When I am in the one to one individual coaching, I typically listen for what the CEO is not saying. Often times, I will hear them talk about the same issues over and over. When this happens, I ask myself, ‘what are we missing’? 

That is when I suspect there is something that the CEO ‘doesn’t know that he doesn’t know’. At that point, I become a detective, draw on my experience working with other business owners and compare notes about what others with similar companies and issues are doing. 

I can usually come up with questions that will get the CEO looking under those rocks that they have been walking by for a while.

At its best, this will lead to new conversations about new ideas and help move the CEO and his business in a different direction. The key for me as the Coach is to not give them the answer but to lead them down a few paths and see what is discovered.  

If I give them an answer that I think is the ‘right’ one, the discovery may stop there. When I keep probing and asking deeper and deeper questions, the discovery takes on a life of its own.

Usually, this results in ideas and solutions that neither of us expected. The results that we have seen is that companies find more focused alignment, have happier employees, and reach their revenue goals quicker.