Why I Coach...

I’ve always had a mentor in my life.  I remember from a very young age always having an older wiser person in my life who poured into me wisdom and knowledge that ultimately made me a better person.  In high school, I met a gentlemen named Larry at our church.  Larry had a vacation house in the area but lived full time in New York City.  A friendship ensued and from that relationship I learned from him.  When it came time to apply for college, Larry penned a letter of recommendation that to this day still sits on my desk.

Later in life Gary became a prominent part of my life.  Both in friendship and in mentorship, Gary walked life alongside me teaching along the way, and there have been others as well - all making me a better person, and I truly believe more effective in my role as coach to others.

I coach for one simple reason.  I love the engagement with others, meeting them where they are in life and partnering with them as they seek to achieve the goals they have set forth for themselves in life.  Each and every opportunity is different, my approach to coaching is simply this:  Meeting you where you are and taking you to where you want to be.

I don’t believe in a one size fits all approach, different people need different things.  When I meet for the first time with a new client, I listen to them talk.  What are the things they want to see accomplished.  What are the objectives they thing they can achieve from using a coach.  I strive to see if the skill set I have is a correct fit for them. I don’t ever want to take money from a client just for the sake of earning money - I want their investment in me to be one that is of highest benefit to them.

I do have a foundational approach to my coaching style, but those tools are brought in as needed and relevant.  No 2 clients are the same, therefore my approach is never cookie cutter.  I want each coaching session to relevant to the client, I want the take aways to be tools that can be put into effect immediately, not something put into storage until a later time because they aren’t there yet.

When meeting with business clients I adapt the same approach.  I add one additional element in that I seek to make the coaching I provide revenue neutral.  I want the value I add to an organization be reflected in increased sales and productivity - in essence when I partner with a company as their coach I seek to pay for myself through the value I bring.

Here are 2 things I can tell you as fact:

1. Everyone can benefit from using a Coach, be it Life Coach or Business Coach.  There is a true benefit to be had by using a coach to better yourself or your business.  

2. I will never engage with a client if I don’t think I am the right fit for their goals and objectives.  I will always spend an hour of my time on the front end to really get to know and understand a prospective client before engaging them as their coach.  This investment of time pays massive dividends in that both the client and myself knows for sure that we are right for each other.  

So as you start this week, and more importantly start the wind down of 2018 and the ramp up of 2019, I encourage each and every one of you reading this to engage a coach.  Plan to finish 2018 strong and start 2019 purposeful, intentional and deliberate in what you want to accomplish.

If I am fortunate enough to be engaged by you, I would be honored to work with, and walk alongside you as you accomplish the things you seek to do in 2019 and beyond.

Seeing you succeed is why I coach.  

Your success is my success.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

P-A-S-S-I-O-N Tell Me What It Means To You, Actually Don’t Say Anything

This idea came to me a few years ago.  I was going some consulting on a small start up business focused on children.  The business was the creation of a married couple, and the wife declared herself and her role as sales & marketing.  Truth be told, she was neither good at sales or marketing, but for a season she was allowed free rein in her attempt to drive and increase sales.

It wasn’t until a meeting wherein the obvious was brought to the attention of all, that while she was currently filling the role of sales & marketing, the reality was there were much more competent and experienced people who should have been filling that role.  When I raised this fact with the team, her immediate was response was to get defensive, and then explain how passionate she was about sales & marketing.

Passion.  Its turned into such a toss up word, it is used by everyone everywhere.  A few weeks ago I had an associate tell me how passionate they thought I was in my coaching, I actually stopped them and told them how much I hated that word.  

Here’s the thing.  It is my opinion that if you need to tell others what you are passionate about, you probably aren’t that passionate to begin with.  If others don’t see that drive and intention about the thing it is you think you are passionate about, do you really have passion?

When a person eat, sleeps and drinks a particular thing, others take notice and realize that a true passion exists - and they don’t need you to tell them about your passion.  

I am unapologetic about this topic, and yes, I would expect some push back about the subject - perhaps I’m tainted by people I’ve been around who have cheapened the word - but in the end I’ll stand by my opinion and be ready to defend it.

Alternatively I offer the following.  If you are so deliberate and intentional about a skill or talent or field of work or charity, be so intentional and deliberate that others around you can’t help but know where your passion lies.  Let others identify the passion you hold and allow them to identify it in you.  

There are many things in life I enjoy, but few I am truly passionate about.  But if my passion matches or exceeds any verbal expression, I won’t have to say a word because my actions will scream it so loudly everyone else will see it and recognize it.

So go and have passion, no need to tell anyone - I promise you they will see it in you.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

Master Your Phone

I am working with a client right now, a small medical office with six staff members along with the Doctor who hired me.  We are 3 months in on the 6-month contract which has very specific and aggressive goals that the client wants to see accomplished.  As part of the strategy put in place, monthly meetings are held with the entire team to discuss milestones already accomplished as well as to regroup and keep the entire team focused on the stated goals while adding to and enhancing items already put into effect.

One of the challenges faced has been to get and keep the team engaged - sadly prior to my engagement with the client things were not very structured and each person did their own thing doing the bare minimum needed to get their individual jobs done.  The client simply allowed this to exist, which meant the staff ran the office with no clear plan or intention.

Last month during our monthly meeting it was apparent that personal phones and their usage within the office was a huge issue.  Constant texting and updating of social media accounts qualified as “work” while the actual business of the office took a backseat.  Worse than that, being able to prioritize what was important versus what could wait until later was a skill missing from the team, and when I suggested everyone put away their phones you could feel the chill settle in on the room.

Sadly I’d wager that we all are guilty of this to some extent.  Phones have become such a dominant component of who we are and how we live our lives, constant checking simply becomes a subconscious habit we aren’t even aware we are doing.  One thing I do is to put my phone face down with the ringer off when I’m in a meeting.  Confident that there is nothing that can come in during planned meeting times I choose to wait until the completion of the meeting to check and respond.

