7 reasons to NOT have a Business Coach

I discuss this topic a lot; the reasons why business Owners do not have a Business Coach. And many of the reasons are valid reasons. Mentors, Coaches, Business Sounding Boards…. call them whatever you will, but there is a huge reticence for SME owners to engage one.

Seth Godin wrote about it in a piece on his blog yesterday. For your ease of use the full article is also below. I’ll add my 10 penth.

Why do Business Owners not have coaches?

In my opinion there are 7 main reasons why Business Owners like you don’t have a Business Coach;

1. Ego
2. Culture
3. Fear
4. The coaching marketplace
5. Change
6. ROI
7. Clarity

1) Ego – to launch/run a business, you have to have a certain amount of ego. Holding your hand up and saying ‘I need help’ is counter-intuative to those with such an ego. Some Business Owners see taking on a coach as a sign of defeat or failure – “I tried it on my own, I failed, now I need help”. Having a coach is not a sign of weakness. In contrast, it offers you someone who can help you achieve more than you can on your own. Helping you understand what is holding you back. How to handle certain people and situations. How to grow and become better than you are.

2) Culture – unlike the US, there isn’t a culture of business coaching in the UK. Over there it’s the norm for business leaders to have a coach/mentor. Here? Nope. The same people have no problem with every top sportsperson having a team of specialist coaches, but in business it just doesn’t seem to be the case.

3) Fear – ‘OMG what will my team think if they see I need external help?’ Wrong. Firstly, if you’re failing, they’ll know. Secondly, they’ll be impressed that you are investing in your ability, which in turn benefits them. Don’t fear a coach; embrace it.

4) The Coaching marketplace – it is too easy to read a book, or buy a franchise and then claim to be a ‘Business Coach’. And it is far too easy, and, unfortunately, far too common for snake oil selling coaches to promise the world and fail to deliver. How do you find, and determine, who is a good Business Coach? For many, it becomes too difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff and that then leads to inaction. It’s too difficult to find a good one, so I won’t bother. Equally if someone has a negative preconceived idea about something ie Coaching then they will also take no action.

5) Change – If you bring in a Business Coach inevitably there will be change. And accountability. Many business owners aren’t ready to actually change. One of the key benefits of running your own business is the lack of accountability. Coaching requires the client to develop and challenge themselves, and change, and be accountable. It will get harder before it gets easier, and that is a big commitment, moving away from a hard (but well understood) behaviour pattern. If the Business Owner isn’t willing or ready to change, or accept accountability, why on earth would they invite someone in who will suggest that they change? On the reverse side they need to believe that they can indeed make the change themselves and that they have such a capability.

6) ROI – return on investment is really hard to quantify when it comes to business coaching. It’s a sort of ROI that you’ll see and feel, but it might not show on the P&L in the short term, or indeed ever be attributable on the P&L in the long term. However, hopefully, the numbers will ultimate support it in the long term if the business owner takes action. But as with many things that get cut when cash is tight, and that don’t immediately show on the bottom line, budget for coaching is rare. it pays to look at coaching as an INVESTMENT. And dividends from investments usually only come in the longer term.

7) Clarity – and this relates to both sides of the coaching relationship. It is often said ‘you don’t know what you don’t know, and this is very true with regards to coaching. If YDKWYDK, then why would you go looking for a solution to it? And what exactly are you looking to improve? It is also unclear sometimes what real benefits a coach might bring. I offer myself as a Sounding Board, aiming to help Business Owners become better at being a business owner. I aim to help SME owners avoid being ‘lonely at the top’. But, and I’m aware of this, what actually does that mean in real day-to-day week-to-week improvements?

So there you have it – seven reasons to not have a business coach. Which of the above seven is your reason for not having a business coach?

For your reference, the original Godin article is below.

The Coaching Paradox by Seth Godin

At the top tier of just about any sort of endeavor, you’ll find that the performers have coaches.

Pianists, orators and athletes all have coaches. In fact, it would be weird if we heard of someone on stage or on the field who didn’t have one.

And yet, in the world of business, they’re seen as the exception.

Part of the reason is that work feels like an extension of something we’ve been doing our whole lives. Figure skating isn’t like school, but showing up at work seems to be. “I’ve got this,” is a badge of honor.

And part of the reason is that a few coaches have made claims that stretch belief, and we’re not actually sure what they do. It doesn’t help that there’s no easy way to identify what sort of coach we need or what we’re going to get…

It turns out that the people with the potential to benefit the most from a coach are often the most hesitant precisely because of what coaching involves.

Talking about our challenges. Setting goals. Acknowledging that we can get better. Eagerly seeking responsibility…

And yet we avert our eyes and hesitate. It might be because having a coach might be interpreted as a sign of weakness. And what if we acknowledge our challenges but fail to overcome them? It could be that we don’t want to cause change to happen, or that we’re worried that we will.

And so, paying for a coach, for something that’s hard to measure, which might be socially awkward, to get better at something that feels normal—combine that with a hesitancy to ask for help—it’s a wonder anyone has a coach.

The paradox is that the very things that hold us back are the reasons we need a coach in the first place.

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