Business Coach & Executive Coach: Is Professional Development Part of Your Strategic Action Plan?
However, if the tables were turned, is the coach investing in her or his own professional development? Professional development extends beyond formal education and training. Learning can be either informal or formal. And, professional development does not mean investing lots of money.
So what does professional development look like for a business coach or executive coach? The answer to that question is the infamous that depends.
The first place to start is to include professional development within your strategic plan as a critical success factor (CSF). A critical success factor is simply defined as being both necessary and sufficient to achieve the current mission. If you do not have a strategic plan, then stop and create one. Hire a business coach who specializes in helping to construct executable strategic plans along with the accompanying strategic action plan. The strategic action plan contains all the goals for all the critical success factors that need to be actively monitored during the next year.
By looking at your budget for professional development, you can begin to identify where you wish to invest your time and dollars and set the appropriate goals that will ultimately increase sales for your coaching business. For example, formal professional development goals can be:
Attending conferences both face to face or teleconference Taking a formal course Becoming certified as a coach
Informal professional development goals could include:
Reading books Reading journals Subscribing to online newsletters or Google alerts Reading newspapers Listening to audio books Joining a mastermind group Creating your own mastermind group Talking with a mentor Writing articles for electronic distribution such as Ezine Articles Writing a book
Some may think writing is not professional development. However, I beg to differ. Individuals who write become better thinkers and better thinkers become better writers. Also, writing involves research and ongoing learning. Writing is all about professional development.
In the next year, my professional development goals within my strategic action plan as a business coach include:
100 hours at 4 national conferences focusing on performance improvement Attending 2 teleconferences per month Attending 2 weekly mastermind teleconferences Reading one book every week Speaking with my mentor, coach and colleagues at least one time a week Writing a article a day for Internet article distribution Completing 2 books in 2007 for print
Bottom line an investment in your own professional development as a business coach or executive coach means being the best that you are and knowing that you have the skills supported through ongoing learning. Your clients will definitely appreciate your efforts and you will build continued loyalty with your clients, centers of influence and even prospects.
Related Tags: business coach, business coaching, strategic action plan, executive coach, professional development
Leanne Hoagland-Smith is a business coach who helps businesses to create executable strategic plans and the skills necessary to pull it off.
One quick question,if you could secure one new client or breakthrough that one roadbloack holding you back from success, what would that mean to you? Then, take a risk and give me, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, a call at 219.759.5601 to experience incredible results.
Visit http://www.processspecialist.com/ and explore everything from free articles to connecting with Leanne.
P.S. If you are seeking an affordable speaker or need a business writer, I may be just the person to meet your need.
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