In a recent meeting I was talking with my interlocutor about coaching entrepreneurs, and he said something that resonated with me: "the problem with business owners is that they constantly run after the clock". I could not agree more.

I see it with people around me and my clients all the time. In fact, one of the reasons my customers hire my services as a Business Coach is to force them to slow down and dedicate time to reflect. Business owners often have their heads stuck so much into day-to-day operation - where decisions are plenty and need to happen fast - that they are drown into it, like they would be drown into water. And they forget to come back to the surface and breath. 

Breathing is thinking. All business owners, regardless of how long they have had their businesses for, face that same challenge at one point. Thinking is part of your job, and you must make time for it: to design your strategy, prepare ahead of specific situations, solve a problem, or simply meditate. 

A great method I found comes from Timothy Gallwey’s book The Inner Game of Work. Timothy is one of the founders of modern coaching. He has developed a very simple tool called S.T.O.P:
 

1. Step back
2. Think
3. Organize your thoughts
4. Proceed

This approach will help you remain conscious while working. You can watch my video Are You Asking The Right Questions? for more on that subject. 

What can you do to force yourself to stop and think:

• Use the Pomodoro technique: 25mn on a timer, you vs. yourself, in an environment free of interruptions. Repeat as many times as you need. 
• Train yourself to empty your brain: go to the gym or simply for a walk (Steve Jobs' favorite). You'll be creating the right thinking state of mind.
• Block time in your calendar - for instance the lunch slot - that is only dedicated to the S.T.O.P exercise. 
• Carry a pen & notebook with you at all times. Write down as soon as ideas come to your mind. The benefit is double: you won't forget and you'll free up space in your brain. 

​Make it a habit to think. 

Your responsibilities as Business Owners encompass defining the strategy as well as growing your people: recruit them, empower them, train them, and ultimately make them the best they can become.

On top of what is already a full-time job comes other tasks that can quickly accumulate, especially since a typical day at work include so many interruptions. If you are not careful enough, you can get easily distracted and deviate from what you are supposed to be doing.

In order to stay on track with your work, you must define rules for yourself. They require discipline, that is a great reason why you need to set up rules. They will also help you make better decisions, improve your efficiency, and create a sense of fairness among your team. 

Such rules can be practical - e.g. everybody must come on time or I will isolate myself everyday from 1pm to 2pm, or more intangible - e.g. no staff will be blamed in public or I will encourage everyone to talk solutions rather than problems. 

There are many rules as you'd like to have. Be cautious though, rules about the rules must apply:

• Communicate them to everyone. People do not read your mind, so if you want them to enforce the rules, they need to be aware of them first. 
• Be a leader, not a dictator. Such rules are not designed to control, they are made to increase performance. Eliminate or improve any rule that goes against this fundamental.
• Enforce them 100%. There should not be any exception, starting with yourself. Lead by example, abide by your own rules.  

To begin the process, ask yourself the following question : What are my uncompromising leadership principles? 

PS: What leader would you like to be? Let's get in touch and discuss how I can help you remove the road blocks along the way. 

Entrepreneurs can find themselves stuck into cycles where they have a lot on their plates, and are not able to move forward - they are just treading water. All the tasks on the agenda coupled with the critical decisions to make can generate overwhelming situations  without being able to see the light out of the tunnel.
 
Amelia Earhart, the American aviation pioneer said: “The most effective way to do it - is to do it.” She was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, so I guess her quote stands true. 

We often get confused between being busy and getting things done. The best way to experience what I am talking about is to imagine a day when you come home after work with a clear sense of achievement. On that particular day, you get things done. On the other days, you are busy doing stuff. 

The issue lies with planning: getting things done requires a plan. Lack of planning will increase stress and result in losing control.  

The solution is simple: spend time planning ahead. I'd like to share an efficient model:

Embark on a journey you have control upon: Start with proper planning. 

PS: Planning is definitely an area I can help you with. It's also a great opportunity to engage your leadership team. Let's book a chat to further discuss about it.  

Given a choice, human beings often choose the easiest option. We tend to go for the instant reward or gratification instead of taking a more difficult long-term road. If you are a master procrastinator, I recommend to watch this TED talk by Tim Urban. 

It makes sense: why would we take a more complex direction, especially if we are going to experience discomfort along the way? Why would we want to suffer? 

"Be the change you want to see in the world" said Gandhi. The truth is profound change will be mentally or physically painful. So instead of resisting it, embrace the pain: it is a sign that you are actually moving into the right direction. 

Discipline, day-by-day, month-by-month, one small step after the other, is the tool that will get you through the change process. Do not listen to the voice in your head that says you can't do this: it is lying. 

