Your Business Will Thrive As You Do

Integrative Performance Coaching (IPC) for entrepreneurs is a combination of coaching, consulting, and mentoring, what you might call whole-systems coaching. My practice draws on many years of experience as a management and organizational consultant, strategic marketing director, and executive coach.

An African American chef and restaurant owners stands proudly in the kitchen of his establishment

There are two essential goals of entrepreneur coaching: (1) to enhance the performance, effectiveness, and wellbeing of the person; and (2) to help improve business performance from a financial, technical, operational, and organizational perspective.

I primarily coach entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with less than 250 people in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. In my decades of executive experience, I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of companies in dozens of industries. This breadth of experience has yielded a cross-pollination of best practices that I’ve been able to spread from one sector to another.

The Power of IPC Perspective

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Traditional entrepreneur and business coaching is a lot like management consulting in that it focuses on strategic management, a discipline learned by MBAs throughout the land. Strategic management is a good lens through which to view a business, but it is by no means the only one. In fact, for some businesses, it’s not the best perspective.

IPC relies on multiple perspectives—as many as are useful. For instance, some businesses are best viewed through the lens of:

Culture—how do people speak and act? What’s valued and what isn’t? What’s okay to discuss and what isn’t? What kind of community is it?
Learning systems—is the business growing and learning, effectively responding to change? Are staff and teams getting smarter—or running in place?
Human performance—are desired inputs being converted into valuable outputs within certain time, cost, quality and resource constraints? Do staff members know these parameters for their roles?
Systems theory—are the interrelated systems within the business and in its surrounding environment aligned to create a positive casual loop—or misaligned to produce a downward spiral?
Theatre—how good of a show are they putting on? Are on-stage talent and behind-the-scenes departments coordinating to produce a winning production? This is the essence of customer experience and brand development.

These are just a few ways to evaluate an organization, among many. IPC excels in finding “hot spots,” opportunities to increase business performance by leveraging multiple dimensions.

Entrepreneur & Solopreneur Coaching Process

The middle-aged owner of a construction company, wearing a hardhat and goggles, stands before stacks of lumber at a construction site

Every entrepreneur or solopreneur and their business is in a unique situation, so the place to begin coaching always varies. Most engagements begin with an organizational assessment to determine current performance, using a balanced scorecard approach. Based on the business’s status—and the leader’s—we’ll focus where we can create the most ROI. Several pressure points frequently arise.

Strategic Clarity and Focus

The first thing we look for are the pillars of evidence-based strategy. There are conspicuous gaps here for about 75% of SMEs. This doesn’t mean you need an 80-page strategic plan. It’s not the length that makes a strategy potent; it’s the thinking it represents. When strategists have done their homework, the bottom line always reflects it.

Leadership Development

The owner of a trucking company stands before his fleet of blue-green tractor-trailers

Entrepreneurs and solopreneurs live and die by the quality of their leadership. So, we help them develop effective leadership knowledge and skills such as influence, communication, vision, and team development. Wellbeing is also a critical concern for leaders. Many have been trying to do so much for so long that they are woefully burnt out. Sometimes the greatest service I can provide is to help a leader improve their own self-care and self-management.

Human Performance

For every role in a business, a staff member is tasked with converting specific inputs into value-creating outputs through a given process. Their effectiveness hinges on doing this within certain time, cost, quality and resource constraints. Unfortunately, most people cannot tell you specifically what these parameters are for their job—entrepreneurs included. When leaders and staff understand clearly how their success is valued and measured, business performance inevitably climbs.

New Business Development

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It’s no secret that many entrepreneurs and solopreneurs need more clients, customers, or funds. I spent 30 years in sales and marketing management, directing hundreds of 360° marketing campaigns. If attracting customers, clients, or donors is the topmost challenge, I can help immediately.

Organizational Alignment

Organizational alignment assesses the extent to which a business’ strategy, structure, people, processes, and technologies are working together to increase performance (financial, technical, human, operational) and improve effectiveness (the ability to achieve intended goals). It’s a never-ending balancing act in which every business leader and organization has room to grow.

Personnel Relations

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Sometimes the biggest challenge entrepreneurs have is with hiring, training, retaining and communicating with staff. My background in organization development, specifically in team development and communications, can provide a leg up here.

Team Development

For many entrepreneurs, success depends less on how great they perform as individuals and more on how well the teams they lead perform. We help entrepreneurs instill high-performance team basics, which never fail to increase staff morale and involvement and positively impact the bottom line.

Communication Effectiveness

Business performance lives and dies on how effectively its leadership and line teams communicate internally, with one another, and externally with key stakeholders. This is an aspect of leadership and team performance that often is given lip service, and so communication is too often top-down and one-way. Organizations are only as healthy as their communication lines are open and people can discuss what really matters.

The Business Will Thrive When Its Owner Does

A young Asian woman wearing glasses stands before the open door of her clothing boutique to welcome customers

As an entrepreneur or solopreneur for 25+ years, I know all too well the sweat, blood and tears it takes to launch, build, and run a business. That’s why I am so invested in ensuring that entrepreneurs and solopreneurs succeed. I’m confident that I can inspire business performance leaps in terms of marketing effectiveness, financial performance, organizational effectiveness, human resources development, and operational excellence. The secret is to ensure that all these changes begin with the business’s owner.

IPC for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs is ultimately about generating amazing return on investment. And it does not necessarily need to be a long-term or expensive proposition. My clients typically feel helped in the first coaching session.

Request a Complimentary 30-Minute Coaching Session

If you could use some support, I’d be happy to discuss your business challenges in a complimentary 30-minute phone or web conference. Just fill out and submit the form below, and I’ll contact you to set up an online appointment (Zoom).

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