How do you know when you need a business coach? Taking the step to get a business coach should only be done when you’re ready and in the right frame of mind. For me, it started about 10 years ago when I realized that I wasn’t cutting it as a lone wolf trying to balance every detail and decision. I needed an outside perspective from somebody who didn’t have a vested interest in any particular outcome. I needed someone who had ALL of the information that I had that could look at situations from the same point of view yet from a different perspective. I needed a space where I could vent, share, ask questions, be challenged, gain perspective, and gain confidence without any downside consequence like betrayal or political maneuvering.
It’s often hard or impossible to find this space within your organization and even harder to find it amongst your peers. As a wise mentor of mine once said, “it’s not that I don’t trust THEM, I just don’t trust WHO they will tell.”
The cruel reality is that when you talk upwards in your organization you likely turned your problem into your boss’s problem (and solution for you to implement whether you agree or not) and when you talk downward in your organization you just created a political problem.
Gut Check: Are you comfortable sharing problems upwards in your organization? If you share problems with your boss (shareholder, board, supervisor, etc) are you confident that they will allow you to seek their guidance without making it “their problem” and handing you “their solution”?
Would you find it useful to discuss those issues with a trusted partner first to help you fully form your perspective?
Aurelius Consulting Company can be that trusted partner.