Until the 1980’s, many people would have limited coaching to the sports industry. However, the move to bring coaches into the business world has grown significantly.

Unfortunately, with this shift comes the confusion over what a business coach does for a business. The list of coaches includes and extends beyond these areas of personal, career, executive and creative coach.

At BusinessCoach.com, we make the distinction of coaching people in the domain of business. This includes all areas and every individual in business.

Business coaching is distinctly designed to directly affect the overall culture of a business. Executive, personal and career coaching methods are utilized in the process.

Business Coaching is about transformation not information. Some information may change hands but the real power of coaching is when the client sees something new and different for the first time. Not simply new information, that is education, like reading a book. Transformation creates openings that replace blind spots or barriers. You might think of it as life altering, not just new information. Often times the client becomes confident in areas where they were previously stuck or experienced struggle. They are then set free to create actions that move them (and their team) forward at an extraordinary pace.

Most people don’t realize what’s possible or understand how to be creative in their business environment. Leaders tend to run their business out of long-standing habits or emotions as opposed to creating new possibilities or inventing a new future. Coaches can see new possibilities by being objective and bringing a focus to areas that would otherwise be unavailable (or missing) to others.

The role of the client is to be willing to change their approach to their business and be open to reinventing themselves and their current belief system. The client must be committed not only to change but to learning and growth. Coaching is also about commitment, integrity and balance in business and personal life.

The role of the coach is to discover what the client is passionate about in their business and personal life. The coach may intervene when he or she sees the client drifting or losing focus on their goals. The coach is always standing in the future that the client wants and is committed to their success.

Business coaching by design creates an environment for an organization (or individual) to seek its potential while not being influenced by the past. Organizations are often limited by their own self-imposed limitations or fixed positions that prevent them from taking action or producing bottom line results.

For the sake of those of us who may not be familiar with the role of a business coach, this is a person who specializes in giving talks and providing guidance with the aim of facilitating learning and raising the performance levels of a business. The concept of business coaching is more or less the same as that of sports coaching. Here’s how: in sports, the coaches push the athletes to achieve optimum performance.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

The possibility I’ve created for myself and everyone around me is the possibility of abundance, prosperity, generosity, freedom, (lots of) fun, happiness, intimacy, love and in good health always.

Notice expectations, mine and others as well. Listen to others; really listen for what they say and what they don’t say. It’s not about me, loving others is all about them. Listen to their expectations. (Expectations vs. Agreements)

Life is a playground; there is plenty of time and plenty of money.

There is always enough time to do things right.

 John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Most people can’t relate to me because I’m not relating to them on their level! I’m relating to others through my experiences, my (limited) view of the world. I relate to others as though they have never walked in my shoes, so I tell them what that’s like (that bores them to listen to me). Others believe their experiences are unique and that for the most part I can’t relate to them because I haven’t shared their experiences in life, or gotten into their world. The way the world occurs to me is not how it occurs for others. I don’t share myself authentically because of my fear that they won’t like me, or I won’t look good. They’re not interested in my story unless it relates to them and their life experiences. This is why I rarely connect with others at a deeper level.

FIVE CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS:

1) Not enough sales/profits.

2) Cannot save, put aside any money.

3) Don’t understand how(timing on) when to reinvest.

4) Too broad of a Niche, trying to please everyone.

5) This year is the year, (not next year) profit is not a future measurement, businesses are supposed to turn a profit.

Some people treat their business more like a hobby than a business. “Next year” is going to be the year when they’re going to cash in. We crack the code on how to have this year be the year for you to have it all. Oftentimes we take the red zone approach and focus on bottom-line profits as opposed to growth or focusing on the future. We are looking for a few leaders that are clear they don’t have all the answers and are willing to be coachable in order to have the future become available to them now. Sometimes it takes having an outside objective opinion be available to point out opportunities that are right in front of you.

The Legacy that I want to leave behind is?

Four different levels that businesses can operate from: Where does your business operate from?

1.  Hobby
2. Practice
3. Business
4. Organization

What’s working, what’s not working, what’s missing, Who or what can I learn from? What’s next?

