A Coach is a must at the top is the extract form the Sunday Times reviewing the book written by Steve Tappin & Andrew Cave called “The NEW Secrets of CEOs”

The book looks at what it is really like to be an CEO and tells us what life is really like at the top and reveals the views of heads of global businesses as diverse as GE International, NASCAR, China Mobile and Unilever.

One quote from Richard Baker, former CEO of Alliance Books “It is extraordinary to think you can be excellent at something without a coach, the notion that Roger Federer would not have several coaches is ridiculous. One of the best things to happen to me was to get a coach. when the waves were breaking over me, I got a coach. Within 10 minutes, he had correctly identified the one thing I needed to do. As CEO, the idea you can do it on your own is extraordinarily arrogant”

As a coach,  you would expect me to be biased towards the benefits a coach can give high level executives. The analogy that Richard Baker gives about Roger Federer using a coach is a good one. The coach isn’t about telling you what to do, the very fact that that the CEO is in the position they are, there must be something about them. Roger Federer knows his game, the coach will challenge, question, encourage, and hold them accountable.

A perfect illustration of this is given by Lord Davies, at Standard Chartered who used a management coach, “I got someone who catalogued how I spent my time and went through my diaries and measured my progress on a 360-degree basis. It was brutal, but I am a great believer in courageous conversation. I don’t think I agreed with him; I was allowed to argue.”

The key thing here is that how Lord Davies didn’t always agree with his coach. This is good, the last thing you want from your coach is someone who is going to tell what you want to hear, or worse still be your yes person.

One of the common things that come out of the work I do, is how managers and leaders want some kind of behaviour or attitude change from their staff, that they feel would benefit the company. One of the ways I do this is through an Amnesty meeting. Before the meeting I have a few sessions with the leader/s to really establish what kind of changes they are looking for from the team. Before I talk to the staff, we would go through a number of things that the leaders CAN do that would facilitate these changes. In isolation these could be quite small, however it is amazing the changes that the leaders can make, both in their behaviour and attitude, the very same they are looking for from their staff , that can start to take effect in the company, even before the amnesty meeting takes place.

The rules of engagement of the Amnesty meeting are as follows

• Everything you say must be within the rules of professional integrity
• Anything you say must serve the company in some way
• Only ask for things you want changing where you are prepared to take the first action
• Each person is committed to hold each other accountable to the actions agreed, irrespective of position held

The individuals can say anything in the meeting and it will not be used against them outside the meeting. Theses rules however, ensure that everybody knows the pupose of the meeting and allows everybody to take something away from the meeting they would find useful.

So a Coach is a Must both from the point of view of getting the best out of the leaders and staff in a company.

Whatever your status we all buy stuff, whether its products or services, for personal or business use. The money we give is in exchange for the product or service, however what keeps that purchase in the memory is something that is intangible but nonetheless as valuable.

The 90’s was all about take take, the noughties was about customer service, the twenty teens is about the customer experience. Following a talk given by Royston Guest some weeks ago, he explained what needs to happen if we are to gain more customers. It is an old sales and marketing adage, that it is easier to sell to your existing customers than to sell to new customers. Royston talked about the difference between customer service and customer experience.

This got me thinking. What are the kind of services/products I have stopped going back to and which ones do I keep on buying, and in a lot of the cases it was about the experience.

By shifting your focus to ensure the experience of your existing customers is so good, that they NEVER go anywhere else, is the holy grail of increasing your sales. We need to change our focus from offering good customer service to giving the ultimate customer experience. Customer service is about doing enough so that no one can be accused of not doing that little bit extra. But customer experience is going beyond the call of duty and doing something that stays in the memory of the customer.

An example where this is demonstrated perfectly is the hairdressers I go to. I have been going to her for the last 22 years. What I remember was the very first time I went to her she made a point of knowing my name, then everytime I went back, she would greet me by my first name, always offered me a cup of tea and all the useful niceties. Now you maybe saying, great customer service, and yes it was, but she ensured that my experience was something that I would want to repeat again and again.

