For most the word Coach brings to mind a football, tennis, swimming coach etc. blowing his whistle to propel athletes to peak performance. But sport is not the only one that benefits from the skills of a coach. In business, coaching for SMEs has grown in popularity surprisingly both in Europe, the USA, and Japan and we can say that today in Argentina work has begun on this trend.
We believe that a professional coach for SMEs should be trained to guide a board of directors in the decision-making process. A good coach defines the roles, goals and responsibilities before starting the work relationship, a good coaching should get the best out of the board, help them move towards their goals and learn new skills. The characteristics of an efficient coach are: knowing how to listen, ability to ask questions, analytical skills, knowing how to structure a good plan (and follow it) and the ability to connect board members to a constant dialogue that results in the development of the entire organization. According to our experiences, the coach to be effective must have a desire to learn, be of integrity, a good listener, assertive, improve business results and have a good sense of humor
A good coaching intervention starts with the small and medium-sized business board and then works its way down to the entire company. The first step in this process is to delineate the organization's strategic, tactical and operational roles. If we analyze the organizational structure of any corporation, we will find: the shareholders who fulfill the role of contributing capital and will receive a dividend in return, the Board of Directors from which the strategic order of the company emanates, the management from which the tactical order arises and finally the purely operational levels. In a SME the roles are confused since it is common to see a director occupying the role of manager and in some companies even of operator. The coach's goal is to get it to be thought and internalized for decision-making in each role;The Shareholder thinks based on the ROE, (return on equity) the director based on the ROA (return on assets) and the ROI (return on investment), the manager based on the ROS (return on sales) and on an operational level in Depending on productivity, the SME entrepreneur must try to balance these concepts to achieve their strategic objectives.
Coaching opens windows for research: business concepts, tools, techniques and new business management paradigms, provides a continuous planning methodology using strategies and tactics aimed at increasing business vision. There is evidence that a synergistic teamwork system is thus formed that leverages the individual skills of each member of the board of directors for the benefit of better results for the company. Coaching in SMEs is results-oriented and results in the continuous improvement of individual and group performance.
A coach can be a promoter of change, a counselor, a diagnostician, an expert, a seducer, a helper, a mentor, and a partner. Understanding the reasons that led the board to hire a coach is the key to defining their demands towards him. although the obvious goal of a coach is to improve business results.
