Business coaching courses may not be on your radar right now. Who has time to think about 2024 when you’re agonizing over 2023? After all, there is SO much to do at year-end!
An Alternative Viewpoint
While you are in the thick of viewing the results of your business in the rearview mirror is a great time to be making notes on what needs to change. In real-time, reactions can spur the most effective evaluation when sorting it out later. Have you ever had a great idea that you didn’t jot down and then later thought, “What was that again?”
Here are a few ideas:
- Greater profits: Who doesn’t want to make more money?
- Staff productivity: Increasing productivity leads to greater profits, of course, but correctly done it also leads to higher employee satisfaction.
- Personal productivity: See above. But there is a twist for business owners and leaders. Pulled in many directions with competing needs and priorities, it’s often difficult to feel any sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.
- Better systems: Huge topic. Even the smallest business needs efficient and effective systems for inventory, payroll, and accounting, and these often involve the information system used. Depending on the size or type of business, the systems themselves are greater in number and more critical.
- Hiring and Retention: In today’s business world, how well you hire and retain employees is make it or break it. The idea that an employee stays with one organization their entire career is long over. Moving from one position to the next, even fairly rapidly, is less stigmatized than ever. Competition for high-quality employees at all levels is serious.
Why Business Coaching Courses?
From an article in the Harvard Business Review:
Studies over the last ten years report the following return on investment (ROI) from coaching:
- Companies that offer training alone experience 22.4% increase in productivity, but when combined with coaching, that figure rises to 88%. Gerald Olivero, Denise Bane & Richard Kopelman, Public Personnel Management.
- A conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from coaching, according to Fortune magazine, is that managers describe an average return of more than six times the cost of coaching.
- Companies who combine coaching with training increase employee productivity over 80%. Bureau of Justice statistics, June 2001.
The Budget
The budget for the next year is often the focus of review at this time of year. Even if the budget process has already been completed, as additional information is revealed through review and tax preparation, adjustments are made. An amount for business coaching is a wise addition to the training budget. If already budgeted, which staff level does it include? Just senior staff? Consider expanding the audience to other management levels: the managers who are in the trenches with employees. They are closest to the day-to-day operations and most insightful on what’s working and what isn’t. Business coaching courses are empowering.
Reputable Business Coaching Courses
Engaging an experienced and effective business coach is the foundation. A Google search returns an overwhelming number of options. A company with proven systems and a variety of delivery systems adds up to results.
Business coaching courses are an opportunity to learn cutting-edge techniques to improve every corner of your business. They offer an opportunity to hear from others, share experiences, and network. Now is the perfect time to be thinking about your game plan for 2024!