Transformation is:

A. The Discovery of (new) information, a Breakthrough

B.  The Blinders come off; you see something for the first time

C. Take committed action, develop your plan

D. The change is internalized; you commit to follow the plan

E. Sustain the change, have measurements in place (and bring your passion to the plan)

F. Enroll others in your plan (dream), share with everyone what you’re up to

G. Don’t ever give up on your dream, keep it alive and stick to the plan

“A stand is a declaration of who you are in some matter. Jim Selman”

Many Blessings
Coach Gary

Are you sure you have the right people in leadership roles within your organization?

More and more managers are recognizing that it is wrong to assume that authority is the source of results. This assumption is an underlying cause of problems in productivity, service and quality.

Of course there are many situations in which authority is the most powerful or even the only structure that will produce results.

Have you heard this one?

I have too much responsibility and not enough authority.

The company that wants to breakthrough in people’s contributions to service, quality and productivity improvement needs to break through in its thinking about the responsibility/authority issue. If managers want to free up people to make decisions for themselves, they must overcome people’s view of responsibility as a burden.

Unfortunately, for some people, “responsibility” means..

I’m the one who is going to get blamed if the job doesn’t get done.

Of course this view can be changed. Good thing: When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.  In fact, there is mounting evidence that people are more willing to be responsible than management thinks and that management has less authority to hand out than most people assume.

MYTH. The hierarchical model of authority is built on the assumption that each level of management knows more than the level below it. Nonsense. More often than not, the salesperson knows more about his customer than does the VP of sales.

Some things do get accomplished with authority; however, little or nothing gets accomplished without responsibility. When people are being fully responsible, their levels of productivity, quality, service, and participation naturally increase. Most people want to be responsible, but systematization and bureaucratization have resulted in cultures that limit people’s ability to express their responsibility.

Responsibility starts with a willingness to make a difference in something, rather than being concerned with whether or not it is “my” job, why it wasn’t done before, who is to blame, or who will get credit.

Responsibility is a willingness to take the point of view that you have something to do with everything around you. Otherwise, there is always room to blame the other guy. If you’re responsible for any part of your job, assume you are responsible for all of it.

Responsibility is often an act of courage. It has remarkable power to impact performance because it generates action beyond that which is merely “reasonable”. One VP said,

My responsibility is something I have more power over than you do. You don’t delegate, mandate, or build in responsibility. Responsibility is more a function of self-motivation than it is a function of structure. We found that you can create responsibility by merely assuming it. You do it for the good of the organization and, ultimately, yourself. You follow certain requirements but you see something that needs to be done and you say, ‘I will take responsibility for this, and I’ll get it done.’ In a culture of responsibility, no one stops you. In fact, it’s even appreciated.

When people are being responsible for 100% of what is happening in their organization, they produce exceptional results. When there is room to say, “that’s not my responsibility,” things don’t get done. More and more companies are demonstrating that people can take the point of view that “I may not be accountable for all of what happens and I’m not going to be blamed for everything that goes wrong, but I’m going to relate responsibly as if I can be a cause of the whole thing.”

Free videos and much more available here!

Here is a Management Course for you, but first let me ask you something…

Do you drive a horse driven carriage? Do you live in a tent down by the river? Do you only eat dried ramen noodles and wear clothes purchased exclusively from thrift stores?

Didn’t think so.

And you are like everyone else, including your prospects and customers that just don’t buy what you need to survive. You buy what you want. And an even stronger motivator is taking action based on what you value.

The best way to sell is to understand what motivates buyers, and then help them experience those feelings in advance. This creates the desire to take action. Mediocre sales people, on the other hand, approach calls with the intention of spraying their message, hoping they will hit upon someone who will buy. And when resistance occurs, they fire back with objection rebuttals.

If you are a salesman, you have probably experienced the frustration of selling just to needs. Think about the prospect you proved you could help save a bazillion dollars a year, increase market share by 75%, decrease turnover to virtually zero, and eliminate customer complaints, and they still did not buy. Maybe you sulked around, shaking your head in disbelief, emitting primal-like noises in frustration, muttering, “ I just can’t understand what could have possibly made him buy!”

