May

6

Life coaching for college students?

May 6, 2008 | 1 Comment

Two life coaches recently discussed the idea that coaching may be helpful to college students who are struggling to make important, long-term decisions.

Ken Cochrum, in his blog On Leading Well, says that today’s college students are overwhelmed with choices, data, and information. “As a result their filters are high - most won’t even answer their cell phone if caller-id doesn’t show someone they know.”

We tend to assume that by having more choices we can make better decisions. Ken suggests that too many choices can lead to “paralysis by analysis,” and cites the book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, as offering evidence to the contrary.

Says Ken:

Each of us needs a few friends to help us sift through the mountains of information we’re inundated with each day and convert that into knowledge leading to wisdom. Wisdom is simply knowledge applied well. Wisdom, like a good coach, offers teaching, reproof, correction, and training in good living.

In Artful Life Coaching, Life Coach Tessa agrees with Ken’s premise:

Very wise analysis here of why people - especially college students - are seeking the guidance and support of life coaches! I really wish that I had had the benefit of a mentor/coach back in my undergraduate days, or should I say undergraduate haze! (I’m laughing! … I say haze because of the sheer confusion,I felt at that time with regards to my life direction!)

What is most intriguing about both Ken’s and Tessa’s comments is the shift they suggest in how college students approach problems. For those of us who do remember being undergraduates, we assumed we were on our own and had to figure things out for ourselves — not always with the best results. At least when I was that age, parents were the resource of last resort (unless it concerned money). Most of our “life coaching” came from college friends, who were likely as baffled as we were.

More students today seem ready to seek help when they need it. If that means hiring a life coach, I suspect they will readily do so once they learn what life coaching is and how it can help them. The coaching industry in general and life coaches in particular have both a marketing and an educational challenge in front of them.

The only question is: who will pay for it?

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May

3

How social networking can kill a business.

May 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Most of us take for granted the power of social networking to expand our contacts and gently promote our businesses.  We need to remember, however, that there is also a downside to this “empowerment.” The same tools that can be used in a positive way can also be used to damage our reputations and destroy our businesses.

The comment below about a restaurant was posted to a widely read forum in the community where I live. Most people are guessing that a disgruntled employee made the comment. Nevertheless, reading it certainly gives me some reservations (pun intended) about wanting to eat there.

The same types of things certainly were said by unhappy customers or employees years ago, but the number of people who heard it was very limited. Now, in almost an instant, the same comments have a worldwide audience. Because this restaurant operates in a tourist area, visitors doing informational searches about where to eat will very likely run into this “review.”

So what does this mean for coaching businesses and other reputation-based enterprises like ours?

First, we need to stay alert to what is being written about us. Just as you might check your credit report on a regular basis, you need to do a “reputation report” on your name and your business. You can purchase services that will monitor your business name and alert you whenever it is mentioned on the Web. You should also do your own frequent searches using the major search engines. By “frequent,” I mean at least twice a month.

Second, be proactive. That means staying in touch with your market and providing positive and helpful information via your blogs, press releases, Web forums, trade and business Web sites, etc. Stinging negative comments are less credible when they are read in the context of a positive news environment.

Third, react. In the case of this restaurant “review,” there’s a chance that by complaining to the webmaster the comment might be removed. If that is not possible, get third party endorsements — and your own — on the site as soon as possible. Don’t let the mud hang there on the wall with no counter-response. Otherwise, readers will assume it is true.

So here’s how one person damaged the reputation of a local business –

Top Ten Reasons Not to Go to XYZ Restaurant

10.) Drink are priced way to high even if they are doubles

9.) Lyn and Bob no longer own the place

8.) They have the same 12 specials on rotation all the time

7.) That peppercorn encrusted tenderloin special they sell for $25 is select grade beef not prime or even choice meat.

6.) The owners treat their long term employees as if they worthless

5.) Seafood that comes in on Friday will be either frozen and used the next weekend or packed in ice in hopes that they use it, they never throw anything away!

