Just like in sports, business owners need a coach to see and mentor the business from the outside-in.

Being a coach, of any kind, means you are guiding an individual or even a team to winning a game plan. Most of us would immediately associate coaching with sports. This is however, not the case. Business owners need to have coaches as well.

Business Today had an opportunity to meet up with Maresa Ng, Firm Owner and Certified Business Coach from ActionCOACH – a global leader in business coaching – to chat about why business coaching is important.

From the Outside-In

Ng relates back to sports coaching as athletes, more often than not, need a coach to guide them. Take for example, Tiger Woods – he can never see himself take that swing at an angle that could drive the ball further. So that is why, even the world number one golfer has a golfing coach.

“You can never see yourself ‘swing’,” states Ng. “There is always someone, no matter how good you are, who will look from the outside-in and see something you don’t see.”  Therefore, a sports coach can help you see things better from another angle.

This is why Ng believes that every business should also have a coach: “You can never see where you are in whatever you do. Therefore, you have a coach to always question what you are doing.”

The questions can vary from what impacts business owners see by implementing a strategy, what sort of results do they expect and how far do they want to go with that particular strategy.

Despite being a coach herself, she has two business coaches guiding her on how she can improve herself and the firm. “I have a coach for building my firm and I have another for me to continue to coach my clients to get better results. I will add another coach if I need to,” shares Ng.

In fact, even business leaders like Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, has a coach!  “Having a business coach is a powerful thing. This is why during our seminars we show a video (of Schmidt) to our participants to demonstrate that,” she adds.

What Do I Need?

Frequently business owners perceive that they will only need a business coach when their company is in trouble. Ng disagrees: “This is not the case. Your business does not need to be in trouble to have a coach. The only time you can have a business coach is when you want more for yourself and keep you accountable.”

Another myth to bust is if a business has a coach, it will immediately become successful. While it is true that a business coach can help companies realise their potential and guide them on how they can achieve their goals – be it profits or growth-, it really boils down to how much they are willing to do.

Ng reiterates: “As a business coach, it is hard to put a guarantee on what we do, especially when the guarantee is really up to how the business owner, the asset of the business owner and the team put in place.”

Nevertheless, she assures us that even though they cannot give a 100% guarantee on the returns of investment, the coaches from ActionCOACH always give a 100% in commitment: “As long as business owners are willing to do what it takes, the coach can go as far as they want to go. If they quit, there’s nothing else we can do. Clients have to play hard as well.”