Structure creates space is a philosophy proffered by my partner when he harkens back to his rugby coaching days. I love rugby, go the All Blacks! Guess where I hail from? I don’t however, love structure. I adore the free-flowing back line as they pass effortlessly backwards in order to move forward towards the try line. Such a contradiction, yet one that works perfectly for the conversation we are about to have. Without a structural backbone, working tirelessly behind business, there is no space for creativity or what is often conceived as the privilege of team culture. To this non-process driven, somewhat scattered thinker, logistics and structure are something I avoided for far too long. Life, as it does, literally came trotting along and forced it upon me, decentralise and get organised or suffer a prolonged business death lead by pedestrian thinking and the inability to face my greatest fear, systems. In the middle of my personal evolution I found myself spontaneously purchasing 7 acres www.coachinglife. com.au
atop the grassy slopes of the Currumbin Valley. A far cry from the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, which is relatively central to, well, everything. Perfect for my pony but not so much my coaching business, one built on personal interaction, hands on service and a tight knit team. The principle “build it and they will come” springs to mind. What a catalyst that proved to be. The first challenge, how to retain our signature personalized service and just as importantly, figure out how to stay connected and invested with my coaching team. I was to discover that the client solution simultaneously provided the coaching solution. Whether through solid hiring practices or luck, I happened to be surrounded by exceptional people whose core strengths, among others, are attention to detail and thoroughly organized thought; reining me in whenever I am distracted by something sparkly on the floor, a not infrequent occurrence. The exciting part of business for me is the “where to next” and “why not do this”, or “my
clients will love this”. Ideas stuff I suppose. That’s where organized thinkers come into their own, taking those scattered ideas and systemizing them. When you move to a regional centre, finding new ways to connect becomes a necessity. Getting over yourself as the font of all knowledge in your niche takes a little longer. What I thought was a super complex level of knowledge gathered over 20 years as a coach, could actually be trimmed up, slimmed down and slotted into a manual that someone without my 20 years of experience could follow with targeted training. I can recommend taking the time to build manuals, send them to the cloud and update with monotonous regularity. Building an international coaching business with an off-site team meant doing business 100% on-line.
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