We’re really delighted to launch a brand new CPD Day – Introduction to HeartMath^® with 2 time Olympian and 6 times World Champion kayaker Anna Hemmings MBE.

As well as being well known for her sporting achievements, Anna is a performance coach, motivational speaker and a master HeartMath^® Trainer.

On 9th September at Latimer Place, The Coaching Academy will be running:

An Introduction to HeartMath^®

HeartMath^® is known worldwide for its success in the areas of increased performance, leadership effectiveness and stress reduction.

Further details on An Introduction to HeartMath^® can be found HERE

Delegates attending the Introduction to HeartMath^® day will:

• Understand the physiology of stress and performance and learn how to prevent stress before it happens

• Increase performance, emotional clarity and resilience with scientifically proven methods that will enable you to tackle problems in a calm and effective manner

• Discover a new physiological and emotional baseline for increased health, wellbeing and effectiveness.

Simply email bookings@the-coaching-academy.com to secure your place

For those of you already on the CPD Programme this could be 1 of your 10 days. Alternatively (or if you have already attended all 10 days) you can book your place on Introduction to HeartMath^® CPD Day for £247 + VAT.

Most coaches, consultants or freelancers are involved in the hungry, needy, merry-go-round of meetings, networking, social networking to secure what they believe are quality prospects for possible lucrative coaching contracts.

However, it may pay you well to DO THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what the general marketplace is doing.

In fact, the grandfather of personal development and self-help, Earl Nightingale said that if you can’t find a good role model for doing what you want to do, look around at what the majority are doing, and don’t do it – do the opposite! Because the majority means mediocrity. We think Earl was on to something!

For most coaches, the ultimate brochure, business card, advertisement, promotional document, they could ever own, is – to BE their BEST CLIENT! And then, to deliver their unique style of coaching at every opportune moment.

Let’s take these two ideas and turn them into practical, workable tools you can take into the marketplace, instantly.

Being Your Own Best Client

You’ve probably noticed the big worldwide shift towards, Life Coaching, Life Balance and Coaching in all its forms. In fact, you may already know that the profession itself is one of the fastest-moving professions in the world.

However, many of the very people who promote and stomp their feet about life change are themselves in a chaotic and disorganised mess! Not all. Many.

But look, whether they are in a mess or not, the whole idea of life balance should strike a powerful chord for you – especially if you’re looking to bag yourself a good number of fee-paying clients.

Here’s why.

There are a high number of coaches, consultants and mentors who are focused on the ‘I’ve got to MAKE THIS BUSINESS WORK, COME HELL OR HIGH WATER’ that, they’ve missed the boat entirely.

Whilst they’re busy buying into the idea that sacrificing all else in order to pursue their most cherished want, they’re leaving a trail of chaos for all to see, especially their prospective clients!

• What kind of catastrophic trail are we talking about?
• A body so out-of-shape that a person will soon really detest themselves…
• So neck-deep in personal and business debt, with no attempt to come out and cure it.
• Involved in loveless personal relationships which are heading down the sewer with no way out…
• Mental disharmony because the mind being strewn all over the place like a berserk orangutan…

Engaging in lifeless, lethargic language and communication making social interaction a chore and bore for others…

Do you feel you’re heading towards your own version of the above?

Well, if you’re looking for a goodly number of fee paying clients, here’s the big secret: FIX YOURSELF FIRST!

You see, very rarely does an award or qualification bring you success.

You have to DO something in order to bring it to life. Being your own good example of living a life in balance is the biggest testimonial, the biggest message of value you can send out in to the marketplace.

For, not only will you have that inner confidence and steely conviction, you’ll have a practical, experiential voice to speak from. There’s nothing worse than spluttering and faking it inside about wanting to help others when we ourselves are in the driving seat of our own lunatic life.

On the other hand, there’s a magic that happens when the pieces of our own life start falling into place for others to see. It’s best to lead by example and doing, rather than theory and mere words.

So, what should you be committed to in order to turn your own life into a role model?

Well, we’d suggest that there are seven commitments you should guard and treasure with your life. And, if you follow them and make them part of your daily regime, your daily curriculum of living, you can’t help but draw to you those type of clients who’ll love to have you coach them to fabulous success.

Make it a daily practice to be committed to:

1. your mind

2. action

3. responsibility

4. energy

5. friends and family

6. career and business goals

7. wealth

If you truly make it daily practice to absorb these seven commitments into your life, you’ll create a life that’s example-led. And, you’ll be so on-track, so focussed, so dedicated to your own life and your own work that people can’t help be drawn to you and what you stand for.

And that’s a beautiful moment when it happens. For then you’ll know that there’s no need for all that demoralising, convincing, persuading and selling of your services. It’ll happen because of who you are and what you do.