Absent that if I know I am waiting on a call or text that can’t wait I let the person I am meeting with know that I am expecting a specific call or text and that if it comes through during the meeting I will need to step away and respond.  I know that is not a perfect solution but at least it lets the other participants in a meeting know that you aren’t choosing the phone over them without good cause.

But take that thought one step further, how often does a call, text or e-mail occur that really can wait until later.  You know the one I’m talking about, the thing that doesn’t need your time or attention until later, or tomorrow or even next week, and yet we act as if we don’t respond right away the world will come to an end.

Learning to prioritize the events and needs of our lives makes us live better more effective lives.  Having the courage to make someone wait for us to respond knowing that our response time will not affect their outcome is hard, especially when it is a boss or manager who is making the request.  But ponder this, if you are working uninterrupted on the task at hand and complete it, you won’t have to come back to that task at a later date or have it remain open on your “to do” list thereby allowing you to give your full attention and thought to the person to whom you ignored earlier.  

By choosing to be deliberate and intentional about your time and how you respond respects not only your time and energy but others as well.  We’ve all had instances where we ignore a person only to circle back later to follow up with their request learning that they solved it without your involvement.

When I asked everyone to put away their phones I know they weren’t happy with me.  Knowing all future meetings would be a phone free environment did not make me the most popular person in the room, I’m sure their displeasure with me made at least one social media post.

However, the outcome of putting the phones away can’t be disputed.  Absent the distraction their phones provided produced a meeting time that had everyone engaged and participating in the stated agenda.  And the meeting finished early which is never a bad thing.

The client now has a “no phone” policy for the team during normal business hours.  That policy works well in this particular office as no one on the team needs their phone for any official business purpose.  That may not work with your team, but that doesn’t mean your team can’t be more aware and more effective of how and when they use their phone.

The phone and the ability to communicate in real time is a great tool, but so is a hammer.  Like any tool, when used incorrectly the tool becomes a liability for you and those around you.

I’d challenge you this week to manage your phone, don’t let it manage you.  It might just change your life.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

What Your Gut Instinct Tells You That The Numbers Don’t

Have you ever trusted your gut instinct?  You know, the deep down inside the pit of your belly feeling you get when you just know something to be right, or wrong.  It is not uncommon for me to trust my and allow it to strongly influence my decision-making process.

But is it OK to make decisions based on “trusting your gut”?

Rational people will tell you, “No.”  They will list a host of reasons why trusting one's gut is a terrible way to lead, however, I’d argue to the contrary, when you know you are right based on your gut instinct, despite what the data might suggest, maybe, just maybe go with your gut instinct.

I remember several years ago I had a customer whose growth rate was insane.  Their operation went from a 20,000 square foot building to a 300,000 square feet in a matter of years, and employees were added to keep up with the rapid expansion.  Things were looking really good.  For me, the fun came when each and every purchase order was bigger than the last, and for a long time servicing their account was a full-time job.

And then the phone call came, my buyer told me that they had been acquired by a Fortune 500 company, and that things were about to get really insanely busy.  I wanted to be excited by the news, but my gut told me that the huge orders would quickly be coming to an end, and that the business stream I had there would soon evaporate.  The data did not support my gut instinct, but I suspected my gut was right.

Within 6 months of the acquisition, the buyer announced that they were shutting down the operation.  The business model in place prior to the purchase just didn’t fit with the parent company and because the parent company didn’t know how to adapt, my customer became a ledger entry loss on an accountants spreadsheet.  And hundreds of people lost their jobs and what once was a great company ceased to exist.

Gut instinct saw through the data of what on the surface appeared to be a really good thing.  Does that mean you should only and always trust your gut instinct?  Of course not, however knowing when and where to trust is paramount in ones success.  Gut instinct becomes a sixth sense, it can’t nor should it be ignored.  It may not always be right, but looking back at my personal track record trusting my gut, I can tell you it has been right more than it has been wrong.

The challenge here is simple, next time you are faced with a tough decision, or something about the decision you need to make just doesn’t feel right.  Lean in to your gut - you never know what it may be trying to tell you.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

Stop Living Life Like a Firefighter

Stop Living Life Like a Firefighter

I would wager a bet that you didn’t realize you were a firefighter.  Most people will never realize the truth that they live life as a firefighter.  I know what you are thinking, I’m not referring to a literal firefighter.  No, quite to the contrary, most people live their lives rushing from one crisis to the next, always reacting to the moment.

I don’t need to tell you how much stress that can bring to one's life.  Crisis management is a great skill, but certainly not one that needs to come into play day after day after day.  And yet day in and day out people rush around seeking to avert one crisis after another, never getting the time to stop given the need to react to crisis after crisis.

Have you ever heard the saying, “Lack of planning on your part does not equal a crisis for me”?

This concept is as relevant in your personal life as it is in your business life.

Living life intentionally and on purpose is a great way to get out of the role of firefighter and gain.  Proactively planning your life is a great way to start getting out of the reactionary lifestyle and makes for a much calmer day.  

An intentional life is one that is well thought out, planned and deliberate.  That doesn’t always mean a crisis can be averted, however when you seek to put structure and order into your life, the likelihood of a crisis is exponentially diminished.  Even better - when a crisis is presented - your intentional planning mitigates the circumstances leading to a better outcome than the people presenting the crisis expected.

So what is the takeaway?  

How about spending some time this week being intentional about your calendar.  Put your time to work for you.  

Own it.  

Master it.   

Most importantly make it your own.  Be intentional, be proactive, and hang up your firefighting suit once and for all.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Visit PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

©2018 Personal Success Coach