When I am coaching I like to take my clients backwards and then forwards to their future. I invite them to enter a virtual time machine: my coaching ‘Tardis’ if you like – and I first invite them to seize the controls and take it back 10 years. And then I ask them, “How would you have introduced yourself ten years ago? What are you doing? Where are you living?’ What do you want for yourself ten years on? How would you describe your life looking forwards 10 years?”

And then I bring them back to the present moment. This useful first step helps people to see the difference between their aspirations and their reality. They are able to reconnect with their ideals and their ambitions – and to reflect on where their choices have led them. 

Then I invite them to travel forwards, to 10 years into the future. I ask: ‘What is your life like? Where are you living? How do things look? Who are you associating with? Do you own any properties? What car do you drive? Is there anything that you would like to do in the next 10 years? Anything you would like to be? Anything you would like to have?’ 

For some people the aims will be value-driven and idealistic; for others, material gain will be important; and others will be planning to have children and build a family. There are no right or wrong answers – this is simply a powerful way to get people to think about and really focus on what they would want in the future. 

To achieve anything in life you need adopt the right behaviours. 

Everything we Think affects what we Say and what we Do. Everything we Do will depend on who we truly want to Be. By adjusting our thinking so that we are living as if our future is happening NOW – we will adjust the decisions that we make on a daily basis – and are much more likely to make that goal a reality. 

I always say that if you get the Do and the Be right, the Have should follow. 

As Steven Covey says ‘Begin with the end in mind’ 

TIME TRAVELLER’S TIPS FOR SETTING YOUR GOALS FROM THE FUTURE: 

1. Be clear, clarity is the key to success. Know what you want and why you want it.

Many goals are not achieved because they are too vague. ‘I want to go on holiday next year’ is unlikely to become a reality. Other questions need to be asked to gain clarity: Where? With whom? To do what? For how much? When?

Africa? Great. But where in Africa? An adventure holiday? Sounds lovely – but what kind of adventure? If you get stuck – get some advice. Talk to people. In the case of a holiday it could be advice from a travel guide, a web page or a travel agent; in the case of a business start-up it may mean joining Business Link or speaking to others in the same industry as you. Once you know why and where you are going – then you can take the actions necessary to get you there.

2. Dream big, reach for the moon if you don’t reach the moon at least you may land among the stars.

Dreams will only become reality if you take steps to turn them into practical actions. Taking action takes time and planning: and it takes no more time to plan a big outcome than a small one. So – when you are mapping your vision – take it as wide and broad as you can imagine it to be. See how large your comfort zone is at present and where it might extend to in the future. Decide where you are aiming for now – but keep your future possibilities in view too.

Thinking back to that African adventure: you might begin with a package tour to the Gambia but have in mind a train ride across the whole continent. Anything is possible if you begin to live as if your future is happening now.

3. Create a vision board with everything that represents your end goal, pictures, power words and phrases.

The mind is stimulated by all our senses. Images, words, sounds, flavours, touch – all of these will reinforce the messages we send to our brain. Africa becomes more tangible if you start to surround yourself with images, music, foods, patterns and fabrics from the region. A business dream will become more of a reality if you begin to read business magazines, watch business programmes, put images of the material goals that you want to achieve on your wall, have your business plan on your wall – and so on.

Whatever your personal dream or vision – surround yourself with whatever inspires you to achieve it. Change it over time so that it is always current and reflecting the true nature of your ambitions. As the saying goes: ‘Be careful what you wish for – you might just get it!’

4. Imagine you are being interviewed for a TV show or magazine after you have achieved your goal. The interviewer asks you, how you did it. What attitudes and behaviours contributed to your success?

Each of us is a ‘self’ expert. We know our strengths and our weaknesses. It can be helpful to do a stock check of skills to see what is driving you forward and what is holding you back. Are your fears getting in your way? Face them head on and if necessary get some professional advice or training in that areas. You will be surprised at how quickly the getting of experience can make fears a thing of the past.  My friend and mentor Peter Thomson once asked me the following questions, why not ask yourself right now….

What do you need to START doing?

Take action? Set achievable goals? Monitor your progress? Seek advice? Get a makeover? Get a mentor? 

What do you need to STOP doing?

Procrastinating? Living in the past? Having regrets? Blaming others? Putting yourself down? 

What do you need to do LESS of?

Spending? Watching TV? Eating junk food? Putting everyone else’s needs ahead of your own? 

What do you need to do MORE of?

Networking? Socialising? Saving money? Planning? Taking action? 

5. Identify who can help you and who you may need to avoid

People are more willing to help others to achieve their goals than you may imagine. If you know someone who has the skills to help you – approach them and ask them for their advice. Find a mentor, who can help you in an objective way, and will shortcut your route to success. Identifying who you need to avoid can be one of the trickier ones. Are there people close to you who undermine your ambitions? Who are happy to have you stay the way you are because a change would threaten their status quo? At the end of the day, the only person who knows what is right for you – is you. Others will catch up with you eventually if they care about you. Be brave, follow your dreams and start living today as if they are already a reality. 

Now -  step back inside that time machine and think back from the future to the first thing you did that set you on the right track towards your goal. What was it? Be very clear and precise about it and see yourself doing it. 

Begin it now and take the first step into a future you can be proud of.

Written by Bev James, Managing Director The Coaching Academy

Kris Robertson, UK’s leading Coach Mentor/Supervisor and Operations Director of The Coaching Academy shares his top 5 Coaching Questions:-

 1.  What else? 

For me probably THE most powerful of questions.  The beauty is both in its simplicity and the suggestion in the question that there IS something else.  Far more powerful than the closed version ”Is there anything else?” which I often hear on practical assessment calls.  The difference simply that the ‘What’ prompts the brain to search and find, whereas the ‘Is there’ results in either a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’, often with very little need for thought.  Repetition of this question yields the best results. 