4.) I’ve seen rotting lamb chops that are green and smell like a horses a** be cooked and served to customers

3.) If you send something back there and it needs to be cooked it def. gets cooked in the microwave. The owner insists on it

2.) The walk-in cooler in the kitchen looks like the inside of a dumpster, its disgusting and should not be a place where food is stored

1.) The new ownership is clearly out to take advantage of the consumer and its employees. The food at best is mediocre, the management is rude, and it is just not the what the XYZ was or ever will be again. Lyn made that place her baby and these people are ruining a great local tradition!

Still hungry?

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May

1

Another “threefer” on how to grow a coaching business.

May 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Basically I am in agreement with spiritsspring on growing a business. But here is another “list of three” that offers a little different angle.

1) Get more customers (ties nicely into the getting/converting leads objective).

2) Lose fewer customers. This is the hardest on a business, given the time and dollars we spend gaining a customer. Do some lifetime value analysis. Make sure that new clients are not just replacing those who are walking out the door. As a coach, think of cross-sell and other revenue generating ways of keeping current clients engaged.

3) Steal customers from your competitors. Everyone in coaching is nice, I am sure of it, but from time to time your competitors are ill-suited to coach certain clients. Maybe you are. There are several ways to find out. . .but that’s another post.

Thanks for getting me thinking about this one!

(Now it’s back to the yard work!)

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May

1

Authors publish new five-stage feedback model for executive coaches.

May 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Writing in Consulting Psychology Journal(Vol 60, Issue 1), researchers Jane Brodie Gregory, Paul E. Levy, and Micah Jeffers have developed a new five-stage feedback model for executive coaches.

In “Development of a Model of the Feedback Process within Executive Coaching,” the authors emphasize the role of both the client and the organization in effectively receiving and applying coaching feedback.

A coaching intervention will vary greatly for an individual who is unreceptive to and does not value feedback, as opposed to an individual who strongly values and desires feedback. By assessing this orientation at the onset of a coaching relationship, a coach can anticipate a certain degree of resistance or skepticism from a client and tailor his or her program to address the client’s needs. The recent development of the Feedback Orientation Scale (Linderbaum, 2006) will facilitate this process—allowing researchers and coaches alike to assess an individual’s feedback orientation. London and Smither (2002) also indicated that feedback orientation is malleable across time. Coaches, therefore, can actually work with a client to improve his or her feedback orientation, making that client more receptive to and desiring of constructive feedback. A coach who understands the value and importance of feedback may influence his or her client to adopt a similar perspective.

Similarly, the authors suggest that organizations play an essential role in creating the right environment for feedback.

One powerful influence on an individual’s feedback orientation is the degree to which an organization emphasizes the merit and use of feedback. Where feedback orientation pertains to the individual, feedback culture 1 comprises the extent to which an organization encourages and provides feedback, implements feedback procedures, and utilizes or follows-through on feedback. Within organizations that have strong feedback cultures, individuals consistently solicit and receive both formal and informal constructive feedback (London & Smither, 2002). Such organizations value quality feedback, emphasize the importance of feedback, and provide extensive support for using that feedback. A reciprocal relationship exists between feedback culture and orientation: A strong feedback culture can enhance individual feedback orientation, leading employees to readily seek, accept, and apply feedback for improved performance.

The proposed feedback model consists of the following five stages:

1) The Catalyst for Coaching
2) Establishing the Relationship
3) Data Gathering
4) Utilizing Feedback
5) Outcomes

Details for each stage are described in the original article. One other insight, however, that merits mention here is the role of coach as model for the behavior being developed in the client.

The coach is a role model for the executive, demonstrating how feedback should be delivered and the context within which that delivery should take place (Stern, 2004). The executive may become a more effective top management team member by learning, through this modeling, how to provide useful, candid feedback to subordinates or peers. Similarly, another goal of coaching is for the executive to come out of the relationship not only developmentally changed, but also possessing the ability to develop those around him. Ideally, a trickle-down effect from the executive will lead to an increase in overall organizational effectiveness through this individual-level development.

For the complete article, see “Development of a model of the feedback process within executive coaching.” By: Gregory, Jane Brodie, Levy, Paul E., Jeffers, Micah, Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 1065-9293, 2008, Vol. 60, Issue 1.

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