Step 1: Take an honest inventory of your week
Before you contact anyone, spend one week writing down where your hours actually go. Note meetings, after-hours messages, decisions only you can make, and the times you felt most drained. Owners and managers in a lake town often find the list is longer in some months than others; mark which weeks are your heaviest so a coach can see the pattern.
Step 2: Decide what you want to change
Pick two or three specific goals. Examples: stop answering staff texts after 9 p.m., hand one recurring decision to a manager, or protect one morning a week for planning. Specific goals make it easier to judge whether coaching is worth continuing. Write them where you will see them, and share them with your coach in the first session so the work starts from your priorities rather than a generic program.
Coaching is non-clinical. If you are dealing with something that needs a doctor or a mental health professional, start there; a coach works on workload, habits and leadership, not on health conditions.
Step 3: Build a shortlist from the directory
Use the listings to find two to four coaches who work with leaders like you. Look for experience with small-business owners, public-sector managers, or whatever matches your role. Note whether each one meets in person in Lake Havasu City, works by video, or offers both.
Step 4: Interview at least two coaches
On a short introductory call, ask:
- How do you structure an engagement, and how long does it usually last?
- What will we do in the first three sessions?
- How do you handle a week when I have to cancel because of work?
- What do you do if my needs go beyond coaching?
- If my company pays, what do you share with the company, if anything?
Pay attention to how each coach listens. You want someone who asks about your situation before describing their method.
Step 5: Plan recovery time you can actually reach
A coaching plan works better with recovery time built in, and Lake Havasu City has options close by. Drive times here are approximate and vary with your starting point and traffic.
- A short, regular walk. Lake Havasu State Park sits near the London Bridge, a few minutes from much of town. Its Mohave Sunset Trail runs about 1.75 miles through lowland desert and along the shore. Put a standing walk on your calendar, early in the day during hot months.
- An overnight reset. Cattail Cove State Park is 15 miles south of Lake Havasu on Highway 95, roughly 20 minutes away by car. It has beaches, a boat ramp, 139 campsites and boat-in sites. One quiet night away can help you think about the next quarter without the office in view.
- A full day off the grid. Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, to the north, includes the 20-mile Topock Gorge, Topock Marsh and a 17,600-acre Wilderness Area open to hikers. Allow roughly an hour or more each way depending on where you go. Save this one for a day you have fully cleared.
Ask your coach to help you schedule these as fixed commitments, not rewards you get to only when work is done.
Step 6: Agree on how you will track progress
At the start, agree on a few simple markers: hours worked, after-hours messages answered, decisions delegated, or nights with enough sleep. Review them every few sessions. If nothing is moving after a reasonable stretch, talk about it openly with the coach and adjust the plan or the fit.
Step 7: Prepare for your busy season in advance
If your work peaks at certain times of year, use a session a month or two before the rush to plan staffing, delegation and your own time off. Decide in advance which tasks you will hand off and which recovery blocks you will keep, even in the busiest weeks.
Step 8: Reassess after the first few months
After a set number of sessions, look back at your goals from Step 2. Decide whether to continue, change the focus, or pause. A good engagement leaves you with habits you can keep running on your own.
About this directory
This site lists independent coaches and introduces you to them. It doesn't run coaching sessions or check coaches' backgrounds, so ask about training and approach on your own calls.