Probably because you talked about your reasons for buying, not theirs.

Consider using Wants-Based Questions

After you have generated interest with your opening, asked your basic questions, and built a rapport, then you get into the real meat…the reasons they buy. Their wants. Use questions such as:

“What, ideally, do you want the end result to be?”

“How would measure satisfaction after you’ve used it?”

“If could design the ideal product, what would it include?”

“If budget were not a concern, what would you get?”

Consider using Value-Based Questions

What do your prospects and customers value? What do you value?

Delve into someone’s values, their core beliefs, and you will know what reality drives them.

Money isn’t everything. I need money. I want money. But what I really value is the time home with my family, attending school functions and games, coaching baseball, and bringing down my golf handicap. Values override needs and wants.

Once you have reached the comfort level with a prospect when rapport and trust have been built, it’s appropriate to ask questions that examine their innermost core beliefs, their values.

Don’t ask these insightful questions too early in a sales call—“So what is important to you in a bathroom cleaning supplies vendor?” It forces prospects to think too much. As if the prospect places his bathroom cleaning supplies at the top of the things he lusts for daily. But, after the rapport is there, it’s not too awkward to ask.

“I know this is just one of the many responsibilities you have, but I want to make sure I’m giving you the best recommendation possible. So tell me, what is the most important to you about the maintenance of your facilities?”

I hope you learned the following from this Management Course: Make it a goal to question for, and to understand the wants and values of your buyers. You will build more trust, and have longer lasting customer relationships.

 Free Videos and much more! Click here 

The following briefly defines the contents of a business plan and provides some questions to address within a business plan as you continue to develop your leadership, organization and business.

VISION

A vision is something that is ongoing without a specific end-point in time. Also, a vision is considered a soft skill because it may not be measurable. If your business is a structure to fulfill your greater purpose; what is the purpose? What is the long range picture of your business?

MISSION

A mission answers the following questions. What specific outcome does your business need to be focused on? What approach out of all possible approaches to your vision does your business need to take? What is your market ‘niche’? in what product or service does your business specialize? How will you put your mission into words that will be meaningful and inspiring to your employees? How will you keep your company mission up in front of employees, clients and associates, so they will stay on course?

OBJECTIVES

Objectives are the ultimate goals of your business. What are the long-term and short-term goals of your business? Identify those goals that will achieve your objectives. Create clear and concrete measurements. How many? By when? Design measurement systems for each distinct area of your business, which will be posted daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

STRATEGIES

Strategies are plans and skills that allow the business to achieve goals on the way to fulfilling your business mission and objectives. What is your action for your business? How will you get to where you are going from where you are now?

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES

Standard operating procedures are the foundation and the rules of conduct for your business. This is the vehicle that will allow people to know if and when they are not operating true to company’s principles. What does your business stand for and what are the business commitments? What is the motivating force behind your business? By what principles will you operate? Write out an employee handbook or a company manual.

ORGANIZATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Organization is the system by which your business achieves specific purposes. Define what the business, departments, and individual employees are responsible for.

EXECUTION

Execution explains the measurement of actual results vs. the budget. Where can these resources be obtained and what will they cost? What are the appropriate actions?

BUDGET

A budget is an estimate of income and operating expenses for your business. Prepare an operating statement for your business for all 12 months.

MANAGING PROBLEMS AND BREAKDOWNS

When a company is committed to a goal, the structure within which people can work in managing breakdowns makes the difference between success and failure. You might want to invest in management training programs to get your managers educated on leadership management. An employee’s relationship to any business project or goal is directly shaped by that employee’s level of commitment.

We have outlined a practical simple breakdown of a business plan to use as a guideline during your ongoing process of development and leadership in your business. These are crucial aspects of your business that should never go unattended.

www.businesscoachzone.com Visit the zone for more Free Videos and Insights!

