How does your business make a difference in the world?
In 2006 I began an intensive coaching process with Rob Seidenspinner of Sage Circle Coaching. Rob is a personal and professional coach and I was looking for specific insights into how my personal “story” was influencing my business outcomes.
The benefits I’ve seen are as follows. Not all of these are directly attributable to coaching, but I would say that the business-related items are attributable to my own personal goals, which the coaching relationship helped me clarify.
1. Development of a mission statement to help me formalize my thinking about what I am here to do.
2. An increase in the quality and types of referrals who we serve in my primary business.
3. A quadrupling of the typical amount of our new business account (from approximately $1000 – $2000 per account to $5000 – $10,000 per account)
4. Professionalization — such as getting a toll-free number and fax line, reaching out to increase our subcontractor availability, thinking like a leader of a team instead of just as one individual
5. Publication of my first and second book (in my initial coaching session, I envisioned that the book was a key “turning point”)
6. A move to another state (California to Hawaii)
7. Birth of a second child (obviously, this is not attributable to coaching, but the fact that the child was born at home and is raised in an environment that is much more conducive to one-on-one parenting *is* attributable to coaching)
8. Development of three additional projects to reflect my interest
9. An introduction and acknowledgement of my personal “gremlin” who always wants to bring me backwards when I am moving forwards.
10. More prioritized time to focus on personal development
11. More focus on intuition as a guiding force in all my decision-making
12. Deeper focus on relationship-building in my business (meaning, not focusing so much on the quantity, but focusing on the quality of my professional relationships and making sure that all our efforts are beneficial to all parties involved)
I wouldn’t say coaching is for everyone, but it has definitely helped me put my goals into a framework of being accountable to them (on a weekly basis) and breaking down my big “high dream” lofty aspirations into specific actionable items that I feel like I can accomplish.
image credt: littleman
Monica S Flores
Monica S. Flores leads large-scale web development projects in refactoring, redesign/redevelopment, digital platform buildout, & new product launches. She works with US-based & international associations, non-profits, public agencies, & startups on how to reach their communities online. Her focus is to build community, foster connectedness, & use her technology & management skills to make a better world. She believes each of us has an ability/obligation to use our knowledge, ideas, & talents to advance fairness, justice, safety, health, sustainability, & wellbeing. Find her books at Amazon or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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