From Coaching to Retention

On October 31, 2007 in Shanghai, I will be presenting a one-day workshop: From Coaching to Retention for Global Talent Development Center. See coaching in action, add coaching skills to your management repertoire in the workplace, and explore you can enhance retention through coaching. The day will conclude with a small panel discussing how coaching has worked for them.


Price and Payment:

Early-Bird Price: RMB 3,500 available through Oct 19, 2007
Regular Price: RMB 3,800 effective on and after Oct 19, 2007
(Course fees including lunch and materials)

How do I register?

Email Registration form to info@gtdedu.com or Tel: 021-52199558 Mr.Li ;Ms.Wang

Registration Form:

Course Name: From Coaching to Retention
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The GTDC difference – The right courses, led by the right business executives, bringing you the right results.

Additional information available through:
Global Talent Development Center
Office: +86 (0)21 64726778
Fax: +86 (0)21 5219 9558

The Power, or not, of Acknowledgment

Growth occurs with a person when she has ownership over the learning, changes in habits and thoughts, and the outcomes. Coaching literature is filled with recommendations on the importance of acknowledgment. I contend that some of the forms of acknowledgment do not serve the client, and at worst, are disempowering.

Making a change is a continuous cycle of understanding one’s current experience, creating images of the future, developing a plan for achieving those outcomes and acting upon the plan. Each action requires another cycle of understanding, adjustment to the image and plan, and further action. A coach helps in all areas of the cycle from helping the client build the connections between experiences, assisting them to clarify and deepen the images, offering alternatives when needed, supporting the plan and actions, and helping the client process and learn from the experiences.

Coach training suggests that we provide support to help “clear out doubt and even disbelief in oneself.” Absolutely; however, when the support is based on “I [the coach] know you can do this”, who has ownership of the actions, risks and outcomes? Alternatively, when we have our client reflect on the prior experiences they bring to the situation that support future success, we engage their understanding of probabilities. The client then owns the probability of success, the actions, risks and outcomes.

Coach training recommends that we use the language “I want to acknowledge you for ....”. From the first time, I heard this phrase I had, and continue to have, a visceral negative response. My reaction has two components. Firstly, I characterize the language as “coach speak”. A definition of acknowledgement is:

ac·knowl·edg·ment or ac·knowl·edge·ment n. 1. The act of admitting or owning to something. 2. Recognition of another's existence, validity, authority, or right. 3. An answer or response in return for something done. 4. An expression of thanks or a token of appreciation. 5. A formal declaration made to authoritative witnesses to ensure legal validity.

If any of these definitions are put into the sentence, “I want to acknowledge you for ...”, I find jibberish. More importantly, the emphasis is on what I, as the coach, see, recognize, admit or own.

The training materials state, “If you simply help your client see and appreciate their strengths you will empower them and even encourage them to do better.” To this, I strongly agree. When the client sees and appreciates their strengths, they own them.

The question then becomes how we help our clients see and appreciate their strengths. How do we help the client believe in the probability of success, and thereby reduce the self-doubt? How do we help them to learn from an experience regardless of the outcome? To do this, we need to ensure that the learning remains with the client, supported by the coach.

In the book, “The Art of Changing the Brain”, James E. Zull talks how about learners respond to teacher evaluation of their work, in particular with re-writing.

“They were fighting to keep control. I could not create enthusiasm for my suggestions, exactly because they were my suggestions. Their emotional connections are with their own ideas and their own judgments. When I made suggestions, they only knew they had lost control. ... In the final analysis, we still find that we defeat learning when we take it away from the learners, when we make it about us rather than about them.”

Our role as coaches is to help the client overcome self-doubt, to evaluate their progress and to turn that into a new learning. We have the ability and the charter to stand away from the emotions, risks and outcomes. In that role, we can and should challenge the client to see the probabilities, to capture the learning, and to celebrate the successes. We need to do this not from what we “acknowledge”, but rather through our questioning, so that the client can recognize, celebrate and therefore own their growth.

International Coach Academy, AC101: Acknowledgment (2002)

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Zull, James E., The Art of the Changing the Brain, pg 242 (Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2002)

Measures of Success

What happens to a business or life when you change the measure of success?

When I was establishing my business, I struck upon targets that defined success for me. This was not a simple task and required a fair amount of soul-searching. I set goals for 6 months, 12 months and 36 months. The timeline was a bit loose, but I knew that I would be able to achieve the 6 month target; I figured that I would be able to achieve the 12 month target; and I had no idea how I would achieve the 36 month target, but it would come. I was not wedded to the timeline; in fact, I was not at all sure that the targets were achievable in those timeframes. Nonetheless, I wrote down the targets; I shared them with people central to the business. I was on my way.

The targets were defined in terms of business revenue – money. Yet, whether I talked with people about what I was doing, I frequently commented that the money was not that important. More than one close friend challenged me, “is money why you’re doing this?” The answer was no, but the money represented a level of achievement; and so, I continued on my merry way; noticing that as the money did not flow, I was feeling disappointment and dissatisfaction, rather than relishing the success I was achieving.

