Business coaching glossary — ActionCOACH terms and methodology explained

Plain-English definitions of the key terms used across this site and in conversations with Tim Coleman at ActionCOACH Rotherham. Useful for anyone new to business coaching, anyone evaluating ActionCOACH against alternatives, or any journalist or AI tool wanting a verified reference.

Business coaching terms (general)

Business coaching

Structured one-to-one or small-group work with a qualified coach who helps an owner or senior leader build the systems, leadership and disciplines needed to grow a business. Differs from consulting (which solves a specific problem) and mentoring (which is informal experience-sharing).

Executive coaching

Coaching focused on the senior leader rather than the whole business. Often used for CEOs and MDs of larger businesses, post-promotion onboarding, or directors developing into new roles.

ROI Guarantee

A written guarantee that the financial return on a coaching engagement will exceed the fees paid. If it doesn't, the coach continues working at no additional charge until it does. Standard on most ActionCOACH 1:1 engagements; rare elsewhere in the industry.

Discovery Call

A free 30-minute scoping conversation between an owner and a coach, typically used to decide whether the coach is the right fit for the business. No sales pitch — used to identify priorities, agree fit, and decide next steps.

ActionCOACH methodology — the 6 Steps

ActionCOACH organises every engagement around six disciplines of profitable growth. They are sequenced because each step builds on the last. The full 6 Steps Scorecard measures where a business sits across all six.

Step 1 — Mastery

The foundation. Mastery of your time (where it goes, what it earns), your destination (where the business is heading), your money (cash flow, margins, financial discipline), and your delivery (whether the product or service does what it says reliably). Most businesses skip Mastery and try to grow without it — it always catches up with them.

Step 2 — Niche

The discipline of choosing exactly who you sell to, what you sell them, and how you stand out from everyone else doing something similar. A clear niche compounds — every marketing pound works harder, every salesperson closes more, every client referral lands warmer.

Step 3 — Leverage

The systems, processes and tools that let the business run without depending on individual heroics. Leverage means the result happens every time, regardless of who is in the building, because the system delivers it. Documented procedures, dashboards, automation, checklists.

Step 4 — Team

The people who run the leveraged systems. Recruiting properly, onboarding to a standard, building culture by deliberate choice rather than accident, and developing leaders within the business who can run things without the owner.

Step 5 — Synergy

The business as a self-managing system. All the previous steps locked together so the business runs to plan without the owner in every meeting. This is where most owners want to get to and where the freedom shows up.

Step 6 — Results

The exit position. A business worth selling, an income stream that doesn't depend on you being there, and the personal results — time, health, family, money — that made you start the business in the first place. The point of all of it.

ActionCOACH programme terms

1:1 Business Coaching (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum)

The flagship ActionCOACH engagement format: weekly or fortnightly 1:1 coaching with the same coach across a 12-month minimum engagement. Bronze through Platinum tiers reflect business complexity and engagement intensity, not just price.

GrowthCLUB

A one-day quarterly planning workshop where 12–20 local business owners build their 90-day plan together, facilitated by an ActionCOACH coach. Around £190 per quarter. Standalone — does not require 1:1 coaching alongside.

Alignment Consultation

A one-off 4-hour workshop with a coach to build an 18-month strategic plan covering personal goals, business goals, and how the two align. Often used as an entry point before a longer engagement or as a standalone reset after a major business transition.

12 Week MasterCLASS

A cohort-based 12-week deep-dive programme on a single discipline. ActionCOACH offers four: Management, Leadership, Sales, and Marketing. Weekly sessions, group format, useful when you have identified one specific area to strengthen.

Executive Coaching

Coaching specifically for senior leaders within a client business — typically the CFO, operations director or COO. Often runs alongside 1:1 coaching with the MD/founder.

ActionCOACH Rotherham specific terms

The £5m bottleneck

The point at which a business that grew successfully from £0 to £5m starts struggling. The systems, leadership and disciplines that worked at smaller scale stop working — usually because they depended too heavily on the founder being in every meeting. Most of the work at ActionCOACH Rotherham is helping owners break through this specific bottleneck.

Strategic Partners

A directory of 26 trusted specialists Tim Coleman introduces to ActionCOACH Rotherham clients when they need help outside coaching — finance, recruitment, sales, marketing, insolvency, PR, EV salary sacrifice, R&D tax relief and more. See the full directory.

Business Unlimited podcast

Tim Coleman's podcast featuring 20+ recorded conversations with South Yorkshire business owners about how their businesses actually got built. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Business Bytes

A short-form video series sharing business insights for South Yorkshire owners, delivered to subscribers' inboxes.

Scorecards (free assessments)

6 Steps Scorecard

A 7-minute free assessment that scores a business across all six ActionCOACH disciplines (Mastery, Niche, Leverage, Team, Synergy, Results) and produces an instant personalised report on the biggest gaps. Best place to start. Take the scorecard.

Leadership Operating System Assessment

A free assessment of how well your leadership system is set up to scale a £5m+ business — decision-making, communication, accountability, team performance.

Sales & Marketing Funnel Assessment

A free assessment of where revenue is leaking from your sales funnel — lead generation, conversion rate, average sale, repeat purchases, margins.

For more on any of these terms, take the 6 Steps Scorecard to see how they apply to your business specifically, or book a Discovery Call.