Tag Archives: the business of coaching

Defining my niche

Coaching,

Have I shared with you that I have been working this year with Kathy Mallary, a coach who specialises in helping coaches to market their services?  Kathy has been putting me through my paces in recent months as I seek to define my niche.

Another way of putting this – and perhaps a bit more appealing for those of us who enjoy saying it as it is – is that Kathy has been helping me to understand what’s true about those people I most enjoy working with so that I can speak to them (you) in particular through my blog, newsletter and other marketing.  In time, I’d like to think that everything I write (my “marketing”) is a gift to those people I most enjoy working with and whether or not they choose to work with me.  This way I get the “triple whammy” of (a) knowing that when people are looking for the kind of services I most enjoy providing they’ll know to contact me, (b) knowing that my readers will point people in my direction who might be interested in what I have to say and (c) knowing that there are plenty of people who will never become my clients who still enjoy and benefit from reading me.

Now, along the way, I’ve discovered something about myself and my approach to marketing that has been passing under the radar – almost.  I’ve discovered that there’s been a gap between the language I speak when I’m talking about coaching with commissioning managers in organisations and the language I speak with my clients in the privacy of our one-to-one coaching relationships.  It as if, for me, the best kept secret about corporate or executive coaching is that whilst the organisation benefits – and that’s why coaching is worth investing in on behalf of the organisation – the person seeking coaching (or “coachee” or “coaching client”) benefits tenfold.

Kathy has encouraged me to “come out” and cry this from the roof tops.  So I have been putting together a statement of my niche and getting ready to make this the focus of many, many postings in the future.  If you’d like a sneaky peek, why not come back tomorrow?

“Executive” and “Life” Coaching: Finding your place in the marketplace

Coaching, ,
This posting is written by a coach for other coaches, drawing on the input of colleagues who have insight into what it takes to market ourselves effectively.
Let’s just recognise that “Executive” and “Life” Coaching are labels.  On the one hand, there may or may not be critical differences between the two (for more on this you may like to read my postings “Executive” and “Life” Coaching:  How are they similar? and “Executive” and “Life” Coaching:  How are they different?).  On the other hand, their primary role as labels is to help clients and coaches to find each other who are well suited to work together in a productive coaching partnership.  I am grateful to colleagues for pointing this out and for highlighting that these and other labels are not important to people who know the coach:  rather, labels act as the sign that helps people who don’t yet know you to recognise you as the right coach for them.
A key implication of this is that you need to understand how your perfect client thinks at the point when he or she is looking for a coach.  This is different from the question of what ground you may cover together in the course of your coaching partnership which may take you both by surprise.  This includes understanding the key issues that your clients may be looking to address through coaching and the key outcomes they may be seeking – in marketing speak the “benefits” they may be seeking.  This is not about the kind of undercover marketing that is still popular in the mass market but about a genuine understanding of your clients.
A second key implication is that you need to be able to speak to potential clients in their own language:  as one colleague put it, “in the language that our target clients can hear, understand and desire”.  To quote a colleague this implies that as coaches preparing to market our services we need to “get clear on what the heart of our offer is.  Then get ourselves out of the way of what we think our clients want and are looking for – and listen”.  When we meet the kind of people we most yearn to coach what do they say to us and in what language?  This is the language our marketing needs to use.
I could say so much more, based on the rich input of colleagues from a variety of sources, even whilst recognising that I am an apprentice in the field of marketing.  For now I am simply going to express my thanks to colleagues from the Coaching at Work group on LinkedIn and to fellow students on Kathy Mallary’s sales and marketing programme, Empowerment 2010.

Learning for Life (Consulting): the research and development team

Coaching

Back from a week’s “staycation”, I am pleased to be pursuing an agenda of business development which supports my need to deliver outstanding value to my clients. Marketing is inherently a dialogue, so that I have been shaping the remit for a “Research and Development Team” for Learning for Life (Consulting) which I share here.

Maybe you will be amongst the people I invite to join this team. Maybe this is an idea you can adapt and pursue to support your own busines and career plans:

Purpose of the R&D Team

The R&D Team exists to support the development of Learning for Life (Consulting) as a successful business which maximises its contribution to its clients and sustains me, Dorothy Nesbit, in the role of Director.

About the R&D Team

Team members reflect those relationships (friends, family, colleagues and clients) and interests (leadership, coaching, NLP, NVC, Skilled Facilitator Approach etc.) which are most important to me in my life as well as in the role of Director of Learning for Life (Consulting).

Members of the R&D Team are all people who are able to recognise and sponsor in me that I am naturally creative, resourceful and whole and people who have an emotional investment in:

  • My learning, well-being and success;
  • The progress, performance and success of Learning for Life (Consulting) Ltd; and
  • The contribution Learning for Life (Consulting) Ltd has to make to its clients.

