Have you ever asked yourself, “What is a productivity coach?”
Are you considering working with a productivity coach for your business, career, or life?
In this article, you’ll find out what a productivity coach is and how you can effectively work with one.
What is a Productivity Coach?
A productivity coach is a professional who helps small business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals work more efficiently and effectively in their business and careers.
These professionals can help teach people and work with them on improving their relationship with productivity.
They can also help people improve their productivity mindset when it comes to getting things done, as well as teach people productivity tools, skills, and approaches.
A productivity coach can be a helpful addition to your professional life as they can help you see things you may be unable to see in your day-to-day work. They can objectively view your approach towards work and help you see things more clearly.
Who Should Use a Productivity Coach?
You should consider using a productivity coach if you are struggling to get things in your business or career.
For instance, you may find that you are:
- Procrastinating on client and customer work
- Misplacing or losing important work or materials
- Working on non-urgent and non-important tasks
- Not setting appropriate goals for yourself in your work
- Avoiding boundary setting or enforcing boundaries
- Working late hours in your business when
- Not taking regular breaks throughout the day, week, month, year
- Holding onto tasks instead of delegating them to your team or assistant
You may also wish to use a productivity coach if you have difficulty with any of the following items:
- Perfectionist tendencies when it comes to completing your work
- Difficulty delegating tasks, assignments, and projects to others
- Unsure as to how to prioritize daily, weekly, and monthly tasks
- Regularly avoiding management of assistants, team members, and contractors
- Setting work-life boundaries while managing your business
- Appropriately planning projects and assignments with adequate lead times
What are the Benefits of Using a Productivity Coach?
There are many benefits to using a productivity coach. Let’s review several key benefits that can help you in your business and career.
Guidance
A productivity coach can help guide you towards making the right decisions for yourself when it comes to productivity. For instance, I guide clients who are looking to improve their relationship with productivity.
They’re tired of the “hustle and grind” want to make a clean break from that approach Perhaps you may be looking for guidance on how to view the bigger picture when it comes to your workload and how things fit together.
A productivity coach can help you better understand where you may be falling short in your overall approach.
Support
Sometimes, it can help to have support when you’ve missed appointments or failed to successfully plan a project timeline. A productivity coach can help lend an ear and guide you through those bumpy days or weeks.
They can also give you some thoughtful perspective when things don’t always go to plan and provide reassurance.
Another great part of having ongoing support is that a coach can cheer you on and celebrate your productivity accomplishments together with you!
Accountability
Do you tend to follow through on what you’ll say you do in your work? Or do you do something different?
For example, if you say you’re going to email someone some information by Friday at 5 pm, do you sent the information the following Tuesday morning? If you tell a client you’ll attend an optional meeting, do you skip it without communicating why?
A productivity coach can provide accountability support to ensure you are successfully following through on your assignments. They can also help you stay on track when it comes improving your productivity mindset.
They can also keep you accountable by letting you know when you may be inadvertently thinking negatively about your work. This can be quite an eye-opener, indeed!
Instruction
Part of working with a productivity coach is having them show you how to appropriately use productivity approaches, tools, techniques, and skills in the most effective manner.
For example, you may be using several productivity tools or techniques right now in your schedule, but perhaps you’re not using them in most effective way for your individual situation.
Likewise, maybe you could benefit from some instruction in productivity approaches that you haven’t yet considered or were made previously aware.
Unbiased approach
Having a coach means you’ll have someone who is in your corner, ready and willing to help you succeed with getting things done. One of the best things about having a productivity coach is that they have a professional relationship with you.
They are laser focused on your particular challenges with productivity and how you’re showing up to your work every single day.
That being said, you can receive honest feedback and guidance to help you move yourself forward in your work. This is in contrast to, say, perhaps friends, family members, or others close to you, who may not be as forthcoming in their suggestions.
What is a Productivity Coach’s Approach to Coaching?
As a productivity coach, people will often ask me, “How exactly do you coach productivity?”
When I work with clients, I ask them what’s going well in their business, what’s not going so well, and where they feel they need help. This helps give me an idea of where they are at this current moment
In our conversations, we’ll tend to uncover things that weren’t previously voiced or discussed initially. A lot of questions and honest answers are key here in order for the coaching relationship to work.
