Are you doing what matters?

I might be describing a rather common situation: efforts without results, unfinished projects, wasted time and money on training sessions that didn’t change anything. I have worked with professionals who always wanted to achieve certain results in which they highly invested, but without knowing what really matters or what they should be really doing. It’s exactly what the chair of the American Statistical Association said about people’s lack of orientation: Many make the mistake of starting to write questions without spelling out objectives or what Mabel Newcomer would call it: it is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.

So then, in business, how can you separate the things that matter from the ones that don’t?
- What are the activities that contribute to your evolution?

Is it specific? Just as a commercial contract in vague terms can’t be trusted, vague objectives can’t have a precise or positive finality. Even though in my experience, I have met plenty of managers who believe that doing a lot of things means doing well, in real life, these can only confuse you and make you waste valuable time. One of the American Airlines strategies for a profitable activity is making sure that objectives are precise:

When clients make a phone call to book a seat, they must get an answer in no more than 20 seconds since the initial call is made

85% of the company’s airplanes must take off in no more than 5 minutes since the scheduled hour and must land in no more than 15 minutes since the scheduled hour.

If an objective isn’t clear enough, then it cannot be fulfilled.

Do you believe in what you do? The famous basket ball player, Michael Jordan, has one important principle he keeps in mind when playing in a game: you have to expect things of yourself before you can do them. As longs as what you are doing isn’t useful to your development, it might not work out trying to stick to it. Nothing is more frustrating than investing time and money in something that doesn’t work in the end.

Do you keep track of what you’re doing? At the North Pole, the only way to survive is to constantly move; if you stop moving just for one second, you freeze. We can apply the same principle in business: when you have a clear objective, it is important to stick to it and see how far you can go with it. When you lose focus and begin to invest in things that distract you, you risk losing your way. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the only way to success is seeing the objective only. The only thing that matters is equilibrium and the only way of achieving it is by knowing where you are and where you are headed.



Rodica Obancea, ACC

Rodica Obancea, ACC, is passionate about change, emergence, living systems. She works within business environment, with managers, teams for achieving ambitious results. For more information, visit www.successcoaching.ro.

Five Ways to Build a Successful Coaching Brand at Little to No Cost

This article first appeared in the August 2012 edition of Coaching World. Coaching World is the digital, quarterly publication of the International Coach Federation. It is distributed via email and accessible at icfcoachingworld.com for all to enjoy. Coaching World is written and produced by the ICF Marketing Department. Look for the next issue in Novemeber!


Brands are everywhere. And that includes an ever-increasing number of coach brands, too. So, how do you stand out in that crowd and reach the clients you want to attract? By building an even more powerful brand for yourself.

The good news is: You already have five assets in your branding arsenal that you can use immediately to build your unique brand as a coach, at low cost – or no cost at all.

1. Your brand positioning. How you position yourself as a coach is fundamental to the success of your brand, but what does “positioning” mean? I like to define it as the way you want clients to perceive, think, and feel about you as a coach, in relation to other coaches. It helps you get clear on the specific piece of “mental real estate” you want to – and can – own.

 Many coaches say to me, “But I’m not a ‘company,’ so I don’t have a brand.” But the truth is that your clients and potential clients already have perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about you. That means you have a brand – right now - whether you like it or not. The question is whether you have the brand you want. This is why it’s so critical to take charge of your brand definition. Leaving it to chance is no way to build a coaching business; after all, great brands don’t get to be great by accident.

Every successful brand positioning – whether for a company or a person – is based on six elements: Target Group, Needs, Benefits, Reasons Why, Comparative Framework, and Brand Character. I recommend that coaches use these elements to create a Brand Positioning Statement. Writing it down helps you to define what you want your brand to stand for. Once you have that clear definition, you can design a marketing plan that helps you communicate your brand to your Target Group – the type of clients you want to attract.

If you remember one thing, remember this: Communicating your brand happens as a result of what you do, not what you say. You can say you’re a reliable coach, but what good is that if your actions don’t show that you are? Through what you do, you create a credible brand that your clients will trust and believe.

