Stop and Smell the Roses

The sun is shining, first day of spring and whilst sowing my vegetable seeds I was reminded how similar it is to being a coach. In its simplest form, you sow a seed, nurture it and watch it blossom – just like my coaching clients and their businesses.

A seed will perform best if given a good start but sadly some wither and die, others make it but just struggle along, others peak too early; having put in too much early effort, but the star performers take all the goodness they need and you are rewarded with a really long flowering season.

So, to translate all that flowery stuff into business…

1. The right environment. A business stuck in a rut, not seeing the wood for the trees, struggling to make decent money or has failed to find new customers. The good news is that if you have a great product that does what it says on the tin and customers willing to pay for it then everything, and I mean everything, else can be solved.
2. You need a good seed. A business owner who wants to grow, to improve and build a fantastic business. But it must be someone that recognises that they need a little nurturing along the way. Someone who can help, focus and guide them to success. Essentially a person who will embrace the nurturing that is available.
3. Nurturing qualities. As a gardener you can’t sow a seed and walk away. It needs water, light, help to burst through the soil, pest controls, saving from weeds, etc. And that is exactly what a coach does; we nurture, we help you plan your growth route (or root!!), identify the problems (all those pests & weeds) and develop the range of solutions to get rid of the pests. We’ll keep you on track and help you learn from the experts
4. Routine maintenance. Many clients benefit from routine maintenance – some just need a quarterly service to keep everything ship shape. Business owners sometimes need a ‘boss’ to keep them on track and that’s where the regular maintenance comes in. Others, who just need help to start the process, welcome ad-hoc maintenance when needed.
5. It’s a team effort. Coaches become one of the team, working to help the whole team pull together and achieve the goals. Just like soil, water, light and feed help a seed to grow. But it’s not just the internal team, it’s wider than that – your external experts – the bank, the insurance broker, IT and web support etc. that need to come together. Then , you have a great chance of growing some brilliant roses.
6. Stop and smell the roses. I learnt this a long time ago after a massive change project I had worked on and it really works! It’s a great way to prepare for the next challenge. Throughout any coaching engagements it is vital to stop, review progress and learn from what has happened, the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s only then that the real learning takes place.

You've strived for success, worked very hard, learnt lots and overcome lots of challenges, so, when you achieve make sure that you stop, and smell the roses, they’re beautiful.

Have you strived hard and also rewarded yourself by stopping and smelling that rose?