Leadership

Business consultants, coaches, facilitators, and mentors

Posted in: ABR Handouts, Blog, Business Planning, Leadership by Mallory Malloy on September 12, 2011 | No Comments

Business Consultants- A consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a wide knowledge of the subject matter. A consultant usually works for a consultancy firm or is self-employed, and engages with multiple and changing clients. Thus, clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and may purchase only as much service from the outside consultant as desired.  A consultant does things for others as well as by giving them advice on how to make their business more successful.

Business Counselors- A counselor is also an expert like the consultant but limits his involvement to giving advice only, that is, he tells the client how and what to do.

Business Coaches- Coaches also help people do things for themselves but not in the same way as counselors. They may have no expertise or knowledge of a specific technical area. They partner with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. They may challenge the client’s internal beliefs or help to remove internal stumbling blocks that limit the client’s potential. Coaching regards the client as the expert in his/her life and work and believes that every client is creative, resourceful, and ultimately “whole.”

Business Facilitators- The facilitator’s job is to support everyone to do their best thinking and practice. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements.

Business facilitators’ work in business, and other formal organizations but facilitators may also work with a variety of other groups and communities. It is a tenet of facilitation that the facilitator will not lead the group towards the answer that he/she thinks is best even if they possess an opinion on the subject matter. The facilitator’s roles are to make it easier for the group to arrive at its own answer, decision, or deliverable.

Business Mentors- A mentor is someone with more experience and “seasoning” than the protege that they counsel.  A mentor serves as a trusted confidante over an extended period of time, usually free of charge. Why do they do this? First and foremost as a way of giving back to their community and to society at large. They may do it to develop their skills as a teacher, manager, strategist, or consultant. And a true mentoring relationship also works in both directions—they learn about new ideas from their protege just as the protege learns timeless wisdom from them.

But whatever the benefits to the mentor, the benefits to you, the entrepreneur, are even greater:

• Where else are you going to turn? There’s no boss any more to turn to for advice or direction—maybe not even any employees yet. You’re flying solo. But you don’t have to. Everybody needs a good reliable sounding board, second opinion, and sometimes just emotional support.

• They’ve “been there, done that”. Learn from others’ mistakes and successes. They don’t have to have experience in your particular industry. They don’t have to be up on the latest trends or technology—you’ve got other sources for that. Their role is to share with you lessons from their experience in the hopes that you can learn them a bit more quickly and easily.
• It’s (usually) free. If you’re on a tight budget, that’s a major factor. While good coaches and consultants may be able to offer some things that a mentor doesn’t, it comes at a price, usually of several hundred dollars a month. Mentors, though, are readily available free of charge through a number of organizations.
• Expand your social network. Your mentor, being an experienced businessperson, is likely to have an extensive network, and can offer you access to far more senior decision-makers than you currently have. And they will be far more willing to open that network up to you than some casual acquaintance from a networking meeting.
• A trusted, long-term relationship. Your mentor has no ulterior motive—no service or product to sell you. That combined with their experience creates a good foundation for trust. And as the relationship develops over time, that trust can grow even stronger. Also, your time with them becomes more and more efficient as they become more and more familiar with you and your business.

New vs Old Marketing: Which is Better?

Posted in: Blog, Business Development, Leadership, Technology by David Richins on July 18, 2011 | No Comments

Marketing seems to be evolving rapidly. In these tough economic conditions, many marketers are looking to adapt to the latest trends in order to stay competitive. But sometimes it’s good to take a step back and ask ourselves, “Does this really make sense?”

Let’s take a look at how marketing has changed over the past few years.

We’ve seen the following trends:

• Ability to avoid advertisements. TiVo, satellite radio, and spam filters, etc. have made traditional advertising less effective than before.
• Growth of Internet. More and more communication is happening digitally.

These trends propelled the growth of new marketing channels:

• Blogs - conversational online content as opposed to traditional PR
• Web video content – since people are too ADD to read
• Search engine optimization – aligning your content so that you become what people are searching for
• Social media – personal interaction and networking online
• Targeted digital advertising – Placing your ad where your target customer is likely to find it (in search results or web content)

This new style of marketing is sometimes referred to as permission marketing. Other terms we often hear are inbound marketing and interactive. The basic idea is that we don’t have as many options to push our products and services any more. Instead, we have to create pull from our customers so that they will desire our communications and opt in.

