Matt Brewer
Contributing Writer
Success Academy Trainer

First of all let me say that I love football, in particular the NFL. Every year there are teams that go from the worst team in football to legitimate playoff contenders. Take the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs for example. They were awful, finished with a 2-14 record. Changes were on the horizon and it started with the coach. They brought in Andy Reid in from Philadelphia and he had an immediate impact on the Chiefs success. In 2013 Kansas City was the last team in the league to lose a game and ended up finishing the season with an 11-5 record. Sure there were some players that changed either through free agency or the draft, but for the most part it was the same team. So you may be thinking what does this story have to do with growing my business?

Andy Reid didn’t just bring in a new playbook when he took over the job, he brought in an attitude of success and changed the culture surrounding the organization.

Everyone in our organization plays a role. We have the technicians servicing our clients, our call takers booking clients and handling administrative duties, managers handling their day to day operations, and owners who spend a lot of time working in their business instead of on their business. However, we ALL play a part in creating the culture that surrounds our organization.

Culture may be the most elusive definition in all of business. It doesn’t have one definition and it is different for everyone. However, the one constant in all business cultures is coaching employees for improvement.

Just like Andy Reid brought in a different element of coaching to his players, we can bring in a different coaching element to our employees. Coaching has three main elements; consistency, focusing on behaviors/actions instead of numbers, and follow up.

Coaching should be done weekly with every employee in order to see the benefits of your efforts. Set up some time weekly with your employees, 15-20 minutes is all should take in order to have a successful session. Go in with a plan of what needs to be discussed and solicit feedback from the employee. Coaching is a two way street and needs to include the employee. If they have input in their development then they will work harder to be successful

During the coaching session, it is easy to focus on the numbers. Numbers run our business and determine if we are going to be successful or we fail. However, those numbers are determined by the behaviors that all of our employees display daily. If the behaviors change, the numbers will change. Take some time to determine what behaviors drive each number and ask your employee what behaviors they feel drive the number and focus on those behaviors.

Finally, to reinforce the coaching session, we have to follow up on the behaviors that we covered in our session. You could have the best coaching session with your employee and not see any improvement in their performance if you fail to follow up. Following up on a coaching session shows that you care about your employees development as well as the importance of displaying your coached behaviors to our clients.

Coaching and developing is a crucial piece in growing your business and retaining your employees. Many workers feel that the most important factor in staying with a company for a long time is the ability to grow within the company. By coaching and developing these employees, you will see the loyalty they show to your company increase and you will start to see your future leaders grow.

At Success Academy we will assist you in creating a coaching plan, show you different tactics to use to get the most out of your coaching session. We will also tackle the Barry Sanders of business and that is culture. Let us help you make your championship run by joining us in the classroom.

Success Academy Trainer Matt Brewer has over 15 years of experience in training and managing for a Fortune 500 company. During that time he successfully implemented a mass change in coaching tactics to increase productivity for over 800 customer service representatives. When the change was adopted, the company’s productivity increased by 7{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f}, as well as profits.  Matt teaches sales and communication skills through Success Academy to contractors nationwide.