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August 6, 2008

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BUSINESS IS BOOMING for Daniel Murphy, co-founder of Growth Coach, a coaching franchise headquartered in Cincinnati. His company, which has locations in 36 states, specializes in working with frazzled small-business owners to improve their management skills and reclaim their personal lives.

A typical client, he says, is an entrepreneur who started a business a few years earlier with passion, energy and enthusiasm. Then, "they start to feel overworked, overwhelmed and prisoners to their business," he says. "It used to be fun, and now it's frustrating." Through coaching, a small-business owner can learn to think more like a CEO, and less like a worker-bee, he says.

Indeed, a growing number of small companies are turning to coaches to hone their leadership skills and achieve a better work-life balance. A study released in June by the American Management Association found that 52% of U.S. companies currently use coaches (primarily, to boost top managers' performance) and another 37% plan to try out coaches in the future. Almost half of the companies polled in the survey were small businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

Not-So-Winning Coaches

Coaching doesn't always have the desired impact, the AMA study found.

Nearly one-quarter of the more than 850 U.S. companies AMA polled said they had terminated coaching relationships. The most common reason (cited by 65% of dissatisfied companies): a bad fit between the coach and client. Another common issue, cited by 53% of respondents, was a perceived lack of skills, credentials or expertise on the part of the coaches.

Before hiring a coach, companies should figure out what the primary purpose of the coaching relationship is, and whether the coach's skills align with the issues at hand, the AMA recommends.

About 40% of companies said they terminated coaches because they couldn't easily tell if the investment was worthwhile. The AMA noted, however, that many companies (even those who have used coaches for years) don't have a formal way of measuring a coach's success or impact on the bottom line.

Coaching is a relatively new profession, similar in some ways to consulting. But while a consultant serves as an outside expert in a specific area (such as information technology or marketing), a coach's function is more like that of a trusted advisor. According to the AMA study, the field of coaching has grown significantly in the past two decades as company leaders are forced to take on a wider variety of roles, from making strategic decisions to managing staff effectively, all while trying to maintain personal direction.

Coaching works particularly well for small-business owners, who juggle multiple roles and rarely take time "to sit and reflect," says Karen Tweedie, president-elect of the International Coach Federation, a Lexington, Ky.-based organization that offers certification training for coaches. A coach "will help you sift through your own thinking," she says, usually by listening to what you want to accomplish, then helping you create a game plan for reaching those goals. "The coach is completely there for you," she says. "That's something that we rarely get these days."

Choosing the right coach can be a daunting task, however, as roughly 30,000 people call themselves coaches, according to the ICF. Some go by the title "life coach," while others refer to themselves as a "business," "career" or "executive coach." Making matters more complicated, the field is unregulated and therefore lacks standardization for training and certification. Luckily some professional standards are starting to emerge, according to the AMA study. The ICF, for instance, has developed a coaching code of ethics, while the American Psychological Association offers postgraduate training in executive coaching and the World Association of Business Coaches publishes a code of conduct for its members.

When seeking a coach, small-business owners need to consider the coach's specialty, experience and techniques, advises Tweedie. A good place to start: Ask other business owners if they've used one. "Most coaches come to clients through referrals," she says. And since successful coaching is based on a good fit and a sense of trust, you should consider meeting with the coach before committing to work with them, she says. The ICF provides a directory of coaches, as does the Association of Career Professionals and Coach U. (See related sidebar.)

Coaches often charge by the hour (in a 2006 study of its members around the world, the ICF found that the average fee is $205 an hour), but fees — and techniques — can vary widely.

Kim Ann Curtin, an ICF-certified coach in New York, prefers working with clients on a one-to-one basis, usually over one-hour sessions on the phone, twice a month. "Good coaches are not going to be giving advice, but rather helping that individual open up," she says. She often starts with a "discovery session," asking clients to articulate what they truly want out of work and life, and then identifying what they're currently doing that they dislike.

Unlike a therapist, who tries to fix a problem, Curtin focuses on getting a client to perform at peak levels. "Even Tiger Woods has a coach," she says. "You can always play even better." Her fees range between $250 and $600 an hour, she says.

Coaches from the Growth Coach franchise, on the other hand, typically work with business-owner clients in group sessions of about 15 people during one-day retreats that take place four times a year. Clients pay upfront for one year (or four sessions), which costs $3,000, and are encouraged to complete the full two-year program. At the sessions, business owners come up with 90-day game plans while swapping stories and sharing best practices with other business owners. "It's almost like Weight Watchers for business owners; they weigh in, and it's an ongoing program," says Murphy, the franchise's co-founder. "They're improving their business, and they're improving their personal life."

("Work & Life," a regular column written by Colleen DeBaise for smSmallBiz.com, advises entrepreneurs on how to better balance their lives. Write to her at cdebaise@smartmoney.com.)

Other recent Work & Life columns:

• Work & Life: Dealing With Disabilities
• Work & Life: Entrepreneurial Mates