2. Your clients. Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “Make new friends, but keep the old… one is silver and the other gold?” Well, as a coach, these “old friends” are your existing clients. Just how golden are they? Studies show that it costs six to nine times as much to attract a new customer as it costs to keep an existing customer happy.

How does this apply in the coaching world where your objective is to help clients establish new behaviors and meet goals so that they don’t need you as a coach anymore? Even if you’re no longer coaching a particular individual, that person is still a “client.” You can continue to stay in touch and ask for referrals.

Part of my concluding conversation with every client is, “How comfortable would you be recommending me as a coach to someone else?” If they say, “Sure!” I say, “Great, could you provide contact information of five people you believe would be interested in coaching?” I also send an email once a month to every current and former coaching client. It’s full of valuable information, and it serves to remind them about the coaching experience they had. At the end of this email, I again ask them to refer me to anyone who could benefit from coaching. This simple question has attracted new clients again and again, and it doesn’t cost a thing.

I also send happy birthday emails to my current and past clients. These bear no cost, but this personal touch can make all the difference in the world. I reward clients for referrals, too, with a thank you bottle of wine or book I think they’d like. The cost is only a small fraction of what I gain.

3. Your products and services. Your own service as a coach can be a powerful asset for your brand. If you have a superior service, get it in the hands of potential customers by offering a free trial session. It may cost you some time, but it’s a way of demonstrating what you can do, and it creates free “advertising” for you.

If you don’t believe what you offer is truly superior – and it’s important to be honest with yourself about that – there are many ways for your brand to be perceived as better and to differentiate yourself from other coaches.

In order to find a meaningful point of difference, understand your Target Group well and get crystal clear about what they need from you. Be specific, and make choices. In other words, don’t try to be the perfect coach to all people. Perhaps you specialize in helping middle managers gain the confidence they need to get promoted. You might be a coach who works with teens to help them set their future course in life. Maybe you work with top executives who need to strengthen senior leadership skills. Ask yourself: What is your passion, and what strengths do you have as a coach that your clients most need from you? This is where you find your point of differentiation.

One way to create a meaningful differentiator is to become an expert in your local area. Write a column on coaching in your city’s newspaper, or publish a blog. Write a book, if possible, especially given that you can publish e-books for next-to-nothing these days. I get a large number of training, speaking, and coaching business from people who’ve read my books; writing articles or books can help your business, too.

Invest in a good website. I hate to say it, but a lot of coaches’ websites actually work against their brand. It’s absolutely necessary to have a good site that highlights your products and services, pointing out what makes you unique. Have people visit your site and give you feedback on their user experience. Make it easy for your clients to find what they need to know about you – especially your contact information.

If you have a website, be sure your email address ends with @[your-domain-name].com. Too many coaches use their free @gmail or @yahoo accounts to send emails to prospective or existing clients, which immediately says, “I’m small potatoes.”

4. Your team. I often hear coaches say, “I’m just a one-person-show, so there is no one else to help me market myself.” That’s one of the biggest branding myths out there! Everyone you know is on your “marketing team” and can help spread the word about your brand!

I say, “Every time you shake a hand, you market your brand.” Think of all the people you interact with daily – friends, family, existing customers, suppliers, associations you belong to, former classmates, and on and on. Make a master list. Then, think about all the connections each of those individuals make every day as well. Get the people on your list to recommend you, making sure they are clear about your brand positioning. That’s how all of your connections become walking, talking advertisements for you.

What is the #1 underutilized piece of branding space? The back of a business card. That’s 50% of your brand-building space wasted! For just a few cents more, why not use it to explain the benefits you offer as a coach? When you do, every person who receives it has the potential to become a marketer for you, especially if you give them a few extra cards and ask them to hand them out to people who might be interested. One coach I know uses the back of his business card to offer a free trial session. No matter how you use it, that blank space offers you a powerful branding opportunity to expand your business and your marketing team at the same time.

5. Your competitors. When I mention to a coach that competitors are one of their best brand-building assets, they often look at me like I have two heads. Aren’t ‘competitors’ a liability, not an asset? Not at all! If you don’t know what other coaches are doing, you will have a hard time setting a strategy to succeed. On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 is high), how well do you know what other coaches are doing to be successful? Most coaches answer 3 or 4, but that’s most probably not high enough if you want to be the coach of choice for your Target Group.

