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Month: September 2021

What are The Most Important Questions to Ask your Business Coach Before Hiring Them?

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Hiring a business coach is a BIG decision! Here, we’ll suggest some questions to ask a business coach to find out if he or she is the right coach for you.

Are you a coach? This list is a valuable resource you can offer your prospects to add value for them as they consider hiring you.

What are the Most Important Questions to Ask your Business Coach Before Hiring Them?

What Does a Business Coach Do?

A coach can help you make progress when you’re stuck. Even when you feel everything is good – you have clients, you’re making money…you have untapped potential! 

A coach will help you make improvements in your business and life. They won’t do anything for you except open your eyes. You’ll be the one doing.

Wherever you are in your life and business, you can’t see the forest for the trees! A coach can bring things to light for you that you are completely blind to.

A business coach will focus on the business aspect of your life. Yet a good coach will help you see new possibilities in all aspects of YOU. Your business is part – a BIG part – of your life. You should consider it one of the things that make your life what it is – good or not so good. 

Though business is important, so are your family, your finances, your health, your spirituality, your relationships, etc. All these parts of your life must be in balance for you to be a fully functional human being. A good business coach – like any coach – will help you achieve this balance while primarily focusing on their specialty. 

I’ve always maintained that life coaching and business coaching are not so different. While the issues they deal with may differ, the same attitudes and ways of being work in every aspect of your life, including business. Keep in mind that business is done by people! You’re in the people business, everywhere in your life.

Why You Need to Know These Questions

If your coaching relationship is to be effective you and your coach will become partners. Partners trust each other enough to share intimate details with each other. Sometimes your coach will have to work hard to get you to recognize, let alone divulge, some of these details. Some of this may be difficult and painful, but it’s essential.

To enter into a partnership of this depth, you must like and trust this person. The big question is not “How good is this coach?”, but “How good is this coach for me?” If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.

How does it help you or your business?

First, I’ll refer you to the section above headed What Does a Business Coach Do? 

By helping you see things that have been invisible to you, you can begin to improve those things. 

You can break ineffective or destructive habits. You can replace them with effective and constructive habits.

You can replace relationships that aren’t serving you well with ones that do serve you well.

You can face the fact that you may be spending money in ways that don’t help your business. If you eliminate those expenditures, you’ll have money to fund more effective resources, or to save.

The Most Important Questions to Ask Your Business Coach Before Hiring Them

As I mentioned before you will invite this person to become your trusted partner. There’s a lot you need to know about them. Especially if this is your first coach-hiring experience, you may not get it right the first time. That’s OK – start over!

Here are some of the ways to find out more about your prospective coach.

Check References

No doubt the coach you’re considering will offer references. That’s fine, but what will those references tell you? “This guy or gal does wonderful things for me. My business is thriving because of their help.” Right? 

It’s fine to check out some of these references and testimonials. A better way to see a more balanced view is to go to independent rating sites, such as Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Next Door, etc.

 

Competence Measures

  • Ask your prospective coach for his or her certifications. There are numerous coach training and certification organizations. Examples are International Coaching Federation, Coach Traning Alliance, and many others. Many coaches are affiliated with franchise companies like Focal Point, Strategic Coach, John Maxwell, etc. These companies have their in-house training and certification programs.

Desire to Serve

Businesses survive and grow by providing something of value to their customers and clients in exchange for money. Coaches are no different. In fact, they’re a special case. A good coach lives and breathes helping and supporting his or her clients. That’s the only way they can become the trusted partner you want. 

Get a sense for this trait in conversations with them and from the references you check.

Commitment

This goes hand-in-hand with the desire to serve. They must be as committed to your success as you are. Actually, depending on your mindset at the beginning, part of their work may be to instill that commitment in you.

Again, conversations with them and what you learn from references are the guide in checking this out.

Chemistry

Now that you’ve checked all these things and found satisfactory answers, how does it FEEL? As I pointed out in the beginning of this article, this person, if they’re right, will be a partner with you. You must like and trust them. The fact that someone else found that comfort with them doesn’t mean you will.

Make sure it’s right for you!

All the best in finding the business coach that helps you take your business to the next level…and the next!