Here are 3 steps you can take to be more disciplined:

1. ​Have a plan, full of actionable actions. Start with your objectives, turn them into actions, and divide those actions into steps. All it takes is to implement step 1, make it a routine, than move to step 2, etc. 
2. Reward yourself. Treat each step you take as a victory for instance, and celebrate whenever you feel the time is right. Create a Hall of Fame wall somewhere very visible to you. 
3. Hire a coach to help you design your plan of actions, and be your accountability partner. Coaches can show you the way towards success. if you want to know more about coaching, listen to my interview with Elite Game Developers. 

PS: The underlying purpose of coaching is to build confidence and show you that your goals can be reached. You are ready to start a conversation? Then book a time with me, and we will discuss how success looks like for you. 

The holiday season is upon us. It is not too late to treat yourself, and your team, with a nice end-of-the year gift, and start 2020 on the right foot. ​

Educate yourself

Below are my book recommendations:

• I am a big fan of Simon Senek's work. He has the ability to turn complex issues into simple concepts. I recommend Start With Why as well as his latest book The Infinite Game.  
• My management bible: The Rules of Management, by Richard Templar. I have been successfully using many of these rules through out my career. 
• Scaling Up, by Verne Harnish and his team, which is full of practical tools and techniques to grow your business 10x. Particularly adapted for your leadership team. 
• Jim Collins has compiled 5-year research results into one book titled Good to Great, to understand why and how some companies become great, while others don't. I especially enjoy the description of the Level 5 Leadership. 

Next books on my reading list: This is Marketing by Seth Godin, The Chimp Paradox by Dr. Steve Peters, and Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ by Daniel Goleman. 

Take care of yourself

As a CrossFit addict and a CF-L1 Trainer, I must emphasize the importance of exercising regularly. Being healthy and in good physical shape will significantly improve your efficiency at work and at home.  

I was not really taking care of myself before I found this sport. It has transformed my life, to the point where I know I am not going back to the previous me. I feel stronger, I am more relaxed, I think sharper, and I work faster. 
​
There is no age to be the fittest version of yourself. 

Stop procrastinating and buy yourself a membership for the most suitable physical activity for you, something you can perform minimum 3 times per week. It should not feel like a burden. Instead, it should be the moment to be with yourself, forget everything else, and simply enjoy the challenge. 

The secret weapon

I will conclude by the best gift you can reward yourself with: A notebook and a pen! Entrepreneurs' minds are always full of ideas and things to do. Go back to the basics: write them down to get them out of your brain, archive them, and free up mental space for new stuff. 

​Enjoy the holiday season! 

PS: Of course business coaching is an excellent gift to put yourself on the right tracks for the new year. Training courses, in Leadership for example, are a nice way to reward your team while improving their skills. Book a time with me to talk further about it. 

​One of my first entrepreneur clients had reached a point where his company was stuck because of a lack of qualified people. Money was no issue, but he was too much involved in operations to take a step back and see the situation. He loved project management and could not resolve to give it up because he thought the customer service quality would suffer.  

Both business owners had attained some sort of a plateau, where action was required to start a new growth cycle. They needed a plan, which they could not come up with because they were overwhelmed with day-to-day operations. 

Do their stories sound familiar to you?

Entrepreneurs usually have to do everything at the early business stages, and do not necessarily realize that their responsibilities must evolve with growth. Focusing on quality is important, but having a solid structure where people will strive for even better quality is essential. There comes a time where entrepreneurs' role has to switch from doing the work by themselves to building the business under them to do the work. By not letting go, entrepreneurs may become the main bottleneck of their own companies. 

I'd like to suggest 3 options to tackle that challenge:

1. Ask yourselves better questions - those questions that will force you to re-evaluate your position, and think. With the right questions comes the right answers, watch out this video to find out more. 
2. Design a plan to maintain and improve the quality standards without your involvement. Make sure it includes concrete actions to achieve your goals, otherwise it will remain a mere objective. 
3. Get external help. Hire a Business Coach for example, someone who will challenge the status quo and will ask you the tough questions. Here is an article to understand the benefits of coaching. 

PS: Ready to talk about coaching? Book a time with me and tell me about your issues. 

20 years of working in business management has taught me the importance of mapping out the company’s journey. ⅔ of that time spent in the market research industry has provided me with one key tool: asking questions. Successful entrepreneurs understand their weaknesses and acknowledge they don’t know everything. They know that with the right questions comes the right answers. 

Often, we get stuck in a situation because we aren’t asking ourselves the questions that lead to the right answers. This video will provide you with 4 practical steps to help you think clearly and ask the right questions in any situation. 