Membership of the R&D Team is by invitation and is offered on a voluntary (unpaid) basis.

Principles and values

The R&D Team is rooted in a fundamental principle: that it meets the needs of team members to contribute as well as my needs to invite your contribution. I invite you to contribute willingly and joyfully when it meets your needs to do so and to know when it doesn’t meet your needs to contribute. As the owner of the team I recognise that there will be times when you feel moved to contribute or have particular expertise to offer and other times when you don’t have time, an interest or expertise in a particular area. I support this.

It’s my aim, as leader of the R&D Team to embody the principles and values I aspire to in my life and in my work with clients. You will find a statement of my personal mission statement and my values on my blog under the heading Coaching: about your coach.

Your membership of this team is based on your willingness to contribute and your generosity in contributing. In return, I invite you to make use of any ideas, learning etc. that you experience as a result of your membership of this R&D team. Please acknowledge this team as the source of ideas where appropriate. I also request that you maintain confidentiality in terms of the content of the team’s work and its discussions.

How can you contribute as a member of the R&D Team?

As a member of the R&D Team you will receive regular communication from me about my current areas of focus. This will be via [LinkedIn? Ning? To be decided].

In addition, I will make requests of you when I would value your input, taking care to be as specific as I can be in the contributions I request of you. These requests will be guided by the need and designed to meet that need in ways which are most likely to contribute to me and to Learning for Life (Consulting) without being onerous for members of the R&D Team. This implies ongoing learning about what works and what doesn’t work. Contributions might include:

  • Invitations to online discussions with other members of the group;
  • Invitations to review plans and other documents and make comments;
  • Invitations to take part in research;
  • Invitations to hold one to one discussions or group meetings.

How might you benefit from being a member of the R&D Team?

I am keen for your membership of the R&D Team to be of benefit to you and curious about what benefits will accrue to you as a result of your membership of this team. At the same time, I hope that joining the team will be of benefit to you as much as it is of benefit to me.

I am guessing that benefits to team members will fall under the following broad headings:

  • Staying in contact: Whether or not you join this team, I value my relationship with you. I hope your membership of the R&D team will be one of the ways we stay connected;
  • Contributing to me and my progress – with ease: You have already contributed to me and that’s why you are a member of this team. I hope that being a member of the R&D team makes it easy to make the contribute you like in ways which really support me;
  • Your creativity and learning: I’m guessing that belonging to an R&D team like this may stimulate all sorts of learning and ideas for you, both in relation to the way the team works and in relation to the content of the work we do together.

To niche or not to niche?

Coaching,

Frankly, my journey as a coach has been one of deep personal exploration for me, as well as for my clients, so that my first eight years as Director of Learning for Life (Consulting) has been as much about my own journey as it has been about the lives and work of my clients. It has been a time of examining my values and making adjustments to increasingly live and work in line with my values. It has been a time of examining old beliefs, letting go of some in favour of new beliefs which support me as someone who is authentic, resourceful and whole. Many times it has brought me to new thresholds which are waiting to be crossed if I am to be true to myself and to make my contribution in the world.

This year, a few well-targeted questions from the wonderful coach Hilary Cochrane made me put aside plans I had made and to reconfigure the year ahead, signing up with Kathy Mallary in the US to examine my marketing at the same time as signing up with Carolyn Free Pearce as my coaching supervisor and continuing my work with my coach of five years, Lynne Fairchild. What a great team!

Even with this superb team, the work that awaits me is well and truly my own and I have quickly started to bump up against and explore some of my own limitations as I examine the mother of all marketing questions: what is my niche? It’s one thing, for example, to say working with senior leaders and I say it with ease. At the same time, which leaders? And what is it about those leaders that marks me out as a coach (and which, come to speak of it, attracts people who are not leaders to seek me out)?

In recent days I have reached out to others to invite them to share their own experiences of identifying their own niche, sharing my question (‘to niche, or not to niche?’) with a number of groups to which I belong. I have been grateful for the depth and variety of answers which help me to test my own thinking.

At the same time, questions from each member of my team are bringing me right back home. What if, asked Kathy last week, your true genius is in the area of wholeness and integration? I recognise this immediately, recognising how much I have sought in my own life to reconcile the irreconcilable and how often I work with clients to go beyond inner conflict to help them understand and respond to underlying needs. Today, Carolyn has thrown in the question of authenticity and integrity and this, too, resonates with me, recognising as I do my own path to authentic self-expression as well as my conviction that my clients will give their best performance as well as achieve their deepest satisfaction when they are able to be themselves. As a coach I enjoy working in deep partnership with my clients and over long periods in ways which many coaches are not.