Many times, I’ll find that in working with a client, the issue that they came to me with truly isn’t the issue, but rather a symptom of a greater problem.
Someone may say they have no time to do their work. But in reality they have plenty of time on their calendar. The real challenge is their awareness and having them relax so they can successfully work.
That’s part of my role as a productivity coach, to help people tease out what the problem truly is. I help them find a way to successfully solve it and move on with their business and work.
Every coach has their own method, but you can be pretty sure they want their client to make consistent progress.
For me personally, I take the progress not perfection approach.
While I want my clients to learn more about themselves, their work, and how they show up in their relationship towards their work, I don’t expect things to be perfect.
That’s part of the puzzle when we deal with productivity. We must be flexible and ready to change at a moment’s notice.
Where Can You Find a Productivity Coach?
You can find productivity coaches in a variety of places.
Of course, you can certainly conduct a search for a productivity coach online by doing a search in an internet browser. But that’s just only one way.
Here are some ways to find a productivity coach that you may not have previously considered.
Ask people you know for recommendations
One way to find a productivity coach is to tap into your professional and personal network. You might know someone who knows of a productivity coach or might know someone who does.
You can ask friends, business contacts, colleagues, mentors, and others in your profession, industry, or career. A quick conversation, be it a phone call, email, or text message, might be your lead in finding a productivity coach.
Attend in-person and online events, webinars, trainings, and presentations
Many times you can find a productivity coach right when they are sharing their knowledge and teaching others. For instance, I’ve presented webinars for SCORE on the subjects of productivity and time management for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Check social media platforms, newsletters, chatrooms, or inquire with your professional or business associations for any upcoming events. And if none are offered, ask if they would be wiling to host an event with such a coach. You never know if you don’t ask!
Read Productivity Coach articles, books, and blogs
Another handy way to find a productivity coach is to do some reading. Not only will you learn more about a particular subject, but you’ll get a better feel for how a productivity coach approaches productivity.
If you like what you read, there may be a chance you’ll be interested in working with the productivity coach in a 1:1 setting.
For instance, I write about productivity, time management, and work-life balance in my column for Inc.com. There’s lots of articles here on my blog where you can a sense of how I present information to people.
I’ve had clients say to me, “I was reading some of your articles and I really like the way you approached the subject of productivity.” That got them interested enough to set up a strategy session with me.
If you’re looking for more ways to find a productivity coach in today’s digital world, check out my article to learn more about finding a productivity coach online.
How to Hire a Productivity Coach
Hiring a productivity coach can be an exciting endeavor. But how exactly should you go about the process to find a coach that is complimentary to your personality, needs, and goals?
One thing can you do right away is to consider where you’re having difficulty in your productivity levels in your business or life. And this doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out affair. Even taking brief 15 minutes to think about this can be helpful to help you organize your thoughts.
Your productivity coach will most likely ask you more questions when you meet with them. However, when you start the process yourself, that can help you formulate questions to ask the coach when you meet with them.
Secondly, if you’re researching a productivity coach, be sure to take a look around their website or social media profiles. You’ll learn a lot more about their approach towards coaching and what to expect should you decide to work with them.
The frequently asked questions or FAQs sections on a website can also be helpful when it comes to having your questions answered. Of course, don’t forget about sending an email or a message if you have a particular question that wasn’t answered.
Thirdly, if you’ve come across a coach that is of interest to you, you can book a free strategy session or discovery call. This initial call with a coach to help you learn more about them, to see if you’re a good fit, and to learn more about their programs.
What Questions Can You Ask a Productivity Coach?
Thinking about working with a productivity coach?
Here’s some basic questions you can ask when you’re interviewing productivity coaches.
- What’s your approach towards productivity?
- How do you work with clients?
- What’s a typical client engagement like?
- What do you expect from your clients?
- When would we meet for our sessions?
- How often would we meet for our sessions?
- Are sessions in-person or via phone or video?
- What are your packages?
- What’s included in each package?
- What’s the investment (price) for your packages?
Of course, feel free to brainstorm your own questions.
Remember, the more questions you ask, the more informed you’ll be when it comes to selecting a productivity coach.
In case we haven’t yet met virtually, it’s nice to meet you! Hi, I’m Rashelle Isip, The Order Expert®, productivity coach for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and professionals.
If you liked this article and want more, here are a few ways you can stay in touch:
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