Coaching

Our senior partner used Stephen Covey for 6 months or so, or however long it took to burn through his whole program.  I believe he had weekly phone calls with him and different tasks to do in the interim and followed the whole 7 habits of successful people program.  He raved about it and it seemed to help him out a lot.

[quote=Sportsfreakbob]Looking for comments from anyone who has used a coach. I am not talking about a Sales Manager, or Branch Manager, i mean a pofessional coach, one on one, via phone or whatever on a regular basis.
What did they do for you? How were the meetings run?
Did you find it useful? In what way? If not, what were you looking for that you didnt get?
Or any other feedback you think useful

[/quote]

Had one in my past life.  It was good but both parties must be very candid with each other for it to work.  We had a conference call every two weeks, we’d go over my activities, any deliverables, discuss improvement opportunities and wins. 

It was nice to have a sounding board that I was not reporting to and not afraid to be honest with me. She gave me a kick in the ass sometimes, which we all need from time to time.

I have a friend who’s in this line of work. I’ve not used his services formally although we are close enough that I’m sure we’ve discussed topics he covers incidentally. I also hear his general stories about clients. He’s a psychology Ph.D. who focuses on “performance psychology” including methods for improving productivity while simultaneously reducing stress and increasing your satisfaction in work and personal life.(It’s not exclusively to my knowledge about increasing job performance, although all aspects are related.) I highly recommend using someone with a formal clinical or research background rather than a feel good guru. He does the conference calls and also has CD packages available via website. PM me if this is the type of thing you’re interested in and I’ll give you a link.

You have to be ready for a coach.  I had one a few years back and it was a nightmare, but I was an employee rep of a regional wire.  Now, as an indy, I’m seeing where the value is in a coach.

ok ETJ, so where IS the value in a coach? Thats what i am looking for. What does a good coach do for you that you cant do yourself. I just went indie and i have my own ideas, i’d like to hear others who have had experience.

I have used coaches for my other businesses, and it depends what is it used for. I am not a big fan of the “feel good” type of programs, since that means you may not have your sh*t together, when you really need to be on your game in this business.



Having said that, I just use fear to drive me. Fear of failure, fear of not having enough money to pay for my kid’s college, and etc.,



I am using a coach for cold calling,and evaluation of my scripts to begin with.

From others, I have heard that coaching works in two key areas: