How To Coach Yourself To Better Performance

There is a lot of mystique surrounding coaching, but it is a relatively simple, common sense process. For the past 12 months or so I have added coaching services to my business, helping successful executives become even more effective.

Although a coach can be highly beneficial to unleashing an individual's full potential, it is perfectly possible to follow a self-help route. The key to successful outcomes is dependent on two aspects:

1. Improve your self-awareness. You cannot change until you are clearly and objectively aware of your existing level of performance.
2. Take responsibility for improvement. A mix of self-motivation and disciplined follow-through is required to make the behavioural changes necessary to improve your performance levels.

1. Clarify your top 3 priorities. Using your own experience, formal feedback mechanisms, and more informal feedback from colleagues, identify areas that you can drive forward to help you achieve your wider goals? Don't automatically focus on your perceived weaknesses. Take time to assess what will have the greatest impact. You may end up with a long list, but just pick two or three areas where you can focus and make big progress.
2. Turn your priorities into specific, achievable objectives. "Learning the piano" may be one of your major ambitions, but to move forward you need to turn this goal into more pragmatic objectives. A goal of having 10 piano lessons in the next 3 months makes this goal real and helps you take action.
3. Set up a 60 or 90-day plan to deliver your goals. You can get a lot done in 2 or 3 months if you maintain focus and commitment. Break down each objective into weekly milestones and commit to them.
4. Make delivery of these plans non-negotiable. Make sure that these milestones are your top priorities. Fit other activities around them, not vice versa.
5. Find an accountability partner. Being accountable to a third party keeps your feet to the fire, and helps you to keep your promises. Your partner shouldn't be a friend, or a shoulder to cry on, but someone whom you trust and who is willing to give you honest, objective feedback.
6. Monitor your performance. Ruthlessly track progress against your milestones and assess how this is impacting on your effectiveness. Compare your own views with feedback from others you trust. As you become more aware of your performance you will rapidly improve it.
7. Reward yourself. As you achieve your goals and plans (and even as you complete difficult tasks) take the time to reward yourself. This need not involve a huge financial outlay, but could involve leaving early from work one day to spend more time with your family, or simply enjoying a nice lunch.
8. Rinse and repeat. Once you've achieved success repeat the process and, over time, you will transform your personal effectiveness.