Be Crystal Clear on the Outcomes You Seek.

I have coached many business owners over the years. One thing that always strikes me is how many are happy to just let life take them on a journey, hoping for good outcomes. Whilst there may be philosophical reasons to just let life happen, I always coach about the difference between simply arriving somewhere, hoping its good (often being disappointed) and being very specific about the precise destination/s we want to arrive at.The former happens by chance, the latter through Intention and Design.

No business works with me without us being very clear on 3 things up front: The 3-5 year plan, a detailed set of 12 month goals and a set of recurring 90 day outcomes.

Obviously these all need to align. If I’m on track after 90 days I know I’m correctly calibrated toward my annual goals and if these are being hit I will succeed in my longer term vision.

Whilst I am defined as a business coach, this can never be separated entirely from personal development or transformational coaching. Leveraging off the adage of “Healthy leader, Healthy Business”, I expect and assist my clients to be as clear on their Personal goals as they are on their Business ones.

A wonderful tool for building the 3-5 year picture is a Vision Board. There are many ways to set about doing this, beyond the realms of this article, but clients will “verbalise” their boards to me and know that this coach will hold them accountable to achieving the board contents.

If Vision boarding has an element of the dream to it, 12 month goal setting is far tighter. I recommend applying the SMART principle to ensure goals are objective, measurable and will stretch the client a little. This is really the ‘WHAT’ component of the exercise.

The real success with 12 month goal setting (and a 90 day plan) lies in my client being challenged to come up with the actions or disciplines required to achieve the goals set. In other words the ‘HOW’. If this is not done correctly the goal looks great on paper but there is no roadmap on how to achieve it.

One final important aspect my clients will work through is the WHO. This is the looking in the mirror aspect of goal setting, being honest with oneself and where one needs to do some work to be or become the type of person who will actively set out to achieve these goals and outcomes.

Pascal Pau, ActionCOACH Business Coach
pascalpau.actioncoach.com | pascalpau@actioncoach.com