You can learn a lot from other coaches that can help make your own brand stronger. Learn more about the other coaches who your existing and potential clients might choose.

Luckily, there are many ways you can learn about other coaches without spending any money. Create a Google Alert for the name of each coach you want to learn more about. Every time something is written about that person on the Internet, you will get an email about it. Subscribe to that coach’s e-newsletter or blog, follow him/her on Twitter, “like” his/her Facebook fan page, and watch their YouTube videos. This is smart, ethical research. Then, don’t copy what they do – instead, do it better. Use what you’ve learned to improve your own brand.

Is your branding and marketing budget limited? Don’t worry! There are dozens of additional low-cost and no-cost ways to use the five assets you already have to build your brand as a coach. Carefully define your brand, develop a low-cost marketing plan, then each week, ask yourself: What top three activities can I do this week to strengthen my brand? That’s how you build a differentiated image that makes you the coach of choice for clients.

Brenda Bence

About the author:
Brenda Bence is an internationally-recognized branding expert, Certified Speaking Professional, ICF-Certified Coach, and the author of four award-winning branding books, including the recently released Smarter Branding Without Breaking the Bank: Five Proven Marketing Strategies You Can Use Right Now to Build Your Business at Little or No Cost. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Brenda spent 20 years developing mega brands for Fortune 100 companies across 50 countries and four continents. In 2002, she founded her own company, BDA International. Now based out of Singapore, and with clients that span six continents, Bence travels the world speaking, training, and coaching individuals and companies to greater success through corporate and personal brand development. Visit www.BrendaBence.com.

Webster defines life coaching and gets it wrong

Last month, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary proffered their definition of a Life Coach. While it’s gratifying to have our profession officially recognized, the critical noun used to define it is woefully inaccurate.

The Webster Dictionary now defines a Life Coach as: (noun) an advisor who helps people make decisions, set and reach goals, or deal with problems.

So what’s the concern? It’s that little word, “advisor.”

Professionally trained coaches rarely, if ever, play the role of advice-giver. It’s a valuable role, to be sure. It’s just not the role of a life coach.

Mentors give advice. Consultants give advice. Teachers and preachers and experts of all stripes give advice. But not life coaches.
Sports coaches, fitness coaches, nutrition coaches, even voice coaches give advice. But not life coaches.

Why not?

These other forms of service are characterized by a knowledge differential. The knowledge of one person is desired by another, so the one who has it offers advice to the one who desires it.

Think mentor-to-apprentice. Teacher-to-student. Master-to-novice. Physician-to-patient. Consultant-to-business owner. In each of these, the one desiring growth seeks advice from the one with expertise.

Seeking advice is one of the surest paths to wisdom and success. But it’s not the only means by which personal growth occurs.

Advisors work from the outside-in; an advisor has knowledge and seeks to impart it to the inner being of the advisee.

Life coaches do exactly the opposite; they work from the inside-out, because they don’t have the knowledge their clients are seeking.

Life coaches cannot possibly be experts on their clients’ unique life paths, or giftings, or sense of life callings. They can’t know those things until their clients discover them for themselves.

So a life coach’s primary role is to help clients do exactly that – to discover for themselves, through relationship with the coach, what lies uniquely within themselves.

A Judeo-Christian proverb states: “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.”

This beautifully captures the exploratory, inside-out nature of life coaching. A life coach “draws out” the purposes of a client’s heart – their gifts, their call, their passion, their path.

How do life coaches do this drawing-out?

They question. Being genuinely curious about what may be discovered, they question and listen, and then question some more.

If coaches are expert in anything at all, it is questioning; digging, probing, prodding, and then reflecting, clarifying, reframing, and challenging.

Think of detectives arriving on a crime scene. They have no more information to begin with than you or I. They don’t know whodunit, or why, or how.

They can’t be advisors because they don’t have the desired knowledge.

The expertise of detectives lies not in having answers but in knowing how to draw them out.

Detectives question witnesses. They search for clues. They form hypotheses and formulate more questions. And eventually, through an intentional process of inquiry and clarification, they discover whodunit and why and how.

They attain their answers from the inside-out. Just like a life coach.

