6 Questions To Ask A Potential Business Coach Before Hiring Them

6 Questions To Ask A Potential Business Coach Before Hiring Them

Many entrepreneurs consider executive business coaching when they start struggling on their professional path. A small business coach is an experienced professional mentor who educates, supports, and motivates entrepreneurs. They will listen to your concerns, assess your weaknesses honestly, and help you capitalize on your strengths to maximize opportunities. Fortunately, we are one of the leading services many small business owners turn to when seeking to hire a business coach.

Why You May Need a Business Coach

There is no shortage of reasons why you may require a business coach’s assistance to boost your company’s chances of success. For instance, you may need one when you start a company and want support. You may also require their services when you lack clarity on your enterprise’s next steps or overall vision or are not seeing tangible results despite working hard towards your business goals. Furthermore, an online business coach is worth hiring if you are in the middle of a business transition, want to take your company to higher heights, or require support in specific aspects of your business like finances or marketing. Finally, you can simply hire a business coach if you are passionate about your professional development or want to identify any mental barriers preventing you from achieving success.

How is a Business Coach Helpful?

Your small business coach will eliminate mental roadblocks, provide unbiased viewpoints, and offer constructive criticism to address your specific business issues. They will also recommend new plans and may offer networking opportunities worth taking advantage of. Furthermore, your coach can:

  • Help you grow your business from the start
  • Analyze plans that have contributed to your enterprise’s success or failure
  • Assess your strengths and weakness and guide your development
  • Keep you accountable and motivated.

Who Should You Hire?

Generally, it is best to hire someone passionate about helping entrepreneurs and businesses unlock their true potential. In addition, their communication style and expertise must be a great fit for your company. Your business coach should be an empathetic and active listener. They should first seek to understand if they wish to be understood and must connect with you emotionally and cognitively. Furthermore, great business coaches like Kaizen Solution’s Marc Borelli aren’t afraid to ask powerful questions to get to the root cause of what is holding you back from achieving your goals.

Also, a good business coach should have admirable values of honesty and integrity, a commitment to constant learning, humility, accessibility, and trustworthiness. In addition, hire someone who provides the exact services you are seeking. For example, if you have a vision of what your business could be but require a solid plan to get there, we are worth hiring to help with strategic planning. We also offer financial improvement coaching, systems and operations optimization, and scaling assistance.

Finding a Great Business Coach

You will need to explore far and wide to find a great business coach, so keep this in mind. You can ask your network of fellow entrepreneurs to recommend someone they have worked with, for starters. Also, search trusted coaching directories and browse business-related Facebook groups. You can also find an online business coach by searching for relevant terms on Google.

Interviewing Your Small Business Coach

The best way to prepare for your interview with a business coach is to think about the question you will ask them ahead of time. Some of the key questions to ask a potential business coach include:

How can you help me?

This question is seemingly apparent but fundamental to hiring the best professional for executive business coaching. After all, several business coaches are out there, so it is difficult to differentiate between the good and bad. This simple question will help you understand their skills to determine if they are a good fit.

Have you worked with others in my industry?

Business coaching isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor since all companies are different. Therefore, this question is worth asking to ensure that the professional you hire has experience helping companies in your specific industry. This way, you can confirm that they have the relevant experience to help you succeed.

What are your credentials?

Many coaching programs certify coaches based on the International Coach Federation’s standards. Consequently, ask about your coach’s credentials to determine their type of training. This question will reveal whether they have the knowledge and expertise to assist entrepreneurs like you, so it is worth asking.

How do you work with clients?

Enterprise business coaching takes many forms, so it is best to find a coach who delivers their services in a way you are comfortable with. Some coaches offer group or individual programs which may or may not appeal to you. Similarly, an online coach might not be the best person to hire if you prefer an in-person approach. It is also prudent to ask whether you can take advantage of any resources due to your working relationship.

What are your values?

This question is one of the most popular ones we receive at Kaizen Solutions. Shared values facilitate a great working relationship, so our clients are naturally concerned about whether we see things the same way they do. Therefore, consider your values and what is important to you in a coaching relationship. Then, share this with your potential coach to see if you are on the same page.

How many companies have you helped create?

The business coaching industry is saturated with individuals with no actual background in building businesses besides their own. As such, ask this question to discover how successful your preferred business coach has been over the years.

How Executive Business Coaching Can Help You Reach the Next Level

As per the Institute of Coaching, more than 70% of coaching recipients report a tangible improvement in communication, relationships, and work performance. However, you need to work with us to enjoy the best results. We can help you:

  • Increase revenue and boost your bottom line.
  • Equip you to become tougher through resilience-building strategies like positive psychology and questioning negative assumptions.
  • Expand your leadership skills.
  • Build your executive leadership team.

Marc Borelli has the tools you need to grow and manage your business and the experience to back you up. Find out more on our website.

