Since Muramatsu began working with Robbins, she's coordinated several fashion shows, created a new line of jewelry, and launched a monthly trends newsletter for customers. In early 2005, she launched a personal styling consultancy. "She'll size up anything you show her--a dress, shoes, jewelry--and style it in a way that can only be called art, " Daily Candy, an e-newsletter for shopping aficionados, wrote in April 2005. Muramatsu credits her new focus and creative energy with helping boost sales some 27 percent a year for the past two years.
Of course, not everything is perfect. For Muramatsu, the coaching relationship has become a bit uncomfortable in a way that she can't really articulate. For one thing, two years into the coaching, she fears she may use Robbins too much. "I'm beginning to feel that I've got to rely on myself, trust myself more, learn when to use and when not to use the coaching," she says. "The coaching can be a drug." She doesn't intend to stop meeting with Robbins, but she does plan to "give it a little bit of a break." The two discussed the matter. They now meet less frequently.
Dina Dwyer-Owens knew she wouldn't have much time to prove herself. It was 1999, and at the age of 36, she had just been handed the reins of the Dwyer Group following the death of her father, who had run the company for nearly two decades. They were large shoes to fill. Under Don Dwyer's guidance, the company, based in Waco, Texas, had grown from a single carpet-cleaning franchise into a publicly traded mini-conglomerate that comprised six franchise brands providing residential and light industrial services--including Mr. Rooter, a plumbing and drain-cleaning franchise; Mr. Electric; Mr. Appliance; and Glass Doctor, which repairs windows. When Dwyer-Owens took over, the company had revenue of $16.5 million, with 101 employees and 978 franchisees.
Dwyer-Owens had worked at the company for most of her career. Still, the transition from employee to boss turned out to be trickier than she'd expected. "I was a younger person taking on the role of running a substantial company that was typically male-dominated," she says. Setting priorities was a real problem. In her first months at the helm, she found herself getting sucked into meetings that she didn't need to be in and having a hard time doing the things that had to be done. The Dwyer Group was in the midst of major changes, including an acquisition. But Dwyer-Owens found it excruciatingly difficult to find the time to sit and strategize. "That didn't feel productive to me," she says.
Group coaching is powerful. You learn far more because you hear the experiences of other people."
After six frustrating months in the CEO chair, Dwyer-Owens learned that both her financial adviser and her lawyer separately were involved in a program called the Strategic Coach. Unlike a coach who comes to your office and works with you one-on-one, the Strategic Coach holds quarterly meetings with a group of entrepreneurs with similar annual incomes. (Only those with annual incomes of more than $100,000 may join.) The company was founded in 1974 by Dan Sullivan, who started his career as an advertising copywriter in Toronto only to discover that many of his clients needed help with a lot more than their ad campaigns. In 1974, Sullivan left advertising and started coaching individuals full-time. In 1988, he decided group coaching workshops made more sense. He began training other coaches in his method and now has 16 coaches leading about 140 quarterly workshops in North America. Fees range from $4,500 to $8,500 a year.
The group route is becoming more common. "Group coaching is powerful," Sullivan says, "because it requires a higher level of accountability than one-on-one. You learn far more because you can hear the experiences of other people." It's also worth noting, of course, that most coaches are entrepreneurs in their own right, and one way to expand a coaching business is to work with more than one person at a time.
A few months after she heard about the program, Dwyer-Owens enrolled in a workshop that met in Rosemont, Illinois, near Chicago, signing up for four quarterly sessions. As she walked into the conference room at 8 a.m., she didn't know what to expect. She was immediately surprised by the number of people who were in the room--between 35 and 40. She knew she'd be in a group, but she'd thought it would be smaller. She helped herself to breakfast and began chatting with the other participants. It seemed like the usual business breakfast meet 'n' greet, but Dwyer-Owens was determined not to treat it that way. "Usually, I'd be passing my cards to everyone, working the group. But that wasn't my focus there," she says. "This was about me getting better as an individual."
At 8:30, Gina Pellegrini walked into the room. Pellegrini is an associate coach with the Strategic Coach, and also owns an Eden Prairie, Minnesota, company called #O.N.E. Concepts, which provides small companies with outsourced management and employee development services. A Strategic Coach client herself, she leads workshops in Santa Monica and Toronto in addition to Chicago. As the entrepreneurs ate their breakfasts, she mingled with the group and introduced herself. At 9 a.m., the ringing of chimes ushered Dwyer-Owens to her seat, along with the other entrepreneurs in her "pod," as these workshops are known. Pellegrini told the group what they would learn that day. Every workshop focuses on a core concept. At the heart of the system is time management, which is just what Dwyer-Owens was hoping to master.
