A farm business coach? Don’t coaches run sports teams? What have they got to do with farming?
These are great questions so here are some answers.
What is a GrowFARM business coach all about?
A GrowFARM business coach sits closely alongside the farmer to facilitate the farmer’s OWN growth and development in helping them achieve what they really want. Facilitating means focussed guidance of the business owner, as opposed to purely technical advisory for the farm. They draw understanding from the farmer so that new learning generated (through action taking) actually “sticks.” A coach helps farmers make highly effective decisions to deliver vastly improved results for themselves, their families and their businesses, year on year.
Why is a GrowFARM business coach important?
Generating vastly improved results requires new habits and usually a new paradigm. At times the farm business owner may be so busy that they feel they don’t have the energy, time, systems, knowledge or inclination to step back and make the necessary changes. There may not even be awareness of the need to have new habits to get new results!
A GrowFARM coach provides the objectivity, know-how and systems to help you do just that – deliver the changes and results you really want. There is ongoing accountability, support, learning, training, development and systems. Accountability means Farm Business Owners are held to delivering great results for themselves. Those that can consistently deliver great results without help are a very small minority. Having that growth guidance role available has become a necessity for those who really want to step their businesses up.
How does a GrowFARM business coach operate?
The GrowFARM coach focuses on you as a person and puts the systems and processes around you to help you step up as a Business Owner Thinker. You will be held to constantly operate with this mindset.
The coach will guide you to define your overall business parameters and strategic plan. You will be kept focussed on DOING what really matters to make the plan happen. They will question you to draw out understanding, awareness and learning. You are then helped to make use of this new learning by taking action in a focussed way.
The GrowFARM Online Business Analysis System allows you to measure and forecast your business and individual livestock profitability on the fly. You will be coached how to use, interpret and drive that system. You will learn how to make decisions to receive profit at the right times through the year.
Regular contact means the GrowFARM coach will be there for you on an ongoing basis as habits take time to build - a coach understands this. Consequently, there needs to be a culture of business owners synergising together in the quest for great results. GrowFARM fosters such a client culture to ensure that everybody wins from it.
What qualities does a GrowFARM business coach need to have to really help me?
A coach needs to have many skills. This list includes but is not limited to:
· Being trustworthy and having integrity
· Being prepared to live the principles that they are helping their clients to learn.
· Having an appreciation of the challenges and opportunities facing farming clients
· Having personal experience of striving to achieve and being successful
· Having empathy through experience
· Having the ability to draw out understanding from their clients through focussed questioning
· Being able to listen well and view the situation from the farm business owners viewpoint
· Holding themselves and clients to high standards and an attitude of excellence, including keeping clients on track when they want to get off it.
· Being an accurate thinker who can “stay the course”
View the GrowFARM Service Promise, including the coaching and client contact process Read more.....
To decide if a GrowFARM business coach is for you, contact GrowFARM today and find out how you and your business can deliver great results! Contact GrowFARM
This article appears in the GrowFARM Connector (April 2010) - our monthly e-Newsletter. Click here to subscribe to the e-Newsletter