Note: Archived issues of The Unity Community are available here. Search that page for keywords representing your particular interest. Most articles offer suggestions for ways of improving business and personal relationships. Keep in mind that business is done by…people. Every business concern is essentially an inter-personal concern. 

A “Shot in the Arm” Every Week!

Eric Lofholm, my friend, mentor and sales coach, hosts a 15-minute motivational call every business day. (For a short time, he switched to doing the call weekly, and it seems nobody liked it.)  The call is at 7:45 AM Pacific time. Register for it here. You’ll find instructions on how to join the call on Facebook, Zoom, by phone, or on a recording.

Let’s Talk!

Leadership is an important coaching topic, and vital to doing good business. Want to add your thoughts on leadership? Reply to this message or click here if you’d like to chat on the phone.

Do you like The Unity Community?

Do you find value in the articles?

What’s good about it?

What would make it even more valuable for you? 

Suggestions for topics in future issues? Do you have something you’d like to contribute? It can be your work…or someone else’s. I’ll give you and the author ample credit for your contribution if I use it.

Your thoughts, suggestions and comments are always welcome. Reply to this message, or go here if you’d like to chat on the phone or Zoom. 

Do You Know Someone Who’d Like This?

You’re welcome to forward it to them with the FORWARD feature in your email program. 

Did someone forward this to you? Would you like to subscribe (free)? Send me your email address and tell me you’d like to subscribe.

Want to Do More Business?

Suppose you go to a networking event. You’re amazed to find all your ideal prospects waiting to talk with you.

Our Business Accelerator Platform gives you this kind of exposure to your market. These are the people you want to help!

We find your ideal client prospects and start conversations with them. Then we communicate your value. We get them to schedule appointments with you…all on autopilot. This can happen for you! Learn how here. 

When you join Smart Money Network’s Business Accelerator Platform, we:

  • Optimize your LinkedIn Profile Page so it better attracts people in your market.

(Hint: What painful issue do you resolve for your clients? If your LinkedIn profile describes how you make your clients’ lives better, it’s rare! Most describe the merchant’s qualifications and expertise. They say little about what he/she does to remove clients’ pain.)

  • LinkedIn has 740 million members. We find the few thousand who match your ideal client profile. You define your best prospect for us. Then we go find them.

(Even if you can find these people by yourself, it will take hours away from your work with your current clients.)

  • Invite about 100 of these best prospects every week to connect with you on LinkedIn.
  • Send a welcome message to those who accept your invitation and connect.

(Typically 15% or more. Currently, over 25% of those I invite are connecting!)

  • Deliver something of value to them from you, and then do it again!
  • Begin a “drip campaign” of carefully timed messages, providing more value. These messages give…give… give…and then ask. No pitches!

All these messages come from you personally. We want and expect your input in developing them…unless you want us to just do it. You can follow the threads and adjust your messages as you see better ways to engage your prospects. We’re always ready to talk with you about improving your messaging.

See a “hot” prospect you want to engage with your unique message? Take over the exchange manually!

Click here to learn how you can put this program to work for YOU!

Would You Like to Publish a Newsletter Like This One?

Want new ways to engage your prospects and clients? Unity Copywriting writes the materials that help you stay top of their minds.  Let’s discuss how these materials can help you with your marketing!

What are the Strengths of Good Leaders?

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How Many Strengths of Good Leaders Do You Possess?

Leadership is a unique ability to inspire others to participate in a team to accomplish something. The strengths of good leaders are quite distinct from management skills. 

Managers optimize things like machines, budgets, assets, etc. People must be treated differently from “things.”

Read on to learn what defines a leader.

A photo of 3 people having a meeting showing the Strengths of Good Leaders

7 Qualities Exhibited by Effective Leaders

Here are the most important strengths of good leaders that set them apart from managers. Several of these skills are often called “soft skills.” The tools managers use in handling inanimate business aspects aren’t very effective with people. And similarly, some of these soft skills would be less effective with things. That said, you’ll see that some managerial skills are important in leadership.

