Help Your Coaching Clients Survive the Coronavirus Winter: Part 1, Crisis Leadership

by | Dec 1, 2020 | Business Coach Training

Welcome to the first in a series of four posts designed to help your coaching clients make it through the last surge of the Coronavirus pandemic.

As the Coronavirus pandemic presses on, there’s good news and bad news for your SME coaching clients—and, indeed, the entire world—on the economic front.

First, the good news. After the initial shock of lockdowns and virus-fueled fear back in March, the economy has proven more resilient than many anticipated. The recovery has been stronger and faster than expected. The stock market remains solid. And there’s light at the end of the tunnel: in recent weeks, not one, but two vaccines have produced promising results in Phase 3 trials.

Now for the bad news. In the United States and Europe, virus levels are reaching record highs, and the trend will likely peak in the coming weeks. Unemployment is still high, with some 6.4 million people in the United States receiving benefits. And somewhere around 100,000 small, local businesses have permanently shut their doors, according to Yelp’s local economic impact reports.

Bottom line: the end is in sight, but things will probably get worse before they take a permanent turn for the better.

As a coach, what can you do? How can you help your coaching clients survive the next few months and put themselves in a position to weather the storm, so that they can emerge in even better shape on the other side of the coming Coronavirus winter?

Crisis Leadership Model

Back in March, when the pandemic started raging, I introduced this crisis leadership model to my business coach clients:

That is, businesses need to act quickly in order to adapt to rapid changes in a crisis market, and to execute on those adaptations effectively, so that they can make them at scale—or they risk ending up like one of the thousands of businesses that have permanently closed their doors.

If your coaching clients have made it this far, chances are good that you’ve done a great job helping them adapt and execute at scale. But as the pandemic, and therefore, in all likelihood, the economy, descends into one last downturn before a permanent resolution, you need to help them anticipate another shock and yet more adaptation to survive.

Accelerate into Adaption and Execution

Did you know that 65% of the Fortune 1000 were born in a recession or depression?

Companies with household names like GE, GM, IBM, Hyatt, Disney, FedEx, Microsoft, HP, Google, and Salesforce used the shock of widespread disruption to enter the marketplace and make a lasting difference.

Now is a time to lead innovation, to encourage your coaching clients to make necessary changes they might not have had the will to do before, to become more efficient, creative, nimble, and effective.

Now is a time to lead innovation, to encourage your coaching clients to make necessary changes they might not have had the will to do before, to become more efficient, creative, nimble, and effective.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll introduce you to three key strategies that will help your coaching clients adapt, execute, and scale so that they can make it through the Coronavirus winter.

Stay tuned.

Other posts in this series:

For more great tips like these, check out our FREE ebook, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star.

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