Life coaches approach clients like detectives seeking to discover giftings and callings, and to then help clients discern how to fulfill those.

The differences between advisors and detectives couldn’t be more stark: outside-in versus inside-out.

Old Mr. Webster may not change his definition, but it’s a blow to the field of life coaching if he doesn’t.

Christopher McCluskey, MSW, PCC

His current definition leaves life coaches synonymous with mentors and consultants, creating a hot new buzzword for the same old services instead of distinguishing an entirely new profession.  

Christopher McCluskey, MSW, PCC, is President & CEO of Professional Christian Coaching Institute. A pioneer in the field, he serves on numerous boards and is an active member of the International Coach Federation.

Transformational Leadership Coaching

Below is part of an occasional blog series highlighting the Catalysts and sessions of ICF Global 2012.

Coaching is having a powerful impact on today’s world of work which is changing dramatically. This demands a new leadership, with coaching at its heart.

Coaches make a real impact on that world: supporting leaders to transform their leadership, authentically.

Bob Hughes, PCC

Bob Hughes, PCC, and Cynthia Calluori, PCC, are running a catalyst session “Transformational Leadership Coaching: Five powerful principles for developing leaders” at the ICF Global Conference in London.

In this highly-interactive session, you’ll gain an overview of the principles of leadership coaching. We’ll explore what’s different about leadership coaching, with practical tools so that you can coach leaders with greater confidence.

We’re looking forward to meeting you, and we want to start the conversation before we meet – so you’ll come prepared to have a powerful impact too.

Cynthia Calluori, PCC

Principles focus on "who" the coach and leader is being, enabling a shift from the transactional to the transformational. 

A leader needs to feel inspired and be inspiring. The ripple effect of that leader, through the people they connect with, can be huge.

To be successful, leaders need to create a vision; inspire a team, and build influential connections to achieve it. When we achieve our vision, it impacts on the team, the organisation and society– as well as on the leader.

When we’re coaching leaders towards their vision: the principle of trust is vital.  Trust in the leader that they are creative and capable; starting from the positive assumption in their integrity, a belief in their wisdom.

The principle of trust is about trusting ourselves as coaches: trusting the training you’ve received; trusting the ICF competences and ethics.

The leader’s world is a complex place. Before we meet, we’ll share four more principles that support leaders to be successful. See our blog page www.thefortongroup.com – we look forward to reading your comments!

Bob Hughes, PCC, and Cynthia Calluori, PCC, are Catalysts at ICF Global 2012, October 3-6 in London, UK, where they will be presenting “Transformational Leadership Coaching: Five powerful principles for developing leaders." Register today!

How to be a great coach!

Isn't that the question we all ask ourselves, how can I be a truly great coach?
Don't we all want to be great coaches?

Well, I'm not going to give you a list of core competencies.
I'm not going to talk about phenomenal safe space or bionic listening skills.
I'm not going to mention questions of 'coach-ability' of our prospect clients.
And I'm certainly not going to talk about marketing and selling.

So what's left?
Well, it's what we all started with.
The Story.

And you might be asking, what's story got to do with it?
Well, we are all storytellers.  Think about it.

What happens when you get asked the following questions:

• What is coaching?
• What got you started in coaching?
• What kind of coaching do you do?

Or even, what do you do?

 

You tell a story – we all do!

 

The question is…is it the right story?  Is it a powerful, eloquent story that truly expresses your passion and direction?  Is it a story that makes you feel proud of what you have achieved and the difference you are making in the world?

 

For most people, that's how they feel but it's not always how they speak.

 

So, I'm suggesting something a bit unusual here.

 

I'm suggesting that the very same characteristics of 'the great Coach' are what will get you to speak about what you do in an empowered way.

 

You need to:

1. Listen actively to what you are saying
2. Focus on what's working, on your skills and successes
3. Be clear about your goals
4. Make a great plan and then take ACTION

The outcome?  You will attract amazing clients because you are demonstrating the brilliance of your coaching through your powerful story.

Lisa Bloom, PCC is founder of Story Coach Inc. and the Certified Story Coach Program.  Download her ebook ‘Using Stories to Get Great Clients’ at http://www.story-coach.com.