2.  If you could wave a magic wand? 

A fantastic way to bypass any obstacles the client may have in mind when considering the options available to them.  Great for clients who often edit their options or who struggle thinking of a range of different possible ways to approach their goal. 

3.  Tell me about a time in which you have completed something similar to this before. 

A great question to help the client identify the strategies they have used previously which have been successful from which you can then ask ‘What went well?’, ‘What did you learn as a result of this?’, ‘How might you go about things differently this time?’ etc.  Really useful to help your client identify the evidence that they have that they CAN be successful this time.  Avoid closing this question down by asking ‘Have you ever…?’ 

4.  What will be the impact of things staying the same? 

A challenging question which helps your client consider the implications of not taking any action.  Helping raise their awareness and increase their motivation to take action in order to avoid the consequences of inertia.  Also a useful question to ask as occasionally it helps a client realise that actually, they don’t want the outcome they have suggested enough, or they are content with their current situation.

 5.  What have you learned from this session? 

I always think it is a positive and professional way to end a coaching session with a ‘wisdom-accessing’ question along these lines.  Plus, as an assumptive, it suggests that the client HAS learned something.  For me, it then makes it far easier to finish by asking for a referral or booking my client in for a further package of coaching sessions once they have had an opportunity to talk through the fantastic outcomes they have taken away from the session. 

Happy Coaching!

Client:  Although I have this goal…..this has now appeared… and I wonder how I am going to be able to juggle all the balls and still succeed?

The power of coaching never ceases to amaze me, especially because we coaches are in the position of working with a range of clients, forever asking them “wisdom access questions” that enable them to discover new insights, create new actions to move them forward in their work and their lives.

We all know our raison-d’être coaching relationship is to enable clients to build success upon success by being able to achieve any number of goals, goals which may not always be fully apparent at the start of the coaching relationship, more often they emerge as the relationship develops. 

From the start of the coaching relationship, where there isn’t always a focus on one particular area, and if there is, as other areas emerge this can create some measure of trepidation, fear or uncertainty for the client, who may begin subsequent coaching sessions by asking the coach the thorny question: “Although I have this goal…. this has now appeared…and I wonder how I am going to be able to juggle all the balls and still succeed?”

For me, this is where I get a real buzz and excitement out of being a coach, where I know that clients really need me to get over this thorny issue: act as a sounding board, a devil’s advocate, a motivator, the person who is “rooting for them”, challenging them to succeed; providing them with clarity and inspiration to help them learn and develop, create direction and momentum, manage their time more effectively, especially as more challenges appear on the horizon and prioritization is the priority.

Coach’s Question to client:  Ask yourself, what is the best use of your time right now?  What works best for you? How do you see the 100% time being spread over your tasks?
Client Answer:  80/20 or maybe 80/10/10!            

Coach’s “Time Management” Tips for client:

• Stay focused and on your targets.
• Organise your work-space – at home and at work.
• Organise your mind.
• You can’t do everything, so only do what’s important.    
• DO   -  Make a list of daily "To do" tasks
• DELEGATE – Do devolve down to others tasks, so they can support you
  and learn to say "no"
• DELAY – Prioritize and postpone.  Date the action and act on it.
• DUMP – Get rid of it if its not necessary. Once you have shuffled your
  paper once/read the e-mail and taken action, then if its no longer
  important its out of your mind.
• DECLUTTER your mind.
• Chunk tasks.
• Don’t waste any time.
• Avoid putting things off.
• Do one thing at a time.
• Talk, rather than write – talking is more productive in terms of the use of your
  time and you will get more of an immediate response – although you must still
  respect the time of others so that you don’t appear too pushy.
  Remember:  Five minutes saved each hour will give more than 3 hrs a week.
• Build in some fun and some quality time!

Before I qualified with The Coaching Academy with a Diploma in Corporate and Executive Coaching in March 2007, I had already made the decision to enhance my broad repertoire of skills and the skill of coaching is a skill worth knowing. It is more recently that I have discovered that my niche as a coach is leaning more and more towards that of being a “Motivational and Confidence Coach”, someone with the ability to transfer my energy and enthusiasm to help inspire others to succeed. This skill is particularly important in the current recession when people may be feeling stressed, over-burdened, fearful and generally quite negative.  They need people like me to lead the way and we are a growing breed. 

So, why am I writing this piece today?  It’s to provide you the reader with one small insight into how I am currently supporting a female executive on her exciting journey of personal development and change, a journey that is becoming more exciting every time we meet.  This insight will help you as practitioners with supporting your coaching clients who may be experiencing similar challenges and uncertainty.

When I was first asked to coach my client, we started the relationship with me helping her create an Action Plan with tasks, measures and outcomes for the development stage of an innovative idea she had identified for a new business (this is something I can easily do, as I am also a Business Adviser). 

From that initial meeting the focus has since widened exponentially. My client has found a range of other opportunities sprouting up in various new directions, and I am delighted that she has chosen me to bolster the reigns as she rides forward!

Every meeting we have is a stage coach ride of her telling me about her “wins” her “new opportunities”, “new challenges” “successes” “concerns” both in her employed role and the  range of other areas of involvement which are growing “like topsy”.  I can’t wait for the next exciting journey instalment to discover how she may require further help and support.

I am currently helping her focus, plan, improve her time-management skills, and to overcome procrastination or anything else she identifies.

Although it is likely we will be taking a short break whilst she flies fully solo, she knows I am only on the end of the phone if she needs to speak with me. Her journey is in full flow and full steam ahead.  As we travel, our activities may oscillate in and out from different directions. There are sure to be a number of exciting outcomes, and I have to keep pinching myself that what’s important is to enjoy the journey and keep on juggling all the balls.  Watch this space!