Example, the definition of a good manager is someone who can plan a task, organize activity, assets and people in line with that plan, and then instruct people in the work, applying ongoing correction and inspiration (management leadership) along the way.

That’s it. Definitions are simple to devise. But complications are touch to solve. One of the most difficult types of complications in management is the challenge of leading the “creative” types in our workforce. These folks bring some of the greatest value in terms of innovation, but they are difficult to effectively manage because of their creativity and their free spirited approach to their jobs.

Leadership and management go hand in hand. Here are some management coaching ideas on riding gentle herd on the “right brained employee,” or corralling the “creatives.”

Give them space and structure.

Creatives actually work better on their own than in very structured settings, so you want to build that into their officing, scheduling and other situations. But at the same time, you must tap into your people management skills to insist on some basic structures in their reporting to you. Creatives can have problems with focus (on anything other than the current idea that’s capture their unbridled fascination, that is). They also have problems with routines and detail work. So you need to provide sufficient structures to keep them on schedule and in focus with the overall aspects of their jobs. This might meant that you have to change management models in your company. You’ve got to insist on some basic processes that make sure that paperwork gets done and customers get served. Remember, “routine” is an unattractive word and an activity is only crucial to them if it’s also interesting to them.

Let them be.

‘This may be a contradiction of the first directive, but it really isn’t. Once you’ve established some basic systems to make sure your creative’s fulfill the routine aspects of their roles, be willing to let them work largely unsupervised, and with a lot of time freedom when it comes to projects. Effective management leadership is key. They’ll have no problem putting in the hours and giving you amazing results, if you give them the freedom to work creatively.

Lay on the praise, but in private.

There are two common misconceptions about creative’s and acknowledgement. In order to project appropriate leadership communication, an effective management team must not fall for such misconceptions. One is that creative’s don’t need much praise, because they seem to get all the rewards they need from the work they’re doing. Not true. Don’t mistake total immersion for total satisfaction. They need to hear that what they enjoy creating has value to you as the leader. The other misconception is that creative’s enjoy acknowledgement in front of others. Again, not true. Creatives are most often introverted and serious, and they cringe a bit at public praise. They most appreciate kudos you deliver in private.

Use these 3 management leadership tips as a guide to applying proper skills of leadership and management skills for right-brained employees in your business.

Free videos are available at www.businesscoachzone.com

Rule #4:

Honesty, Integrity & Balance are paramount to the sales cycle.

Within this business and primarily within sales, we need to be as up front as possible about our ability to accomplish a project. As sales people, we have to be able to admit any lack of knowledge of certain questions and feel free to indicate to the customer that we will get an answer for them from someone we know. It is a deadly practice to promise things we cannot deliver in order to make a sale. This can involve the technology of what we can or cannot do, or a promised deadline that is impossible to meet, etc.

The balance of the sales cycle is when our customer may begin to expect more of us that was agreed to. As service oriented sales people, it is only natural to help accommodate and be as courteous as possible but it can also become a trap. We may fall into the habit of being too accommodating to the point where it begins to affect our bottom line. We must learn to say NO when appropriate!

• Identify their needs
• Be clear about the offer
• Under promise and over deliver (not visa versa)

Rule #5:

Being disciplined is the key to getting the sale.

The customer’s first concern is what’s in it for them, what is it that our service/product can do for them. It is important to be disciplined about communicating the value of our product/service clearly to the customer.

Prior to meeting the customer, focus your thoughts on what you intend to communicate to them about our product/service and the outcome you intend to create. The key is to be disciplined about this process- it will pay off and get you the sale!

Ask them if they have any questions or need clarifications. Request that they share with you what information, if any, they gained from the appointment.

• Create your intention for the appointment
• Create the outcome for the appointment
• Check in with the customer

As overwhelming as it may seem to understand and grasp the 5 rules of the sales game from our executive coaching training, keep one thing in mind: If you don’t plan to customize your own game plan for sales, then you can potentially face an unstable future.

FREE Videos available to help you grow into a more powerful leader!

