Latest Posts

In his bestselling book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins popularized the concept that a critical element to an organization’s success comes down to getting the right people in the right seat. No matter how much time a leadership team spends developing their vision with a business coach and communicating those shared goals and beliefs throughout the business, it does little good if they don’t have the right structure in place and the right people for the job.

Does your leadership team get caught up when discussing “people issues”, those discussions about problems with employees that seem to just eat up valuable planning or meeting time without accomplishing anything? While it’s important to discuss these types of issues with your leadership team, business coaches urge team members to use a more constructive way of solving those people issues, as they can really be a drain on the business over time.

Once a business coach has helped a leadership team define goals and priorities and create a clear vision for the future, they next look at all of the possible obstacles that could prevent the business from being successful in their efforts to achieve those goals. Even the most successful organizations have “issues” from time to time: those problems or obstacles that could prevent future growth and development and limit your overall success. The key is to identify your potential problems and by bringing them out into the open by placing them on an Issues List.

In today’s fast paced world, it’s important for business owners and leadership teams to always be a few steps ahead of the game. Even though a great deal can change in a business over three years, business coaches recommend taking the time to create a vivid picture of what your business will look like the business in three years. Why? A 3-Year Picture helps leadership teams accomplish the following:

When business owners are just starting out, typically any customer that pays is considered a good one. However, as time goes on and you work to further develop the business, those customers may not be your ideal customer anymore. Perhaps they aren’t as profitable as they used to be or have started making unreasonable demands on the business. There comes a time when every small business can use some help, ideally with the help of business coaching, to refine the target market for the business. Defining your target market can help streamline sales and marketing efforts. By making “The List”, a master list of prospects that outlines exactly who your target customers are, your leadership team can work to send out a consistent, compelling message that will win those profile prospects over to becoming long-term customers or clients.