Viv Leach  
Motivation and Confidence Coach,   
“Vitality – for life and learning”                              

It never fails to amaze me the impact coaching has on people’s lives. We must hear the words ‘life changing’ on a daily basis, and when I think of the miracles it has bought about in so many people’s lives I feel humbled and inspired to be a part of such an amazing process that makes so many people so very happy. And that’s what life is really all about isn’t it? Happiness is the holy grail of human existence. Regardless of circumstances, race, status, religion, or colour, at heart we all want the same thing – to be happy.

A study of Americans ten years ago found that they considered happiness more important to them than money, moral goodness and even going to Heaven, while a more recent English study found that the participants rated happiness as their most important component of Quality of Life, even more important to them than money, health, and sex.

All aspects of happiness, from the chemical study of happiness and where it is located in the brain, to how feeling happy impacts on society and why it is good for us and makes us healthier, have increasingly come under scrutiny in the past couple of decades.

In fact, happiness studies and research, formerly the preserve of philosophers, therapists and gurus, has developed into a bona fide discipline. There are ‘Professors of Happiness’ at top universities, ‘Quality of Life’ Institutes worldwide, and thousands of research papers. Happiness even has its own journal, the Journal of Happiness Studies, and has become a part of many government’s focus – National Happiness Quota rather than GDP. In the UK, for example, the Cabinet Office has held a string of seminars on life satisfaction, and last December the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit published a paper recommending policies that could increase the nation’s happiness, including using quality-of-life indicators when making decisions about health and education (go for the option that leads to greatest life satisfaction), and finding an alternative to Gross Domestic Product as a measure of how well the country is doing, one that measures happiness as well as welfare, education and human rights.

Why is being happy good for you?
Cheerful people are more likely to try new things and challenge themselves, which reinforces positive emotion and leads to success in work, good relationships and strong health, say psychologists. The findings suggest that happiness is not a ‘feelgood’ luxury, but essential to people’s wellbeing.
What is more, happiness can also extend across an entire nation, with people in ‘happy’ nations, such as Nigeria, Denmark and Ireland, being more likely to have pro-democratic attitudes and a keenness to help others.

Happiness increases the ability to earn a higher income
When the link between happiness and success was investigated by a team from the University of California Riverside (led by Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky), they found that “happy people tend to earn higher incomes”. Having established the link, they looked for the cause. "Almost always it has been assumed that things that correlate with happiness are the causes of happiness, but it was just the opposite – that those things tend to be caused by happiness," said Professor Ed Diener from the University of Illinois, another author on the paper.

Further studies revealed that having a sunny outlook on life appeared to precede good fortune. "There was strong evidence that happiness leads people to be more sociable and more generous, more productive at work, to make more money, and to have stronger immune systems," said Prof Lyubomirsky.

Happiness is good for health and wellbeing
If you can be positive and generally happy, the benefits can be manifold. "Happy people are more likeable and more sociable. They are also better able to cope with stress and likely to be healthier and live longer." Up to nine years longer, found another study, this one finding that happiness results in better health, and so leads to a longer – and more productive – life. "The happier you were, the lower your cortisol levels during the day," says Professor Jane Wardle, of University College London, UK. Cortisol is a stress hormone and when high levels are present it is linked to conditions such as type II diabetes and hypertension. Low levels mean healthier hearts, and therefore longer lives.

Happiness is infectious
And it’s contagious. Like an influenza outbreak, happiness – and other emotions, such as misery, too – spread through social networks, affecting people through three degrees of separation. For instance, a happy friend of a friend of a friend increases the chances of personal happiness by about 6%, which is interesting when compared to research showing that a $5,000 income bumps up the odds by just 2%, says James Fowler, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, who led the 2008 study.

"Even people we don’t know and have never met have bigger effect on our mood than substantial increases in income," he says. Happiness spreads best at close distances, they found. A happy next-door neighbour ups the odds of personal happiness by 34%, a sibling who lives within 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) by 14%, and a friend within half a mile by a whopping 42%.

While there might be six degrees of separation between any two people, "there
are three degrees of influence," says Fowler’s colleague Nicholas Christakis, of Boston’s Harvard Medical School, beyond which it runs out of energy, rather like a wave.

"I think that happiness is more likely to spread because it’s an emotion that’s about social cohesion," says Fowler. Visible and contagious happiness might have helped our ancestors maintain social cohesion.

But why coaching for happiness?
Interestingly, coaching has followed a similar path along a similar time span to the study of happiness, going from something considered faintly hippy dippy 20 years ago to steadily gaining credence until it now being acknowledged as being an indispensible tool for helping people get the most out of their lives and circumstances – to become, in fact, happier and more fulfilled people, helping create more wealth and happier communities.

But why should this be so? Surely people are either happy or not happy? Grumps, or sweetness and light? Not so, says Prof Sonja Lyubomirsky.

“Unhappy people”, she says, “can become happier by learning the habits of happy people. Deciding to become happier entails making a choice about which perspective you take and acknowledging that the choice is in your hands." She also argues that "a full 40 percent of the capacity for happiness is within your power to change."

To demonstrate this, Lyubomirsky uses a pie chart divided into three parts. Half of the pie is taken up by genetics, a tiny slice by circumstance, and the rest by you and your willpower. By genetics, Lyubomirsky means a shared, familial temperament, rather than a known set of genes, pointing to many studies that indicate there is a ‘set point’ for happiness that is the inherent "baseline or potential for happiness to which we are bound to return, even after major setbacks or triumphs”.

