What do Clients Want?

When a coach deals with a client it is hepful to keep these four things in mind about what the client really wants:

• A life
• A way of making the present fun.  “If what you are doing isn’t fun, you’re not doing it right”  –Francis Tarkenton
• A sense of meaning, purpose and direction.  If you don’t have these, any road will work.
• A compelling reason for what they do or want to do.

Coach Charles

 

How Coaching can help you be your Best!

The Top 10 Reasons To Hire a Coach.  There are over 100 things that you can work on with your Personal/Professional Coach, but here are the Top 10. Note: When you see the word Coach or well-trained coach below, it refers to a Coach University-trained coach, given that many of the mentioned coaching skills and client programs are exclusive to Coach University and thus exclusive to Coach University-trained coaches.     1. You will set far better goals that motivate you in a healthy way. Did you have Goal Setting 101 in high school? Probably not. Enter the coach, an expert in helping you to identify and set the goals that you really want, not the ones that are “shoulds,” pipedreams, that you’ve been recycling or that mirror the goals of your parents, society or Madison Avenue. Choosing the right goals for you is an art and the coach takes the necessary time to help you clarify your personal values, so that you have something really solid on which to develop your goals. Value-based goals are naturally motivating, but it takes good coaching to get to these. 2. You’ll accomplish goals and tasks and projects much more quickly. One of the reasons that people hire a coach is to save themselves time. Working with a coach, they learn how to be far more effective, efficient and productive in everything that they do, including their job/business or personal projects. We humans just aren’t that naturally effective, even if we think that we are. The coach has the tools and techniques to share with their clients so that things get done in half the time. (Even the coaching process is efficient — on the phone, 1/2 hour a week, reasonable fee.) 3. You’ll make fewer mistakes in your business life or in your personal life. The old model of learning from your mistakes has deteriorated to be more like: How else will you learn if you don’t make mistakes? Too expensive, in our view. With a coach, you have a third eye, someone who’s been there and who has coached others in your situation, and an expert in getting the job done with the minimum of fuss (called learning curve, mistakes, errors in judgment, wrong tunnels, etc.). The costs (emotional, financial, time) of making mistakes has gotten very expensive in the past decade. A single mistake can ruin you in today’s hyper-paced business environment. Some clients use their coach as an inexpensive insurance policy. 4. You’ll move up to the next level of your professional and personal life. Almost everybody is moving up the ladder of business success, personal development, awareness and emotional balance. The coach can help you see where you are right now and point out ways to grow and get where you want to get to. Or, if you’re not even on the ladder, the coach can guide you to it and help you get started on your path. 5. You’ll reduce the number of problems you have and better resolve the problems that are left. The first step in solving a problem is to ask yourself why you have this problem at all. The second step is to ask yourself why you have problems at all. The third step is to get on track to having no problems — aka, becoming a Problem-Free Zone (PFZ). This is not a joke. Being a PFZ is becoming even more important along the path of sustainable success. You cannot afford to have problems, period. Life’s too short and problems are too expensive. A well-trained coach can help you become a PFZ. A well-trained coach is a PFZ herself. 6. You’ll likely make more money in your career, profession or business. Clients don’t keep paying their coaches just for the fun of it. Coaching, like every other professional service, needs to improve the financial bottom line and it does. Coaches are trained to help clients to leverage their ability to make money, i.e., getting a raise, choosing a better career, starting a business, improving profitability, adding more value to their customers, proper pricing, productivity and others. Sure, coaching is personal, but it almost always includes a strong financial aspect. 7. You’ll be a lot happier and this happiness will last. Coaches know how to help you to reduce stress, integrate all aspects of your life, simplify or downshift, and reorient around what makes you the happiest. What good is increased productivity and profitability if you’re not happy? 8. You’ll be much more effective and influential with others: family, business and personal relationships. Communication makes life life. A coach is an expert communicator and trains clients on how to come across better, relate well with others, listen aggressively, influence, coach, motivate and support others. There are over 100 communication and listening skills that clients can learn from a coach. 9. You’ll become much more attractive to others — on the inside and on the outside. Selling, as a profession and as a proven technique/process, is on its way out. Why? Because humans are getting better at choosing for themselves and buying better. Humans will respond less to advertising and selling techniques and instead be drawn to a product or service and they will be more likely drawn because of who is offering the product or service. This process is called attraction and Coach University wrote the book on it (called Irresistible Attraction). It’s real. It works. And it will replace much of the promotion, marketing, selling, seducing and other very expensive budget items. Remember, the world (aka consumers) is rapidly eliminating virtually all waste and inefficiencies in how business is conducted, products are sold and how services are delivered. Selling and mass marketing, while certainly still very effective right now, is on the hit list. Attraction is the next generation of selling and the well-trained coach can help you and your business get on this track immediately. 10. You’ll have a better life, not just a better lifestyle. The term Quality of Life has become overused in the past few years, but the trend of Americans seeking to create a much better life for themselves is accelerating. In fact, people are re-examining what they had assumed that a good life was (married, 2.3 kids, nice car, secure job, church on Sundays, 3 weeks of vacation a year) and are now creating their own life, often breaking the rules and flying in the face of conventional wisdom in the process. A coach has been trained in the Life Design process and has already made the kind of design changes in their life, that their clients are just now beginning to make. About the Submitter This piece was originally submitted by the late Thomas J. Leonard, . Copyright 97, 98, 99, 00, 2001 CoachVille This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright, contact, and creation information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit context. For other uses, permission in writing from CoachVille is required. Questions: email topten@coachville.com Distributed by Coach Charles Powell,  Reply this way>>>>

