Meet Coach: Shane Spiers
Award-winning professional business coach, former CEO, and passionate leader
My Story
My story begins in the South Island of New Zealand where I was born and raised. Our family owned a small sheep & cattle farm near Christchurch. It was 30 minutes from the beach and 2 hours from the ski field. In the winter I played rugby on Saturdays and often skied on Sundays.
I graduated from university with a bachelor’s degree in Valuation and Property Management (Urban & Rural), My first role was with Challenge Realty as a Valuer & Property Manager of residential & commercial properties in NZ’s sunniest city, Nelson.
I left NZ in 1990 on my big OE (Overseas Experience) travelling and working my way around the world – bars, shearing sheds in the Australian outback, Hawaii, and demolition sites in San Francisco.
Career Development in the UK
Following my travels, my story began to grow on the other side of the world when I arrived in London in 1991. Soon after arriving, I went to work for Quality Street, managing large-scale residential portfolios on behalf of institutional investors.
After 6 years I went to work for new homes developer Laing Homes, developing their customer service strategy.
Rapid Growth & Development
In 1999, I joined the leadership team at Unite Students. We pioneered purpose-built student accommodation, a new asset class in the property sector. As we experienced hyper-growth, I soon realized that I had to become a better leader than I was. Both to keep up with our business growth but also to continue to drive success. I completed a master’s degree in Coaching and Development.
The business grew 2000% in 8 years from a small business to FTSE 250 publicly listed business. As Managing Director of what became a £240m revenue per year operation, I led a team of 1200 employees serving 40,000 customers in 135 sites across 23 cities.
In 2012, I became the CEO of a group of seven small to mid-sized businesses. The business had customers in both the private and public sectors. I managed the combined revenue growth of 300% in a single year and ultimately sold two of the companies for multi-million sums.
Business Coaching
Through the journey of my story, I learned that there are a very predictable set of organisational development steps that a business (every business) must go through and every successful business owner will pass through these stages.
At each step, there are some critical strategies and systems that need to be implemented before you can successfully move on to the next stage.
Now, my story continues, I coach other business leaders to see their business as an investment, not a job. To systematically grow themselves, their operations and turn their businesses into cash-generating assets.
Why am I doing this?
I’m tired of seeing so many business owners struggling with running and growing their businesses!
Typically, when I come into a business everyone’s busy doing ‘stuff’, mostly tactical initiatives without any clear plan as to where they’re going, or how all the work meshes together and if it is actually the most important thing to be doing right now.
When we get them clear on where they want to get to, build a plan for them to succeed and identify the first steps to take, it’s amazing to see the confidence and energy that emerges knowing they now have a plan and expert guidance to help implement it.
Personal Growth and Development
Perhaps the most powerful thing we do in our work together is focus on personal growth and development. I learned from my story that business problems are almost always personal problems in disguise. As I tell every client: “If the owner wants a better business, the business needs a better owner.
You see when people think about business coaching they’re often only thinking about business growth, the systems, tools, and strategies around business. But business coaching is also about personal growth and that’s usually around leadership, communication and delegation.
Thirdly, it is about the action and performance of you as the leader of the business. It’s about being held accountable for the stuff you say you’re going to do.
At the intersection of those three things is where the results happen!
So let’s figure this out for you. Let’s figure out for you what you should be focused on right now.
Let’s build a plan for getting you from where you and your business are right now to that place you want to get to. That place where you’re going to have the lifestyle you want, the time and money freedom you desire.
Interested in learning more about my story and how I help business owners fast-track their business success? Book a 15-minute introductory call here.