Business Coaching: Why Successful Leaders Benefit from Working with a Business Coach

Updated on August 28, 2023

By John D. Laslavic, LPBC, President, ThistleSea Business Development, LLC 

We all know that business owners and executives face many challenges and have to overcome many struggles.  We also know that most if not all of these challenges can be overcome and struggles eliminated through adopting many of the success principles, business best practices and personal growth strategies through coaching, accountability and ownership.

If you look through modern history, most great performers, leaders, business owners, executives, sports figures, inventors, physicians, actors, military heroes and politicians at the top of their craft, profession or industry are coached.

While there are many examples of how coaching and mentoring has changed the lives of those successful individuals brave enough to be held accountable for what they really want to achieve, I would like to share two interesting Pittsburgh Area examples with you: Mr. Andrew Carnegie and Mr. Ray Russell.

In his autobiography, Andrew Carnegie, who grew up in Allegheny City, talks about his early professional experiences working and being coached by Mr. Scott, who later became the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  Out of those early experiences, Mr. Carnegie became so interested the secrets of success that, later in life, he hired a young man named Mr. Napoleon Hill to study and write about the habits of the most successful individuals of his era.

As part of the process undertaken by Napoleon Hill, he was asked by Mr. Carnegie to interview, study and document what the most successful businessmen, inventors and influential individuals did that made them most successful.  Out of those interviews, Mr. Carnegie paid Napoleon Hill to write the Organization of Science of Success Philosophy.  His book, “Think and Grow Rich” is acclaimed by many experts to be the first practical and most complete philosophy of how to achieve personal success. You might even say that Napoleon Hill was one of the first of the modern business coaches focused on personal success of business owners and executives.  His work in designing the 17 Scrolls of Success has been widely accepted, published, used and taught around the world.  Some business owners and executives make it an annual habit to read and re-read “Think and Grow Rich” every year.

What is a Great Business Coaching Relationship?

Business Coaching today is based upon the findings and results of the work of many men and women like that of Napoleon Hill.  The Business Coach helps the client identify what success is for the client and what the catalyst is behind the start of any successful personal pursuit, business venture or project.  What we have learned from the work of Napoleon Hill and others who followed him and from those who are driven to pursue, better understand and apply success principles in both personal effectiveness and business best practices is used by the client and the business coach to help the client reach a better future state.   The results of the discovery process are used by the business coach and the client to successfully build a plan of action and take actions to achieve success.

A current local business owner and ThistleSea client, Ray Russell, president of RoPro Design, Inc., is an example of an extraordinary talented engineer who has been advantaged by ThistleSea’s business coaching services to enhance his company’ performance and improve his personal life. Under Mr. Russell’s leadership, RoPro Design, Inc has completed projects designed to assist first responders, protect US soldiers from roadside bombs, assisting military medics to save soldiers lives using robotic technology on the battle field, educating the next generation of robotic software and hardware engineers, just to name a few of his company’s many  accomplishments.

The goals of the client in a business coaching relationship are the key.  And their goals are not always what you might think. Sure many business owners and business executives always want to make more money and profits, but quality of life is also critically important to many smart and successful clients.  If you want to learn more about how business coaching helped Ray Russell and his company accomplish his goals, visit http://tinyurl.com/4xmemwv  .

RoPro Design is a local company with the capabilities to make a difference by reducing the costs of health care through education, automation and innovation.  RoPro Design is making an impact in many industries including health and medical applications.  To learn more about RoPro Design, Inc. visit www.RoproDesign.com  or listen to an interview with Ray Russell by Big Blue Saw at http://youtu.be/OcI7vD_1BQU  .

If you would like to learn how business coaching and consulting services are assisting medical group practices, medical device companies, providers and alternative health care organizations, visit www.thistlesea.com  and contact Wendy Lydon, LPBC,  Vice President, ThistleSea Business Development, LLC  at [email protected] or call 724.935.1930.

© 2011 ThistleSea Business Development, LLC, All Rights Reserved

About the Author:

John D. Laslavic, LPBC is the President of ThistleSea Business Development, LLC, located in Wexford, PA.   He has 30 years experience coaching, consulting and working on the ground with the leadership of hospital & health systems, medical providers, associations, small businesses and suppliers of goods and services to the health care industry.  He is available for speaking to groups motivated by success and abundance.

ThistleSea Business Development, LLC is a business coaching, strategy development, training & business services company. We offer successful business owners custom One-On-One / Face-to-Face and Group business coaching in Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and Northern West Virginia and across the United States. Our coaching practice is supported by resources from a network of over 100 affiliated business coaches located across the United States and Canada.

“Because your business should lead to Abundance.”

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