Courtesy and Copyright © Duncan Grisby

The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about the word champion is sport: being a champion, the first in your discipline or category, can be applied to other areas of life as well as in business. This article will analyse some aspects of finding your own inner champion.  Most champions have natural talents which they develop and expand in sport, as well as in business. Personal performance can be improved and enhanced by strong commitment; in most cases the expert help from a coach can boost your performance as he/she knows how to get the best of your skills and talent, helping you to find your inner champion.

Back in 2007 the exiting committee of the Cambridge University Kickboxing Society (CUKBS) invited me for a meeting to establish whether I was prepared to be their coach.  We had a short meeting a city’s café and and the president for the society for 2006-07 synthesised in a short sentence the whole essence of their request: “we want to win Varsity versus Oxford”.  My instinctive answer was: “yes sure, as long as you guys are prepared to work for hard it…”

It was not an easy task but earlier this year CUKBS managed to finally celebrate their victory in the 2010 Varsity match.  How did I know that we could win?  I was and am confident of my teaching and coaching skills, not only about how to punch and kick but how to enhance mental skills that are essential to be a winner. “more then 50% of the fight is won by the coach” states Luca Senatore local successful entrepreneur and student of mine with a short professional kickboxing career among his achievements.

Kickboxing is a complex discipline: physical performance and endurance are as essential as in any other sport but technique and strategy play a very strong role when you are in a ring in front of somebody whose only mission at that instant is beating you up.   As a coach I can notice from the corner things that the fighter simply does not.   My vision is obviously from a different angle but, more importantly, I have a calmer and detached point of view and I can evaluate and take decisions that are essential to help fighters adjusting their techniques and tactic to the circumstances developing before them.

Winning and becoming a champion, in kickboxing as well as in business, is the combination of a number of factors: it is about mental attitude, self discipline, motivation and determination.  It’s about saying “I can do it and I will do it”.  When working with executive clients I always remind them that their personal performance can be improved and enhanced by consciously working on it.  Experience demonstrates at the same time that the following simple steps are more often easier said than done for the average individual:

• being aware of what you want to achieve
• identifying what you need to do for it
• plan carefully what actions need to be done
• execute these actions and constantly compare results with expectation
• adjust the plan if anything drifts

As it happens many things get in the way and focus fades… what yesterday was a strong plan gets disturbed by unlimited interferences in today’s super busy, always online life.   An Executive Coach, very much like a kickboxing coach helps you to formulate and keep connected to your plan, accountable toward your actions, you level of progress and always available to discuss issues that could be pivotal for your development and performance for you being the champion you want to be.

Some people think that champions are born and perhaps in some cases it can be true.   In my experience champions can be made, starting from a willing and determined individual:

• if you want to excel in kickboxing you should approach an experienced coach that can help you to find your inner champion;
• if you want to excel in your work and career in senior management you should approach an experienced Executive Coach;

In both cases you could ask me for expert help

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Please join us at Begin Space (details in the booking form below) for this presentation.  Running your own business, being your own boss, offers great advantages: freedom, independence, autonomy and financial rewards.  At the same time it is easy to get caught into a spiral of time wasting activities, procrastination, lack of focus or inspiration; so if you are:

• a business owner/partner in a high tech small business, perhaps a start-up
• a software development contractor or freelance
• thinking of starting a new business in high tech

you will find very interesting the possibilities that a highly focussed peer group can offer to you and your business.  Please have a look at the following questions:

• Are you working hard and making less money than you deserve?
• Have you ever asked yourself why some people work hard and barely survive while others seem to be thriving while working a few hours per day?
• Do you think there is space for improvement in your efficiency and effectiveness?
• Would you like to work more on your business rather than in your business?

If you answered yes to two or more of the above you should come along.

This one hour presentation will be run by Massimo Gaetani, business and executive coach, founder of MaGa Coaching.  The presentation will show you the tangible benefits of how working within a peer group, facilitated by a professional business coach, can help growing your business, focussing on essential profitable activities and being accountable toward yourself in achieving important milestones.

This is a free event: coffee and cakes will be available to participants.  Please book your place using the form below:

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Massimo Gaetani, MaGa Coaching’s CEO, was recently interviewed by Mark Peters and the Star Radio team during a seminar on Social Networking run by Ian McKendrick, a Cambridge based entrepreneur, consultant and social networking evangelist.

Massimo first describes here a few issues about coaching a business and what people can get out of it and then the important aspect of social networking to promote his business.   Enjoy the view:

Maga Coaching Interview 22nd July 2009 from Mark Peters on Vimeo.

