Working with a client recently, he remarked at the end of a particularly powerful coaching session he was amazed to find how many of his ‘business’ issues were actually personal issues in disguise. I do not think this any accident.
An amazing thing about our minds and the way we are in the world is how we do not compartmentalize nearly as much as we think. We may come in through the door at 5:30pm and ‘leave work behind’, however it is the same being that is now operating in a different environment. Can we really expect who you are ‘at work’ and ‘at home’ (or at the bank, the gym, the doctor’s office) to be so different?
WHO YOU ARE HERE IS WHO YOU ARE EVERYWHERE
Superficially; at the level of content these can look very different: handling a direct-report regarding a work milestone or your son about cleaning their room. Coding or cooking dinner. Talking to your significant other or planning a business meeting. However how you are being in all of these situations is intimately related. At a fundamental level your mind does not distinguish; how you are here is how you are everywhere.
So whether I am coaching someone to a milestone in building their business or supporting them in creating an action plan for them conquering a fitness goal – the conversation is fundamentally the same. If you are holding back or under-performing in one place, it is likely that the same patterns of thinking and behavior are surfacing in many other situations too.
The great news is taking on those issues in one area and creating a breakthrough is not localized to just that area. Life cannot help it – you create a breakthrough here, you create a breakthrough EVERYWHERE.
COACH THE PERSON AND THE BUSINESS FOLLOWS
So to the core point – how do you know if you are facing a business issue or a personal issue? They are, I assert, ALL PERSONAL. Concentrating on the business at the expense of the personal does not work. Coaching the personal in the context of business does.
So – how does this apply? If you or someone in your organization are getting stuck on business challenges; then working on process without focus on the personal may yield limited results, and the results that come may be unsustainable. Same person, new process – the person implementing the process will leave their indelible imprint on it. Conversely, you shift the person – this imprint will shift. It may have nothing to do with the process. You shift the person, you shift their results everywhere.
BUSINESS RESULTS FOLLOW INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
If you call forward the creative engaged individual the organization gains by both shifting the immediate issue AND by accessing the fully engaged focus of an empowered human being. The results of that double-shift are both bottom-line and PRICELESS!
It is all about people – coach people and see profound business results…
Clemens Rettich is a co-founder and director of Business for Business Networks. Clemens is a business advisor, author, speaker and trainer. His practice focuses on old-economy businesses and facilitating succession and exit strategies for their owners.