The second (and tiniest) piece of Lybuomirsky’s pie, is circumstance, which is whether you work in overalls or suits (studies indicate it hardly matters), whether money buys happiness (studies say not), and about class and gender (again pretty irrelevant once you have enough to live on). Basically, study after study show that people’s circumstances in life are generally not the main determinants of their sense of happiness.

Bad things, such as divorce and redundancy, obviously do make people unhappy, and for many years in the case of the loss of a beloved spouse, whereas good turns, like winning the lottery or getting married, cause joy. However, once the initial emotional ‘spike’ fades, the person’s sense of wellbeing returns to where it had been before. More is only more for a while, then it becomes the status quo, which is why wealthy people are rarely happier than those who simply have enough.

Happiness is supremely important to us, yet we can’t find it because we seek it in the wrong places and in the wrong ways – people tend to look to material fulfillment, for example (retail therapy, anyone?), self medicate, or blame others for their state of mind, instead of looking internally and changing their mindset.

Coach me happy
Studies in to whether people can actually be trained to be happier found that coaching people to change their mind set, be positive and look at the bigger picture could change people’s levels of happiness in as little as four weeks.

Also, when researchers measured subjects’ happiness levels nine to18 months after ten weeks of coaching, they were found to be 12 percent happier than the controls, demonstrating the lasting effectiveness of happiness coaching.

So in essence, because happiness is infectious, good for our health and increases our wealth, coaching for happiness not just increases the client’s wellbeing – but your happiness levels too, plus your and their family, friends and neighbours happiness levels, and therefore increases your and their community’s life span, health and ability to make money. Now isn’t that nice? Let’s propose a toast to happiness coaching and hope it becomes the Next Big Thing!

And if you have been inspired to be one of the ones who will make a difference and become a happiness coach, then sign up today for the free 2-day coaching course.

By Bev James

Managing Director
The Coaching Academy

Career counselling may involve specialist services, which use psychometric tests. By giving the client a series of tests measuring aptitudes, occupational interests and aspects of personality, the results may be interpreted by a consultant psychologist and a report with recommendations written. Other career counsellors may make no use of tests but use their skills to assist clients in focusing on occupational and other aspects of their lives.

Career coaches may also choose to use the psychometric tests referred to above, whilst others will use the processes outlined in this module.

The Role of the Corporate Career Coach

Zeus and Skiffington state that the primary purpose of corporate career coaching is to help employees consider alternatives and make decisions regarding their careers. This in turn can help the organisation provide or plan opportunities. They describe a comprehensive range of aspects for which a career coach will assist the individual:

• Assess the current situation and objectively evaluate career options
• Work with the individual to clarify values and aspirations
• Act as a resource to provide useful and valuable information about how to research particular jobs and careers
• Assist the effective marketing of the individual
• Overcome blockages
• Cope with rejection
• Help recognise personal strengths and weaknesses and how personality ‘type’ fits with certain careers and work environment
• Increase productivity and status within current job
• Develop career goals
• Provide ongoing feedback, support and encouragement
• The Scope of Career Coaching
• Career Events

The following is a series of career events that individuals may experience and which span from their first job through retirement. As the coach, you may be asked to assist the individual who is:

• Starting a new career
• Mid-career and feeling stuck
• On a treadmill and can’t get off
• Wanting to change career
• Suffering from the ‘Hero’ syndrome and feeling overwhelmed
• Looking for Executive career development
• Aiming at and dealing with promotion
• Facing Redundancy
• Facing Retirement

In-House Career Coaches versus External Career Coaches

The table below lists some of the advantages of both in-house and external career coaches.

(Adapted from Zeus & Skiffington)

‘Coaching within organisations has moved beyond being ‘the latest fad’ to adding real benefits’ was the rather cumbersome title used for a recent Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) survey, which looked at the benefits coaching can, and does, bring to the workplace via HR.

I found myself nodding agreement as soon as I read the title, which as a senior HR professional for over 20 years, a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, and the owner/director of my own executive coaching business, is perhaps not surprising!

However, all HR Professionals and Directors, especially those who are not currently using coaching as a tool, would the research extremely interesting, as it found that almost three-quarters (71%) of UK employers in 2008 used coaching in their organisations, compared to 63% in 2007, and that 72% find coaching to be an effective tool.

Within organisations that offer coaching to all their employees, the most common purposes for which coaching is used is general personal development (79%) and helping poor performance (74%). Where organisations only offer coaching to their managers, the emphasis shifts to leadership development (61%).

The study also found a clear trend towards using line management as the main delivery mechanism (an 53% increase), although the same sample found that the use of external providers had also increased (38%), which strongly suggests that coaching is becoming an standard practice.

Dr John McGurk, a CIPD Learning, Training and Development Adviser, says:
“Coaching is not just a popular technique but an immensely powerful one for supporting personal development. There is no doubt that coaching is having a significant impact both on individual and organisational performance. As coaching helps people to develop, it’s a perfect fit for the fast moving knowledge economy in which we operate.”

Although there is a lack of agreement among coaching professionals about precise definitions, these are some generally agreed characteristics of coaching in organisations according to the CIPD:

• It is essentially a non-directive form of development.
• It focuses on improving performance and developing individuals’ skills.
• Personal issues may be discussed, but the emphasis is on performance at work.
• Coaching activities have both organisational and individual goals.
• It assumes that the individual is psychologically well and does not require a clinical intervention.
• It provides people with feedback on both their strengths and their weaknesses.
• It is a skilled activity that should be delivered by trained people.

An increasing compromise is the use of the HR Department personnel as coaches to the staff in their organisation, and I have to agree with the CIPD view that the HR department has a central role to play in designing and managing coaching within an organisation.

