Peak Performance
As Andre Agassi has said, no one can experience peak performance without a coach. Star athletes understand this instinctively. The top leaders at major companies have this support. I’m dumbfounded that most other business people don’t.
In Sheridan’s case, he knew the new product would be better for his customers - and more profitable for the business. However, to make the change, he’d need to stop doing interior painting and other work that brought in a decent amount of revenue.
“We had to say no to almost 40% of our client base to say yes to the new business,” he says.
That was hard to do. Sheridan and his executive team almost went back to their old business model three or four times. As Sheridan puts it, Green pulled the whole team “screaming” to the other side where they now have no regrets.
“We’re going to have our most profitable year in four years,” says Sheridan, easily justifying the costs of a professional coach.
Coaches vs. Consultants
Every company needs a coach. And whereas consultants are expected to bring answers to tough problems, coaches, in contrast, are expected to ask the tough questions, helping leaders face the brutal facts and uncover the real problems that need solved in the first place.
Coaches also help facilitate decision-making, challenge organizations to perform at a higher level, and hold the whole executive team (including the CEO) accountable.
In addition to a company coach, I encourage each leader to find an individual peer coach, something Marshall Goldsmith, a top executive coach and author, recommends (take a minute and search for Goldsmith’s article on peer coaching).
