance, expect their coaches to do the heavy lifting for them, which is simply absurd.

On the other hand, coaches expect their clients to be armed with a huge drive and motivation. When they don’t get this from them, things can take a wrong turn quite fast.

To avoid this, Maui Mastermind Business Coaching challenges all the stakeholders of a business coaching program to communicate their expectations beforehand.

Lack of professionalism

The ICF insists that all coaches should conduct their coaching practice with the utmost professionalism. A coach is a professional who knows the ins and outs of running a business.

As a result, everything about them—their behavior, character, and communication—should be carried with a high level of professionalism.

Sadly, this is lacking in some business coaches. A huge percentage of them don’t know how to differentiate between work and play. In the same manner, a business owner may be lacking in this area as well.

Regardless, a lack of professionalism is a big challenge when it comes to coaching.

Poor knowledge and information

Hiring a business coach means you are ready to learn. It’s all about trading your cash for some tangible knowledge and information that can change the course of your business.

During coaching, you expect your coach to unveil their expertise that will make you a better business owner going forward. While a good number of business coaches are packed with the right knowledge and information, there are some that have failed in this area.

Often, they don’t know how to correct you when you veer off the road or don’t really tell you what to do when you are stuck. Some of them dispense an insufficient wealth of information and knowledge.

If this is the case for you, think about hiring a more knowledgeable coach for the job.

Business coaching can be a very rewarding experience. However, there a few challenges that can make things frustrating. Watch out for these before they ruin your coaching altogether.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/business/common-challenges-of-working-with-a-business-coach/