She moved to different Salons and I moved with her, there was a time when she worked from home and she kept most of her customers, ensuring the experience was as good as ever. She could have easily saw me as another haircut, but if you think about those first few experiences it meant I stayed with her for the last 22 year.

So thinking about the customers you have now, what kind of experience are they getting from you? Is it the kind that will mean they will still be with you in 22 years time? Will they need/want what they buy off you today in 22 years time? If the answer is yes, look at the kind of things you can change that will ensure your customers like what they experience when dealing with you.

The difference between customer service and customer experience, as Royston explains (and I agree!!!) is as follows

1. Tangible needs – with the hairdresser example, the quality of the cut, styling etc
2. Informational needs – Hairdresser gives me more of what I need/want, appointments when I want, tea, advice on products etc.
3. Intangible needs – Meeting my emotional needs, making me feel wanted, calling me by my first name, letting me know when she is available, telling me when she moved salons
4. Affiliation needs – does it make me feel good to be part of something that regards me as special and visa-versa

To gain customers, we focus on the tangible needs of the product or service we are selling, and hope that we are given the opportunity to show what informational, intangible needs we can also offer. However it is often the case that once the sale is done, we fall into the trap of thinking the job is done and don’t focus on what makes the customer experience that much special.

Social media is all about experience, whether you are exchanging conversations with friends or prospective customers, if you make the experience enjoying, the relationship will be that much more solid making the likelihood of any business relationship that much more concrete.

So, looking at the sequence Royston described above, its vitally important that you provide the INTANGIBLE NEEDS to a customer BEFORE they buy. Wow, then once they buy, it will be partly because you met their emotional needs first. Commonly it is the smaller and medium size companies that get this social media thing and big corporates are slow on the intake, not all I must say but most. Social Media allows us to give that customer experience before they buy.

Looking at your own business what can you do with your marketing and sales, to ensure you give intangible needs that your customers crave?

Reading many personal development websites, as you do, I came across Jack Canfield’s 7 tips for success, and reading through them, it struck me how these are the steps I took,in various forms to get from the 9-5 job to running my own coaching and training company 2 1/2 years on.

Tip 1

Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life.

What Jack says – “One of the greatest myths that is pervasive in our culture today is that you are entitled to a great life-that somehow, somewhere, someone is responsible for filling our lives with continual happiness, exciting career options, nurturing family time and blissful personal relationships simply because we exist. But the real truth is that there is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live. That person is YOU”

Back in 2006 I knew I had to leave my 9-5 and start my own business, it is then I really tool responsibility for my life 100% and started to create an environment to leave on MY terms, as opposed leaving without no clear vision. Some people I have met who wish to start their own business, say they wish they could be made redundant, so then they have no choice but to do something, this is not taking 100% responsibility for their own lives, be brave and take a decision that is going to empower you.

Tip 2

Be Clear Why You’re Here.

What Jack says – “I believe each of us is born with a life purpose. Identifying, acknowledging and honoring this purpose is perhaps the most important action successful people take. They take the time to understand what they’re here to do-and then they pursue that with passion and enthusiasm.”

My 9-3 was in Sales and I was earning good money, but it didn’t feed my soul. The last few years in my job I stopped getting excited by the challenge. As time went on, I became more and more clear about what my purpose was and helping others, challenging them to achieve and getting others to realise their potential. This is why I am here

Tip 3

Decide What You Want.

What Jack says – “One of the main reasons why most people don’t get what they want is they haven’t decided what they want.  They haven’t defined their desires in clear and compelling detail… What does success look like to you?

What i wanted is to live life on my terms. 2 1/2 years in I can honestly say that I love working. I get a buzz when I am with clients. This may not have rung tru a few years a ago, however what I would say now is that, even if I didn’t need to earn,  I would still do what I am doing now.

Tip 4

Believe It’s Possible.