 

Choosing a Career – by Shale Paul

10 Steps for Choosing a Career by Shale Paul (used with permission)

Career choices may well be more difficult today than at any time in history, for three reasons: there is infinitely more to choose from; career definitions are more fluid and changing; and the levels of expectation are rising. Most men and women entering the workforce today can expect to change careers three or more times during their working lives. Here are ten steps that will help ensure that your choices are good ones.

1. Begin with your values. What’s really important to you? What turns you on? What do you like to do so much that you would almost feel guilty getting paid to do it? These questions are designed to help you get at one of the key elements in career choice: values. Your values are the emotional anchor of all that you do. Satisfying careers are built upon the notion of a high correspondence between one’s personal values and the work they will be doing. Begin your career search by sorting out your values and writing them down as clearly and succinctly as you can.

2. Identify your skills and talents. A skill is something you’ve learned to do. A talent is something you’ve been born with, or at least that you seem naturally qualified to do. It’s important to recognize the difference between the two. You may be skilled at something and still not find it interesting. Chances are, however, if you are naturally talented at something, there will be a correspondence between that particular talent and your values. Put another way: you are more apt to enjoy doing what you do well naturally than what you have simply been taught to do.

3. Identify your preferences. From early on, we approach the world with certain personal preferences–how we perceive others, how we think and make decisions, whether we prefer concepts over people or vice versa, and the extent to which we are comfortable with uncertainty in our lives. For many, these preferences operate at a subconscious level, but they strongly influence the way we function with others. Some questions may help: Do you regard yourself as highly intuitive? Are you outgoing or reserved? When faced with a decision, do you rely primarily on facts or feelings? Your answers to these questions can tell you much about the kinds of work you will find interesting and challenging. One way of sorting this all out is by taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator a self-assessing instrument that helps clarify these issues. If you haven’t taken it in the past year, or at all, I strongly recommend that you take it and include your results in your career deliberations.

4. Experiment. There’s no substitute for experience, the more the better. It’s probably safe to say that nearly every career looks vastly different from the outside than from within. If you’re new to the job market or if you are considering a career change, get out and talk to people who are actually doing it. Take a job in the field or industry and see for yourself if it’s really all you thought it would be. And don’t rely on a single authority or work experience. Within the bounds of the area you’ve picked, try to get as much and as varied experience as you can. If you’re committed to finding out about a certain career, you may want to consider volunteering in order to gain work experience. That way, you’ll be able to test out whether it fits your values and preferences. If you aren’t getting paid to do it, chances are you won’t stay with it unless you like it.

5. Become broadly literate. In this high tech information world, there is an incredible pressure to specialize, to know more and more about less and less. That’s dangerous, because it increases your chances of being obsolescent immensely. Many people lose their jobs and scuttle their careers because they have gradually developed tunnel vision about who and what they are and what their capabilities are. The old debate over specialist versus generalist is being tempered by a new term: the generalist/specialist. That’s the individual who has been able to grasp the large picture while, at the same time, becoming expert on several of its parts. That’s what becoming broadly literate is all about. Learn as much as you can about what interests you and about the jobs and careers you’re considering–not just what those involved are currently doing, but about where the industry or profession is heading.

6. In your first job, opt for experience first, money second. If you’re at the top of your class graduating summa cum laude, you may be able to combine both in a single package, but for most new entrants into the workforce, it’s a matter of priorities. A good way of sizing up several opportunities is to ask yourself: “Which position will offer me the best chance of becoming excellent at what I do?” And that may not be the one that pays the highest initial salary.

7. Aim for a job in which you can become 110% committed. Modest dedication and average performance are unacceptable today. The problem is, with down sizing becoming fully acceptable you aren’t likely to discover the truth of that statement until you’re out of a job! So, how to protect yourself? If you aren’t able to commit 110% to what you are currently doing, start NOW to find something in which you can.