What is a team in business?                                                                 

People with a common and well understood purpose or mission. How about… people who are willing to communicate clearly and effectively. Or, people with a common commitment as well as unique concerns with clearly defined individual accountabilities.

Perhaps, people with an aligned agreement to produce their collective and individual accomplishments at some mutually agreed upon level of performance. People with absolute commitment to an environment allowing for a balance of communication, contribution and acceptance.

One more, people utilizing coordinated action in language to forward their common commitment to accomplishments, relationships fun.

Here are the essentials for teambuilding:

1. In the beginning of a team or new project, remember to write out a purpose for the team. This will provide direction and be a reference point for the evaluations in the future.
2. Set goals that each member will commit to.
3. Coordinate ways to reach the goals.
4. Remember that you do not have to be best friends or socialize outside of the office to work well together.
5. Despite personality differences, treat employees or team members with respect.
6. Consider that you may have more in common with those that seem the most different from you; after all, you are on the same team, pursuing the same goals.
7. Allow different opinions to be heard because they often lead to exciting results.
8. Celebrate progress and achievements of the team; establish a reward system.
9. Acknowledgement and encouragement will do wonders for team morale and the accomplishment of a task.
10. Remember that each team member has a life outside of the office.
11. Discourage gossip. Or, be willing to say to others what you say behind their back. Remember the Snake poem!

The Snake that Poisons Everybody

It topples governments,

wrecks marraiges,

ruins careers,

busts reputations,

causes heartaches,

nightmares,

indigestion,

spawns suspicion,

generates grief,

dispatches innocent people

to cry in their pillows.

Even its name hisses.

It’s called GOSSIP.

Office gossip,

shop gossip,

party gossip.

It makes headlines

and headaches.

Before you repeat

a story,

Ask yourself:

Is it true?

Is it necessary?

If not,

SHUT UP!

Talk about team building. Talk about organizational development. Ask your team what organizational development looks like to them. What are the key ingredients to form a proper team? Never assume that everyone is on the same page when in comes to what a great team looks like. You might be pleasantly surprised, or not.

Keep educating yourself! We have a ton of free videos available here.

The “story” is the private and public conversation of justifications, reasons, explanations, and fixed positions that stand in the way of our being effective. We often trade our “story” for the results we intend.  People rarely consider what would be possible if they were not limited by their “story.”

Our “story” obscures the “source” of our effectiveness by locating what happened outside our selves.  Our “story” has a design that always seeks to make us “right” about the interpretations we are creating.  Often, others are made wrong in our “story.”  Our “story” can also be a commitment to “looking good” to ourselves, and to what others perceive. We accept our “story” as though it were true, valid and “reasonable.”  We are “blind” to our “story.”  If we are skillful, we sell our “story” to others.  They often buy in, thus creating additional agreement or “reality” about our “story.”

We seldom notice that our “story” is composed of unexamined assumptions and ungrounded assessments that produce no distinctly designed action. Ultimately, what we are left with is a life made out of our “story.”  The result of this shows up as life not working, ordinary or struggle.

When we are able to distinguish what happened and the meaning we gave to what happened, then we can take responsibility for creating our “story.” Taking on responsibility frees us from the prison of our “story.” This leads us to accountability.

Accountability is living by choice rather than living by accident.  Accountability is the opportunity to carve out the future rather than sit back and see what happens.  Without accountability, there is no committed speaking; there are no promises and no declarations.  Therefore, there are few opportunities for breakthroughs.  There is, at best, business as usual or the status quo. (the ordinary)

A promise for which you are accountable has power.  A promise made from the stand that you are your word engages you as a participant.  You cease to be a spectator in your life as your words and actions impact the world.  With a promise, you create a condition that supports your commitment rather than your moods.

When you are accountable to your promises you are your word; thus, your relationship to the others (the world) shifts.  You find yourself producing results in all areas of your life as you continue developing leadership in this light. The experience is one of joy, fearlessness, irrepressible energy and satisfaction (being extraordinary). Leadership management styles are better understood when you examine what people are truly committed to.

Free videos and tons of information here!