What Jack says – “Scientists used to believe that humans responded to information flowing into the brain from the outside world. But today, they’re learning instead that we respond to what the brain, based on previous experience, expects to happen next…In fact, the mind is such a powerful instrument, it can deliver to you literally everything you want. But you have to believe that what you want is possible”

As soon as I decided I was going to leave and really believed I could make thus happen, everything changed, my confidence, opportunities, people around me, all of it. As soon my aura was one of making this happen the energy around me flow in the same direction.

Tip 5

Believe in Yourself.

What Jack says – “If you are going to be successful in creating the life of your dreams, you have to believe that you are capable of making it happen…Whether you call it self-esteem, self-confidence or self-assurance, it is a deep-seated belief that you have what it takes- the abilities, inner resources, talents and skills to create your desired results”

This for me is linked with Tip 4, as soon as I believed in myself, I started to believe it was possible. I used to think, these things only happen to others, you need a lot of luck for it to happen, you need lots of money. All of these things became true as soon as I started believing in myself. I became the others, started getting luckier, and money started coming!

Tip 6

Become an Inverse Paranoid

What Jack says - “Imagine how much easier it would be to succeed in life if you were constantly expecting the world to support you and bring you opportunity. Successful people do just that.”

This is what I started doing, if things started to happen to me, how would I react? i.e. would I allow the success to come. People hold many fears, two prominent fears, are fear of failure and fear of success. If I wasn’t ready, would I have been fearful of the success?

Tip 7

Unleash the Power of Goal Setting

“Experts on the science of success know the brain is a goal-seeking organism. Whatever goal you give to your subconscious mind, it will work day and night to achieve… To engage you subconscious mind, a goal has to be measurable. When there are no criteria for measurement, it is simply something you want, a wish, a preference, a good idea.”

My first goal was to know how much I needed to survive for a year, without earning, while i was setting up my business. Once i got this figure, i then looked at ways of getting this money, my method was property investing and within a year of this decision, I got the amount I needed and left my job. Achieving this goal gave me the confidence to achieve any goal I set from the on.

What are your current challenges, go through each of Jack’s tip and see if you are playing full out and if you are holding back!

Paulo Coelho, author of the bestselling book The Alchemist, has written a boo titled Warrior of the Light. It is a collection of short notes on accepting failure, embracing life and rising to your destiny. The Warrior, as Paulo describes is someone who knows that he is free to choose his desires, and he makes these decisions with courage, detachment, and sometimes with just a touch of madness.

On the surface to approach life as a Warrior may seem impractical. The focus, as a Warrior is on what you have control over, what you can do and let go of the things you cannot control. Stress is often caused by the y we choose to react to outside events. The Warrior is all about accepting these stresses and then letting them go.

Living life with the mindset of a warrior takes some skill. However the pursuit of this way of living can open many doors, the first of which is in our minds.

One such note in the book talks about the two columns on either side of the door he is trying to open.

One is called Fear and the other is called Desire. The Warrior looks at the column of Fear and on it is is written: “You are entering a dangerous, unfamiliar world where everything you have leaned up until now will prove useless.”

The Warrior looks at the column of Desire and on it is written: “You are about to leave a familiar world wherein are stored all the things you ever wanted and for which you struggled long and hard.”

The Warrior smiles because nothing frightens him and nothing holds him. With confidence of one who know what he wants, he opens the door.

So what we can learn from this? That whatever choices we come across in our lives, whatever choice you make will be the right one. How many choice have you made in your life that looking back were based on fear?  Courage is doing something or making a decision when fear is present. Desire is dictated by how much you want it. When you want something bad enough and you act on it, it is amazing how the feeling of fear subsides.

Do you have a decision to make? If you knew you would succeed what would you do?  Think about Usain Bolt, the 100m Olympic Gold medallist. He knows he is the fastest man of earth. Does that mean he doesn’t train, eat the right things or get enough sleep? Absolutely not. He wants to make sure that when he is standing at the staring line he is in the best condition possible, that the actual race result is a forgone conclusion. So, Usain, knowing he will succeed, puts in all the work necessary to get the result he wants.

What can you do today, to ensure your success tomorrow?

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It’s all about your attitude, that’s the difference between whether you will succeed or fail. So true. However how many of us listen to our body?