Because of this it is essential that HR practitioners understand when coaching is appropriate, the different types of coaching that are available, and how to select appropriately qualified coaches and match them to the needs of the organisation and individuals. In addition, HR practitioners hold the responsibility for setting up contractual arrangements, as well as developing mechanisms to evaluate the effectiveness of the coaching activities: while coaching is not a long term intervention, it should have long term and sustainable results for both the individual and the organisation.

For an HR professional seeking to develop themselves and add value to their organisation, taking the coaching route is a wonderful way of achieving this, as I can vouch. While coaching doesn’t replace technical advice, it nevertheless adds more value to it by creating more self-awareness and increases buy-in to the normal functions of HR.

By becoming a qualified coach you immediately add extra value to your organisation by your ability to formally coach employees. This is further enhanced by designing coaching programmes for line managers to undertake and because you will have the knowledge to enable you be more in control of the results when, and if, you decide to bring in an external coaching provider.

As an extra bonus, becoming a qualified coach may also open other doors of opportunity to you in your own career, as it has in mine. I love working in HR and I also get immense satisfaction from the difference my coaching programmes make to others. I always say that I have the best of both worlds!
So what do the clients and HR professionals say about coaching?

“Coaching at work gives an employer an added advantage. An example of this is an under performing team. We brought in a coach to work with the team, their performance improved immensely and now other teams want to go through the same process.”
Aminata Kamara, Chartered MCIPD
HR Manager
Catholic Bishops Council of England & Wales

““We get to speak to many executives in our line of work. Most of them fit into one of two groups; those that consider themselves to be at the very top of their game and competent in every area and those that, through structured development, are still learning and growing. It is no surprise to me that it is the latter that consistently achieve better results for their employers and greater career leverage for themselves. We are always looking for people who care deeply about their own career development and take personal accountability for it. The utilisation of self development programmes and executive coaching are both key indicators that we are speaking to an exceptional candidate. “
Richard Taylor-Edwards
Managing Director
Talisman Executive Resourcing Ltd

“Since being on a coaching leadership programme with Remarkable Success, my senior team and I have achieved a remarkable increase of 50% profitability and 60% productivity over a 10 month period. That’s what I call a fantastic return on investment.”
Warren Roberts   MSc.  C. Dir.  MIoD
Managing Director

So if you are an HR professional seeking to expand your skills and knowledge base, then coaching is an ideal vehicle in which to do so. Once you are qualified you will be able to create numerous virtuous circles both personally and within your organisation, which benefit everyone to a vast degree. The Coaching Academy is the oldest coaching centre in the UK, and offers the Corporate and Executive Coaching Programme which is an ideal start to your coaching career.

. Don’t hesitate – get in touch today!

By Maria Deacon-Viney, Chartered FCIPD

Maria Deacon-Viney, Chartered FCIPD is MD of Remarkable Success Coaching and Consulting. www.remarkablesuccess.co.uk

A look at what creates entrepreneurial spirit and how to turn it into a successful mindset

Entrepreneur is a term bandied about by many these days, especially in an economic climate where it is not just desirable to be of the entrepreneurial persuasion but something to be greatly admired.

Some business people may talk wistfully of an associate having entrepreneurial talents or being a ‘true entrepreneur’ but do we really know what makes an entrepreneur and, more to the point. what makes a successful entrepreneur?

Because there is a difference! You may have an entrepreneurial spirit but you may not be able to translate that spirit into an entrepreneurial mindset – it is the mindset that often means the difference between success and failure for many entrepreneurs.

So how do you know if you have the entrepreneurial spirit, or to put it more simply “How do you spot an entrepreneur at 100 paces?”

If you are looking at someone who has most if not all of the following characteristics, then chances are you are looking at an entrepreneur:

• Brimming with confidence backed up by a strong self image
• Enthusiastic and always keen to take action
• Brave: able to feel the fear, but will go for it anyway
• Passionate about everything they do which translates into abundant energy
• Innovative and creative – able to spot opportunities that others may miss
• Full of ideas and unfailingly optimistic

Sound familiar? It should do, most of us have one or two of these qualities, but the successful entrepreneurial will display most if not all of them. However, many people, despite an abundance of these traits fail to take advantage of them and don’t turn it into success.

The word entrepreneur has become inextricably linked with the concept of a successful businessperson, despite the fact that you can have an entrepreneurial spirit (see the characteristics above) but not have the right skills or mindset to turn it into success.

This is why coaching, specifically business coaching, has become so popular with entrepreneurs, senior executives and CEOs. It takes that spirit and shows you how to turn it into success by having the right mindset.

The successful entrepreneur will also display:

• A sense of urgency tempered by self discipline
• A vision that is future focused and objective
• The ability to set and stick to goals
• Determination fuelled by confidence and passion
• Predisposition for calculated risk-taking and defying the norms
• And a head for business, which is essential for any successful entrepreneur

How coaching can turn the entrepreneurial spirit into success
Mindset is the watchword of 2009. With the economic downturn in full swing and looking set to last for some time, having the right mindset can make the difference, not between spirit and success, but more importantly between success and failure.

So how does coaching bring about that mindset – the one that will show you success? It does so by addressing the common issues that many entrepreneurs face, dealing with those issues and turning them into strengths.

Lack of objective judgement, difficulty maintaining focus, inability to take action, poor follow through and fear of failure are the downsides of the impressive characteristics listed above. These are the common challenges that you, and many other entrepreneurs, may face.

An entrepreneur’s strength of passion, confidence, ideas, optimism and bravery can often dim the very important light of the practicalities of success. A coach will enable you to compartmentalise and see where your strengths are actually becoming weaknesses so that you can address them and reverse the trend.

