Finding the Right Coach

When considering a coach to help you build your business, one of the first questions you need to answer is, are you a sole practitioner [even if you have a support staff of 4-6 people] or a team? There are many outstanding coaches available to help individual advisors take their business to the next level. However, coaches with a real understanding of team dynamics and solid financial industry experience on top are few and far between.

Individual coaching is fairly simple and often revolves primarily around practice management issues or some specific aspect of sales, e.g., prospecting, client servicing, creating an effective value statement, etc. However, while coaching a team also usually includes these issues, they are typically overlaid with other dynamics ranging from internal communications, intra-team relationships, how each team member feels valued (or not), compensation, etc. The affects of outside influences on the team [e.g., family issues, health, etc.] are also more complicated because of the increase in complexity of the team system. When working with teams, the "identified problem" is RARELY the core cause of difficulty but simply one more symptom of the underlying issue.

Of course, once you decide you need a team coach, you need to do the same due diligence as we suggested for individual coaches in an earlier blog. Thanks and good luck. kfg. For more information on finding the right coach for your need, click on Selecting the Right Business Development Coach.