3 reasons why executive coaching is a MUST DO for start-up founders

A great idea has no meaning unless it is put to execution.

Execution itself isn’t a given straight line to follow. No plan is cast in stone. It is about course correction. Organizations have to constantly adapt to find a way to the desired outcome.

This is even more true for start-ups which are trying to disrupt the goods and service offerings through innovation.

Consistent coaching helps individuals and teams to evaluate options at a faster pace.

Interacting with clients in the start-up space, I found these major reasons of why executive coaching is a must do support for start-ups.

Time is money and money is time

The value of time is well understood in the start-up ecosystem and their valuations.

Waste of time costs valuable resources.

New technology is available widespread and is easy to adopt. The competition is always present to take over the customers.

Timely decisions hence are the need of the hour.

A client of mine, a manufacturer had spent years (in his own words a decade) thinking and strategising about starting a night shift in his factory.

Starting from my question of what is stopping him to uncovering his inhibitions and then committing to on an action plan happened in the next 20 minutes in our session.

The result – He had the night shift running in a months’ time from our session.

Rise up swiftly after a fail

Anyone who has been an entrepreneur will understand failure more than success. Failure is but a stepping stone to success.

When one fails, an intertia steps in from doubts and fears.

Coaching allows a space where the coach acts as a sounding board to release the emotions and get back to action to take the next step.

A client of mine, a star-up founder in the SaaS space, was carrying a burden of ‘Being the best’. The attitude once helpful to climb the corporate ladder was making her miserable in her start-up journey trying to build her business.

She was able to express herself openly in a session. The result – She replaced the thought to ‘Being herself rather than the best’; is now more at peace and enjoys being an entrepreneur, scaling new heights in unchartered territories.

Choice making with limited resources

There is a limit on the resources one can deploy towards the objectives.

Coaching helps to align the choices made with the strengths, values and feelings. This gives a big impetus to people to deliver as they work with passion.

A start up client of mine into logistics business had given up the idea to get into ship broking due to the large scale. When I asked him how he would feel about this decision in 10 years, it made him go back on his words.

The result – The conversation propelled him into action to look for outside resources to make his dream a reality in the next two years.

In practical ways coaching helps the start-ups to offer high quality with optimum amount of resources. It ensures both achievement and well-being for the individual and the team.

Sunny is founder at Sunny Connect, a firm specialising in curating programs for Conscious Leadership Development and can be reached at coach@sunnyconnect.in