Yes, effective marketing material is important. However, you’ll find that you won’t be doing it the same way everyone else does. There won’t be that dry-mouth desperation for business. You see, you’ll be creating a distinction. That is a compelling advantage that’ll set you apart in the marketplace based on what you are doing in your own life.

It’s a refreshing way to go about promoting your services; by taking full and complete ownership and responsibility of your life. And it can happen for you in an instant.

The problem happens when we think about things for too long. We let our own head dissipate the power of our intentions. It’s the timeframe we give ourselves to change, that’s where the problem is.

You see, when we really think about it, the decision to do anything, happens in a split second – it’s the thinking time which is what causes the agony.

Go ahead and take those seven commitments to heart and let them weave their magic. For in a few weeks time you won’t believe what it will do to you and how you’ll see yourself.

Plus you’ll get a different feel and vibration from the marketplace towards you and what you can do to help them. I think you’ll find it exciting.

Moment-By-Moment Coaching

And once you HAVE mastered your own life, or are taking great strides to do so, you’ll see a natural, attractive force taking shape. The FORCE of YOU!

Your own confidence in your life starts to exude a spark of electricity with everyone you come into contact with, in every email you write, in every conversation you have. In those daily ‘conversations’, you’ll see that the natural way to make others feel at ease, is to ask warm, non-threatening though bold, fearless and direct questions.

Those questions are NOT to be about you, your practice, your skills, your abilities – your job is to serve others. To listen with intent like you’ve never listened before.

If through your simple, non-threatening dialogue, you just GIVE, SERVE and SHARE in helping others with what’s important in THEIR lives, people will be drawn to you even more.

You’ll find that there’s an irresistible nature to you and what you stand for. People can’t but help be involved in a conversation with you. And, because coaching is such a personal profession, don’t feel that things need to happen there and then in terms of securing a business or personal coaching client.

However, through an ongoing dialogue, a continuing conversation, you’ll see that through this process., and the ‘be your own client’ outlined above, you’ll be drawing prospective, fee paying clients in to your life like never before.

Revolutionaries normally carry guns but in boardrooms across the globe, they come armed with a radical mission – to overthrow old-style management practices and bring in a new order to re-engage employees.

Dictators everywhere – be warned: the days of control freak bosses are numbered.

As report after report comes in showing that the majority of employees are disengaged from their work, which is in turn depressing productivity and profits, it becomes increasingly evident that existing management practices aren’t working.

It doesn’t matter how many times the office is revamped or the mission statement is rewritten, or how employees’ incentives or punishments are raised – it’s not making any difference to how much employees like turning up for work.

Something has to change – and if you’re of the “my way or the highway” management style, that something is you.

Statistics like those from the Gallup Management Journal and Right Management Consultants (the world’s largest career transition and organisational consulting firm) that show only between 20% to 30% of employees are fully engaged (working with passion) in their jobs.

A bigger percentage say they are actively disengaged (causing trouble at work) and the majority are in a sleepwalking type of state, putting in the hours but not the energy or passion.

Engaged employees stay in the job longer, and are safer, more productive and more profitable – so it is imperative that something is done to address a situation where between 70% and 80% of employees are working with varying degrees of alienation from their jobs and companies.

The fundamental problem is that there has been a dramatic change in the workforce – with companies outsourcing and taking advantage of lean manufacturing processes and technological advances, existing employees are being paid primarily to think, create and innovate – and as yet, management hasn’t caught up with that development.

Leaders are still too often using old-style practices where they give orders and expect people to follow directions, instead of allowing them to think and create for themselves.

For the first time in history, the employee often knows more about how to do the job than the manager.

When you don’t have all the answers, being directive may not be the best way to drive performance. One of the things that’s broken and needs fixing is the way we manage performance. In the majority of situations, you get a better performance from people by helping them to think better, rather than by just telling them what to do.

When people start to have ideas and have the ability to act on them, they certainly are significantly more engaged in the job than they were before. Letting people come up with their own ideas is a deep well of motivation to tap.

That is the essence of quiet leadership: improving employees’ thinking – literally improving the way their brains process information, by creating opportunities for people to make new connections themselves. A quiet leader is always focused on the development of their people: they’re putting their people’s learning and development and growth as the number one issue rather than their own ego rewards.

Six Steps to Transforming Performance

These six steps describe a new way for leaders to have conversations when they want to make a difference another to another person’s performance. They describe a new way to interact, to give feedback, to influence, to stretch and grow people and to bring out the best in others.

Step 1: Think about thinking; to let people do all the thinking, keep them focused on solutions, stretch their thinking, accentuate the positive and follow good process.

Step 2: Listen for potential and not to get too close (or involved).

Step 3: Speak with intent; in other words, to be succinct, specific and generous in your communication.

Step 4: Dance toward insight by getting permission for harder conversations, placing people so they know where you’re coming from, using thinking questions so that others do the thinking and then clarifying their responses.