  1. Top on my list is INTEGRITY – Say what you’ll do, and do what you say. In this category, I include authenticity since these two concepts go hand in hand. It’s impossible to be integrous unless you’re rooted in who you are. 
  2. LOYALTY to the team and the organization, as well as its customers. You can expect loyalty from your team only when you exhibit loyalty to each team member. Since the team supports organizational objectives, loyalty to those objectives is also vital. A leader must be enthusiastic about the mission of the team and the organization. Loyalty to customers and other interested parties is also important to doing business.
  3. COMMUNICATION skills – The ability to communicate verbally and in writing is vital when working with people. Exchanging ideas is a big part of teamwork. That can be accomplished only when people communicate with each other.
  4. EMPOWERMENT – People do their best work when they feel that they own the results of their production. They want to know how it contributes to a larger mission. When these incentives are in place, they have genuine pride in their work. Leaders must give team members ownership of their tasks for this to happen. A “leader” who micromanages, or worse, does a team member’s work for them takes away that ownership.
  5. DECISIVENESS – An often-repeated rule of thumb is to make decisions quickly and change them slowly. When you have the facts you need, don’t delay – decide! Your first decision is usually on the mark, so be reluctant to change it. If new facts turn up, examine them carefully and change the decision only when you’re sure you must.
  6. MANAGERIAL COMPETENCE – I set out differentiating leaders from managers. Nonetheless, leaders must be able to manage the tasks, budgets and schedules the team works with. Managerial competence, as well as people skills, is required. 
  7. CHARISMA – Charisma might be the “softest” and hardest to define of these qualities. It’s essential to every other quality on the list. Charisma draws others in and causes them to enjoy working with you.

Why Do You Need These Certain Strengths to be a Good Leader?

These strengths are the keys to inspiring others to do something.

A leader can often be someone who has these strengths and has not been designated as a leader. Leading from within doesn’t require a title. You can be a leader from wherever you sit on the team.

One with the title of leader or manager, or even president, is not a leader if he or she doesn’t possess all or most of these traits. Most of us have probably worked somewhere where this principle had its effect. I certainly have, several times.

Unfortunately, there are many workplaces where the designated leader is a micromanager or an outright tyrant. The least effective workers may hang around for a while, mostly out of fear or self-limiting beliefs. The real producers usually move on.

In this very brief newsletter I wrote 3+ years ago I referred to a company where leaders become leaders by attracting “follwership”. The company’s management assigns no leadership positions. Seems to me like a very workable arrangement. It works for them!

Why is leadership an important skill?

Believe it or not, most people like to be productive. Leadership is what brings productive people together in teams and inspires them to produce. Leaders also choose the tasks needed in the bigger organizational picture. Team members must all be doing work that contributes to this bigger picture. 

A well-organized team can produce several times what the sum of all the members’ efforts would be if each worked alone. 1+1+1+1+1=10 or more on a productive team. The leader is the team member who inspires and supports the team’s work.

Googling ”lëadership” or searching for it on our blog page will turn up a wealth of advice and ideas on leadership qualities. Others may emphasize different items on this list or mention others. The qualities I’ve discussed here will surely turn up in any leadership discussion.

Note: Archived issues of The Unity Community are available here. Search that page for keywords representing your particular interest. Most articles offer suggestions for ways of improving business and personal relationships. Keep in mind that business is done by…people. Every business concern is essentially an inter-personal concern. 

A “Shot in the Arm” Every Week!

Eric Lofholm, my friend, mentor and sales coach, hosts a 15-minute motivational call every business day. (For a short time, he switched to doing the call weekly, and it seems nobody liked it.)  The call is at 7:45 AM Pacific time. Register for it here. You’ll find instructions on how to join the call on Facebook, Zoom, by phone, or on a recording. 

Let’s Talk!

Leadership is an important coaching topic, and vital to doing good business. Want to add your thoughts on leadership? Reply to this message or click here if you’d like to chat on the phone.

Do you like The Unity Community?

Do you find value in the articles?

What’s good about it?

What would make it even more valuable for you? 

Suggestions for topics in future issues? Do you have something you’d like to contribute? It can be your work…or someone else’s. I’ll give you and the author ample credit for your contribution if I use it.

Your thoughts, suggestions and comments are always welcome. Reply to this message, or go here if you’d like to chat on the phone or Zoom. 

