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We Recommend: Chuck Scharenburg -One of the issues that successful business people used to face was whether or not to professionalize management. Many family businesses found themselves asking the difficult question "do we bring in an outsider when we discover our gene pool is getting a little shallow?"
For the last 40 years, this issue has been thrown back and forth between two warring camps-- those who believed that management of a family business should remain in the family, and those who believed that management should be professionalized by the introduction of outsiders. What didn´t appear to occur to many people at that time was that there was a third option: to use a coach, who can play a constructive role in the process of business development and growth, to help shape professionals from within the family. This third option, through ongoing questioning and analysis, allows the family business to develop the management they wanted internally by using an outside party as a consultant. Today, business owners and managers are embracing coaching in unprecedented numbers. The advent of technology like the Internet has allowed people to communicate with each other in real time, making an ongoing relationship with a coach or consultant even easier and more convenient. In terms of coaching, the motto of Scharenberg Associates pretty much says it all: "helping business people achieve extraordinary results!" Indeed, this is what coaching is all about—results. And Chuck Scharenberg should know. Chuck established Scharenberg Associates, a business coaching and consulting organization; in 1988 to assist business owners and independent professionals grow their business, in a way that is consistent with who they are and what is important to them. Chuck has been involved in business coaching for 20 years, and has worked as an independent coach for the last ten. His clients include firms in the real estate, healthcare, mortgage, computer technology, legal, distribution and manufacturing industries. As Chuck points out in his credo, we often lose site of the fact that a business isn´t always an end in and of itself: for many of us, a business is a means to an end, a way to support ourselves and our families so that we might enjoy the life we want to lead. In the literature of business today, that idea is often anathema: there, the reigning concept is that business is the guiding force in the life of the business owner, and everything that doesn´t serve the business is secondary. "Properly run," Chuck´s credo states, "a business may be an effective tool to support the business owner to attain larger goals and commitments in life. Too often, rather than supporting business owners, the business enslaves them to its care. Rather than a tool to enhance life, a business may become a millstone to be battled daily." So how can a coach help you properly run your business? How does coaching work to support business owners? In Chuck´s case, the answer lies not only in training and experience, but in a working with companies that genuinely want to change. Chuck has significant success working with clients who accept challenges, make quick decisions, and create motivational environments. They rely on him to ask the questions that they don´t ask themselves; and to assist them "re-calibrate" or get clear on what is important, identify which actions will generate growth, and then create processes, structures, and systems that sustain it. Chuck refers to four "buckets" which are crucial in determining if, and more importantly, how your company will benefit from coaching. These buckets become part of an evolutionary relationship between the company and the coach: 1. Developing a foundation that will support your business strategy in the long term. Clearly, this is important for any business. By qualifying and quantifying the size and scope of the work you want to achieve with the coach, you will be able to identify the specifics of a strategic game plan to leverage your best opportunities. 2. Determine what kind of contract we want to provide, including addressing the sales process: Chuck is skilled in coaching the sales process, and he understands that the most immediate way to increase profits is to improve sales results. As a coach, he can help guide you discover untapped "gold" in your existing client base, and support your expansion into new markets. 3. People skills (Leadership skills): Companies often suffer from poor communication with their peers, their employees, their customers, and in some cases with board members or other supervisory individuals. Communication and people management are even more crucial to the owner or manager of an organization. 4. Business Skills: Chuck has a background in organizational development, including experience managing issues of organizational culture, group dynamics, and business structures, systems, and strategies. He stresses that, as a company grows, the same structures that supported expansion to a certain level often keep the company at that level. He can help you sniff out the limiting structures and replace them with systems that allow for growth and flexibility. Chuck works with a concern for his client´s personal and life-style requirements, as well as the stress implications of becoming more effective leaders with increased potential. As a result, his clients have a way to leverage their best opportunities, clarity concerning the unique processes that support their goals they get into action and exceed their goals.
Chuck Scharenberg can be reached via email. << Back to Homepage |