04/02/13

Why a coach is the best way to reach your destination

Desmond High, a financial consultant and turnaround specialist with EMC in Maidstone, has become a business coach. Pictured below, he ponders whether it's a fad or something of lasting value.

Every now and again along comes something that seems to make excellent business sense.

What is odd in this case is it has come from government. After years of business links, subsidised consultancy programmes, regional development grants, Train to Gain and so on, we now have Growth Accelerator.

Ambitious companies with under 250 staff can hire business coaching at a fraction of market price, attend free masterclasses on say finance or sales and benefit from subsidised leadership and management training.

Coaching can often be seen as a luxury, offered by individuals reinventing themselves, often under a franchise structure. But this feels like the right long term answer to developing skills.

As a cricket coach developing juniors for 10 years, as well as wide business experience, I recognise at the core of coaching is knowledge transfer – or teaching. In sport, the aim is to improve performance and help people understand how they can continue to do so.

So I've signed up as a business coach, building on my 20 years of experience helping senior staff develop new skills. This scheme stands a better chance because it unlocks or improve skills within a business rather than reliance on a passing consultant.

It's important Growth Accelerator uses people who know how to coach, with experience of board level decision making. Colleagues have asked how it differs from consulting. With a passing nod to the old Chinese proverb "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime," here goes:

• CONSULTANT: Fishes for you, using his own boat but keeps half the catch.
• ADVISER: Tells you where the sea is and that you'll need a boat and a rod.
• MENTOR: Used to fish and suggests you might enjoy it.
• NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Knows the best fish restaurants.
• COACH: Asks how you might deal with your hunger, reminds you there is an ocean nearby and encourages you to work out what you need to catch fish.

OR...

• CONSULTANT: Takes your watch and tells you the time.
• ADVISER: Suggests you buy a watch.
• MENTOR: Says in his day he found watches useful and you might too.
• NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Has a Rolex
• COACH: Asks if you can work out how to measure how long it takes to do something. Then asks if you think you can find a way of doing it quicker.