Family and Small Business: Effective Relationships
December 19, 2008
A happy family is 80% support and 20% accountability.
A successful business is 80% accountability and 20% support.
In other words, in a happy family, if a family member has a bad day, home is a place to retreat, renew, refresh and be loved regardless. In a successful business, if a member has a bad day, week, quarter or year – we want to know why and how is that going to be different next time. In a healthy family, a reasonable dose of accountability keeps us from enabling self-defeating behavior. In a successful business – there is enough support to let the individual know that they have a team behind them. It’s the proportion of one to the other that distinguishes the personal from the professional.
When these proportions get altered significantly, dysfunction erupts. If one feels like home is too demanding, then joy leaves one’s life while if the work place gets “too understanding” of failure then, well, failure results.
No wonder then that family businesses are often such treacherous places. Without clear distinctions between work and home, families and or their business can fall into disarray.
The same thing is often true of small businesses, where relationships within the business may begin more personal than business.
Working with families and small businesses to create healthier relationships for happier personal lives and more successful businesses is a very high priority with Coach Chuck.
Business Coach Chuck @ 973-670-7215
Attention Deficit Disorder Re-defined for the Business Owner
December 18, 2007
(Don’t worry this is a short article)
Move Over Attention Deficit Disorder -
Here comes the The Multi-stimuli Reactor/processor Business Owner!
(Okay, so sometimes it does get disordered, but we can deal with that – That’s why we have employees!)
As a Business Coach of Small and family businesses I’ve found a disproportionate percentage of clients that, were they in school today, would be labeled ADD. Maybe they were labeled that in school. Maybe you were too. If so, doesn’t it just piss you off that other people don’t think as fast as you do, and then they can’t keep up with you and then they come up with labels to call you because you don’t do things like them.
On the other side, it is also true that this kind of thinking often leaves many things undone, plans with loose ends and a frustration of incompleteness. As with most things, there is a multitude of ways to deal with this. Seldom, however, is the best way to try to stuff yourself into everybody else’s box. Let’s be real. That’s why you are in business for yourself in the first place … there is not a box big enough for you. When some one suggests thinking out of the box, you may very well reply, “What box?”
If this is the case, then building on your strength of being a (let’s ditch the A.D.D. label shall we?) Multi-stimuli Reactor/processor Business Owner, usually requires:
- an acceptance of one’s self, and
- a recognition that we need to hire someone who tilts toward the organizational end,
- but that person also needs the people skills to interpret your vision, and delegate while you are off making tracks in still new directions. [This obviously requires tremendously careful selection in hiring for that particular position as well as absolute mutual respect for differences. This person may have a label or two of his/her own!]
Ok. That’s it. I’m done. Bye … I see you’re off already. Gimme me a call, I can help.
Coach Chuck
Business Coach Chuck @ 973-670-7215
Business, Golf and Bagger Vance
December 5, 2007
What do God, Golf and Bagger Vance have in common. First of all, Everything. But now, let me break it down a little bit. In Both Golf and Business, people on the outside don’t get it. They don’t get that in each of these endeavors we are constantly called upon to reach deep inside ourselves - usually when no body is looking, like when the ball is in the rough or the woods or on the other side of the fairway – and asks, “whach-ya-gonna-do-now, huh?” and then we can do the right thing or the wrong thing. The thing about golf, and the thing about business, is that when we do the right thing – regardless of outcome – the result is joy. It just feels so good to do it Right – oh yeah!! Joy, joy, joy is the spirit of God. God could give a rat’s a…, err uh, God could care less about Business or Golf. But God – and just for the record, I don’t care who or what your God is – God cares ALOT about reaching deep, doing the right thing and feeling it, feeling that joy. Am I ready for Sunday morning TV or what! at Coach Chuck’s Church of the 1st Tee … I’ll see you at the clubhouse.