3 Ways Proper Long Term Strategic Planning Helps Your Business

3 Ways Proper Long Term Strategic Planning Helps Your Business

Dreams turn into goals when they have a foundation of long-term strategic planning supporting them. They become reality when the ensuing strategic implementation plan is executed properly. With Kaizen Solutions as their strategic planning consultant, small and medium-sized business CEOs can see it all come to fruition. 

7 Attributes of Agile Growth™

People and businesses aren’t static, and neither are the obstacles that get in the way of their goals. Whether you as a CEO want to grow your company or develop a better work/life balance, the first thing you need to do is flesh out your aspirations on paper. This sets the groundwork for long-term strategic planning and makes crystal clear the mission to your team. Once clarity and alignment are achieved, a strategic implementation plan is formed and made fluid through company-wide engagement. The proven management framework of your long-term strategic planning consultant from Kaizen Solutions will coach your team on how to institute the 7 Attributes of Agile Growth™.

The 7 Attributes of Agile Growth™ is a living framework drawn from the experiences and lessons of leaders who have been in the same shoes as you. It’s practical, profitable, and proven. Following the best practices for strategic planning, it begins with strong Leadership developing a compelling strategy and a culture of accountability for disciplined execution. Scalable systems enhance the value and experience of the customer whose life cycle generates growth and profit – authenticating your talent and their process for an efficient path towards more success. 

A long-term strategic planning consultant from Kaizen Solutions enables your leadership team to engage with each other and your goals to find a customized solution to all obstacles. With coaching, a strategic implementation plan will succeed because of their instilled belief in its viability and differentiated strategies they’ve developed. Accountability for their role is measurable by metrics we also implement. 

The 7 Attributes of Agile Growth™ framework for long-term strategic planning can help your business in these 3 ways: 

1. Focus Your Efforts

Small and medium-sized businesses, especially, need a focused strategic wealth plan to succeed.  This is important for today’s business landscape of increasing competition and present and ever-looming economical pain.

2. Align All Team Members and Departments

Whether it’s a long-term strategic wealth plan or any other goal, alignment between departments is only possible when the mission is clearly stated and engaged at every level.

3. Improved Performance

Focused efforts and alignment all lead to the ultimate benefit of improved performance.

Choose Kaizen Solutions As Your Long-Term Strategic Planning Consultant

Achieving long-term goals requires planning and engagement now. Choosing Kaizen Solutions as the coach and teacher for you and your team puts you one step closer to reaching your vision. Our process utilizes the best practices for strategic planning with a proven framework for success. Learn more ways long-term strategic planning help from Kaizen Solutions can benefit your business by Booking A Call today.

What is a Peer Group, and How Can it Improve Your Career?

What is a Peer Group, and How Can it Improve Your Career?

If you are a CEO or key executive who has come to a crossroads or crisis in your career, you’ll gain valuable insights and solutions from a peer group connection more than anywhere else. But what is a peer group, and how can that statement be made with so much conviction? 

Using the Vistage Model with Marc Borrelli as Chair, business leaders from all industries and backgrounds are immersed in an environment that genuinely fosters developmental growth in work and life. CEO peer groups and groups for key executives meet regularly to engage with one another on the issues that only those in the same positions can understand. Through critical thinking and shared expertise, all discover new ideas that allow them to grow and prosper – personally and professionally. 

What Is A Peer Group With Vistage? It’s A Support System For Those At The Top

There are benefits to forming a peer group connection not found anywhere else. CEO peer groups exist because there is no one to turn to for help without them. Subordinates, family, friends – all of these people have a reliance on you, as you may have on them. This complicates matters when you require the kind of stimulation for growth that comes only from hard, unbiased truths. 

You may wonder how anything can get done when you violate the “too many chiefs” proverb. Still, the Vistage Model of peer coaching groups involves an entirely different kind of rivalry. With a genuine peer group connection, we do indeed challenge each other’s assumptions, destroy one another’s hubris, and engage in confrontational conversations (or rather, ‘care’frontational), but it’s meaningful and without any agendas. Each individual is their own rival; the members are different versions of you with valuable advice designed to uplift.

The Value Of Peer Coaching Groups 

It may be difficult for some leaders to admit it, but being at the top by definition implies they can benefit the most from support – it’s a long drop if they fall. Besides, CEO peer groups with Vistage offer a lot of value. 

Not only do Vistage members on average outperform their non-Vistage peers by 2.2x revenue growth and have higher profit margins, but they are immediately exposed to a network of 23,000 executives worldwide. Add to that the proof of success in our program demonstrated by the average five years top executives stay with Vistage, and the overall value cannot be quantified.

It Doesn’t Have To Be Lonely At The Top

Explaining what a peer group is is easy; the challenge is experiencing one. However, additional growth in business and life (for those who have already reached the top) requires challenge and an environment for cultivation. Discover your full potential with help from Vistage Chair Marc Borrelli.