Why (most) business coaching is a waste of time

Oh, you’re a CEO? Who’s your coach?

There’s not a CEO or executive leader out there that’s been in business for more than a hot minute that hasn’t heard about numerous executive coaching platforms and services that promise to launch you into the stratosphere of success. All great teams have a coach, right? That’s how they hook you. 

Well, if you’re like thousands of executives out there who really want to be, do, and have better for yourself and your organization, chances are high you’ve tried one, two, or heck, even ten coaching services. Unfortunately, we hear from our clients that most of the time, they feel that these coaching services were an unfortunate waste of time and money. Often, clients feel like the coach is just a token member of the team who fails to provide real and pragmatic feedback and action steps. Or worse, they are perceived as a “business therapist.”

And how can they when they’re an outside entity? Not even a real part of your organization, but a virtual stranger that’s just offering you canned action steps based on your self-identified issues? 

That leads to a feeling of frustration like you’re just spinning your wheels, getting no actual results, or worse like you are a failure as a leader. Unlike sports coaches, many business coaches don’t take the time to understand you and your team. Frequently, they get feedback from you directly and do not see you in action every day to observe your strengths and weaknesses. They’re not there with you when you’re tackling the many challenging situations you face to point out something you did that was leaning into your strengths or challenge you on how you could have handled a situation better. Rather they rely on you to share candidly in an unbiased way (which is darn near impossible) how you feel you did. While that does have value, it is not all-encompassing.

Business coaching can be a waste of time

We understand that the feeling of having business coaching is a waste of time; we’ve been there ourselves. And let’s face it, as a leader of your company; you don’t have a lot of time to just toss out the window, not to mention the financial investment that business coaching requires. 

Still, the question remains, as an executive in your organization, where do you get your growth and motivation from? Who fills up your cup regularly so that you can learn and grow and improve? If it’s not from a business or executive coach, then who or what is it from?

Who is going to give you the hard-to-hear criticisms and advice that your real-life sports coaches gave you as kids? Your best coach didn’t just sit there coddling you, letting you just work on whatever skills you wanted at that moment and report back how you did. No, they had a plan to push you, pull you, drag you to improve, and be the best team member you could.

You gotta put in the work

Many of the new coaching approaches are similar to fad diets. They promise huge results with minimal effort. What’s missing? Sustainable results. You never really get guidance on putting in the work for an extended amount of time or making significant changes in your leadership style. And a lot like fad diets, it’s always too good to be true. You can’t have someone do your push-ups for you and get great results (or any results, really). Without concrete tactics and someone to hold you accountable firsthand, you won’t grow or change. You’ll always be stuck in your stuff, the proverbial limbo.

You need a coach that’s present

Here at One TEAM Partners, we don’t believe that business coaching is a waste of time. But, we do believe it needs a major revamp to be truly beneficial. That fresh approach puts less emphasis on over-the-phone meetings or consultations. Those are still very beneficial, sure, but we also recognize the need for an in-person assessment. We see the in-person component as key to why sports coaching is so successful at pushing people to constantly grow and develop. It models itself after what sports coaches do. Coaches that are present, in your face, and see the real, raw you with all that is good and not so good. 

It also focuses on the team as a whole, unlike most other business coaching strategies, which focus solely on the heads of the organization. A good coach watches and observes all the players and figures out who the superstars are, who the support players are, and who may need a change of scenery. They can then play to those strengths and positions to maximize team efficiency.

A hands-on approach

This fresh take on business coaching and strategy is why we offer to come to you, in-person. We will come to your HQ and see what your team really looks like. We’ll thoroughly examine each aspect of your business, and we will tell you the truth as we see it, even if it means that you might be the one who needs the change of scenery (scary, we know, but it happens).

Like a great coach, we won’t only serve to lift you up but to push you to be better, to take the sometimes painful but necessary steps to break through to the next level of success. This way, we can hold you accountable and give you the best chance to experience beneficial change and growth. 

Give us two weeks to come onsite and observe and strategize with you. We’ll tell you what works, what doesn’t, and what to do about it, not just on a professional level but on a personal one, too, if you want. 

What are you waiting for?

Whether you’ve used a bunch of business coaches before or this is your first excursion into it, you’ve got nothing to lose by giving the One TEAM Partners coaching approach a try. Every CEO and leader needs to have someone giving them usable and effective advice and strategies at some point. Don’t go it alone any longer. You can surround yourself with support. We are here to help you be as great as you can as quickly as you can. 

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