There is no book that captures the spirit of golf like The Legend of Bagger Vance. Golf is a game of mind, it is a game of our integrity, of our past, of what everyone thinks of us. And ultimately, is a game that asks, “can we just let go of everything, everything that is, or ever was, and hit the damn ball the way it needs to be hit?” And its not about thinking it. Its just about doing it. The caveat is you go through all the other stuff first, until you find yourself alone with the ball. Its you, yourself and doing the right thing – with nobody looking. What are you going to do? Bagger Vance: the book, the real deal, about the game of golf.
Coach Chuck973-670-7215
What is a Business Coach: and What do they do?
November 17, 2007
What is a business coach? What is the process and what could you expect were you to hire a business coach? Frankly, that is a question that you are going to need to ask the individual coach. There are many different backgrounds and educations for coaches. Some have coaching accreditation. As for myself, my educational background is in psychology and counseling. This combined with my extensive business experience informs and has helped me to create an effective and individualized coaching strategy.
I have a masters in clinical psychology/counseling where I was educated in both the theory and the practice of assessing human behavior as well as how to aide people to achieve desired results. My experience in mental health is very broad and is combined with 19 years business experience in the financial markets. The specific experience in mental health that informs my methods more than any others is experience is working with families. The family is the basic social unit. The dynamics that occur in families form the basic components of in the rest of our social life, especially in our work life. Additionally, small businesses are often family owned. Even if they are not family owned, the personal lives of the owners and the work life of these owners are inescapably entwined.
My coaching method would begin with an understanding of where you see yourself right now. This sounds simple enough and sometimes it is. Most of the time, however, it is not. Were it simple you would not be seeking a business coach. Your business life does not stand in isolation from the rest of your life, so when we are assessing the starting point, we get a thorough understanding of the rich context of your current situation.
Next, we’d like to look at where you would like to end up. This is broken down into a few areas. First of all, we look at how you think things should be right now, but aren’t. This is not long term at all. In fact, you might be gasping for air right now and before any planning can be done, we need to address the current situation. Dealing with current situation may or may not be a significant issue. It almost always takes longer than the business owner originally anticipates. But, laying the foundation is key to moving forward.
From this foundation, a vision for the business has the where-with-all to emerge. And, emerge it must. A vision is more than just figuring out what the business should do. We dig deep. Business is hard. Things happen. Economy happens. Employees happen. All kinds of things happen. Imagine coming home from the beach on a summer Sunday evening. The traffic is insane. Imagine it comes to a stop. There has been a disaster. No one is going anywhere. What do you want to do then? Most people at that point just want to get home. I’ve never heard of any one in a situation like this simply saying, “Ah screw it! Traffic is really bad. I’m not going home. That would be too hard?” Can you imagine?
We attempt to tap into and encourage your organic and natural vision. In order to get through the traffic jams of business life, your vision must be as certain to you as your home is.
And then, we look at the obstacles between now and your vision. And then we devise strategies to succeed.
In actual practice, this is certainly not a straight line. Each of the areas described above influences each of the other areas. You are never completely in one stage or the other.
Something we are doing concurrently to the above process is graphically depicting your business pipeline. How do customers find out about you? How do you (Your business) and your client connect? How is the client treated? What services or products do you provide the client? How, exactly, is that done? How do you get paid? What happens to the money?
If you are providing a product, the same process is done with the product.
We come to understand the ratio requirements of each part of the pipeline to the other parts of the pipeline. How do you generate revenues while at the same time meet new prospective clients? This pipeline is a living, dynamic organism. If you get twice the number of clients, it is not jus a matter of multiplying the rest of the pipeline by two. Different methods of providing service need to be developed for differing volume numbers. We don’t just manage the pipeline. We inspire the pipeline. That is a matter of assessment and transformation all the time.
So, if you were to ask this coach, Coach Chuck, “what is a business coach and what might I expect form the business coaching process?” You would get an answer similar to what I outlined above.
Coach Chuck
973-670-7215
