There are only two ways to grow any business: grow your team members and grow yourself.

Growing yourself requires a commitment to personal and professional development.

Growing your people is about providing training and education, and being a great coach.

What makes a great coach?

Great coaches...

• ...are interested in you. You're not just a "means to an end" but a person they respect and appreciate.
• ...identify what you do right, not just what you do wrong, and provide ongoing feedback. (I define feedback as "information you can use to improve your performance.")
• ...provide suggestions about how you can improve, do better and be better.
• ...encourage as well as instruct.
• ...show you how what you do helps or hurts your team.
• ...are honest even when it isn't easy. You can count on them to "speak the truth in love."

Great coaches are experts at understanding performance issues. They know there are basically five reasons why people don't do what they are supposed to do:

1. They don't know what to do (communication)
2. They don't know how to do it (training)
3. They don't know why they should (motivation)
4. They can't do it (ability) and
5. They won't do it (insubordination).

Where do coaches go for coaching?

Develop a network of business colleagues that you can go to for ideas and suggestions. Proverbs 15:22 says "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed." Remember that you can usually learn something from everyone—including those you coach. And surround yourself with people who have developed the skills and abilities you desire to develop.

There are many demands made of your time each day, but some of the biggest payoffs will come from regularly investing time to spend with the important people in your business and life coaching them on how to make their best better.

How can you apply the concepts of great coaching to improve your business and enrich your life?

A Worksheet for those who D.A.R.E. to Lead
By Mark Sanborn

There are no simple formulas for learning to lead, or leaning to lead better. However, there are ways to concepts and tools that will assist you in improving your ability to positively influence.

The following combines questions and an assessment with suggestions and provides a basic template you can use in your leadership journey. Think through the four components and you'll have a clear path to follow.

Desire

Why do you want to lead?

What specific problem(s) do you want to solve?

What opportunity or opportunities do you want to seize?

In your job?
In your family?
In your community?

Are you more driven by recognition or contribution?

What is the personal payoff for you in learning to lead or lead more effectively?

Abilities

On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your abilities for the following six skills (each skill is a chapter in You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader: How Anyone Anywhere Can Make a Positive Difference):

1. Self-Mastery: personal leadership
2. Focus: committing attention and resources to important activities
3. Power with People: cooperating with others to create results
4. Persuasive Communication: influencing through words
5. Execution: drive to completion and achievement of results
6. Giving: contribution through service

Which skills need the most attention?

How will you close the gaps between actual and desired skill levels?

Resources

You can develop your own leadership curriculum. Ask others for recommendations, or use an internet search engine to identify the best resources to help you grow from the following list of resource types:

Books
Seminars
Audio and video tapes
Mentoring relationships
A leadership development program

Encouragement

• Who will you enlist to help you be a better leader?
• Can you form a mastermind of other leaders to meet with regularly?
• Who will you trust to talk candidly about your leadership experience: your hopes and concerns?