If you know me, you know I’m a big Florida Gators fan. If you don’t know me, well, I’m a pretty big Florida Gators football fan. I’m also an Executive Coach and Business Consultant. Sometimes I’m lucky, and those two worlds intersect. That happened last week in Coach Dan Mullen’s post-game interview.

Dan Mullen on the challenges of success

If you don’t know, Florida Gators football has not been great for the last few years. Coach Mullen inherited a program that had four wins the prior year. After two years he has turned things around, with back to back winning seasons and victories in two New Years Six Bowls.

But after this year’s victory in the Orange Bowl, he said something that resonates for all successful business leaders. “It was tough to go from four to 10 wins, and it was tougher to go from 10 to 11 wins, it’s even harder to go from 11 to 12. The mental and physical toughness that it takes, the preparation that it takes, starting January 6th, when we get back, the 2020 team’s born. The mental toughness that it takes to come in, day after day, work, push yourself to get better. We have to do more than we did last year.”

How I can help you gain more success as an Executive Coach

When I started my practice as an executive coach, I was most excited about working with successful leaders. In my career, I had very successful years as both a contributor and as a leader. Regardless of role, the constant was that as soon as those final numbers roll in, you have about two weeks to celebrate that success. Then you find a way to do it again. And again. I know how hard it is to roll up your sleeves and do the hard work to be even more successful. Expectations never go down. You keep pushing.

The challenge is figuring out how to get there. Will the same effort yield the same results? Can you repeat what you did last year and beat last year’s growth? Will the same strategies work for you? Answering these questions and finding the answers is where an executive coach can help.

To go back to Coach Mullen, he knows he’s going to have to do things differently to get to the next level in 2020. New strategies, new tactics. The things that worked last year won’t necessarily work next year. Successful executives and business leaders hire coaches to get to the next level. They hire a coach because they moved the team from 4 wins to 10 wins, but they know as hard as that was it is even harder to get to 11 wins, and then 12.

How will you know if you need an executive coach to get to the next level in 2020? Here are a few signs courtesy of the Lead to Win podcast:

1.     You’ve had great success, and you’re not sure how to replicate it.

2.     Your competitors are getting more aggressive, and you’re fighting harder than ever to acquire and retain customers.

3.     You need to grow professionally to lead your organization to the next level.

If you want that extra edge going into 2020, consider hiring an executive coach. Let’s talk and see if we might be the right fit.

Here’s to a successful 2020!