So, are you asking the right questions? 

I am sure you have heard the saying “the shoemaker’s son has no shoes”. That is because shoemakers dedicate their time to repair their customer’s shoes and neglect their own children’s. I have the feeling that the same saying can be applied to the coaching industry: we spend so much time providing clarity to our clients that we forget to clarify what we do. This situation can lead to misunderstandings about what coaching stands for.  
 
A Definition of Coaching
 
The best definition of coaching I know comes from Timothy W. Gallwey, the author of The Inner Game: “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”
 
Coaching, regardless of the specialty, focuses on the individuals. It assumes that people already have the answers in them, but sometimes need external help to dig them out. Coaches recognize that the internal obstacles are stronger than the external ones, facilitate the removal of such internal obstacles, and provide guidance to implement remedial actions.
 
3 Skills Great Coaches Must Hone
 
Coaching requires a set of specific skills.  Below are what I consider the 3 most important ones. 

1. Coaches do not tell their clients what to do. Instead, they help them find their own path using questioning techniques. Questions help people reach an awareness of current behaviors they are using, results they are getting, and changes they need to make. The ability to ask the right questions, those that force their clients to explore new areas and think outside their comfort zones, is therefore one key skill that great coaches must possess.
2. The ability to ask the right questions coupled with the ability to listen to the answers, without judgment, will create the environment of trust needed to encourage people to speak without fear. In general, when I enter a coaching session with a client, I am not sure what we are going to talk about. Of course, my client and I have agreed upon coaching objectives, which I use to guide our conversation, but I cannot anticipate my client’s answers. And those answers may trigger more questions from me. The quality of these questions hence depends on the quality of my listening. Great coaches are great listeners. 
3. The underlying purpose of coaching is to build confidence and show that the goal can be reached. It is all about achieving success. A coaching session with no results or success can do more damage as it may undermine the coachee’s self-confidence. People’s limiting beliefs are big blocks towards success. Beliefs – like emotions - can create endless stories in people’s heads, and get them stuck. Great coaches find ways for their clients to recognize such beliefs and show them that they have more capability than they are expressing.  

 
The 4 Phases of Coaching
 
The coaching process can be divided into 4 stages:

• Stage 1. The objectives: focusing on the main activity. Examples of questions asked: What would you like to talk about? What’s in your mind? What’s your current challenge?
• Stage 2. The overview: getting the coachee to see the whole picture. Examples of questions asked: What makes this issue important for you? What is the current situation? What are the potential consequences (good or bad)? What may happen if you do not do anything about it? 
• Stage 3. The options: making the coachee feel there are many options available, putting him/her in control. Examples of questions asked: What can you do about it? What are your options? What can you change? What are the risks and benefits?
• Stage 4. The Action: Getting the coachee to come up with a plan of actions. Examples of questions asked: What happens now? What are you going to do to move forward? What’s next? When will you start? What is your deadline?

 
What can you expect from being coached?
 
Coaches are not advisors, lecturers, teachers or consultants. They act as mirrors, sounding boards or facilitators. If you are hesitating whether you should hire a coach or not, consider the following benefits coaching can provide you with:

• Clarity: helping you focus on the right issues, and set priorities
• Efficiency: reducing your stress level, and getting things done
• Empowerment: taking control of your own performance to get the results you want, and giving yourself accountability to do so
• External view: thinking outside your company’s environment and your own assumptions
• Innovation: providing new methodologies and tools to tackle your issues
• Inspiration: leveraging on your passion and enthusiasm

 
We are always better than what we think we are. Coaches help find the way.   

PS: Ready to try coaching and see the results by yourself? Then book a free Coaching Discovery Session with me. 

Joakim Achrén is the founder of Elite Game Developers. His passion is to help people build successful games companies. He has been a game's entrepreneur for 15 years, previously founded Next Games, Ironstar Helsinki, and he was an early employee at Supercell. 

In his podcast, we discussed tactical and philosophical topics, everything that goes into leadership, company culture, values and taking care of oneself. We also explored why we both believe that CEOs, taking the game industry as an example, should all hire a Business Coach.
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Questions that we cover in this episode:

• What is Business Coaching and how can it benefit business owners and entrepreneurs?
• How do entrepreneurs realize that they need coaching?
• What does it take to run a company?
• What are the elements the build an efficient business strategy?
• What are the things that matter once the company has a strategy in place?

Listen to the podcast now. 

PS 1: If you want to know more about Elite Game Developers, check their website. 
PS 2: Once you have listened to the podcast, and if you believe business coaching is for you, then book a free Discovery Coaching session with me, so you can actually experience the power of coaching.