To be successful you must be able to have the IDEA; recognise the right OPPORTUNITY; take appropriate ACTION; ensure FOLLOW THROUGH and drive the project to COMPLETION. If any of these pieces are missing then the picture is not complete and success may always be just out of reach. A coach helps to bring all the pieces together and create the right mindset needed.

Entrepreneurs can benefit immensely from coaching as it is often the chalk to the entrepreneurial cheese. A coach will help the entrepreneurial mind to externalise, use objectivity, be focused, break the vision down to a logical sequence of actions and, most importantly, to challenge itself and be accountable.

The Accountability of the Entrepreneur
Accountability is a core part of the coaching process. Being accountable impacts so many issues faced by business people, especially the entrepreneur. So if you are missing a piece of your ‘success puzzle’ then coaching and accountability can often be the answer.

Being accountable does not simply mean that you have to turn up to the next session having done your ‘homework’. Accountability is a mindset and an approach that should run through everything you do, making you more effective and dynamic.

Accountability of the entrepreneur results in:

• Turning passion and energy into consistently performing to maximum potential
• Encourages a continual ‘raising of the bar’ on achievements
• Keeping the vision focused and on track – less apt to be overwhelmed with ideas
• Removing ‘limiting beliefs’ – accountability highlights each success and achievement
• Crystallising larger goals into specific steps to ensure action continues and passion remains

Accountability and coaching are both extremely empowering tools for the entrepreneur, because you do the work, not your coach. All the answers, techniques and mindset are already within, and your coach will enable you to bring them out through a process of understanding, motivation, clarity, accountability and challenge. Without this process many potentially successful entrepreneurs may remain simply spirited.

The Entrepreneur and the Credit Crunch
Now is the time to recognise your entrepreneurial spirit for what it is and take action to turn it into success. Those who plan, build and develop during these difficult economic times will be the ones to flourish as we move out of the recession.

An entrepreneurial spirit will see the current climate as a great opportunity and challenge to succeed and thrive where others are failing. The successful entrepreneur will ensure they take action, driving forward to completion; they will have all the pieces of their puzzle and will be able to utilise each one to achieve their success – not just dream about it.

So take action today and contact us on 0208 789 5676 and fast track your entrepreneurial spirit into success!

By Bev James, MD of the Coaching Academy

Following Sir Alan Sugar’s claims that it is impossible to describe what makes an entrepreneur, David Abingdon, CEO of the Alchemy Network, explains why it’s perfectly possible to train one to do great business.

When I heard Alan Sugar gruffly declaring in the last episode of The Apprentice that an entrepreneur is impossible to define or create, I couldn’t quite believe my ears.  His negative reaction, going as far as to say he would “bop” the next person who asked him what made an entrepreneur, as such a thing couldn’t be explained, was, in my opinion, way off the mark. I felt like inviting him to bop me, if he was so sure he was right.

My experience tells me something very different. Not only can you clearly define an entrepreneur, but you can harness a person’s skills and drive to train them to become one.

An entrepreneur is, quite simply, someone who can create something from nothing in business terms, whether it is a start-up or turning around a small or faltering company.  It’s about seeing and recognizing opportunities that others can’t. It means taking risks and being willing to put yourself on the line. It signals not accepting failure as an option. And it suggests never having a Plan B – because planning for a way out is planning for failure and is therefore self defeating.

Entrepreneurs are optimists and business builders, who display determination and commitment to get the job done and achieve success.

They are driven people, driving away from beginnings that are often impoverished and difficult and fuelled by a need to improve themselves. It’s no surprise that the majority of successful entrepreneurs, a figure around 70%, come from humble backgrounds. As a result, they have a huge hunger to prove themselves to others as well as themselves. In that way, entrepreneurs are created because they are propelled from where they came from to better themselves, driven towards the elixir of success.

I know this because it is a large part of what has driven me.  The country estate that’s my home now is a far cry from the deprived area in Birmingham where I spent my childhood.  It helped to turn me into a highly successful business consultant in the UK as the CEO of the Quantum Organisation, gaining recognition in business circles for making one company I consulted with over £35m in just two and a half years and earning myself £1.27m in the process.

But as I developed my consultancy techniques, I recognised that many people are so wrapped up in the technical aspects of their business that they rarely step back and look at the business as a whole. There was, therefore, a fantastic opportunity, to train people from all walks of life in business management techniques.

It’s not, though, just helping people to find a way of making their business more profitable, though that’s important. It’s reminding business people of why they wanted to do it in the first place – their goals, dreams and ambitions – and rediscovering the passion that once drove them.

That’s why the Alchemy Network uses its study and understanding of the elements that make a entrepreneur – who they are, what they do and what they wish to become – and harnesses that hunger and passion for success and gives it a laser beamed focus

You can’t give people the hunger, but if you introduce people to the principles of how to succeed, both in their own companies and for others, and help them to understand how they should act and behave, then there is no reason why they can’t emulate the performance of high performing entrepreneurs.

And integrity and honesty, often much undervalued, are also hugely important. Without these, it is a sham. They promote a lie and eventually get found out.

Ultimately, entrepreneurs are dreamers who turn their dreams into reality and highly successful entrepreneurs are those that learn to dream even bigger dreams.

By David Abingdon

www.alchemy-network.com

A friend of mine has an interesting philosophy: that every person is right about half the time and wrong about half the time. My friend’s perspective has given me food for thought over the years, because I’m generally the type of person who takes a position and tends to dig in. I can convincingly and vociferously argue my point of view, substantiating it with examples and "facts," until the proverbial cows come home.

What I began to realise, though, was that for every person I converted to my way of thinking, I alienated two or three. Moreover, I discovered that, when I began to actually listen to others’ perspectives, I had a keener understanding of how they arrived at their points of view. As a result, I found that I began to modify some of my firmly held beliefs about issues great and small.

