ActionCOACH Harrogate Review by Christopher W, 2017-09-11T00:00:00
I had been in business for 20 years and like so many small business owners I had adapted and grown the business organically and in my case without any formal plan. I had been reactive and very customer focussed at the expense of my personal time, my lifestyle, my staff and business growth. Using CF as my ActionCOACH initially provided me with great personal challenges, for the first time in 20 years I was being asked fundamental questions which I was very surprised that I had not previously asked myself, why am I in business, what is my goal, how do I want the business to grow, who are my customers, what financial state is my business in. Many of these answers were in my head, not written down and certainly not communicated to staff and customers. If my mind was not focused or clear then how could I manage staff and a business successfully? My biggest crime was using the excuse of being "too busy" and "not having enough time" to plan and manage my business. Using ActionCOACH gave me purpose, a drive, someone to be answerable to, someone to help state my goals and then make sure we stayed on course to hit them together. We can all read books and watch videos and understand the theory but this is not much use if we don't action this knowledge, my Coach ignited my Action which I now believe is experienced directly by my staff, our customers and our future customers. Changing my team and developing my business takes time, there are some areas of my business which are only starting to experience the benefits of those tough ActionCOACH sessions. My staff are key and are involved in all aspects of my business, we have a clear purpose, vision, mission and strategy for moving our business forward. We value our customers and we still need to change and develop in many areas, the difference now is that the challenges we face together offer great potential to improve our service and develop ourselves and our business. Yes we can still do things differently, we will never be perfect, we will always learn but we have a great evaluation process to make sure we don't make the same mistakes again. I may be an owner manager and I am very far from perfect but my staff are my family and together we will grow and learn "a smooth sea never made a good sailor". I'm doing it my way to make a difference in the world and to make people happy by generating pride, success and profit in everything that we do.