Big Picture Coaching
Your coach.
Even though he doesn’t wear a whistle or bench you after a bad play, he’s all business, helping develop strategies for time management, prioritization and profit.
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Not an unfamiliar concept on the West Coast or in our region’s larger cities, the trend toward business coaching is finding its way into Rhode Island companies – an untapped market for the talents of the established coaches who choose to move here.
“While coaching is not new in California, it’s new in Rhode Island,” said Mary Jo Rossi, president of Warwick-based Big Picture Coaching, who was interested in relocating to the area to be closer to family in upstate New York.
And even though she moved to the Ocean State only 11 months ago, already Rossi’s goals seem clear: “I want to be the number one coach in Rhode Island. I want to coach small business owners – I want to be the coach in Rhode Island you can turn to whenever you want to be ultra-successful.”
Coaching is a process Rossi likened to brainstorming – methodically helping people figure out what steps they need to take to achieve a specific goal.
“My job is to ask the right questions and help you find out for yourself what you need to be successful and happy in what you do,” she said.
Jeff Broadhead, president of InnerBusiness in Narragansett, who also acts as a job coach, said he gives his clients a little push.
“My forte is helping people know what they already know,” said Broadhead. “Business, to me, is not about logical decisions. It’s about making decisions emotionally and backing them up with logic.”
Broadhead also offers help in grant writing, strategic planning and meditation, among others.
During the first quarter of 1998, the International Coach Federation (IFC) surveyed 210 coaching clients for demographic data, feedback and opinions about the value and use of coaching.
Of these respondents, nearly 94 percent were employed professionals. All had a formal, ongoing relationship with an ICF coach, with an average duration of nine months. More than 80 percent of the respondents had undergraduate degrees and more than a third had a master’s degree or higher.
More than ninety-eight percent of respondents cited the investment in a professional coach as “very valuable” or “valuable.” Fifty percent said they confided in the coach as much as their best friend, spouse or therapist. The two primary roles of the coach were as sounding board (84.8 percent ) and motivator (78.1 percent) and the two most typical issues discussed were time management (80.5 percent) and career guidance (74.3 percent).
Outcomes participants attributed to coaching included a higher level of self-awareness (67.6 percent), smarter goal-setting (62.4 percent), a more balanced life (60.5 percent) and lower stress levels (57.1 percent).
Rossi discovered coaching after she hired a coach for herself. She said after almost 20 years working in San Diego as a political campaign strategist she realized at some point in her 30s that there was “something missing here.”
After exploring several different career options with the help of her coach, Rossi found the more she learned about the coaching process, the more she realized it was a potential career path for herself.
Rossi went through the Coach University training program, a school based in Colorado Springs, Colo., that offers a two year certificate program through a variety of methods, including teleconferencing, self-study, reference books and personal guidance. The “university” describes itself as offering “the most comprehensive and effective training program for new and experienced coaches.” Today Rossi offers her services to clients who may need a regular weekly appointment with her or more infrequent sessions.
At this point, much of Rossi’s business is handled by phone and the majority of her clients are out-of-state, but she hopes to shift most of her business to Rhode Island clients as her business develops.
“I have clients I’ve never met,” she said. “I’m their silent business partner they talk to when something comes up, and I’ve never met them.”
In addition to individual clients, Rossi also coaches groups.
Through the use of role-playing and group discussions, “we actually figure out the answer to the problem right then and there,” she said.
That the coach/client relationship is a non-judgmental one based on confidentiality is a key aspect of the profession, Broadhead said.
“What is important to me is that coaching is a relationship between two people,” he said. “It’s a personal relationship in a business setting, which is neutral. I accept my clients as they are – I don’t try to change them.”
Broadhead said he encourages clients not to strategize solely from A to B. He tells his clients to look beyond B. “What (does) your life feel like now that you have your goal?” he asked.
Broadhead, too, has a coach. He asserts that they’re for any person who is not experiencing his or her “full and glorious success.”
Rossi said her ability to focus (“If there was a class on learning to focus, I’d get a 4.0 in it,” she said) is a large part of what aids her and her clients’ success.
“I hold my clients’ goals in my mind at all times – I’m always looking for ways to help them achieve what they want,” Rossi said. “I’m a good listener. Nobody needs a coach to succeed, but it helps to have someone there to help you figure things out and hold you accountable for what you say you’re going to do.”
Broadhead said the best part of the job occurs when someone reaches his or her goal – “When someone reaches their ‘a-ha!'”
