What We Do
Business Coaching
Business coaching is the process of supporting a business with its short or long term business needs, while simultaneously transferring practical business skills into the key individuals within the organisation. Shirlaws helps any business, regardless of size or market conditions, to establish and maintain growth, with the coaching methodology to ensure that growth can be sustained for the long term.
We believe cultural and commercial issues impact on each other in a business. Our approach establishes a balance between those issues, and our coaches use a range of tools and frameworks to support businesses at various stages of their development. Our business coaching techniques are designed to lead business owners into a more strategic role, re-energise them and provide more opportunities for staff.
Shirlaws has, over many years, developed and evolved Intellectual Property that our coaches use to support our clients at various stages of their development.
We generate results for our clients by working with you and for you. It is about you, and Shirlaws, together. The following information answers some of the most commonly asked questions we hear, but we’d love to hear from you directly, contact us at Shirlaws Cayman, we’d love to talk.
How does business coaching differ from life coaching?
Our approach to business coaching is based on providing a strategic vision for our clients’ business growth. Life coaching is concerned with aiding people with transitions in their personal life and in the process of self-actualisation. The two fields are related – both are committed to supporting sustainable change – but generally require different skills sets to deliver different specific goals.
Who can benefit from business coaching
Any organisation can benefit from business coaching at any stage in their life cycle.
Our clients are already successful businesses, but they are also businesses that have reached a transition point. They recognise that, going forward, they now need to do things in another way in order to achieve a different set of commercial and cultural outcomes.
While products, industries and people vary, we see common issues across all our clients. Our job as business coaches is to help clients become clear on the issues affecting their development, help them make conscious choices and help them take action towards achieving their new vision.
What type and size of organisation does Shirlaws work with?
Shirlaws works with business of various sizes, bringing our experience to their different – and similar – business development needs. For example, in small and medium sized enterprises, Shirlaws often works directly with the owner or CEO to help articulate vision, improve cashflow and profitability, and ensure the business delivers team members a balanced lifestyle; for our larger clients, which can include publicly listed companies and government departments, we often work with a management team or specific executives on topics such as change management, staff performance, communication skills and business strategy.
Our various coaches also apply their experience to micro businesses, executive coaching, leadership teams and strategic boards.
If you think of the health of a business like that of an individual, then business coaching is a gym, not an emergency room. The vast majority of our clients are strong, healthy businesses that want to be in even better shape, and they’re looking to fast track that work by leveraging from somebody else’s experience.
We work with businesses at all stages of their lifecycle, from start-up and the initial growth phase through to planning for future growth and establishing a sustainable business that will live beyond its founders or current owners.
Shirlaws’ highly valued intellectual property allows us to address the specific needs of a single business by bringing into practice the contextual challenges and decisions that are common to all businesses.
Can Shirlaws quantify the Return on Investment for its clients?
Shirlaws clients receive both cultural and commercial benefits through their relationship with their coach. Some of these are easily measurable on their financial statements – revenue and profit growth, marketshare – and some are less so – reduced stress, improved communication.
We work with all of our clients to ensure they are clear on the specific outcomes they desire from coaching, and then work towards those outcomes. Where relevant to the client, this will include specific tracking and measuring of the outcomes attributable to the coaching.
We Love Business and business is all about achieving returns. We therefore constantly check in with our clients to ensure their Shirlaws “journey” is achieving for them the results they need and are working with us to achieve.
