What I Don’t Do

Coaching is a mystery to most people. In my role as a business coach, I spend a lot of time explaining what it is I do. There are also the things I don’t do. The things outside of my realm of expertise or interest, or things that just plain drive me nuts. Sometimes you can define an object or system by describing the negative space around it, describing what and where it is not.

So here’s a list of 10 things I won’t, can’t, or just don’t want to do.

1. Write business plans. I clarify vision and coach execution, but I just don’t believe in traditional business plans as a tool for growth. They are required by lenders and investors. But even that can be a joke. I have sat in meetings with clients where the lender didn’t even look at the 50 page business plan in front of them. And I could tell that they had never looked at it. I believe if an investor or lender can’t buy your business case in 2 – 3 pages, we have a problem.
2. Design web or social media sites. I help my clients dig down deep to get at the heart of their brand, and reach out to understand the hearts of their customers. But the link in between, I leave to design professionals. They are able to take what you have to offer and ensure that it gets in front of the people who want it or need it. I help you get clear on the what and why of your content, we leave the how to the design, SEO, and Social Media professionals.
3. Write policies and procedures. I believe every sustainable business that hopes to operate effectively with more than one person needs written policies and procedures. And every business needs to have an exit strategy. If that exit strategy includes even the possibility of sale, policies and procedures are a key value component. I help clients determine where policies and procedures fit into their business, and how they support their brand. HR consultants and operations gurus take it from there.
4. Advise on financial tactics. Do you have a good accountant? Good, we can work together. No? Then get one. If you have an existing business, an accountant who is prepared to be an advisor is a condition for working with me. I understand margins, cost factors, inventory control, and the roles of A/P,  A/R and cash flow in your business. I help you fit them together with the bigger picture of your business (marketing, human resources, operations) and your growth objectives. Then we hand it over to your accountant for risk assessment and execution.
5. Make promises. Well, that’s not really true. I do promise to show up, listen as well as anyone has ever listened to you, provide honest feedback, and to do the hard work with you, of creating a vision of the future and a set of strategies to get you there. I see a bigger picture from different angles than most people do. I connect the dots and pick up buried messages that others miss. But what I absolutely don’t promise (and it drives me to distraction when others do) are more customers, more sales, more fans, more fun, happier staff, marital bliss, and for God’s sake I can’t promise you happiness or success. More often than not, I can point you in the right direction, but I can’t promise you’ll take it!
6. Use forms, checklists, or binders. You have enough on your plate, and we aren’t making cookies, so why would I bring in the cutters?  In coaching I use one tool, and one tool only: conversation. I do use some very simple written structures I use.  But they are so simple you can’t call them forms. And there isn’t a check-box on them. Maybe they work for other people, but to me all those coaching and consulting systems out there are a collection of linear, left-brained, monochromatic, possibility-limiting straight jackets. But that’s just me. I just happen to believe that coaching is a creative, empathetic, forward-looking combination of art and science that creates structures and designs in real time in response to a complex web of my client’s life, their industry, the market, their community, and their organization. How the heck do you do that with forms & check-lists?
7. Seek balance. True or false: Mozart, Lady Gaga, and Bill Gates are balanced people. Didn’t think so. Unless we are talking about accounting, chemical equations, or tightrope walking, balance is a myth. I support my clients in getting the mix of time, relationships, space, and money tuned to achieve the vision they have set for themselves and their business. In my work, balance is a word that literally has no meaning. Not only don’t I ‘do’ balance, it makes me a little crazy just to hear the word!
8. Give legal advice. I know, ‘Duh’.  I can help you evaluate whether say, a partnership, is worth hanging on to, and help you look at all the possible implications of staying in or getting out. But when it comes to the execution of any steps with direct impact on contract, that’s what business lawyers are for. And not only do I not handle contracts of any kind, I don’t recommend you ever use ‘off the shelf’ forms either. For goodness sake, get a lawyer, and a good one. How much is your business worth to you?
9. Execute your visual brand. I have a process for getting at the heart and guts of your whole brand: the overall impression you want consumers to have of your business. We look at who your business best serves. We explore all of the channels (traditional and new media) that best connect you with your customers. We decide what your story is. Then we hire professionals to tell it. Only design professionals have a command of the visual vocabulary to tell the story we plotted out.
10. Tell you what you want to hear. I’ll tell you a secret. This is the hardest part. The forces at work: optimism bias, counter-transference, conflict avoidance, can be very powerful in trying to squeeze something comforting out of me. I resist to the best of my ability. In my career & professional branding workshops I tell participants we need three kinds of people in our lives: gurus, fans, and coaches. What sets a coach apart from the others is that they will be the voice from outside, telling you the truth. I’m doing my job if I’m making you a little bit uncomfortable.

Perhaps in seeing what I don’t do, you might now have a clearer sense of what I do!

I connect dots, and I connect professionals. For everything that I don’t do, I have relationships with professionals I trust completely. Looking for something I can’t provide? Just ask, and I’m happy to refer you to the best.

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