I know this might sound silly coming from someone who skirts the perimeter of the self-help industry. However, it supports the way I coach, so accurately, I have no other choice than to proclaim “There’s no such thing as the Self-Help Industry”.
There are consultants that seep into the self-help industry. Being a business executive life coach for men as well as a consultant can be an attractive offer. It might seem like one heck of a deal to get two rolled up in one. And this story is not about maligning the business consulting industry. When it comes to getting business advice they are the greatest.
Consider this. You have a business in trouble and you call up a consultant/coach to help you out. Here is where the difference lies. A consultant listens to, and reviews all aspects of your business and offers advice, suggestions and changes to your business. If that is what you want then a consultant is for you. My job as a coach is totally different.
To say that business is just business is the biggest contradiction I’ve ever run in to. A business is ALL about relationships. What kind of relationship do you have with your colleagues, staff or employees? How good of a leader are you, even if you are the bottom of the staffing hierarchy? Every business needs and should have every person involved, thinking and acting like a leader.
What kind of relationship do you have with vendors, suppliers, customers? If you don’t want to even think about it, this is an area for coaching. How about all the fires you are putting out? Want to get to a place where you are responding to events in your business and not reacting?
What kind of personal relationships do you have outside your business? To say that these are unimportant is misleading. They are VERY important. Show me a person who says my work stays at work and my personal life is for home….well sorry I don’t believe them. I doubt very much the mind shuts off automatically when you walk into the office building. And I am willing to bet the minute you walk through the front door of your home your mind does not totally shut out work. When you have problems at work they place stress on personal relationships. When you have problems at home, unless you are a computer with a solid filing system, they walk through the front door of your office. It’s normal.
Coaching deals with handling the issues that in some way affect your business. Get to a place where you respond and not react to things in your business as well as your personal life. To believe that your business acts in isolation to the rest of your life is just not helpful or even true.
