How would you respond today if a potential missionary client asks, “Do YOU have a coach?”

As coaches, our deepest values and beliefs are reflected in our behavior.  We are trained to believe that everyone is better and more focused when they are coached.  Genuinely believing that coaching enhances performance and accelerates growth means that as coaches we are committed to being coached ourselves. 

We all know how difficult it is for most missionaries to raise support and find the encouragement they long for. In many ways, they have had to learn to go it alone. Why would they risk their hard-to-come-by financial support on a coach that does not practice what they preach?  Perhaps there might be an easier and less expensive way to get the clarity and support they are looking for! 

Often our behavior as coaches implies that personal growth and being more focused applies to everyone except coaches themselves. We often have a variety of reasons/excuses for this: 

1.  “I’m not in transition right now, so I don’t need a coach.”
2. “I can’t afford it right now. My expenses were more than anticipated.”
3. “I’m already too busy. I just can’t add another thing right now!”
4. “I know the process well enough that I just coach myself.”
5. (insert your own personalized excuse here)

Hmmm…Sounds like some of the same things our potential missionary clients say when we discuss coaching with them, don’t you think?

We owe it to ourselves and to our clients to have the accountability of a coach…all the time not just sometimes!. Are you ready to take action?  Here are some steps to take:

1.  Factor the expense of having a coach into your budget as a cost of doing business well
2.  Ask a coach you know if they are interested in a peer coaching relationship
3. Join a mastermind group or other group coaching setting

To God be the Glory! He has great things in store for coaches, too! Feel His encouragement and let Him love (support) you through your own personal coach from 2010 and beyond!

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Pam Taylor has the heart of a missionary, having served with a mission organization in Costa Rica; Haiti; and San Quintin, Baja, Mexico. She is also a freelance writer, Biblical lay counselor and a life coach. To learn more and follow her blog, visit www.LoavesandFishesCoaching.com. Her passion is to help others discover their God-given strengths and invest them fully for His Glory. You can also reach her at pam@loavesandfishescoaching.com.