8. Build your lifestyle around your income, not your expectations. Recruiters are famous for courting desirable applicants with promises such as: “Why, in two years, you could be making X thousands of dollars”. The problem is that many new entrants into the job force buy into this line and begin living as though they were making the kind of money promised in two years. A better way is to begin, right with your first job, to structure your lifestyle in such a manner that you can put away ten percent of every paycheck. Starting early and investing regularly and wisely are probably two of the greatest secrets of wealth accumulation.

9. Invest five percent of your time, energy, and money into furthering your career. In terms of a forty-hour week, that’s only two hours per week. The point is, you cannot rely on your employer to spoon feed you. Employers today are oriented towards immediate returns on their dollar. They will invest in you only when they can see an immediate or relatively quick expensive benefit, or when they see extraordinary potential. Better to not count on either. Dedicate yourself to getting ahead by keeping ahead, and you do that be controlling the one thing you can control: your dedication to being the best that you can be.

10. Be willing to change and adapt. If you re-read the preceding steps in this list, you’ll note an absence (refreshing, I hope) of emphasis upon goal-setting and a substitution instead, of words like “values”, “skills”, “talents”, and “preferences”. It’s not that goals aren’t useful, but rather that they should emerge naturally from these other factors and, even though you may write them down and paste them on your mirror, they should not obscure the need to be willing to change and adapt to new conditions, your own growth, and developing opportunities. The distinction here is between “direction” and “plan”. An ant has a direction, but not a plan. The ant knows where it wants to go and is willing to turn around, back up, and change course in order to get there. But the ant hasn’t written it down, posted it on a bulletin board, or gained concurrence from all the other ants. The ant just knows, with absolute certainty, the general direction in which it’s heading and that it WILL get there. That’s what modern day career direction is all about.

 

Personal Networking Resources

Business Networking Resources

 Multnomah County Library has 53 books on Business Networks.

There are numerous networking groups around.  BNI is one that some like, others are home grown and are available in the East Portland Chamber of Commerce, which in itself is a networking group.  There is also groups at are unaffiliated, but patterned is some senses like the institutionalized organizations. 

Exceptional Books:

 

R. Philip Hanes, How to Get Anyone to do Anything, Ten Speed Press, 2006

            An informative, instructional, and well written book on business networking,         handled by a master relater.

 

Ivan R. Misner, PhD. The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret, Misner is the founder     of Business Networking International and probably still the president.  His     viewpoint is highly organized and focused on brief, but meaningful      communications.  This is a type of the formal network philosophy.

 

Tim Templeton, The Referral of a Lifetime.  The subtitle claims that it is the networking     system that produces bottom-line results….every day.  His focus is to get away    from the cold-call method of networking.  He is more interested in relationships       than in mere activity.

 

Susan RoAne, The Secrets of Savvy Networking.   Susan has an abundance of techniques   to use in various venues.  She focuses on the need to push up into organizations          and to make the highest level connections possible.  She also wrote How to Work         a Room another book worth reading and applying.

 

Donna Fisher and Sandy Vilas, Power Networking: 55 Secrets for Personal and     Professional Success.  John Gray, PhD. Author of Men are from Mars, Women             are from Venus said “Power Networking” offers an extraordinary way to   empower yourself and others as you create a community of support for yourself     and your business. 

 

My personal favorites are the books by Hanes, and by Fisher/Villas.  Rational: they are both about relational networking as of primary importance to one’s success.  I agree.

 I am also a source for network solutions in your business.  

Coach Charles Powell, Coaching at its Best, Portland, OR

 

What you value gets you what you get.

In Peter Senge’s book, The Fifth Discipline Field Book, includes a chapter on the shared vision which we will visit sometime.  On page 302, he says that the word “value” comes from the French verb valoir where he says it means worth. The conclusion I draw from this idea is that a value is something I or you hold as valuable is some significant way.  Whatever your vision, your values will aid, or devalue you vision, shared or otherwise.  Hitler, according to Bill O’Brien had a shared vision, but it was undergirded by rotten values. He called them monstrous.

The question I am asking is, “What are my values or what are yours?. Am I prepared to stand up for them and take the consequenses as well as the benefits of having them.   This is important, because everything we do is based on our values.  If we love, we do good.  If we hate or fear, we act accordingly.  In your business, or for that matter mine, what place does reaponsibility play?  Just yesterday I trusted some individuals in a large chain store.  I asked them to hold something and that I would come by an pick it up at a specific time.  They sold it out from under me.  This did not make me very pleased and may influence future purchases.  One think I did was to politely indicate that I thought I was mistreated and devalued.  The made amends, apologized and I still have to wait 3 days to a week to get the item I wanted two days ago and it was avalable a bit before arrived to find out the disappointing news.

Yes, there are extenuating circumstances, but in this case it was money.  I prefere loyal customers.  Unhappy customers don’t return.

