Adding Navigational Coaching, Combined With Innovative Marketing Produced Explosive Growth for this Coach Approach Business

Introduction

Coach Approach Limited has four directors, Simon Gibson, Corene Walker, Matthew Pickering and John Redpath. When you read their business bios, it’s no exaggeration to say they live and breathe coaching and that it permeates their bones. New Zealand is different, with dairy and other rural industries more prevalent than downtown corporate businesses. Their practice spans agriculture, business, industry, education, community and sport. It’s quite the eclectic mix and Navigational Coaching and the coach approach works for all of these. This interview is with Corene.

Situation

At the time we established our business, we had a very big following with the agriculture industry and dairy specifically. These businesses continue to achieve greater scale through amalgamations and intensification. This means that farmers who have high technical expertise suddenly need to become leaders. Many simply do not have the breadth and depth of skills to do this. Addressing this gap becomes a priority. We were called on for ‘leadership development’ to make these farms productive through their people.

Prior to Navigational Coaching, we were working with another coaching product. It was intended for the corporate sector and, unfortunately language within the product wasn’t transferable to the agricultural, education, community or sport audiences. Repeated requests to the product developers to change the language to fit our needs fell on deaf ears; it wasn’t on their radar at the time.   Fortuitously we learned of Navigational Coaching and, noticing its more flexible scope, jumped at the opportunity.

Solution

We’ve been using Navigational Coaching since 2010. One of the most exciting things we’ve discovered is that Navigational Coaching automatically influences “whole brain leadership and integration”. What is required by today’s leaders is the ability to work equally both their left brain (analytical, linear, factual, sequential) together with the right brain (creative, design, story, empathy, play, meaning).

Everything big happens with a conversation.  Because of the seismic shift happening in much of our world, leaders today are required to lead with a ‘whole brain approach’, and the literacy of coaching is essential to bring this about.  Consequently, we put this concept right up front in our marketing and at the workshop.

We have branched out into other sectors. Now we are also working with real estate agents, school educators, veterinarians, support services, engineers, non-profits and community groups.

We kept looking for opportunities to grow our business. Our best marketing results come from evening presentations sponsored by our strategic alliances. We have up to 80 people attend where they listen to a panel of 4 people from a specific industry like farming. The panel members have already participated in Navigational Coaching. They share their stories about what the coach approach has brought to their business. They describe how they are integrating coaching literacy into their professional and personal lives.

In other words, we work with the influencers in whatever market we are in. For two hours, these panels of people tell their stories, share their success, answer questions from the audience, and literally sell Navigational Coaching to other similar businesses.

We’re doing that same thing now in education and other industries where the collaborative approach makes such a difference. We’ve seen profitability, productivity, and positivity go sky high for our clients. People want to work for them and with them because of the change in culture that happens with Navigational Coaching. Their own growth and development evolves from their leaders using a coach approach with them. In that way, NavC literally sells itself.

Navigational Coaching is a magical product and has a tremendously broad scope. We don’t use the terminology manager-leader. Only 20% of our participants are managers and have that term in their job title. Rather, we use the term leader-coach. This opens the scope for practical application of Navigational Coaching and embraces everyone. They are still leaders–whether they lead from the front of a team, as part of the team, or from behind the scenes.

Now, “the business” comes to us. We specifically do not want this programme to be just a “feel good” two days. We make sure that participants put coaching into practice and their organisation receives a high return on investment.  It is now a non-negotiable in our contracts that we also do on-going one-on-one phone coaching after the initial workshop.

We work with participants to apply NavC to their challenges and opportunities as they happen. We promote “just in time” practice and capture the opportunity while they in the midst of an experience.  We also want to ensure the coach approach becomes an ingrained element within their leadership. To do this, we “shadow coach” –where we sit in with them while they are coaching others. This becomes a complete “bed down” process that anchors the learning and makes it a part of them and their everyday conversations.

The third phase of our programme is another workshop day 4-5 hours long, 6-8 weeks after the initial workshop. They bring their own agenda and get a much deeper application of the skills. We witness these leaders moving from transactional (doing) coaching to transformational coaching (being the leader-coach).  We believe this makes the shift permanent and sustainable for them.

Results

Our revenues keep increasing each year we use Navigational Coaching. It is our core product. We credit our profound and steady progress to this. It helps take our ceiling up to the next floor every year. Here are some specifics:

• Year 1 of Navigational Coaching = Year ending 31 March 2011
  Navigational Coaching provided 30% of the total income
  This contributed to the total income growing by 60% over the previous year
• Year 2 of Navigational Coaching = Year ending 31 March 2012
  Navigational Coaching provided 47% of the total income
  This contributed to the total income growing by 34% over the previous year
• From 2011 to 2012 the Navigational Coaching income part of our business grew by 108%.
• A snap shot of what is happening in the current year (2012) shows that Navigational Coaching has contributed to the 60% increase in total income for the months of March and April.

We attribute this growth to working with the Navigational Coaching programme and leveraging the whole “coach approach” through other areas of leadership development, and personal and professional development.

Navigational Coaching is infectious—healthily contagious. The demand is constantly increasing. At the time we’re writing this, over the last six months we’ve taken on an additional three coach associates. The partners’ schedules are full. We plan to hire additional associates. Mind you, this is a business with four directors! That should give you a sense of the phenomenal growth generated by adding Navigational Coaching.

It’s much easier to get new clients. Organisations with new leadership teams want everybody on the same page. The Navigational Coaching literally keeps the organisations evolving. They see the results and want even more. Those who have been through the programme are our greatest sales force. They promote us eagerly because of the leaps and bounds of their own development. The best part is that the ripple effect is on-going.

Where To Next?

Now you have an idea about how Navigational Coaching could enhance your facilitation practice, click on Case Study #4 to learn more.