Coaching the Distance: Bridging cultural gaps seamlessly with state of the art communication technology

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

Ralf Wolter, ACC

State of the art Internet collaboration tools and high-definition video conferencing solutions are affordable and ready for use.

• How can you leverage these to make a virtual coaching experience for your client even better than an in-person meeting?
• Are you aware of coaching opportunities in the virtual world?
• Imagine a video coaching experience that is as ral as being in the same room: what would you do?
• Do you use group coaching to attract new clients?
• How can you make it easy and cost-effective for new clients to join your sessions?
• Do you have clients who do not want to travel and dislike audio coaching?
• Over 75% of Fortune 500 companies use HD video conferencing solutions.
• Are you ready to connect with them?
• Does using communication technology cause you panic?
• Are you familiar with cultural aspects of coaching globally?
• We will discuss practical approaches and practice latest collaboration tools. Join us to share your experience with virtual coaching across cultures and learn from others.



Patricia Weiland, PCC

Join this interactive session to experience "coaching the distance," including real-time demonstrations using the latest technology. The demonstration will show you how to leverage technology for better understanding in your coaching sessions. Learn how to create incredible brainstorming with a virtual white-board. Ensure accountability with the sharing of homework documents. In addition you can also connect with other coaches to be able to test, troubleshoot and tackle new technology in your own office. After the session at the ICF Conference join the online discussion from your office to test and update your virtual technology offerings.

 

Find more details and a presentation pre-view.

 

Join our LinkedIn and Facebook communities.

 

Ralf Wolter, ACC, and Patricia Weiland, PCC, are Catalysts at ICF Global 2012, October 3-6 in London, UK, where they will be presenting “Coaching the Distance: Bridging cultural gaps seamlessly with technology." Learn more.

Climb Higher with Customer Testimonials

It's human nature to want credit for our accomplishments. When we've made someone happy, we want that person to shout it from a mountaintop. But in the small business world, getting a satisfied client to scale that proverbial mountain can be tricky, and if potential customers aren't listening nearby, praises may go unheard. So how can a coach be sure positive feedback reaches their market? Whether gathered through surveys, comment cards, or focus groups, reviews must be recognized, acted upon, and shared to lift your business to the uppermost peak. How can you use testimonials to reach the summit?

Listen and understand feedback.
Both positive and negative comments can lay a path to the top. Pay attention to compliments to gain an understanding of what's important to customers -- you may uncover a new marketable strength. Complaints and suggestions should be relayed into smart changes to better serve your clients. For example, customers may be seeking additional services or prefer a payment plan over one bill. Just remember, when you implement a change based on a customer's feedback, tell that person. Letting a client know you're listening is one of the best ways to secure loyalty for the long haul.

Make strategic adjustments.
Organize your reviews into three categories: calls for immediate action, modifications affecting this year's revenue, and long-term game-changers. After deciding on needed adjustments, test ideas against your budget and resources, talk to your regular clients to assess their reactions to changes, and establish measurable benchmarks to gauge your plan's success over a set period.

Share your strengths.
Word of mouth is a small business's lifeline, but rather than shouts of praise from a mountaintop, encourage conversations in locations where the right people will hear your message. Direct mailers should always include a page or two of diverse, persuasive comments from your clients. And with much of today's social networking concentrated online, the Internet also makes an ideal environment for planting reviews. Place concise and specific customer quotes in highly visible, well-trafficked spots on your website. Leverage your Facebook page by encouraging clients to "like" your business, then asking pointed questions (i.e., "In what way has my coaching been most helpful to you?") with your status updates to encourage positive comments on your wall. Establish a YouTube or Vimeo channel and post video testimonials of satisfied clients sharing their experiences. And brainstorm incentives to persuade dedicated patrons to post their feedback on city-specific directories, search engines, and review websites like Ask City, Angie's List, Yelp, Judy's Book, and InsiderPages.com -- you can even simplify the process by linking directly to your listing on these sites from your own webpage. Such personalized, credible reviews not only help generate real interest from prospective clients, but also help you climb higher in local search rankings and, ultimately, surmount the competition.

Christopher Wallace

Christopher Wallace, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Amsterdam Printing, has more than 20 years experience in sales and marketing. At Amsterdam Printing, a leading provider of custom pens and other promotional items such as custom USB drives, Christopher is focused on providing quality marketing materials to small, mid-size and large businesses. He regularly contributes to Promo & Marketing Wall blog.

Say the word

Last month, in honor of the word ‘life coach’ being added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, we asked our Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/icfhq) fans to answer the following question, “Coaches, what do you think this says about the professional coaching industry and its future?” Take a look below to see how our Facebook fans responded:

“Our work is global and significant.” (Kaylus Adams Vision-Coach)

“What is a life coach? Look it up!” (Keith Lawrence Miller)

“I think this signifies the relevance we as coaches have in today’s world. It validates what we have long known; that coaches are the gateway to professional success and personal happiness for people today.” (Inspired Heather Paris)

“This means that somewhoe, people recognize that hiring a coach to make better different areas of someone’s life is a great investment. I say investment and not expense because taking care of our well-being is key to our success and happiness. I would also add that taking care of the ‘life’ side of the human being will for benefit the ‘business’ side too. Everything is interlinked: career, health, happiness, spirituality, love life, etc.” (Ines Mahjoub)