Think about your values.  Might be a help.

Coach

http://www.coach-charles.com

 

I went to my psychiatrist… Anna Russell

Anna Russell wrote the following in the 1960’s:

I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed

To find out why I killed the cat and blacked my  husband’s eyes.

He laid me on a downy couch to see what he could find,

 And here is what he dredged up from my subconscious  mind:

 When I was one, my mommie hid my dolly in a trunk,

 And so it follows naturally that I am always drunk.

 When I was two, I saw my father kiss the maid one day,

 And that is why I suffer now from kleptomania.

 At three, I had the feeling of ambivalence toward my  brothers,

And so it follows naturally I poison all my lovers.

 But I am happy; now I’ve learned the lesson this has taught;

 That everything I do that’s wrong is someone else’s  fault. 

Not much has changed.      May we make a difference.

                             Coach Charles    http://cli.gs/ueyNNE

 

Interviewing Skills

 

Conducting the Interview

There are 3 steps to follow while conducting an Interview:

• Open the Interview (Put the candidate at ease)
• Gather Information (Ask questions & listen to responses)
• Close the Interview (Create a positive impression of your organization )

Opening an Interview

• While opening an interview, your purpose is to put both you and candidate at ease , and set the stage for an open conversation
• There are 3 steps you should complete when opening the interview:
  • Build rapport
  • State the agenda
  • Ask for acceptance

Gathering Information

• Gathering Information represents 70 to 80 percent of the interview
• There are 3 steps you should complete when gathering information from the interviewee:
  • Ask lead questions
  • Ask follow-up questions
  • Transition to the next subject

Closing an Interview

• The close of the interview is used to indicate to the candidate that the information-gathering portion is complete and the interview is about to wind down.
• Take the following 4 steps when closing an interview:
  • Ask for and answer questions
  • Promote the organization and the job
  • Outline next steps
  • Thank the candidate

Coach Charles    I have no idea where I got this,   If you  know  advise  me.  I think it is too good not to pass on.

Http://cli.gs/ueyNNE

 

What are the benefits of having a coach?

Coaching works best for people who are ready to take charge of their destiny.  People who want to grow and are willing to let go of their limiting past. 

Here are the types of people that I feel I can most help right now. à       Person who is ready to move up to the next performance level in their work and get what they really want from life.à       Person is starting a new business and could use some support and creative ideas to become even more successful.à       Person who recognizes the potential of coaching and is interested in becoming a coach themselves.  

Working with a coach can increase your chances of success dramatically.  With coaching you accelerate your progress.  However, you always remain in charge.  You set your own agenda and establish your own goals and pace. 

Coach Charles Powell, MCC 

http://cli.gs/ueyNNE

 

Now? Right now??

Here is a little poem called “Now” 

Look to this day!                                                   

For it is life, the very life of life. 

For yesterday is but a dream.                         

And tomorrow is only a vision

But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness.  

And tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day!   

Such is the salutation of dawn.        

                                           – -Kalidasa

Do you live in the past, with regrets and bitterness?  Or, even to live with the happiest moment of your life,  in the past.  Perhaps you live in the future, always waiting for the arrival of your ship or your whatever.  It is not that we don’t have memories, whether good or bad, or that we don’t have hopes and plans, but rather that we don’t take up residence in the past or the future.  Today is the day of our life.  To live there is wonderful compared to living in the past or the future.  If today is not the happiest day of your life, when will it be.  Today is the only day you have, use it wisely and rejoice in it.

Coach Charles  http://cli.gs/ueyNNE

 

How do you ask questions?

 If you know how to ask questions in a conversation you are ahead of those who merely tell what they know or think. However, if you ask some kinds of questions, you become an inquisitor. I’ve been there. In fact, I have done this in the last twenty-four hours. Yes, I do know how to ask good question, I just don’t always do it. What’s to say about questions? Well, one way to look at questions as to whether they are open or closed. Closed questions almost always can be answered with a “yes” or a “no,” almost always without commitment. For example: “Did you have a good day today?” It only requires and expects a “yes” or “no” answer. We clearly use this kind of question for polite reason, for greetings and for pass timing. But for serious conversations with those we have a relationship with, they are normally unacceptable. A better question might be, “How do you feel about this?” Maybe a request would work to stimulate another to interact dialogically with us. Something like, “Please tell me what you think about this subject.”

Coach Charles

 “I set as the goal the maximum capacity that people have -I settle for no less. I make myself a relentless architect of the possibilities of human beings.” -Benjamin Zander

 WOW NOTE: I coach business owners, professionals and individuals. If you would like to sample a free month of coaching, let me know. It can be done over the Internet. If you would like to know more about coaching, please ask me about it.

Coach        http://cli.gs/HSQ0Ss