Coaching - How Are Your Using Your Business Magnet

I don’t remember what grade it was, but there was a time when one my long list of teachers demonstrated the wonderful world of magnets. This was the first time I’d heard the term, “Opposites attract.”

The north end of the magnet always seemed to fall for the south end of another magnet. If, however I tried to place two south ends together I was in for a wrestling match. The two would repel each other in dynamic ways.

This little experiment has applications for business owners. If you own and operate an online business, and you have employees, you have the ability to use your ‘business’ magnet to motivate your employees. Make no mistake; you will motivate your employees one way or another.

For instance, if your motivational tactic is through the use of intimidation and threats you can expect your employee to be motivated, just not in the way you might hope.

Sometimes when we have difficult employees we tend to work at micromanaging an their time seeking to assure ourselves that we are getting what we are paying for. The two greatest problems with this approach is that, 1) we don’t get our own work done because we are overly concerned about the employee’s work habits and, 2) the employee feels as though they are back in kindergarten and often this feeling results in resentment.

So how does this motivate an employee? In the same way two south magnets motivate each other.

By using a more caustic approach to management you work to drive your employee away. The motivation you are unintentionally providing is a motivation that will find them looking for a new job, and you a new employee.

When you adopt motivational techniques that invite employees to the table to share ideas and insight into the running of the company you can discover two additional things, 1) the employee is attracted to this motivational techniques and, 2) they will typically have some wonderful ideas that can be incorporated into the long-term success of the company.

When you can begin to learn to view your employees as valuable members of your business team and less as hired laborers you will likely discover they are more willing to contribute to your overall success and will experience a greater degree of employee satisfaction.

You do have a choice in motivation. One method practically insures a revolving door of employees while the other invites long-term loyalty and mutual success.

How are you using your business magnet?

Coaching The Big Game Of Business

Summary: If you are a business owner you are the coach calling in the plays and working to defeat whatever it is that is in opposition to your winning the game. This could be working through your business plan, working through marketing issues, hiring new staff, developing new product lines and realizing that you are responsible for calling the plays – you can’t simply sit on the sidelines and hope things turn out all right.

Imagine the football coach leading his team on the road to victory. Imagine this scene plays out in a movie. Music accentuates brave sound bites as men with black stripes under their eyes slam their hands against helmets and shout their agreement wit the coach. The music rises until the coach says, “Now, get out there and make me proud.”

The camera pans the expectant crowd that erupts as their team files from the tunnel. Men in face paint begin to roar and the crowd is on its feet as their team takes to the field with the sounds of doubt-filled announcers pronouncing doom.

There are tense moments as the challenging team always seems to be ahead and the home team tries valiantly to come from behind. This mental theater continues as players huddle and talk, then the coach places a hand on the shoulder of the quarterback and says something only he can hear.

The crowd is tense as the quarterback takes a few steps back and surveys the field. It seems an eternity passes and the defenders are losing their grip on players who want to pound the quarterback. At the very last second the ball is lofted toward the end zone and the quarterback is left breathless on the ground, the recipient of a brutal hit. What he can’t see from his position on the ground is that the ball was caught and his team wins the game by one point.

Battered and bruised the quarterback stands and is carried off the field by screaming teammates. Cameras snap pictures, the crowd goes wild and the other team slowly leaves the field having been denied the spoils of war.

This is a common theme in sports movies. Pick your sport and infuse the particulars in the above description. We’ve all been there rooting for the underdog and cheering for the team with the most heart.

Ecommerce is not easy. It relies on equal parts skill, hard work and some intangible things that are only understood with an entrepreneurial heart.

If you are a business owner you are the coach calling in the plays and working to defeat whatever it is that is in opposition to your winning the game. This could be working through your business plan, working through marketing issues, hiring new staff, developing new product lines and realizing that you are responsible for calling the plays – you can’t simply sit on the sidelines and hope things turn out all right.

Being the coach involves risk taking and play making, but that’s what you do. This is a role you signed up for when you took to the field of business ownership. The final play in any game comes back to you.

And the team that trusts you looks to you and says, “What’s it gonna be coach?”

An awesome responsibility? You bet, but that’s why this team calls you coach.

Business Coaching

I have this philosophy that I seem to live by lately. Since I am so busy working on or in my businesses, I really hate to sit down and figure stuff out. I am at the point in my life where I can live without that frustration. I would rather just someone sit me down and tell me to do this, then this, then this. Order or a check list is something I can relate to and would rather spend my time with. Figuring something out is dead time for me; I would rather pay someone else to teach me how to be an expert in something. Outsourcing talent like this is the mentality you need to absorb if you want to be successful in small business and in e commerce.

When I was a kid I loved sports. My father was not a sports guy, so throwing the ball around in the backyard and getting instruction was not in the cards for me. So I learned by myself and figured it out by trial and error. Is this a bad thing? It might be or it might not matter at all, depending on what your goals are. Today I enjoy teaching my son sports and giving him instruction. I think about the fact that if he learns some fundamentals and some good form now, he will be ahead of the pack later on. This may or may not be true if the boy does not show talent or is not interested. The same goes for business.

Think of all the research time you spend trying to figure something out. I have spent countless thousands of hours trying to figure out concepts or business models just to decide if something is worth pursuing or not. A lot of time is spent figuring out if the “guru” who is teaching me or guiding me knows what they are doing or are a legitimate example. I have seen so many products or eBooks claiming they will show you everything you want to know to become the expert in a certain area. Half the battle for me is deciding if this person is a real expert or someone that is just trying to con me out of my hard earned money. There are people who can teach and there are people who “do” I want the guy that can do both. Enter the business coach.

So what does this business coach do for you? Well for me, I like the practical approach. I say, here are my goals, what are the steps to attain it? Give me a list to check off and show me what I don’t know. I want to be reassured I am going in the right direction, not that the direction is worth following. I will gladly pay you money if you show me what to do. This should be your approach too. Do enough homework to know what direction you want to go in. Get educated in what the avenues are so that you can start down one when given instruction. A good example of this is search engine optimization if you have a web site. There is a ton of different ways to market your site, but which one is best? Get familiar with a lot of them and then hire a coach. Tell him what your goals are, if he is listening and has some experience they will know what to tell you. If they don’t, you will have just enough knowledge to know to move on to the next one.