Do You Know Someone Who’d Like This?

You’re welcome to forward it to them with the FORWARD feature in your email program. 

Did someone forward this to you? Would you like to subscribe (free)? Send me your email address and tell me you’d like to subscribe.

Want to Do More Business?

Suppose you go to a networking event. You’re amazed to find all your ideal prospects waiting to talk with you.

Our Business Accelerator Platform gives you this kind of exposure to your market. These are the people you want to help!

We find your ideal client prospects and start conversations with them. Then we communicate your value. We get them to schedule appointments with you…all on autopilot. This can happen for you! Learn how here. 

When you join Smart Money Network’s Business Accelerator Platform, we:

  • Optimize your LinkedIn Profile Page so it better attracts people in your market.

(Hint: What painful issue do you resolve for your clients? If your LinkedIn profile describes how you make your clients’ lives better, it’s rare! Most describe the merchant’s qualifications and expertise. They say little about what he/she does to remove clients’ pain.)

  • LinkedIn has 740 million members. We find the few thousand who match your ideal client profile. You define your best prospect for us. Then we go find them.

(Even if you can find these people by yourself, it will take hours away from your work with your current clients.)

  • Invite about 100 of these best prospects every week to connect with you on LinkedIn.
  • Send a welcome message to those who accept your invitation and connect.

(Typically 15% or more. Currently, over 25% of those I invite are connecting!)

  • Deliver something of value to them from you, and then do it again!
  • Begin a “drip campaign” of carefully timed messages, providing more value. These messages give…give… give…and then ask. No pitches!

All these messages come from you personally. We want and expect your input in developing them…unless you want us to just do it. You can follow the threads and adjust your messages as you see better ways to engage your prospects. We’re always ready to talk with you about improving your messaging.

See a “hot” prospect you want to engage with your unique message? Take over the exchange manually!

Technology Builds A Fire Under Teamwork

by

Technology Helps Teamwork Produce

Teamwork can supercharge productivity, when the team has the right tools and technology to work with.

Here’s a guy who found the existing tools inadequate. So he built his own, made it adaptable to other businesses, and sells it to them. Good teamwork requires good tools. Be sure to give them the right ones!

Read on for the whole story.

A group of worker with teamwork that uses technology and tools to build a house

Teamwork Requires Tools to Produce Results

How productive would the team in the picture be if they had no hammers, saws, drills or screwdrivers? Skills and ability are, of course, important. Only with the right tools though can the skills and ability be effectively applied. 

Teams can do more than the sum of what the individual members could do working solo…IF they have appropriate tools for the task at hand.

Collaboration is Vital in Business

Peter Coppinger is the CEO of a company aptly named Teamwork, He tells the story of how he came to realize they needed to develop a teamwork tool.

In a complex business environment, nobody has all the answers. Collaboration with others inside and outside the company is vital to obtaining optimum results. Here’s a reading recommendation that elaborates on this concept. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan wrote Who not How. They explain that striving to learn HOW to do things can limit your productivity when there’s a WHO to do it more expertly. Hire the WHO and concentrate on your areas of expertise.

The members of a team must communicate with each other to do their work effectively.

On a worksite like the one in the picture, communication is face-to-face.

In a business environment, team members may be separated by thousands of miles. 

Technology Assists Collaboration

As Peter’s company grew, teams expanded internationally. They found that a real-time document management system was needed to keep everyone up to date.

They sampled all the software available and found the one that showed the most promise. Even it turned out to be hard and confusing to use. When it’s hard and confusing to use something, people tend not to use it. That results in people not being “in the loop” on important information.

New Solution Required!

Teamwork learned that other companies were experiencing similar frustration with the available technology. So, they saw a business opportunity. They developed a clearly defined set of requirements for Teamwork Spaces. Once they had that they turned the project over to an Irish development team to build it.

Coppinger was initially reluctant to let the work out of his own shop. However, he realized that collaboration is at the center of everything the company does. So farming out the development of the technology was the right thing to do. They made sure that the app developed by the Irish team was easy to use for people at all levels in the company, and for outside collaborators.