Somehow, none of this is new and all of this is new. As I wonder what it means to have these themes of wholeness, integration and authenticity as a point of departure for my niche (rather than leadership and emotional intelligence) I recognise both that I am coming home and that I am treading a new and uncertain path. It is a path which requires faith – the trust and conviction that if I share my strengths my true clients will find me.

To write this posting is to step over the threshold and go public, even whilst recognising that I am only just beginning to answer the question: what is my niche? In my own way and in my own professional sphere, this is my ‘coming out’.

Measuring the return on your investment in coaching

Coaching,

When it comes to learning and development – be it through training, coaching or some other activity – businesses struggle to assess the return they get from their investment. And many professionals offering learning and development services don’t know how to help clients to measure the return on their investment either.

For professionals (trainers, coaches, consultants etc.) part of the problem is that they are already sold on the benefits so that their focus is on providing the services they feel so passionate about. At the same time, even for the most commercially-focused service provider, measuring ROI is a complex area.

With this in mind, I was interested to read the posting below by Jane Massy, CEO of abdi (www.abdi.eu.com) in response to a posting on the Training Journal Daily Digest. abdi describe themselves as the experts in evaluating learning and development. I reproduce Jane’s response with her permission:

It’s always interesting to read these discussion and I’d like to add a few thoughts from our side and hopefully dispel a few myths! My comments are based on the experience of carrying out and/or supporting L&D professionals in the evaluation of about £2bn of investment in workplace learning and development and nearly two decades of calculating business impact and value!

Firstly, any ROI (based on the traditional formula of dividing the money value of net benefits by full costs) can only be derived from the data about business metric improvements. Some of these business metrics will be convertible into money, and can be used in the calculation and some won’t (what are called ‘intangibles’). Furthermore, there is no way to show direct cause and effect in these human capital (and in fact in any) type of investments – it simply isn’t possible.

What is possible is to build a chain of impact through collecting data throughout each of the (Kirkpatrick/Phillips) levels. Data in the chain of impact includes engagement, learning, performance change and business impact data. Understanding each of the results as well as their relationship is essential to confirm the chain of impact. Our experience is that most L&D and HR people don’t actually understand the nature of these data items, don’t analyse them and don’t explore the relationships between the data items at different levels.

All investments need to be planned with this chain of impact outcomes in mind. Investing without measurable documented outcomes agreed at all levels and deciding to see if it was worth it without this advance planning is both unprofessional and also inefficient and ineffective. Part of planning is establishing baseline data and planning for isolation as well as forecasting costs.

You can isolate for the influence of other factors and you should definitely do so if you wish to calculate the ROI – otherwise you will look like a fool and your report will not be credible in front of the senior management/board who will have a clear idea of what influences business metric improvements and will want to know you have taken these into account when doing your calculation. I recommend you read Jack Phillips’ Return on Investment. If you want a copy, e-mail me and I’ll happily arrange for one to be sent to you free of charge!

I would add that the ‘me’ in that last sentence is Jane – you can reach her at jane@abdi.eu.com.

Coaches in dialogue

Coaching,

Regular readers of my blog know that I am a member of the Training Journal Daily Digest and get many benefits from my participation in this daily discussion forum. Sometimes though, I do feel a little lonely – a coach amongst trainers. I have yet to find a forum for coaches that is as active and informative as the TJDD.

Recently I signed up for a LinkedIn group for coaches set up by the CIPD publication Coaching At Work. As well as giving me the opportunity to dialogue with colleagues this is also helping me to raise my visibility with colleagues in the profession. It’s early days and still, I’d like to think this group could become the coaches’ equivalent of the TJDD.

I’m wondering, what else is out there? I’d love to hear how other coaches. How do you connect with your colleagues in the profession? And how do you maintain dialogue?

Creative marketing ideas for coaches

Coaching

Ach! The Training Journal Daily Digest has a new editor and it looks as though he’s a hard task master! Today I was asked to edit a contribution to a thread inviting members to share their creative marketing ideas.

Brevity is not my greatest strength so it was a good exercise for me to halve its length. Here it is:

Creative marketing ideas? Here’s a quick brainstorm:

