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| Business Development |
 Coaching - Are You Ready - Part 3By Natashia Halikowski, President of Intuitionworks Are you ready to step into your peak performance and be on the cutting edge in your ability to create business? Last issue, we explored how coaching can create astounding results for you, the entrepreneurial women! In this final article in the series, we will explore how to create a personalized strategic plan for business growth, and how to choose the right coach for you and your business. First, why bother with a strategic plan? A strategic plan enables you to be proactive versus reactive. It determines the best usage of all your resources to maximize your performance and business objectives. A strategic plan is an intentional creation that will nurture your business and reveal opportunities that can be accessed in order to increase leverage and enhance your business growth and develop-ment. This plan permits you to be more observant and thereby tune into your other levels of creativity and intelligence. Remember, creativity revolves around being receptive and actively listening. The alternative is chaos, which revolves around reacting. In the last article, we referred to a list of ingredients which, when combined, enhances your business capacity; these include: clarity, vision, action, commitment, courage, generosity, compassion, honesty, openness to learn, receive and service. The first step is to reflect on your current capacities and competencies from the above list. You must be brutally honest with yourself and recognize your strengths and the areas that you wish to develop. The second step is to rank your priorities and identify which of these attributes you would like to expand. The third step is to listen to your self-talk and make note of how critical you are of yourself and your competencies. Your inner critic is a relativity and a force that slows down your ability to step into your peak performance. Your inner critic creates a negative filter, which will prevent you from seeing your potential opportunities and recognizing whether or not you can be on the cutting edge of creating a successful business. The fourth step is to reframe the voice of your inner critic and look for positive outcomes. A very simple truth is that positive begets positive, and success begets more success. Reframe so that your glass is half full. The fifth step is to set some business objectives. The sixth step is to determine what action steps are required and what resources are needed. By incorporating an expansion of your capacities as well as a reduction of the voice of your inner critic, you greatly leverage your business growth. Armed with your strategic plan, it is time to reflect on how to find the right coach. Keep in mind, coaches are people too - with different educational backgrounds, experiences, capacities, gifts and realms of expertise. These few questions will help you determine what your needs are when working with your coach: •What is the best coaching environment for you? Person to person, or over the phone. •What fees can you afford for coaching services? Fees range from $35 to $300 per hour. •What will your budget be for the next year? •How much time do you have to spend with a coach? Most coaches expect a 16 to 18 month commitment. •What is your business target market? •What is your learning style? When you are ready to search out your coach, it is important for you to ask some key questions of your coach during the first interview. It is also important for you to screen and interview your potential coach because you will need to feel a strong sense of trust and appropriate competencies. •Do they have testimonials or former clients that you may call for references? •Do they have a bio of their history for you to review? •What are their credentials? Do their competencies match up with your needs? •Why are they coaching? •What is their contractual agreement? •How do you feel after you have met with them? •Lastly, ask others about their successes with their coaches. Can you imagine where Tiger Woods or an Olympic athlete would be without their coach? When you are ready for coaching you will discover a new world of peak performance. Natashia Halikowski is the president of Intuitionworks, a company that provides training, seminars and personal coaching. Intuitionworks focuses on harnessing your intuition to expand and enhance personal and professional performance. Contact 403.238.5424. |