With their old system, people didn’t always keep up with information they needed to know. Sometimes management couldn’t actually tell who was up to date on that information. So they put the Required Reading feature front and center on the new dashboard.

Teamwork, living up to their name, is all about helping every team member contribute to the work they’re responsible for. When they found nothing on the market to make that happen, they built it! Sometimes you need to make your own tools. If you can sell them to others, so much the better!

A few key points from the article:

  • Teamwork is key to productivity.
  • Teams need tools (in this case, technology) to maximize their productivity.
  • When the right technology is not available, build it!
  • If others are suffering the same woes, sell the technology to them!

Note: Archived issues of The Unity Community are available here. Search that page for keywords representing your particular interest. Most articles offer suggestions for ways of improving business and personal relationships. Keep in mind that business is done by…people. Every business concern is essentially an inter-personal concern. 

A “Shot in the Arm” Every Week!

Eric Lofholm is my friend, mentor and sales coach. He hosts a 30-minute motivational call every Thursday (recently changed from daily).  The call is at 7:30 AM Pacific time. Register for it here. You’ll find instructions on how to join the call on Facebook, Zoom, by phone, or in a recording you can access on your time. 

Let’s Talk!

How’s the teamwork in your organization? Do the teams have the tools they need? Want to talk about it? Reply to this message or click here if you’d like to chat by Zoom on the 

phone.

Do you like The Unity Community?

Do you find value in the articles?

What’s good about it?

What would make it even more valuable for you? 

Suggestions for topics in future issues? Do you have something you’d like to contribute? It can be your work…or someone else’s. I’ll give you and the author ample credit for your contribution if I use it.

Your thoughts, suggestions and comments are always welcome. Reply to this message, or go here if you’d like to chat on the phone or Zoom. 

Get too Much Email?

Today’s issue is going to all my subscribers. If you’re among my monthly subscribers, you’ll receive your next issue on October 4, 2021.

If the monthly schedule suits you better, just reply to this message with the word “MONTHLY” in the message or subject line. If you elect that option, you can still check out the weekly issues at your convenience here. Since your last monthly issue, we’ve discussed:

Collapse of Christianity? – Published 30 August 2021

Cannabis is Here to Stay – Published 24 August 2021

Make Your Brain Younger! – Published 16 August 2021

Find New |Joy in Relationships – Published 9 August 2021

 

Want to Do More Business?

Suppose you go to a networking event. You’re amazed to find all your ideal prospects waiting to talk with you.

Our Business Accelerator Platform gives you this kind of exposure to your market. These are the people you want to help!

We find your ideal client prospects and start conversations with them. Then we communicate your value. We get them to schedule appointments with you…all on autopilot. This can happen for you! Learn how here. 

When you join Smart Money Network’s Business Accelerator Platform, we:

  • Optimize your LinkedIn Profile Page so it better attracts people in your market.

(Hint: What painful issue do you resolve for your clients? If your LinkedIn profile describes how you make your clients’ lives better, it’s rare! Most describe the merchant’s qualifications and expertise. They say little about what he/she does to remove clients’ pain.)

  • LinkedIn has 740 million members. We find the few thousand who match your ideal client profile. You define your best prospect for us. Then we go find them.

(Even if you can find these people by yourself, it will take hours away from your work with your current clients.)

  • Invite about 100 of these best prospects every week to connect with you on LinkedIn.
  • Send a welcome message to those who accept your invitation and connect.

(Typically 15% or more. Currently, over 25% of those I invite are connecting!)

  • Deliver something of value to them from you, and then do it again!
  • Begin a “drip campaign” of carefully timed messages, providing more value. These messages give…give… give…and then ask. No pitches!

All these messages come from you personally. We want and expect your input in developing them…unless you want us to just do it. You can follow the threads and adjust your messages as you see better ways to engage your prospects. We’re always ready to talk with you about improving your messaging.

See a “hot” prospect you want to engage with your unique message? Take over the exchange manually!

Click here to learn how you can put this program to work for YOU!

Would You Like to Publish a Blog Like This One?

Want new ways to engage your prospects and clients? Unity Copywriting writes the materials that help you stay top of their minds.  Let’s discuss how these materials can help you with your marketing!