“It should be a goal of all coaches to one day ‘life coach’ can be removed from Webster because our work will be done.” (Dean Miles)

“The protectors of our language, who manage new entries for our dictionaries, are not trendsetters. They reflect, rather than create new language. Thus, they rarely accept a new word until it is already mainstream. That the term Life Coach is recognized sufficiently to enter the permanent records says something about the legitimacy and acceptance of coaching. I am happy to hear it!” (Jim Smith)

“This is a huge acknowledgement of what we bring.” (Anouk Boering)

“How far we’ve come in awareness and understanding about coaching in the past 17 years!” (Diane Gard Brennan)

“I posted this on the Merriam-Webster page: Glad to see the profession listed but we never use the term ‘advisor’ to define a coach, as advice-giving is decidedly not the role of a coach, but rather, the role of a mentor. Professional coaches question, probe, prod, reflect, clarify, challenge, and many other things but virtually never do they advise, direct, instruct, or provide recommendations. I beg you to contact the ICF for perspective on this, since you are viewed as a definitive resource and you have inaccurately portrayed the very core of this new profession through the use of the word ‘advisor’.” (Christopher McCluskey)

“Woo hoo! We’ve come a long way, baby!” (Linda McCarrin)

“I believe the life (and business) coaching profession is at an embryo stage as people of this magnificent planet need so much more of being held as naturally creative, resourceful, and whole human beings! Coaching has come a long way and its domino-effect and therefore, impact, will be part of a transformative synergy in the future.” (Veronique Pigeon)

“Great achievement indeed! We are changing the world and this is the best proof. Way to go life coaches everywhere!” (Rawan Albina)

“Hats off to the pioneers of this field who believed in what they do and continued changing lives.” (Fatima Nakhjavanpur)

What about you? What does this mean for the coaching profession and our future? We’d love to know—leave a response below or join the conversation at Facebook.com/ICFHQ.

Leadership Coaching For Challenging Times – How Deep Simplicity Can Show Us the Way

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

If you’ve ever done musical or acting improvisation, you know that you have to work with  whatever your improv partners give you.  If you don’t, the whole performance can fall apart very quickly.

Alan Seale, PCC, CTPC

Life works pretty much the same way. Whatever comes up, it’s up to us to make something of it.

Everything that happens is an opportunity for co-creation. When we start from here, our first questions might be, “What is the opportunity here?  How can I accept this opportunity and work with it rather than resist it?”

We can turn that simple concept into a very practical and powerful coaching application. Choose a situation in your life. How you are “being” with that situation—what is your relationship to it? Are you pushing against it, and maybe even giving it more energy? Or are you flowing with it by asking, “what wants to happen here?” What’s the message that’s trying to come through? 

Let’s take the exploration further. For just a moment, actually push against your situation in your mind. Try to stop it or force it to be something else. Do your best to control it, and notice how that feels. 

Then shift your approach and explore how you might actually flow with this situation rather than push against it. If there is something new trying to happen here, what might that be? If this situation was your improv partner, what could you co-create? Notice how this approach feels different.

In asking these questions, we become empowered by everything that happens rather than being a victim of it.  We take whatever comes and work with it.  When you embrace rather than push away, you can transform the energy of the situation.  From there, you can usually find a way to move forward. 

Alan Seale, PCC, CTPC is a Catalyst at ICF Global 2012, October 3-6 in London, UK, where he will be presenting “The Deep Simple: Getting to the essence for breakthrough and transformation." Learn more.

Challenging Coaching - Going beyond the limits of traditional coaching to face the FACTS

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

John Blakey, PCC

In 2009 Ian Day and I co-authored the book "Where were all the coaches when the banks went down?" in which the we introduced concepts such as ZOUD (Zone of Uncomfortable Debate) and the FACTS coaching model (Feedback, Accountability, Courageous Goals, Tension, and Systems Thinking.) We emphasised the responsibility of professional coaches to leverage the opportunity presented by the privileged coach-client relationship and to act in the interests of the wider system (rather than exclusively in the interests of the individual coachee) by adopting a more proactively challenging stance with their coachees. Our first book created a lively discussion and debate amongst the coaching community, as it forced coaches to "look in the mirror" and to challenge deeply-rooted practices.

Ian Day

Our latest collaboration titled "Challenging Coaching - Going beyond the limits of traditional coaching to face the FACTS" was published in April 2012 and further explores these themes. In this latest book we explore more deeply the techniques for increasing the level of challenge using our FACTS coaching model to unlock deeper potential in business leaders and their teams. Long-held coaching principles such as being non-directive, building rapport, and holding to the individual's agenda are put under the spotlight as we question their relevance to a 21st-century business environment where the needs of the wider organization must take precedence over the particular wants of any specific individual. Our session will inevitably generate questions for coaching practitioners since it acts as a wake-up call amongst traditionalists and buyers of coaching services.

Our session will provide attendees with an opportunity to explore these concepts experientially and to examine practical techniques for "turning up" the degree of challenge within a coaching conversation. We anticipate a highly interactive session with plenty of opportunity for discussion and sharing of experiences and insights from the audience.

John Blakey, PCC, and Ian Day are Catalysts at ICF Global 2012, October 3-6 in London, UK, where they will be presenting “Challenging Coaching: Going beyond traditional coaching to face the FACTS." Learn more.