Business Leadership Coaching Tips

I recently attended a sports coaching event lead by a man with the record for the longest unpowered cross country flight. Mike Barber flew over 400 miles in a hang glider. This kind of feat requires a wisdom that transcends the technical aspects of a sport. The sports focus was look for lift, decide whether to stay or go and learn to stay centered inside the lift. 1) In hang gliding, “you’re either in lift (warm air going up) or sink (cold air going down).” When it comes to finding lift, Mike explains, “90% of the sky is sink and is 10% is lift,” a disappointing reality. He goes on to say, “and of that 10%, half of it will not help you soar.” When you look back on all of the possible sources of revenue and all of the business relationships you’ve had the opportunity to pursue, how often have you found lift? Is there synergy in your business relationships? Are your counterparts capable of reciprocating with integrity? Do you have strong emotional intelligence skills? 2) Stay centered in the lift. Once you decide to pursue an opportunity, are you successful in staying centered or do you extend yourself to the point where you become unbalanced and fall out? Do you use a sports visualization? Are you efficient in maximizing your revenue based on the specifics of your company or do you focus too much on keeping step with your competitors? What can you do to form a tighter circle with your best clients? Some take action business coaching and life coaching tips into account to identifying your top clients. 3) Do you stay or go? Most pilots learning to fly long distances are reluctant to give up lift once they find it. This is because people are motivated more by the threat of losing something than by the prospect of gaining something. The reality is that a thermal is only building for 7-8 minutes, chances are, you didn’t lose it, it simply ran its course. 4) Beware of Attachments: When pilots become attached to the notion that lift still exists in a given spot. They spend valuable time searching. Instead, they should be moving on to find new lift. When you become emotionally invested in an outcome, attachments take away from your ability to remain objective. Most poor decisions come from being too invested in the outcomes. Have you ever missed a new business opportunity because you were afraid to let go of a once promising venture? Several clients in small business coaching programs develop emotional intelligence skills that help them “let go” of a promising venture when the terms of the negotiation are not so promising. Have you stayed with a source of revenue that has become out dated? A local printing company became attached to their recipe for success. When digital equipment began being used by competitors, they discounted the new technology. Despite its increasing use by competitors, they held their ground. “We’ve been successful for 20 years. Our equipment is paid for! Why should we change what we’re doing?” Over the past two years they decreased production and let go staff. They lacked the emotional intelligence skills to read the writing on the wall. 5) Small Business Coaching: One sales person who was laid off now works for herself. She designs the card, provides her clients with samples to choose from and brokers the cards using a number of on-line companies. She provides her clients with better quality cards, offers more choices and gets the cards to them sooner. She became a competitor to her former employer who continues to flap his wings in bad air. 6) Sports Focus and Sports Performance Anxiety: When sinking rapidly the XC pilots feel a sinking sensation in their stomach telling them something is wrong. Do you have that same feeling when you think about where your current job is going? If only ten percent of the sky is lift, only 10% of business opportunities are truly profitable. Of that ten percent, half of it won’t help you meet your goals. Look for the right opportunities, are they profitable? Is there emotional intelligence in the work place? When you find them, do everything you can to stay centered as you rise. When you feel that sinking feeling and everything tells you it’s not working, stop flapping your wings and take a risk. Search for something with the capacity to grow, build and lift you to a profitable cloud base.

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