Every organization has an operating system. Experienced coaches help organizations elevate their capabilities by adopting or upgrading their Business Operating System (BOS). Typically, coaches work closely with their clients for 18 to 24 months. Then, their clients are ready to “graduate” — although many keep their relationship with their coach for years.
During the BOS upgrade process, coaches facilitate a series of meetings where they teach the time-tested concepts, tools, and disciplines associated with building and running a great organization. They provide personalized insights about the central functions of business — vision building, customer relations, leading people, accomplishing goals, harnessing data, holding meetings, establishing processes, and understanding enterprise value.
Each BOS refers to coaches differently. For example, EOS® calls them Implementers. We’ll stick with coaches throughout this blog. And if you’re questioning whether a BOS coach is right for you, we invite you to read our in-depth guide On BOS Coaches.
I’ve coached dozens of Senior Leadership Teams, and we built Ninety to make it significantly easier for organizations to upgrade the BOS across their organization. Upgrading, like any effort associated with mastery, takes time. The process includes:
- Teaching the time-tested concepts, tools, and disciplines of the coach's BOS.
- Ensuring the client implements the BOS effectively and comprehensively.
- Providing accountability for the client’s stated goals, priorities, and processes.
- Guiding the client through solving problems.
- Inspiring deeper-level thinking by exploring new ideas, methods, and opportunities.
- Identifying gaps to reduce complexity and roadblocks.
- Challenging the organizational status quo while providing a fresh perspective.
- Helping the client address specific issues and accomplish long-sought objectives.
The coach’s end goal is to prepare their clients to become self-sufficient with what they’ve learned. Some BOSs refer to this as graduating the client from their BOS coach. It’s simply the inevitable result of good instruction — when the student is ready to be the teacher for their organization.
Teachers and Mentors Are Meant to Graduate Their Students
One of our writers was a high school English teacher before joining Ninety. He was proud when he went to the graduation ceremony for the last group of students he taught. He saw students' confident, smiling faces as they received their well-earned diplomas, but he remembered how hard they worked and the countless hours he put in to help those students graduate and prepare to be successful in their future. His time on their journey was at a close.
Just as Joseph Campbell outlined in the archetypal character of the mentor in every hero’s journey, teachers and coaches are meant to bring the hero to a point of autonomy and independence. They support the hero by providing the concepts, tools, and disciplines needed for independence.
As you can imagine, after working together for months, coaches and their clients almost always build a great relationship, and it’s common for graduation to have its own set of challenges. But independence benefits both parties:
- Coaches will have more time to allocate to clients at the beginning or at the heart of an upgrade journey.
- Coaches will have more time to help graduated clients with some form of refresh or support during a challenging period.
- Clients can test their level of mastery and, if necessary, re-engage with the coach if there’s more work to be done as they continue toward turning their Vision into reality.
Coaches, Here’s How to Smoothly Transition Your Clients
I’ve had many clients reach out for a refresher or support over the years. Many have asked me to help with a Quarterly or Annual Planning Meeting or a refresher after an acquisition.
Ninety bridges the gap between graduation and re-engagement. The platform and our best-in-class support keep things running smoothly after your client graduates and make it easier for you to re-engage since one of Ninety’s core functions is being a system of record for everything the client has done since you last worked together.
It’s even easier when clients leave the coach in the account, so the coach continues to receive emails recapping all their weekly, quarterly, and annual meetings. On top of that, the coach can look at the client’s toolbox to see if there’s been any regression in the concepts, tools, and disciplines the client has mastered. If and when they reconnect, the coach will have all the data they need to be informed about how the client is doing and how they can best help. Often, a coach may even be able to spot a problem before they meet.
As long as your clients have Ninety, they’ll keep running their BOS effectively because of the work you did together.
Partner with Ninety Today
If you’re new to Ninety, contact us today, and we’ll show you how we can help you or your clients run your Business Operating System on our platform. We can help you decide which BOS is right for you, set you up with templates within our tools, and support you every step of the way.
