How to Streamline Your Business by Building a Team - International Coaching Federation
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How to Streamline Your Business by Building a Team

Posted by Garry Schleifer, PCC | November 1, 2020 | Comments (1)

Let’s start with this: we love coaching.

There is nothing more satisfying than partnering with our clients on their journeys. Listening, challenging, digging deep, brainstorming, creating actions, setting accountability, and above all, seeing the difference it makes in our client’s life and in our own.

And then we remember that we have other things that need doing for us to stay in business – things like bookkeeping, writing, marketing, sales, invoicing, scheduling and customer services, to name a few. After all, we are business owners – entrepreneurs, chief cooks and bottle washers, “the buck stops here” people. But all these things that take us away from our one true love … coaching.

So what do we do?

Answer: start building a team. Once you get started, you’ll wonder why you waited so long to do so.

As individuals, there is a limit to the number of hours we can spend coaching while still accomplishing all of the other business tasks.

That’s where our teams come into play. Evaluate your needs and outsource some of those aforementioned business tasks so you can free up valuable time to invest in your clients’ journeys.

Most of those non-coaching tasks are better and more cheaply done by those who are experts in those tasks, affording us (the coaches) more time and mental energy to continue being expert coaches. We build our teams by seeking out and engaging people who know how to do those tasks better and faster than us.

The excuses we often come up with to continue investing our time somewhere besides coaching sessions are things like “no one can do these tasks as well as I can” or “I can’t afford to hire a team.”

But the truth is that you can’t afford to NOT to have a team. Especially if you want to do more coaching and grow your business.

This reminds me of some of my favorite business owners’ myths – “I have to do it all myself” and “I need to be the expert on everything.”

We bust those myths when we realize that we must have help to grow our businesses. We can’t be the experts in everything, nor is it fair to expect that from ourselves.

As entrepreneurs that thrive on being in a constant state of learning, let’s learn how to create a team and push our own boundaries.

The process is actually fairly simple to do. Here’s how to get started.

  1. Take a look at a task in your business that you know how to do really well. Something you do regularly – at least once a week or a few times per month.
  2. Start creating a step-by-step procedure for that task as if you were going to hand it off to someone else. Because you will.
  3. Continue doing that task using those steps until you feel a trained monkey could do it.
  4. Look for someone who is an expert in doing that task. Ask your friends or colleagues for a referral. Word-of-mouth is often the best way to find someone.
  5. Once you’ve found that person, take some time to walk through your outlined procedure with them.
  6. Once they get the hang of it, set goals or benchmarks and regular follow-up times.

A few candid tips from personal experience:

  • Don’t train and run. Be there for your team members as they learn how you like to have things done.
  • Set regular check-ins with them to see how things are going.
  • Monitor their work, especially for the first few weeks.
  • Above all, be open to their expertise. Let them ask you why you do things this way and be receptive to more efficient effective ways of doing things.

With these ideas and steps in mind, us coaches will free up more time to focus on exactly what we love – coaching.

Garry Schleifer

Garry Schleifer, PCC

Garry Schleifer, PCC, is a seasoned businessman bringing over 30 years of experience to his coaching. His “walk the talk” credentials draw from experience as the visionary behind several multimillion-dollar corporations. He is the owner and publisher of choice, the magazine of professional coaching (an ICF Media Partner); a past president of the ICF Toronto Chapter and a former ICF Global Board vice president. Garry has also served on several community-based boards. He lives with his husband Patrick in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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Comments (1)

  1. Thank you for the really interesting read. We at Kiliani agree that forming a team is essential for our Business. To make an inventory / a step-by-step procedure has the additional benefit that you get an even better knowledge of your business which enables continuously improvements before sourcing it out to others.

    Furthermore we’d like to concentrate on our core business, as well as that we know that some tasks can be done by others equally well or even better.

    The process takes some time, but in the end it saves you so much more.

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