Like most people who become less rigid, I didn’t have a single "light bulb moment." My change was gradual. Looking back, I can see that the seeds of change were planted when I wasn’t moving forward in my career as quickly as I had hoped. I thought I was a stellar performer, and could efficiently and effectively complete the tasks assigned to me. However, my workplace evaluations, while generally favorable, noted that I had difficulty working in teams and motivating those around me.

Eventually, my frustration led me to engage the services of a business coach. I know that some people swear by business coaching and life coaching, but I was resistant at first. A former colleague, who had really moved up the corporate ladder with the help of a life coach, was instrumental in getting me to visit my coach. Early on, I recognized that self-development and self-improvement were critical to my success. I don’t usually go for the self-help gurus, but I have to say that my business coach really helped me. In large part, this was due to the coaching tools he used.

Although he used a variety of strategies and coaching games to help me with introspection and self-development, the one that really changed my perspective involved associative playing cards. These coaching cards helped me to understand how specific issues were manifesting in my career, and taught me that there were multiple ways to view a situation. They weren’t at all like tarot cards, but rather were a launching point for me to examine the ways in which my rigid framework was holding me back.

My business coach guided me through these exercises, and shared with me a book that had sections corresponding to each of the cards. For each card, there was a story, relevant quotes, questions, and associative thoughts. Afterwards, he’d work with me to compile insights that arose from the coaching cards, and them to devise an action plan to integrate those insights into my career and my life.

Since then, I’ve changed employers and have been thriving in my new position. I find that I’m more open to other people’s perspectives and that I’m a much better team player. I’ve also realized that my friend was correct: I’m only right about half the time, so it pays to listen to what others have to say.

By Chris Robertson

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web.

Jim was the Chief Financial Officer of a growing robotics company. He had six other managers reporting to him and was responsible for two departments, as well as budget and financial information for the company’s operations. It was a stressful job at times but a great company to work for and he seemed happy to be part of the team. His previous jobs had ended either because of mergers or because he was unhappy in the job. Yet he had been referred to an Executive Coach.

From a traditional background, Jim felt that seeking help meant weakness. Capable managers didn’t need executive coaches. He concluded that he was in trouble, or at the very least, a crossroads.

Jim had been referred to coaching by the company CEO and the company was paying the bill. Often the case in executive coaching, this can set up a potentially sticky triangle with the company and the coachee. Technically, the company was the client because they were paying the bill, but Jim was the client being coached. The trick for the coach is to clarify up front the kind of progress reporting the company is looking for, while emphasising the confidential nature of the client relationship – results are built on trust.

Fuelling Jim’s wariness was his own employment history. He had recently moved to his current company from a similar high-level position in another company, and before that, yet another company had terminated him coldly… a casualty of a messy merger. A second position just plain didn’t work out. Jim was scorched and sceptical. Did this company really want him to improve his managerial skills, or was this all a big ruse to dismiss him later? The questions kept coming with no real answers.

The referral to coaching resulted from some company training. It became evident that all the training in the world would not benefit a team whose manager behaved more like a boss than a leader, choosing to micromanage, and effectively prevent the training – and business development – from taking hold and yielding results.

Under the circumstances, Jim reluctantly agreed to coaching. On the surface, he was open to being coached, but wary. My first meeting with Jim was in person: I wanted to spend some time with him and establish trust and buy-in to the coaching process. I explained that coaching is about facilitation in all areas, not just defined by the work role.

It was clear that Jim was prepared for a lecture, an appraisal of his management skills and a bit of psychological shakedown, but not this kind of talk. Jim’s wariness dimmed with the realisation that the company were not paying for coaching in order to fire him, but were rather investing money to keep him. At our initial meeting, Jim told me about both his home and his work. I learned his story, and asked many questions, all targeted at the positive influences and experiences in his work. When the positives are the framework of all coaching objectives, the transitions become much more powerful. The whole coaching process is focused on creating and becoming who you want to be, not on yielding to a diagnosis or presenting a complaint like in therapy. Even in solution-focused therapy, which is less pathologically driven, it is assumed that a problem warrants a solution. I encouraged Jim to provide me with information about what made him happy, goals, unmet dreams, and ideas and to write about himself.

We met later to discuss Jim’s contribution so far. The light bulb was on, and I found I had a very self-aware, willing and fired-up client, excited about bettering himself. I am not always so lucky – some clients come grumbling and complaining they flat-out didn’t want to be there, and made sure I knew it. For these people, the approach is a little different and sometimes a little more challenging, but usually even those with the boulder-on-the-shoulder syndrome come round, perhaps with a different tack.

During our second meeting, Jim and I progressed further. I guided our discussion with questions that were evocative and powerful. I asked powerful questions.

Coaching does not seek to understand problems, overcome a past, or heal unresolved issues, though such understanding can very likely be a side product as the sessions progress. The successful coach does not view the client as a therapy patient. One of the joys of coaching is the truly egalitarian partnership of coach and client, with no hierarchical structure. Patients generally do not consider a medical doctor a partner, and in this way, therapy relationships are the same. Coaching in its ideal state is one of being curious and evocative with clients, in order to bring out their brilliance, or to tap into possibilities that are created and posited because of the nature of the coaching relationship. Therapists trained in solution-focused techniques experience a relationship closer to coaching, but in a search for solutions, you assume problems that need solving.

I feel privileged to be able to co-create with my clients, and help elicit their best skills for their job, and overall greatness for human being and doing. This might sound a bit lofty, but it is a powerful concept, vital to the coaching process. My singular stated goal may be to improve this person’s effectiveness in their workplace, but the whole person will benefit. That is the pure nature of coaching.