One of the advantages of having a coach is that they do not let inconsistencies pass, at least not for long. My coach challenged me to consider whether there were other possible measures of success that better aligned with why I am in this business. As all good coaching questions are, this was thought provoking. If I attest to having defined why I am here – my purpose in life – and it does not have any emphasis on money, why is that the measure of success for my business?

Looking at what I gain from this business besides revenue, it is the satisfaction and joy of helping people; of being a part of people improving their lives. It was easy then to restate the goals around the number of people I can help through my coaching.

Which leads us back to the question, “what happens to a business or life when you change the measure of success?” In this case, the focus shifted from an uncontrollable outcome (the revenue) to controllable events. The focus shifts from the outcome to the process (and the former statistician in me says “duh!”). Let us get more concrete. A trial session may not result in immediate or any revenue, but it does help someone if I have done my job well. The trial session that does not convert to a paying client is a small part of my success; rather than a $0 income failure. And that session may lead to a coaching agreement in the future. The blogs and newsletter do not generate any revenue, but they do, I hope, help someone.

Ah, but the businessperson says, that is fine, but you need to make money; it is an important measure. Well, like the manufacturing or quality engineer, perhaps what I need to do is to trust in the process. The process says that I need to establish a fair price for my work. The process says that I need to develop credibility and a base level of clients that can lead to subsequent referrals. The process says I need to have a structure for getting, conducting and following up from trial sessions. The process says I need to have structures around the coaching practice. If I succeed in the processes, can I trust the outcome (eventually money) will follow?

Only time will tell. In the meantime, it is much more fulfilling to look at every step as a success; to evaluate the business building in terms of helping people improve lives, rather than how much money I made today.

Do you have any examples where changes in your measures of success had an impact in the conduct of your business or life?

"This is Your Life"

This is your life, are you who you want to
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Switchfoot, “This is Your Life”,
The Beautiful Letdown
Release date: February 25, 2003.

When did you last revisit the dreams of your youth? How far have you drifted from your dreams?

Take this challenge.

Give yourself permission to dream as though you were a child and the world was younger. Trust that there are no constraints on what you can do. Your height doesn’t matter if you want to be a basketball player. Your risk aversion doesn’t matter if you want to fly to distant stars. You can be or do anything you want. When you are in that space, answer the question.

If you could be or do anything you want what would you be or do?

Sit with your answer. Keep your judgment on hold. Remember, right now, there are no constraints.

After sitting with your answer, add details. When you are being or doing what you want, picture your surroundings, identify the people (or type of people) around you, and name the actions that fill your time. If possible, construct a representation of this world; this can be in the form of a mind-map, collage, journal entries, drawings, or whatever works best for you.

In your mind, take yourself to that place of being or doing. What do you feel? What are the benefits that you gain? How do you feel about them? If possible, find ways to add the feelings to your representation.

Study your picture for a time. Add more depth of the details, explore the feelings and try to make the benefits more concrete.

What part of your dream could you bring into your life?

What steps could you take that would allow you to test the possibilities in that dream?

In the beginning verse of the song, we hear “This is your life, and today is all you’ve got now.” If your life is not what you dreamed it would be, you have the choices of today to make. What choice could you make today that brings you closer to that dream?

Copyright 2006 Sherry L. Read, All Rights Reserved

Choose to Chance the Rapids

Stuck in a job
Difficult boss
Invested in the company
Scared to leave
Frustrated by the bureaucracy
Just doing the job

In The River, Garth Brooks sings, “too many times we stand aside and let the waters slip away.” When we’re caught in a job, feeling stuck, hating to go to work, but afraid to leave, we’re letting the waters slip away, letting time go by.

Recapturing the dream may seem too far away, so take small steps into the water. Start by drawing up some lists.

1. Make a list of 10 things or more that you love about your job.
   If you can’t come up with 10 things about your current job, then go a bit further back to when you had energy for your work.
   
   
2. List 5 times when you were very proud of your work.
   Write down the elements of the work, e.g., challenging, great team, easy, recognition.
   
   
3. List 3 actions that you would love to take in your job right now.
   Make a note of the benefit each would bring to you.
   
   
4. Make a list of all of the things you would like to do.

Find a spot where you can lay these lists out in front of you and let your eyes wander quietly over the pages. As you slow let your eyes wander over the pages, begin to identify what elements or concepts seem to be repeating?

Write those down.

Go back over the lists. Do your eyes wander back to a certain phrase or thought? Add it to your new list.

As you think about the lists, do you feel a stronger sense of energy or excitement for any particular concept. Make sure it’s on your list and possibly highlighted.

What would it be like if you had more of these items in your life?

Give yourself some time to imagine and feel what that might be like.

What is one step that you could take today that will give you more of something on your list?

Can you put your toe in the water? Can you move toward your dream?

Too many times we stand aside
And let the waters slip away
‘Til what we put off ‘til tomorrow
Has now become today
So don’t you sit upon the shoreline
And say you’re satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
And dare to dance the tide...*

If you would like help to chance the rapids, visit us at http://www.readsolutionsgroup.com/ to learn more about how coaching can help you get unstuck.


*Shaw, Victoria and Garth Brooks, The River, Gary Morris Music/Major Bob Music Co, Inc, 1991.