For many small-business leaders, it’s hard to find trusted people to bounce their business growth and expansion ideas with.
Many also don’t have the time, money or resources to engage with large consultancies that run comprehensive staff development programmes.
As they strive for growth in an ever-changing business environment, the need for professional guidance and support has become critical in building high-performing and adaptable teams.
The last five years have seen a major spike in Australian small businesses bringing in accredited one-on-one business coaches to build strong teams to boost productivity and overall performance.
From my experience in coaching some of the country’s top small businesses, there are some simple changes that I believe any organisation can make to transform their teams to the next level.
Nailing your organisation’s collective goal and purpose
First is ensuring each staff member is clear on the goal and purpose of the organisation and how their role is integral to collective success. Everyone wants to get out of bed in the morning and feel a sense of purpose or drive – so ensuring staff buy-in on where the organisation is going is critical to success.
Resource prioritisation
For many small businesses, you feel like there are a million and one things that you could be doing to make your business better. Sometimes, you need an external professional to help you see that you can’t do everything and help you focus on the handful of things that will shift the dial on your business.
This can help ensure you have staff working on the key things that will develop and grow your business or product offering.
Building a psychological safe space
Staff often have clear, effective ideas for improving a product, service, or the organisation. But they keep it to themselves because they fear their feedback will not be received well – so a leader must make their team feel psychologically safe to be creative at work. A leader’s reactions, from how they handle mistakes made by employees to how they embrace their staff members’ bad days, have a massive impact on staff engagement and participation.
A culture that makes staff feel psychologically safe also creates the best work environments to challenge one another and boost innovation and growth.
Go deeper with your team
Some of the top organisations that I have ever had the privilege to coach are those that know their teams inside out. This goes further than water cooler chat about their pets or the weather – teams that genuinely know each other’s style and strengths and harnesses them are almost always the most successful.
By deep diving with your team, you may be surprised by what you find. We all know the passion and fire a team member has for their work when they truly love it – find what that is for each of your staff members, make changes accordingly and watch your team thrive.
However, I do have one warning for small businesses choosing coaches. The lack of regulation in business coaching means the importance of accreditation cannot be overstated.
The absence of strict regulatory standards poses risks that unqualified individuals working under no standards of practice or code of ethics can compromise the integrity of the coaching profession by doing wrong by organisations.
The International Coach Federation (ICF) sets the benchmark for professionalism and ethical conduct within the field. So when picking a coach in an unregulated market – an ICF accreditation is key to look out for.
The accountability inherent in credentialing serves as a safeguard against misconduct or incompetence and ensures any ethical breaches are addressed swiftly and appropriately. By investing in credentialled coaches, businesses can leverage the expertise, professionalism, and ethical integrity necessary to navigate complex challenges and achieve sustainable growth.