Together, Jim and I were working to overcome the age-old stigma that plagues men in high-level positions. He saw that I was genuinely interested in bringing out his best and that he really had nothing ‘wrong’. He really liked that I was willing to listen to him without judgment and help him make the changes that he could, and live with the situations that he could not change. He saw coaching as a positive step, an employee benefit with both corporate and personal objectives… not a sign of weakness or failure. Now we could get on with the business of coaching.

Working With the Company and For the Client

Although Jim’s company was paying the bill for my services, he understood that everything we did together was absolutely and always confidential. He knew I was required to report about certain areas, but the details of coaching sessions are never shared. Knowing this helped Jim share with me openly and honestly, without fear of any corporate repercussions.

The company wanted Jim to improve and to meet their corporate expectations – they weren’t looking for a total overhaul, simply for hidden strengths to emerge. We agreed to six months of coaching – a timescale agreed on as realistic to achieve change against the companies objectives – initially, to be delivered in one-hour weekly sessions. Later, Jim needed more flexibility in his schedule, so we moved to three marginally longer appointments per month, and email/fax spot coaching if he felt the need.

Over the course of the next few months, my work with Jim helped him to identify specific skills he felt needed improvement, such as communication with his team, appearing less aloof to his employees and colleagues, and more delegating while granting authority (less micromanaging). He recognised that he had a tendency to do it all and to do it his way.

I recommended a book to Jim – one of many resources a good coach has in their toolkit designed to stimulate clients thinking and awareness – and asked him to rate himself against the first chapter. His response gave us discussion material for our next session, and his keen sense of self-awareness developed further. Jim excitedly pinpointed several areas he wanted to work on: possibility thinking, brainstorming alternatives, and innovative methods. He recognised himself as an executive in a high-level management position, but one who also happened to be an introvert, with a long-standing negative mind-set. Through coaching Jim learned that he could still be a powerful leader, and that he had powerful things to say, but he needed to give those things powerful thought first. He also learned that he had some powerful listening to do as well.

In our early conversations, Jim tended to defend some of his original management behaviour with classic executive excuses. For example, as an old school manager, he often had the habit of running his department from behind a closed door. After all, he was a busy man; he had lots to do. He couldn’t tolerate all those interruptions. I validated his behaviour and his excuses before suggesting alternatives. Eventually, Jim learned that he could get his work done and still maintain an open door by informing his team – by telling the truth nicely – that although the door was open, he was still working, and they needed to respect that by asking about his availability, not assuming it.

Coaching the Whole Person

We continued working on specific goals within the framework of Jim’s position, but then our focus shifted slightly to illuminate other areas in were causing him stress. Jim was able to take an honest look at other areas of his life that might benefit from his honest evaluation. It soon became obvious to both of us that Jim was dealing with one of the most typical executive problems plaguing today’s leader: work-life balance.

Jim’s workload had increased dramatically, causing strain at work and at home. He was in the middle of a huge merger, completely involved in his role. He was working too many hours at the office, and when he went home, the work went with him. For the most part, his wife and his children were supportive, but his wife wasn’t willing for Jim to be married to the company. We took a long look at this and even had some joint phone sessions with his wife.

The result of this particular area of discussion with Jim had an unexpected result. When I encouraged Jim to have a ‘courageous conversation’ with his boss and explain the undue stress he often experienced, the company realised that Jim was indeed overworked. They had not known the extent of his workload, because he had not bothered to tell them. All this time he had been frantically scrambling to keep up, thinking that was expected of him. He was over-assuming the demands of his work, which is another executive frailty. Coaching opened doors to alternatives. When he was able to clearly delineate his time and expectations, the company actually hired an additional contract employee to assist during this difficult time of the merger. I was able to validate Jim’s needs, both to him and to his company. All this time Jim thought he was in trouble.

Jim was a classic case, typical of those who might be referred for executive coaching, even if self-referred. These high-level leaders tend to be pulled in many different directions, and it is almost guaranteed that their work-life balance is seriously out of alignment. Their management and communication skills are pinched, and their status with their teams is precarious at best. One of the greatest assets of coaching is that the client can learn to become a coach with his or her team. Command and control leadership does not work, but the sincere encouragement of a leader as coach does. During the coaching process, Jim was able to observe how I worked, and the impact on his work and life. He was able to see that we did it together, that he achieved a great deal more than he could have alone, and that he could do the same with his team. Jim learned that he could be a good listener, he could ask powerful questions, he could encourage rather than command others, and that he could be innovative.

After the agreed term of six months, both the company and Jim evaluated the results of our coaching. I had joint meetings with Jim and his supervisor at the end of three months and again after six months. They were both pleased with the noticeable progress and Jim was able to identify specific areas of focus for the next several months. It was jointly determined by them to continue this contract to 11 months. Jim discovered tremendous skills he wasn’t even aware of. He made discoveries he would never have dreamed of. He originally did not have any goals to ‘go to the top’ or even any higher than where he was, but Jim was promoted, and the company saw excellent results. Not only was Jim doing his job better, he was also living his life better. Our coaching relationship lasted for several more months beyond the extended contract on an informal, irregular basis. Jim is happy. The company is happy.

And I am happy. It is a thrilling experience to enable someone to become all that they can be. As a coach, I am privileged to witness greater life achievement in one client than I ever hoped for in a dozen therapy patients. Personally, I feel more valued. I am delighted when I get e-mails and voice mails from clients between sessions. I hear about exciting changes, breakthroughs, and discoveries. I truly care for the people I coach, and I share the joy of their victories and achievements.

Today, my background as a psychologist has married my inborn desire to coach, and I am doing what I love – enabling discovery instead of treating dysfunction. Discovery wins every time.

By Patrick Williams