This business coaching blog is a continuation of the The Inner Game of Business blog from November 13th.  You can review that blog at http://www.thegrowthcoach.com/Resources/tabid/214/EntryID/71/Default.aspx 

Besides having a bias for action, successful business owners share another common but rare trait...self understanding.  That's right, they know who they are and what they are.  They know their visions, goals, plans, values, strengths, weaknesses, habits and even some of their limiting beliefs.  They have taken the time, through a business coaching process or on their own, to do honest self-analysis on a periodic basis.  That gives them a huge competitive advantage.

As a business coach, if I could grant a single wish to every owner, it would be for them to possess a solid level of self understanding.  That gift would provide them with powerful clarity and a firm foundation from which to make progress, improvements, adjustments, and seek out talent to compensate for their weaknesses.  Without self understanding, business owners are flying dangerously blind.  They really don't know who they are, where they are, where they want to go, and how to make intelligent course corrections along the way.  They tend to deal in comforting delusions, illusions, and denial.  That is a huge competitive disadvantage.

Conversely, successful owners desire to deal in facts, not fiction.  They bravely face reality.  They want to know the way things really are, not how they wish them to be.  They ask questions of others and really listen for the truth. Based on truth and self understanding, these savvy owners can adjust their approaches and strategies, seek appropriate help, hire complementary skills, outsource certain functions, and work on modifying their limiting beliefs, old ways of thinking and ineffective mindsets and habits.  Self understanding gives them real advantages over their competition.

At The Growth Coach, we provide business owners with a proven business coaching process, the structure and the discipline to slow down, think, engage in self-analysis, and create valuable action plans once a quarter, at a minimum.  We help them hold a mirror up to themselves and their business and see the truth ... the good, bad and ugly.  This level of truth and self understanding is not only necessary, it's critical to adjusting plans, strategies, goals and approaches.  Without facing reality, owners are incapable on making meaning and intelligent adjustments.

There is powerful clarity when entrepreneurs know who they are, where they are, and where they want to go.  Once that clarity is reached, they simply need a plan to get there and some on-going accountability to make regular adjustments to stay on track. 

Very often, it’s not what we don’t know that prevents us from succeeding; it’s what we think we know for certain that just isn't so.  Do you truly know yourself and know your business?  Are you aware of your strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and mental gremlins?  Are you taking time once a month or once a quarter to do some honest self analysis?  With the holidays fast approaching, give yourself a tremendous gift, the gift of business coaching and self understanding.  Click on this link to Locate a Coach.

"The life which is unexamined is not worth living." -- Socrates

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