Business coaching and sports psychology share much in common.  In both cases, the coach is trying to get the professional to achieve optimal levels of performance.  More often than not, the coaching is not really about teaching the professional (athlete or owner) more about the mechanics of the sport or business but rather helping them to tame their most important asset or liability, his or her mind. 

Very often, the coach is helping the athlete or owner get out of their own way.  To stop sabotaging their performance.  To help them remove mental barriers and limiting doubts.  You see, nearly all human beings have a habit of interfering with and sabotaging their own ability to perform at high levels.  Such self-interference can be costly. 

After being a business coach to entrepreneurs for over a decade and a half, I have found that real breakthroughs in growth, development and performance nearly all come from improving the mental aspects of the business owner, not the business mechanics.  Specifically, the big breakthroughs come about when our business coaches help clients overcome the self-interference of fears, uncertainties, doubts, tension, limiting beliefs, incorrect assumptions, and other "inner game" issues holding them back.  Yes, we help them master business management, but more than that, we help them master self management.  Without clients mastering the inner game of business, the outer game of business is very difficult and messy.

Similarly, I'm sure Tiger Woods' coach focuses less on swing mechanics and more on the mental aspects of the game and self management.  All professional golfers can control a golf swing but how many can control their mood and mind swings under pressure during an intense round of golf?  Tiger Woods can!  He has mastered the inner game so his outer game is spectacular.  Just like Tiger Woods, shouldn't you get a business coach?  If you want better external results, master the inner game of business.

In fact, one of my driving motivations to take The Growth Coach, a business coaching franchise system, throughout North America was the fact that business success or athletic success has more to do with getting control of the mental side of the game (the inner skills and mindsets) than the mechanics of the game, including the game of business.  To improve a business, you must first improve the people in the business.  And to improve the people, you must start with the owner and leader -- YOU.  You must master your inner game so your external results can become superior.

You see, small business success is less about tactics, techniques or mechanics.  It's more about the inner game of business - your mindsets and beliefs.  Small business success has much more to do with how entrepreneurs habitually think and act.  Your business success too will depend in large part upon you shaping or re-shaping your mind to work for you, not against you.  The true battle waged for business success does not take place in the market arena; it takes place in the mind of every business owner.  Same with great athletes.  Their real war is with themselves and their mindset, not with their competitors. 

Like great athletes, being a successful entrepreneur is really about mastering your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and focus. It's about using your mind as a powerful asset, not a destructive liability. Your greatest competition will always be with yourself, especially fighting off the mental gremlins (self doubt, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of rejection, limiting beliefs, feelings of unworthiness, etc.) that wish to deny you your dreams.  Get control of your gremlins before they control you.

What truly matters for business success is that the entrepreneur: (1) Understands himself/herself with clarity and honesty (strengths, weaknesses, dreams, mental barriers, etc.), (2) Takes full responsibility for his/her results, (3) Possesses effective and strategic mindsets (modes of thinking), (4) Has a bias for action (not analysis paralysis), and, (5) Believes in his/her own personal worth and the value of the company's products/services.

To take your business and personal life to a higher level, you must master the inner game of business.  You must know who you are, take full responsibility for results, improve your mindset and beliefs, have a bias for action, and believe in yourself and the value of your products/services.  You must think like a successful entrepreneur and marketer instead of thinking and acting simply like a technician.  In the end, focus as much on the internal game of business as you do on the external game. 

Future business coaching blog entries will focus on addressing each of the 5 components listed above.

Daniel M. Murphy
Founder, President & Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System