All of these channels are good, but is it possible that all this talk about Web 2.0 has made us go overboard? I believe there is indeed evidence of excess:

• Marketing “experts” sound like philosophers. Proponents of inbound marketing, especially followers of Seth Godin, like to talk about democratization, paradigm shifts, and being “remarkable.” Godin’s mantra is “Ideas that spread, win.”  But has marketing really changed all that much? Companies need to create value for their customers, not just innovative ideas. 
• Explosion of poor quality content. There are millions of blogs out there, and I think most of us would agree that there is a lot of clutter. How do we sort out the valuable from the ordinary?
• Desire to go viral. People want to do outrageous things in order to get noticed.
• Too many leaders, tribes. Seth Godin appears to advocate that everyone should create their own tribe. Is it really possible for everyone to be a leader? When everyone is trying to be a leader, we all get pulled in too many directions.
• Superficial relationships. How well can you really get to know someone over Twitter?

With all the changes happening in marketing, maybe we ought to reflect on what remains the same:

• You still have to advertise your product somehow.
• You still have to provide something of value to your customer, not just talk about providing it.
• You still have to win over your customers one by one. (You can’t just create a mass phenomenon without effort.)
• Face-to-face communication and personal selling are still important.
• Traditional channels such as direct mail, TV and radio are not dead.

So, how can we take advantage of new channels and new trends without abandoning what works? Here are my suggestions:

• Integrated marketing. Use a variety of channels. A combination of channels, new and traditional, can be more effective than each one alone.
• Quality over quantity in content. Make sure the content you put out, regardless of the channel, is high quality. Quality content is something that is informative or interesting; it conveys value or helps people get to know you better. It doesn’t have to be meaty, but it should help to build connections.
• Build reputation and credibility, not just innovation. To cut through the clutter, customers are looking for evidence of competence and credibility. Do others vouch for you? Is there evidence that you can deliver on your promises?
• Relationship building. In your interactions, are you building meaningful relationships? Or are they superficial? Are people getting to know you? Do they understand the value of what you do?
• Initiate face-to-face or telephone communication first, when possible, then follow up online. When you meet someone in person, you can really get a sense of what they are like. Then when you follow up online, you easily stay in touch and learn even more about them.

In conclusion, while new media offers many new exciting opportunities for sales and marketing, we should continue to exercise common sense and wisdom when it comes to growing our business.

Business Belief Systems

Posted in: Blog, Leadership by Whitney Recker on March 15, 2011 | No Comments

At some point everyone needs knowledgeable advice.  Business leaders are no exception, since they specially need it to ease stress and worry that arise from strategies, profits and important meetings.  They usually have difficulty in perceiving simpler solutions to problems.  Coaching or mentoring is the most effective approach to help business leaders achieve maximum help in minimum time without taxing their lifestyles.

The goal of a business coach should always be to help draw out leadership capability in individuals they are associated with.  A business coach must make an effort to help the business executive learn about how to design and link specific leadership challenges and assuming complete responsibility to overcome the challenge successfully. 

A business coach must take the following steps first, before introducing them with the leadership and problem solving aspects:

• Take into account the work culture and the talent of the team, by partnering first with the CEO or business head and the HR team.
• The mentoring should go on until the business coach is completely satisfied with the performance of the participants.  The aim is to coach the executives in such a way that they are aware of every aspect of leadership and problem solving skills.
• Companies hire business coaches to improve the performance of its employees and help the employees work together as a team.   After the completion of the coaching session an executive should have a better understanding of individual and organizational behavior.  The executive should be able to comprehend the key changes that are required for their transition from manager to leader.

