Stuck On Your IT Services Business Strategic Plan? How A Coach Can Help Jump Start Progress
By Brad Schow, COO, HTG Peer Groups
I heard Verne Harnish speak at a conference a few years ago. He said many great things but the most impactful (to me at least) observation he shared was around coaching. He shared how Tiger Woods, who at this point was at the pinnacle of his career, was impacted by a coach.
Tiger’s career path had him working with a coach while he came on tour. He was on fire. Winning at an unprecedented clip. Then he decided he could go it alone and fired his coach. His winning ground to a relative halt. After some time of not winning, Tiger hired a new coach and almost immediately he started winning again. Why?
Tiger was arguably the best golfer of all time and certainly didn’t need anyone to help him understand the game or the mechanics of a swing. Verne explained how ideas moved from one part of the brain to another simply by talking them through. Talking to a coach made that difference. Something happens when you talk your ideas through. Something even better happens when a good coach asks the questions that challenge your assumptions and blind spots.
At HTG we have the privilege of working with over 250 business owners from around the world. We organize and facilitate confidential, educational, and cooperative groups of 10 to 12 peers. We get to watch companies grow from year to year. We see and experience what is different about the companies that see tremendous growth and the ones that have to grind it out.
We require our members to work on four plans:
- Business Plan —If you don’t know where you want your business to go, how can your people help you get there?
- Leadership Plan — What will you do as a leader to help your business succeed?
- Life Plan. We encourage balance so you don’t end up sacrificing important things for perceived success.
- Legacy Plan. Think through what you will leave behind and how those you care about will access what you have.
Leaders we work with sometimes struggle to get these plans properly down on paper. They have ideas in their head but are “stuck” and not able to properly refine them. Experience has taught us that the planning process is greatly aided by having someone asking the right questions designed to do three things:
- encourage when a person is stuck
- properly challenge ideas when they are developing
- galvanize conclusions to build certainty and confidence
I was challenged and humbled by what Verne Harnish shared. I thought I was certainly capable and smart enough to figure out any challenge put before me without help from a coach (youthful arrogance). I learned that day that even the best and brightest can achieve better results by working with someone outside their organization to challenge their thinking with questions.
If you’re stuck in the planning process or wondering how a coach could possibly help, might I suggest you take the advice of fairly successful business person:
“Everyone needs a coach.” — Bill Gates
Brad Schow is part of a team of coaches and consultants serving the IT industry. Prior to joining the HTG Peer Groups staff, he spent 20 years helping grow a solutions and managed services provider. His path of technician, service leader, operations leader, president, and partner give him a unique perspective that allows him to relate to a broad spectrum of business challenges. Schow’s company was a member of HTG for many years. He credits much of the success to the peer group experience and the relationships that grew out of HTG. He loves investing in people, thinking ahead, building teams, and helping others find success. You can reach him at bschow@htgpeergroups.com.