A Scientific Framework for FLOW+
FLOW+ clients encompass all varieties of business owners; they all have unique ambitions and face different obstacles. This initially posed a challenge for the team, who were missing a systematic framework they could use to start coaching.
“Talking to the entrepreneur, you find one problem. You find a solution for the problem or methodology, then you get to the next problem and you find the next method, but they are not related or they’re not linked. You have to find it yourself or you have two separate methods.”
Jeroen and his colleagues thus began the search for a framework that would enhance their coachees’ wellbeing; something holistic rather than fragmented, and which could be adapted to different clients’ needs.
That’s when they discovered the PositivePsychology.com Life Navigation Program© and its intuitive Sailboat Metaphor.
Basecamps for Business Owners
One key way the FLOW+ coaches have used the Life Navigation Program© is in developing their signature Basecamp sessions. This is their name for the system of regular meetings that structure clients’ coaching sequences.
Jeroen describes them as monthly interventions: “…we take him out of his operation, we take him out of working in his business to working on his business.”
Using Life Navigation© resources, Jeroen and teammates focus on a client’s current context, roadblocks, and objectives. They apply or adapt the most relevant tools on a challenge-by-challenge basis so that each Basecamp session is structured like an intervention.
In FLOW+ Basecamps, coaches and clients reflect together and have in-depth discussions on the entrepreneur’s recent past and upcoming steps. The Program’s values and goal-setting tools are helpful: “We set objectives that are aligned with their values if they are already defined. And that gives the entrepreneur a roadmap for the next period. ”
With convenient access to the Positive Psychology Toolkit©, the coaches also design customized workshops for individual and group clients. This usually involves combining ready-made assessments and tools:
“If we find out that we have discussions more often, so certain themes, we try to create smaller workshops on a certain theme. For example, working on setting goals, and finding new values. We do that with individuals as well as with teams. So we’re quite flexible.”
With their positive psychology resources, the FLOW+ team has also designed a special program called The Happy Entrepreneur. The program involves clients in their entrepreneurial learning journeys using The Sailboat Metaphor, ultimately delivering a deeply immersive, high-involvement coaching experience:
“We take them on a three-day program and teach them…but we also involve them in sailing. We really have them experience what it is to have that steering wheel in your hand, to steer a boat. Then we use that experience to go back again and say, how did that feel? And how do you translate that to you as a business owner, but also as a father, as a partner, as a friend?”
These programs typically start with an explanation of the eight Sailboat elements by Jeroen and his team. Together with the entrepreneurs, they “go around the boat” to explore various elements.
“For example, the steering wheel is values. What are your values? We start with a sort of high-level overview, then we go out and we sail. It’s great to have people as a team working on the boat, experiencing using the steering wheel, experiencing working, the sails, and then what it means to have too much sail, too little sail”.
Feedback for The Happy Entrepreneur has been overwhelmingly positive:
“A couple of months after the program, clients still talk to us and reflect on that experience and how they can use it being a business owner.”
Empowering Entrepreneurs Beyond Sessions
Outside of in-person sessions and Happy Entrepreneur workshops, the FLOW+ coaches have found still more ways to support entrepreneurs and promote their learning. Toolkit© exercises are particularly handy in this regard, and Jeroen frequently sends them as homework assignments between Basecamps.
This way, his entrepreneurs create their own insights for discussion at the next meeting. It’s how the coaches accelerate their progress and prevent backsliding: “It’s like when you climb a mountain, you have to secure yourself each time so that you don’t drop too far down. So we try to make those safety measures.”
From Professionalism To Personal Life
While the FLOW+ coaches find more ways for their entrepreneurs to benefit from Life Navigation© and positive psychology, the benefits for their company have been just as notable.
Having an evidence-based framework has given Jeroen more confidence in the FLOW+ offer, and he feels it now has more professionalism and standing. He constantly receives positive feedback from empowered clients and has exciting plans for the future of his company.
These include launching The Happy Entrepreneur in the U.S. and bringing Life Navigation© to a younger audience: “The sooner you could offer these Life Navigation© insights to somebody, the more years they can profit from it. Working with young people, young entrepreneurs or young adults could be another great application of the program.”
Most importantly, Jeroen hasn’t stopped developing himself. He is continually finding new insights to customize, use, and apply the material through ongoing repetition, and is now going through the resources for the fourth time.
It’s how Jeroen and his fellow coaches ensure they are constantly augmenting their materials, ever aiming to make it “even better” for the team and their clients.
