What Do Business Coaching and Soccer Have in Common?

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In addition to my full-time career in business coaching, I've been a volunteer soccer coach for the last 5 years or so.  This fall I've been serving as an assistant coach to the high school soccer team that my oldest son is a member of -- a great way to invest in that relationship.

It's a young team.  More than half of them are new to high school soccer and it shows in their junior-high level mistakes: too much dribbling, not enough passing; too much showmanship, not enough sportsmanship.

So as a coaching team, we've been emphasizing how important it is to just TRY to do the right things.  For example, we encourage them to...

Attempt a "drop pass" -- a pass backward to a midfielder or even backfielder -- instead of dribbling through a congested clump of defenders...

Or try to "switch the field" by passing laterally to the other side of the field instead of driving forward into heavy traffic.

These are strategic plays that require a more sophisticated understanding of the game...and when they do them, it shows that they're learning how to think on a higher level.

At this point in their development, even if they totally screw up a drop pass or field switch, we're totally pleased with the attempt!  With more practice and experience, they'll start making more and more of those plays (and winning more of their games, we hope!)

Success in business coaching is a lot the same way.

Whenever I begin working with a new-ish business coach, the very first thing we work on are the MENTAL SHIFTS necessary to win as a business coach.  For example...

Nothing good happens in your business coaching practice if you're not doing the following two things consistently (regardless of how good your marketing is and how many leads you're generating):

1. Talking on the phone to prospects each day to book Complimentary Coaching Sessions day.
2. Meeting face-to-face (or virtually) for several of those Complimentary Coaching Sessions each week.

Business coaches around the world are starving for lack of these two fundamentals!

I get jacked, happy, geeked, when I get on the phone with a business coach client and he reports that he made 50 dials to prospects in the past week -- the most he's EVER made.  I don't care about the results in the beginning.  I'm just happy that he was on the phone using the script we've tested and proven over years of refinement!  (It's called our "Silver Bullet" script and you can find the cheat sheet here.)

I celebrate with the business coach client when she reports that she had her first real Complimentary Coaching Session in weeks.  I don't care if her conversion rate is rock-bottom LOW for the first few attempts.  We'll fix that fast!  I just need her out there meeting with people, making the attempts.

In soccer AND in business coaching, the key is to get your charges out there and developing the skills and instincts it takes to win.  Sure, they'll miss the first few passes at the get-go, but who cares?  The results will come over time as they start focusing on the right things!

For more great tips on improving your own results as a business coach, download my FREE ebook, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star.  You'll learn how I went from $0-$1 Million as a business coach in just 4 years...and how you can implement the same strategies for big improvements in your own practice.