This Gutsy Coaching Moment is from Larry Gruenwald, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Howard is a healthcare practitioner and has been in the business over 10 years. Five years ago he moved out of the Phoenix metropolitan area to a small town in northern Arizona. His business grew a steady pace for the first few years after his move then began to go downhill.
He began looking at his business and wanting to find out what was the cause, other than the economy itself that he knew he had no control over.
Howard and I met at a business meeting about a year ago and we have kept in communication since then. In one of our conversations he was sharing about the struggle he was having with his business, so I shared with him I was in the process of getting certified as a Professional Business Coach. He decided that coaching might be what could help out in discovering what was missing in his business.
Through coaching in the first call he came up with a beginning of a plan of action. I requested he write it out and use my “Coaching Outcomes Contract” as a format. This just happened to be one of the tools I was learning how to implement in the Certification program with Eagle’s View Systems, Inc. I was then attending.
On the next coaching call it appeared that the whole plan had dropped out of sight and things had come to a complete halt. I asked his permission to coach him and I discovered that the player’s wife was not supporting him, not being part of his foundation, maybe even a stop to what he is trying to accomplish. So I asked, thinking this is a stretch, if it would be possible for his wife to join us on the next call and would he be up for it.
The next week his wife joined in on the call and by coaching them together she discovered a thought she had been carrying in the back of her mind for the 27 years of their marriage that wasn’t allowing her to be fully committed to the marriage and supporting her husband in what he was doing. Through coaching she was willing to be part of the foundation Howard needed instead of being a stop.
Howard is now continuing to expand on his plans and is taking action to accomplish his goals.
Larry Gruenwald is a business coach and practices in Arizona. He earned his coaching certification through CoachLab.
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