As part of the coaching and sales training I do,  I talk about the fives levels of listening, as penned by Steve Covey

5 Levels of Listening:

• Empathic Listening – Listening/responding with both the heart and mind to understand the speaker’s words intent and feelings. Listen for what is not being said
• Attentive Listening – Paying attention, focusing on the speaker’s words/comparing to your own experiences.
• Selective Listening – Hearing only what interests you.
• Pretend – Giving the appearance of listening
• Ignore – No effort to listen

This relates to when we listen to others. However how often do you use these levels when listening to your body? Most of us, if we are honest with ourselves ,use selective listening, i.e. when it suits us.

When we are hungry, we eat, we listen to our hunger pans, or sometimes not. When we are thirsty, we drink, or even when we are not. When you have an important decision to make, or coming up to an important meeting, do you listen to what your body is saying to you? Part of my work with the Enneagram, studies the link between listening to your body and the mind.

The easiest way to start to listen to you body, is learning to listen to your intuition. The video below by Judith Orloff explains how you can do this.

A simple exersise you can do that shows you how the body ‘knows’ is this.

Think of something that you can’t make up your mind about, or an important decision you have to make. Hold out your arm horizontal to the ground and think of each choice, (you need a partner for the next part). Think of choice A, imagine it, feel it, be it, now ask your partner to try and push your arm down.

Now think of choice B, imagine it, feel it , be it, again ask your partner to push your arm down. Which was easier? Which ever your body resisted the most, is the path you need to go down. Your body will naturally be strong with the choice that your truly want to go with. Your hesitation will be around some fear, confidence, or self-belief around the outcome.

By listing to our body more, we learn to trust our instincts and intuition and thus make decisions with greater confidence.

Image by epicnom via Flickr

We often hear marketing professionals asking us about our USP (unique selling point) is, and many misinterpret this as  how are you better than the competition, when actually what they are is how are you DIFFERENT than the rest.

What is it that stands you out from the rest of the crowd? Think about it, you tend to remember the things that are different from the norm. Does your marketing and sales pitch lend itself to this? What is the impression that people are left with when they have either met you at an event, or experienced your services? What do they remember?

Ask yourself this, are you constantly trying to show how much better you are than the others or how you are different? Whatever profession you are in, people will choose you because you relate to them and because you have something different that they like.

Don’t kid yourself, whatever your profession, (unless you are the leader of a country!!!) there are thousands of people doing what you do. The following video perfectly demonstrates this. Getting over 38 million hits, it’s all about being different not necessarily better.

How can you be different? Please leave a comment and let others know what is different about you.

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When December comes the thought on most peoples minds is where did the year go? All the things I planned to do, I never got done. How frustrating!!!

So what are going to do that will make 2010 your best year yet? What plans do you have for 2010 that mean you can’t wait for the new year to begin?

A wise man once said if ‘…you keep on doing the same things expect the same results!’

The new year brings optimism and a sense of a new beginning. Why wait? What’s stopping you doing what you want to do now.

By starting now you give yourself a months head start. If its working, great carry on in the new year, if not, change it.

5 Questions to Ask Yourself before the start of 2010

1. What can I start to do now, that I am waiting for the new year to do?

2. Who do I need to connect with NOW to ensure my year starts on the right foot?

3. What are the things that I can start to delegate to ensure I focus on what I do best?

4. What’s the most important thing I want to achieve in 2010?

5. What am I worth?

To really kick start you year come see me here

Do you listen or do you hear? Is there a difference?

Well from a technical point of the the process of hearing is a physiological act, the ear drums engage in the noises coming to it and the brain interprets the sounds. Listening is actually engaging psychologically to what is coming to you and requires more concentration of the mind.

In order to help us with understanding how we can improve our listening skills, below is how Steve Covey defines the 5 Levels of Listening

5 Levels of Listening

1. Empathic Listening – Listening/responding with both the heart and mind to understand the speaker’s words intent and feelings. Listen for what is not being said
2. Attentive Listening – Paying attention, focusing on the speaker’s words/comparing to your own experiences
3. Selective Listening – Hearing only what interests you
4. Pretend – Giving the appearance of listening
5. Ignore – No effort to listen

By developing our listening skills allows us to communicate better and no decide what we are going to say before we truly listen to hear to what is being said.

