In the past I have likened business coaching to sports coaching, whereby the coach helps the person they are coaching to improve in as many aspects as possible, not by doing it for them, but by teaching them better methods and techniques, setting the actions and milestones to achieve certain goals. They don’t work on their strengths, but on their weaknesses, thereby slowly improving their overall performance.

I have been coached in many sports, and because I love my sport, I was open to being pushed and pulled, and challenged to take myself to the best of my abilities. Although I might have complained from time to time when it got really tough, or even at times a bit repetitive, ultimately I wanted to be really good at what I was doing so was prepared to make the necessary sacrifices.

And so it occurred to me that surely the same should, or indeed must apply to business owners. For the most part their business is something they love and enjoy (not all the time of course), and therefore why shouldn’t they want to become the best among their peers. To excel at anything is a great feeling, so just because it is work rather than play, why no strive to be excellent in as many aspects of running your business as you can be.

Now to be fair, it is likely or even probable, that you won’t be able to be the best at all business skills, much like there a few top decathletes. However, instead of concentrating on the things you are good at, be it numbers, sales or people management, why not invest in yourself to work on your weaknesses, and become a business person who people respect and look up to.

So if you have an O.K. business but would like it and you to be better, instead of setting yourself a new fitness regime, or buying a new bike to cycle to John O’Groats next year, instead you can set yourself goals which will push you to your limits, and which will give you a great sense of achievement.

I was recently talking with a business owner who had made changes in his business which had meant that one of his team was no longer needed. Being a kind man, and one that cared about his staff he approached the subject as sensitively as possible, and went through all the right procedures to ensure that everything was covered both from a legal point of view, and as much as was possible that his employee was let down gently. However, for various reasons things turned nasty, and it became a rather fractious parting of the ways, rather than an amicable one.

Now that the dust has settled, it seems that actually this employee had not been following processes properly for some time, and they have found numerous mistakes which are going to cost the company significant amounts. Now of course you should always trust your employees (why would you employ them otherwise) but the salutary lesson here is one whereby the owner had more or less abdicated responsibility rather than delegated i.e. the management of that role, and the occasional checks which should have been made had not been happening, and as a result corners were cut, and now there is a lot of sorting to do.

What this shows is that there is a very fine line between over-management and interference in your employees’ responsibilities, and the sensible level of reporting and checks which should be in place to ensure things are being done correctly. Just assuming everything is going smoothly is not necessarily the best course of action. Holding people accountable for their actions by having controls and systems in place is always advisable, because you never know what could be lurking below the surface if things are not properly transparent and properly managed.