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In sport having a coach is fact given for granted in order to guarantee performance, focussed effort, attention to details and continuous stretching of your personal motivation to succeed.  Many of the top performers in the show business or in politics are using more or less regularly the expertise of a professional personal coach.  A growing number of large companies and organizations are instilling a coaching culture as a definitive turn from the classic regimented management style based on control and command.

A survey, run by the International Coaching Federation, has revealed a number of highly positive results out of a sample of over 200 business owners, professionals and managers that used coaching.  The main role of the coach was: 84.8 % sounding board, 78.1% motivator, 56.7% friend and 50.5% mentor.  Among the outcomes of coaching we can see:  67.6% higher level of self-awareness, 62.4% smarter goal-setting, 60.5% more balanced life and 57.1% lower stress levels.  The typical issues addressed by the coach we can list: 84.5 % time management, 74.3% career guidance, 73.8% business advice and 58.6% relationship / family issues.

In business people have historically used various sources of education and personal skill to fill the gap between what is expected from their employer or clients and what their natural performance is.  There are obviously many multi skilled people that can plan, organize, manage, sell, invoice, recover credits and grow their business all alone.

As their business grows also the need for more and more specialized skill increases and the single business owner or the partners involved in the business tend to run out of their personal skills. From time to time we all acknowledge the need of a:

• Solicitor to prepare and check business contracts or to manage some unfortunate litigations with clients and supplier
• Accountant to prepare the company accounts and tax return
• HR expert for employment matters
• Marketing expert for PR, adverts, promotion
• Computer support to guarantee an efficient and smooth running of our computer systems

The list can be a lot longer depending on the circumstances: it is accepted and common understanding that for a large number of specialized services you will ask for the expertise of a person or company that offers and guarantees success in a particular area.

At the same time when it’s about personal performance, organization, time management, motivation and people management there is a general assumption that these skills can be learnt in the field, with little or no formal preparation or training. A professional executive coach can help you focussing on the two or perhaps three areas you would like to boost or improve in your current job and support you to achieve excellence.

So as a conclusion to this post I would suggest the following.  If we are asking “who needs a coach?” the answer could be: “most people that want to excel in what they are doing”.

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I was recently at a talk organized by Cambridge Network where Louise Makin was presenting her 4 years at BTG and the great transformation she managed to undertake in this company.  The first part of the presentation was factual: the company was financially in a very bad shape when she was first offered the position of CEO and she managed to lead a deep transformation in the culture and running of the company itself. A heterogeneous group of different business models and modus operandi that was carrying over £30M of losses in 2004 became a successful money making organization in 2008 when the company managed to acquire Protherics and it is now in a very strong position with £60M in the bank.  While the presentation continued into the more human aspects of running the company Ms Makin explained the continuous difficulty of running a public company where every decision has to be communicated to the market that ultimately will take decisions about buying or selling shares in the company.  She also made a great analogy in choosing the right team between the day to day running of a company with the aim to succeed and being part of an endurance sailing and running race.

She described how at the beginning decisions were tough:  redundancies were unavoidable and causing low morale. As the strategic plan proceeded it was obvious that the strong management team she put together had the right attitude and determination to succeed.  I found interesting her definition for these people is of being great givers: people that were and are truly interested in giving to the company energy, skills and full dedication without necessarily measuring their personal return.

Several times she mentioned her loneliness in running a large organization and the difficulty of sharing her doubts and insights in an environment where uncertainty can surely cause panic and instability to the market.

In my experience, once you make it to the top of an organization, you tend to share similar feelings and experiences, a great analogy to when you climb a mountain on your own.  You get to the top and, as you look around, you realise you are alone.  Many people, particularly those that report directly to you tend to assume you have something extra and they expect that extra from you, all the time.  You do not or cannot share with them your doubts and uncertainties and the pressure on you keeps growing.

In a situation like the one described above an Executive Coach can help a CEO or a top executive in their decision process, acting as a sounding board, a trusted person that can truly facilitate the decision process of the executive being coached while maintaining total confidentiality.  The main task for the coach is to ask questions, powerful open ended questions, without offering any input, suggestion or advice.  Coaching can make a big difference in the way you as the executive are running your business: best results are achieved when the coach manages to stay out of the content, that is the day to day drama, the decisions, the workload and source of stress and concentrates on the process, the coaching process of getting you toward your business goals.

Does it sound too abstract? Try it to believe it.

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