The six characteristics that are indispensable requisites for a successful business coach are:

• Strong Belief: Coaches need to have a very strong belief system, a vision of the future, a positive approach to every problem, and a strong understanding of themselves.  They should pass this belief to the managers and employees.
• Optimism: This is an absolutely essential trait for a leader.   It is a trait that sets apart managers from leaders and the coach himself should have this approach on life and business, to teach others.
• Courage: The coach has to hardwire this virtue in managers. He has to prove to them that although we all have our own fears; the main thing is to learn how to overcome them in the best possible way.
• Teamwork: This is a very important point to remember. It is preached everywhere, but seldom practiced. The coach should know how to work within a team. Everyone knows that leaders cannot do everything by themselves and so they have a team of individuals with different talents. The coach has to guide the team in such a way that each talent is fully utilized and the team feels good about using their talent.
• Good preparation: Always prepare and go through your content before you start implementing them on the participants. The content needs to cover all the aspects of the subject, from basic skills to designing and implementation of leadership ideas.
• Clear communication: The most important of all traits is effective communication. Managers don’t essentially become leaders because they cannot communicate their ideas to the management and their team effectively. A business coach is not only responsible for polishing the communication skills of the participant, but also on how they speak and convey management strategies to the participants.

What Do You Have to Believe to Prosper as an Entrepreneur?

Posted in: Blog, Leadership by Whitney Recker on March 14, 2011 | No Comments

What Do You Have to Believe to Prosper as an Entrepreneur?

What do you have to believe in order to show up, serve, and prosper as an entrepreneur?

Your beliefs, assumptions, and opinions give shape to the world, ordering the vast quantities of information and overwhelming amount of stimulation you receive every moment.  As many self-mastery gurus have advised us over the years, negative or limiting beliefs tend to close down possibilities.  Much has been written (and fortunes built) on how to identify and dissolve limiting beliefs.

But what about positive beliefs?  While it is important to be able to notice and work through limiting beliefs, it is also important to know and take a stand for what you “have to believe,” to be proactive about what gets you out of bed in the morning and instills the spirit of entrepreneurship.

A “have to belief” is one that you hold with conscious commitment and self-reflective awareness, knowing that it is a belief (not a fat) and being responsible for the ways this belief endows your life with meaning, purpose, and focus.

There is no absolute, verifiable, objective third-party system that can prove a “have to belief.”  Instead you learn to hold these beliefs as a skilled tournament tennis player a racquet: with a loose-and tight grip that responds to both inner promptings and encounters with the physical world.

It’s important to hold a “have to belief” loosely enough to remember that you do not have the right to impose your belief on anyone else.  And in this loose-enough grip, there is room to question, challenge, and evolve what you “have to believe” as you learn to grow.

At the same time, it is important to hold a “have to belief” tightly or firmly enough that it can order your experience (without closing down awareness of other possibilities) and provide emotional and spiritual sustenance.

So what does this have to do with being open for business and your prosperity as an entrepreneur?  In my view, everything.  Every day I encounter in myself or in my clients situations that we cannot rise to without an adequate belief system.  It is not enough to deconstruct limiting beliefs.  In order to continuously craft a meaningful and functional definition of success and to chart or re-chart your course, you must become responsible for what you have to believe and how you are about believing it.

Here are some other “have to beliefs” that show up in my work with entrepreneurs, business owners, independent professionals, and artists.  Try them on for size.  Notice that what a “have to belief” does not need to quarrel with reality.

• I have to believe that people can take care of themselves, and I know that sometimes they cannot.
• I have to believe that my thriving and prosperity will not necessitate someone else’s suffering, and I know that sometimes it might.
• I have to believe that being a good steward for my business will help me show up and serve.
• I have to believe that I can afford to act in my clients best interests, even when that means that I will earn less (or no) income.
• I have to believe that prosperity is attractive to the people I want to work with.
• I have to believe that there are plenty of people for whom my work is a perfect match who can and will value my services enough to pay for them.
• I have to believe that mistakes are the compost for future success, and I know that this includes picking up after myself and making amends for my errors.

“Have to believes” are beliefs you choose because they make you stronger, wiser, smarter, kinder, more resilient.  They challenge you to be bigger, more creative, and bolder.  And for every “have to belief” a new world of action is revealed.

What do you have to believe in order to show up, serve and prosper as an entrepreneur?

What Motivates You?

Posted in: Blog, Leadership by David Richins on February 25, 2011 | No Comments

Here’s an interesting video that highlights the difference between intrinsic and external motivation.