World’s No.1 ranked ActionCOACH Pam Featherstone talks to Bdaily about helping businesses become successful

Hull businesswoman Pam Featherstone was recently named the best performing coach in the world after reaching the top spot in the global rankings by ActionCOACH.

Throughout the past three years, Pam has successfully helped hundreds of businesses reach their targets and goals, which has highlighted with several business award wins.

From the get-go Pam saw outstandingly positive results as she won Best Clients Results for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire 2013 during her first year as an ActionCOACH.

Last year she was named North UK Coach of the Year 2014 as well as EMEA Rookie Coach of the Year, after fighting off competition from the rest of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) before becoming the UK’s top ActionCOACH in October 2014.

Earlier this year she was awarded North UK Coach of the Year 2015 and she’s also just picked up yet another two awards at the annual Business Excellence Awards in Portugal in April – Most Improved Coach of the Year EMEA 2015 (awarded for growing her business 387% in 12 months) and Coach of the Year EMEA 2015.

After beating out over 1000 coaches operating in 57 countries across the globe, Pam is now ranked as the No.1 ranked ActionCoach in the world, and Bdaily recently spoke with the Hull-based businesswoman to find out what it took to achieve such an impressive feat.

Firstly, congratulations on being named the number one ActionCOACH in the world, but let’s go back to your earlier career days, so how did you first become a business coach?

“I sold out my businesses and retired when I was 46. I then started investing in Property. I had quite a few people ask if I would give them some help with their businesses which i did gladly. I absolutely loved helping them. I then met an ActionCOACH business coach through the property company I was investing with. He invited me along to a conference and I was really impressed with the system and how it gave structure to help business owners grow their business and so went off to Australia to do the training and invested in a franchise.”

Do you mainly focus on helping businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber, and what sort of guidance do you provide?

“Yes, most of the businesses are in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire although I do coach businesses in areas such as North Yorkshire, West Riding, Northants and London plus several other countries.

“The coaching which I provide looks at all areas of the business and is a combination of both the linear challenges and personal development which business owners have. Linear challenges include time management, team performance, money including cash flow issues, marketing, sales, systems and quality of delivery of their products/services.I combine this with personal development work for the owners an their teams. You can have all the tools in the world but if the mindset and belief is not there, then the tools to run a successful business are not much use. I have done additional training to help business owners to understand the triggers that drive human behaviour so that they can work on the impact and influence that they have and also to maximise the performance of their teams.”

Throughout your experience helping businesses achieve their goals, what are some common themes that businesses always tend to have trouble managing?

“Time, Team and money are the key challenges and issues with consistency. We also do a lot of work on vision, mission and culture of businesses. For some it is also the fact that they have been in business for a long time and although they are successful, the business does not excite them anymore like it used to. I love helping business owners to get the passion back for their business, to maximise their potential and support them in getting a sense of purpose again.”

What did you achieve or have to accomplish to be ranked No.1 out of over 1000 coaches operating in 57 countries across the globe?

“The global ranking achievement is a combination and contribution of many people’s efforts and the support of my family. The efforts of myself with the results of my own business and my client retention figures and the dedication of my team and my clients as well as the support of my ActionCOACH community. I provide 1:1 coaching which is typically weekly, fortnightly or monthly and workshops on a host of business topics including sales, time management, sales, marketing, negotiation, finance and team building. There is also a Leadership and Management course and a 6 month rolling business education programme. There is also a quarterly full day 90 day planning workshop.

“In addition to this, I provide a free 3 hour workshop for business owners to come along and find out more about how coaching can support them in making changes and improvements to their business. In the workshop they discover how to increase their profits by 61% with a 10% increase in just 5 key areas of their business.

“In addition to this, I do lots of fun events with my clients like hiring a private box at the Beverley Races. The combination of work hard/ play hard in a community of very successful businesses owners leads to sharing of best practices and a sense of community in which both my clients, their businesses. myself and my own business thrives.”

Any advice for Yorkshire SMEs that are struggling to find success/growth?

“The most important advice is to gain education in the areas you have challenges. It maybe that you need to get support from a third party or simply read a book about the areas where you have challenges. Better knowledge/education leads to better decisions which in turn leads to better actions which will give better results. I have several free business health check tools on my website as well as a host of free business education books which will help to grow a business. I also offer a complimentary 90 minute coaching session and the free workshops which all businesses are welcome to come along to and discover new ideas for growth, gain advice and support. There is also a lot of funding to support all different levels of business.

“Also, in the workshops, having that 3rd eye perspective can be invaluable to a business owner.

“You cannot keep doing the same thing in business and expect a different result. Have an open mind - it is your most valuable asset.”

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