Step 5: Create new thinking. Get people to become aware of their mental dilemmas and reflect more deeply on them by asking questions about their current reality. Once they’ve had an insight, we explore alternatives for how to move their insight into action then we tap into the energy given off by the new connections being made.

Step 6: Follow-up. Following up can make a big difference to the emergence of new wiring (neural connections in the brain) so we focus on the facts and people’s feelings. We encourage, listen for learning, look for implications and then look for the next goal to focus on.

It takes commitment to develop this new management style, but it is worth it.

And like any revolution, it needs massive support and so far, the signs are good – change is indeed in the air.

The Coaching Academy, conducted a survey to gain a better understanding of where the coaching profession currently is and where it is heading in the future.

The main purpose of the survey was to develop some evidence base on the practice that we know is thriving and growing.

Over the past 10 years, we have seen coaching grow and develop immensely and it is very encouraging to know that 86% of coaches found their client base has remained stable or increased in the past year.

Take a sneak peak into our findings displayed in this infographic and keep your eyes peeled for our full report.

++ Click to Enlarge Image ++

Embed this infographic on your site or within a blog post: (Copy & Paste This Code)

<a href="http://www.coachingacademyblog.com/infographic-make-up-of-a-modern-day-coach/" target="_blank"><img title="Infographic: The Make Up of a Modern Day Coach - The Coaching Academy" src="http://www.coachingacademyblog.com/wp-content/infographic-the-make-up-of-a-modern-day-coach-the-coaching-academy-large1.jpg" border="0" alt="Infographic: The Make Up of a Modern Day Coach - The Coaching Academy" /></a></div><div>Source: The Coaching Academy – The UK’s largest school for <a title="The Coaching Academy - The UK's largest school for Life Coaching" href="http://www.the-coaching-academy.com" target="_blank">Life Coaching</a></text>

Life Coach Rebekah Fensome shares the journey her client made as she learnt how to be more assertive and shares some of the assertiveness techniques they developed together and which were put into practice.

Tracey, 31 from London, has come a long way. When she first came to see me she knew she was lacking in assertiveness but her excuse for not wanting to change was that she was worried about people seeing her as arrogant.

However, once I helped her see how her lack of assertive behaviour was affecting her, she realised that it was causing problems in all areas of her life and ultimately making her unhappy.

“People are always taking advantage of me, my friends, family and work colleagues. I know it’s my fault as I allow them to see me as a pushover. I’m a nice person though and I don’t like to let people down. However, I find that I don’t have time for myself as I’m always helping other people out.”

After having a couple of sessions with Tracey, we together agreed that she needed to start putting herself first and not feeling guilty or worried if she wasn’t able to help one of her friends, or family members. She also had to start saying ‘No’ more at work.

Here are 10 assertiveness tips and techniques that you can put into practice:

1. Clear Communication

When communicating your opinion, complaint, etc ensure that you are being direct, clear and precise.

2. Take Responsibility

Don’t shy away from the point you want to make or action you want to take. Commit to it and take full responsibility. For example, say “I think” rather than “we think”.

3. Don’t apologise when you don’t need to

Don’t apologise before of after you talk to someone about something as again this takes away any strength or emphasis from you.

4. Use strong verbal and body language

Use the correct tone of voice and body language when talking. For example, don’t talk into yourself or have a tremble in your voice. Maintain eye contact and use a solid strong voice but with normal volume.

5. Are you being listened to?

Check with people that they have listened to what you have said by encouraging them to summarise your opinion, complaint, request, etc.

Don’t allow people to make excuses for having misunderstood and stick to what you’ve said.

6. Get out your comfort zone

Don’t avoid particular people or situations that you don’t feel confident in. In fact push yourself into as many of these situations as possible and practise your new assertive self.

If there are certain people you find difficult to approach then walk up to them confidently and smile at them before you start talking.

7. Stick to the facts

Being assertive doesn’t mean making things up to support your opinions, complaints, etc. You should stick to the facts and not exaggerate. It’s good to be seen as objective rather than emotional.

8. Keep it objective

When you’re in a difficult situation with people don’t make personal references. For example, don’t say “I find you really annoying”, say instead “Please refrain from talking to me like that.”

9. Observe assertive role models

Watch assertive people and pick up words, tones and body language that you think makes them successful at being assertive. Keep a list of these attributes and add them to your portfolio.

10. Reward yourself

Each time you’re successfully assertive, note this down and reward yourself. Try and exhibit your new assertive behaviour so much that people start giving you feedback. This is your ultimate reward!

Also, don’t get disheartened when you’re not successful. Just realise where you went wrong and correct it next time.

by Rebekah Fensome

Want to find out more about assertiveness and confidence coaching? Attend workshops on Power Persuasion and Power Pitching as part of The Coaching Academy’s CPD For Coaches programme.

 

For further details visit www.the-coaching-academy.com/cpd or call our team on 0208 4399 440.