In business the skill of listening is under-rated. Managers who want to develop their coaching skills, will relise that one of the first skill to acquire is listening. This can sometimes be quite strange, because on the surface it looks like doing nothing, however increasing your listening skills to level 4 or 5 as stated above takes a lot of doing.

The challenge to improve your skills, is to be patient. It will take time and practice. A few things you can do

1. Next time you are having a conversation, whether business or social, truly absorb what is being said and leave a second or two gap before you respond
2. If you find yourself thinking about what you are going to say while the other person is talking, stop yourself and re-engage
3. When responding ask a question that allows the other person to continue, it will make them feel good and they in turn subconsciously will want to listen to you

Try this out, the key is practice and to see how your own communication improves as well as how others start to respond to you.

In any business there is someone who is at the top. Who challenges them?

The person at the top is the one that challenges, motivates, and encourages the people that work for them, but who does this for the boss? Business Owners go onto business for a variety of reasons, over a period of time the business takes on an identity of itself where different questions need to be asked.

When you are part of a large organisation there is a system where line managers are accountable to group managers, and they to the board of directors. The CEO is then usually the one that challenges the board of directors, but who challenges the CEO to ensure they are working at their best?

Why should the person at the top be challenged you may ask? Well the quality of the decisions made are dependent on the quality of the questions asked.

What would be the impact on a company if the boss had the opportunity to be challenged about the decisions they make? What would be impact if they knew somebody would be asking the searching questions about the success of their business, without a personal agenda?

That is the key, without a personal agenda. Being paid to ask the right questions, that challenge them to make choices, that are best for the business, is an underestimated resource. When you have someone asking the right questions, without being ‘part’ of the business, the anchors are different and there is nothing else that clouds the issues at hand.

How would a business owner know if this would help, well they won’t until they try it. A question you could ask,

What COULD be the benefit to the business if I was asked the right questions that challenge me and the business?

Well, having answered the question what could you do next?

Attending a recent event I was fortunate to hear Chris Boardman speak about what he believes are the characteristic of high performing teams. Listening to Chris it struck me that there are no secret formulas to performing at your best, just small tweaks you can make to what you are already doing to get the results you want. Chris talked about 10 tips to high performing teams

1. Listen between the lines – Listening is a skill that most of us think we have but very few actually do. We all hear things but few is us really listen. Sometimes it is good to just park your thoughts and truly listen to what others are saying.

2. Be comfortable being uncomfortable – Your comfort zone is your hassle free zone. Knowing how to act when you are out of your comfort zones increases your confidence to things that are uncomfortable.

3. Value Diversity- People who think differently to each other come up with different ideas. It is important to value people who do think differently to obtain high growth.

4. Take Time to Reflect – We get focused it doing things we forget the most important part of the equation, ourselves. Taking time to reflect gives you the opportunity to learn from your experiences good or bad.

5. Forget Winning- It is important to have the end goal in mind, but don’t let that attachment prevent you getting what you want. Focus on being better and getting the best out of the team and the winning will take care of itself.

6. Stupid Ideas – Daft ideas are sometimes the best. Value all contributions within a team, one person’s daft idea is another person secret to the nest best idea.

7. Put Yourself First- The instinct is to meet the needs of you team, the best way you can do this is my looking after yourself and ensuring you are in your best state to help them.

8. Success is a dangerous thing- Success can make you complacent and discourages listening and criticism from outside. Ensure you have a plan in place to survive success.

9. Painful experiences lead to the greatest growth - When you feel pain you listen and are more open to change. Put a value on failure and learn from it.

10. Satisfaction – Ensure you and your team enjoy the success and gain satisfaction from your achievements.

 Do you have a team that could be a high performing team? Do take the risk contact me baiju [at] pctconsultancy [dot] com for training and coaching opportunities