People come to business coaches for two reasons: inspiration and desperation.

• Inspired people want a coach to help them do better.
• Desperate people want a coach to help get them out of a jam, or undesirable situation problem.

The entry point in business coaching is usually a business issue. The client may want to increase sales, promote better teamwork, enhance productivity, reduce turnover, or improve quality. The coaching relationship, once initiated, invariably moves beyond the initial perceived need. “Fix my business” gradually and naturally evolves into “fix me.”

A client facing business bankruptcy, for example, may discover through coaching that he has a problem with procrastination, or with interpersonal skills, or with fear of failure. Sometimes clients realise their interests and skills don’t match the requirements of their current positions, and they decide to make a career change. Coaching weeds out inhibiting issues such as these, allowing buried potential to spring forth and bloom.

Why do business leaders use coaches at all? Don’t they have friends and professional colleagues to talk to? Yes, and good coaches encourage their clients to deepen these relationships and build a reliable support system. However, it can happen that alternative support systems may have weaknesses.

• In business, it’s lonely at the top. Managers can’t be vulnerable with their bosses or with their subordinates about the most sensitive issues. For the self-employed and one man show businesses they very often feel "alone."
• Friends will listen and give help when they can, but they’re not trained to identify the most significant issues. And when they have needs of their own, they want to receive help, not give it.
• Spouses can be good listeners, but it’s problematic to bring in-depth business counselling into the middle of a marriage.

Business coaching fills a real need, the profession is rapidly growing and gaining recognition, because it produces such outstanding results.

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