Frankly, I have had my fill of amateur-hour business coaching that is not based on years of real-world experience. So let’s cut through the bull shit. If you have read a lot books and your “real world” experience only came during good times, than you simply don’t know anything about running a business. And you certainly aren’t in a position to even have an opinion about how to run a business in times like these. Got it?!
Great Coaches Are Almost Never the Best Players
Being a great coach doesn’t mean that you have to be a superstar player. In fact, the best players almost never make good coaches. It all comes too naturally to the best players. Generally, the best coaches are the best students of the game. And they are the best students of the game because they had to study and work harder just to compete at all. That’s just the reality of coaching and it is especially true of business coaching.
Business Coaches Have a Profound Responsibility
It may seem harsh, but the truth is that if you are coaching someone as an individual and you totally screw them up, you have screwed up an individual and probably their immediate family. If you are doing business coaching and screw it up, you have screwed up your client and maybe their family, but you have also screwed up their employees, and potentially all of their family members. You may have put the employees out of work. You may have cost them their homes and even their marriages. No pressure ha?
Earning the Right to Have an Opinion
So before you frame your coaching diploma and hang out your shingle as a professional business coach, take a moment and ask yourself if you have what it takes to have the right to even open your mouth. And if you honestly cannot, do yourself, your profession and, most important of all, your client a real favor, and go and get the real world experience needed and earn the right to have an opinion in the world of business coaching.
Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach
Hi Dave,
You make a great point about business coaching. “If you are doing business coaching and screw it up, you have screwed up your client and maybe their family, but you have also screwed up their employees, and potentially all of their family members.” This statement indicates to me that you, as a business coach, have seen hundreds of people who are pursuing a career in coaching and really do not have what it takes to do it. I think it is imperative that someone contemplating a coaching career to really do some soul searching and be sure they can handle the good and the bad experiences that will arise in the business.
It’s a lot of pressure but it is justified. There are ammeters in mostly every facet of business, however personal and business coaching carries an added responsibility to many people. Thank you for this article. It may save us from someone having flawed judgement about their ability to pursue this career.
Raena Lynn
Business coaching can be an excellent alternative career for those who’re really passionate about helping firms and business heads perform better. In the recent years, corporates are increasingly hiring business coaches to build their businesses effectively.