· I prioritise activities I enjoy. I love writing, for example, and offer a newsletter and regular blog (at http://dorothynesbit@blogspot.com). I regularly invite people to subscribe to my newsletter and include links to my blog in e-mails. This has worked well for me: when an article “hits the spot” people offer referrals, for example. I didn’t set out to attract clients via this forum and still I love it when I do;
· As a coach, I enjoy coaching! Sometimes I offer a complimentary coaching session and this can lead to new clients over time – directly or by referral. The fact that I never hesitate to offer a session is a mark (for me) of a good marketing activity;
· I have many conversations which are not about sales. I’ve made a point of consulting people about my plans to offer coaching groups, for example. These conversations include both direct conversations with colleagues and clients and a wider e-mail circulation with fellow coaches, ex colleagues etc.;
· Asking people to offer testimonials has been an enjoyable way to keep in touch and also supports my marketing, blogging etc.;
· One way to keep in touch is by sharing resources. I share things with coaching colleagues who are an ongoing source of referrals. Over time I’ve found referrals have often come “from left field” from people on my circulation lists;
· I also like to “claim” clients. When I spot my “perfect client” I like to say so, e.g. “I think coaching could really help you because… and if ever you think so too I’d love to be your coach or help you to find someone…”
· No matter what my forward diary I always hold conversations from a place of abundance. I want to attract those clients I’d be glad to “squeeze in” to a full diary and I let people know I only want to work with them if it’s right for us both. This means keeping in touch with a lot of people – and/or a very carefully targeted group!
· I recommend CJ Hayden’s Get Clients Now! and other blogs, e-circulation lists etc. (e.g. Seth Godin and Bernadette Doyle);

Bottom line? For me it’s all about relationships. Anything that has you building relationships with people who value you and what you offer is going to help.

Referrals – meeting new clients with joy

Coaching, ,

When I started my business in 2002 I was confident of what I could offer and at the same time lacking in confidence – anxious even – in my ability to get out there and find clients. I still see this as an area of growth and opportunity for me. This is about learning how to let the world know what I can offer in ways which allow my perfect clients to find me.

Who are my perfect clients? I am making a mental note to write about this soon. Today though, I simply want to celebrate the experience I often have of receiving client referrals – this, together with repeat business, has been my main source of business during the last seven years.

One new client perfectly illustrates the synchronicity of such referrals – if you like, the way the universe conspires to support me. It’s getting on for two years since, waiting for a takeaway at the Spice of Life Indian restaurant in Lewisham, I got into conversation with a fellow customer. “What do you do for a living?” he asked and I told him about my work as a coach. He told me his wife was looking to train as a coach and asked if I would be willing to speak with her. I was delighted to help her and have appreciated getting to know her, sharing progress with her and enjoying our spirit of mutual support.

Recently she asked me if I would be willing to speak with a dear friend of hers who is in the midst of exploring next steps in her own journey. I was glad to speak with her and delighted – having explored with her all sorts of possibilities and options – to agree to become her coach. Yesterday I sent her her preparatory papers – a pre-coaching questionnaire and coaching agreement – and I’m looking forward to beginning our work together next month.

Not all referrals lead to the same outcome. Sometimes there’s a good match between what I can offer and the support that is most timely for an individual or an organisation. Sometimes there is a good personal match or “chemistry”. Sometimes there isn’t. What I do notice is the high levels of trust that often follow when a potential client is introduced to me by someone we both trust. This is a great gift at the beginning of a coaching or other working partnership. Before pressing the button that says “publish post” I take a moment to celebrate my new client and our high levels of trust as we begin our work together.

Stepping softly into the New Year

Coaching, Your personal and professional well-being, , , ,

Most years I like to take a few days out over Christmas to reflect on the year just gone and to look forward to the year ahead.

This year was slightly different! Three weeks after I first wondered if I was going to go down with a cold Christmas came and so did my cold, a drawn-out weary affair which was certainly not flu though it came close. After Christmas with family (as it happens, a time to bring our diverse winter germs together and compare notes) I holed up in my London home for a few days to recover. Having listened to my body’s feedback I postponed my time to reflect and took time to relax. It was good to have these few days with absolutely no agenda other than to listen to my inner guidance and to ‘hole up’. Donny Osmond was the perfect companion.

So I have been grateful this week for a relatively gentle start. My coaching appointments have all been over the phone and I have yet to have any early starts. I have been able to send out invoices to those clients who pay me a monthly fee. (I always do this with joy and gratitude, for this exchange is what makes it possible for me to meet my needs whilst also supporting my clients). I have had time to meditate with ease – though not to meditate and to write on my blog (until today). All this has given me time to return to my aims for the year ahead and to begin to shape the two page document which will guide me through 2009.

I confess that for a few days, this experience has knocked me off my ‘smug healthy’ pedestal, reminding me that I am not omnipotent. As Dr. Christiane Northrup so often puts it (in her wonderful books on women’s health), “sooner or later, the body presents the bill”. My diet has played a huge part in keeping me healthy in 2008. Still, I know that I am currently in the midst of a challenging personal decision and that this is taking time and energy. I wonder how much the widespread germs and colds we have been sharing so generously reflect a time of concern – about the economy, about world events. I don’t know.

Still, here it is. 2009. As I step softly into the New Year I do not know what will happen in the world around me. Still, I know where my direction lies. This latter is enough for me.

Marketing for coaches: creating your “tribe”

Coaching, ,

One thing I love about the coaching community is the willingness of coaches to share. As the day (week) draws to a close I allow that some of the things I’d planned to do will not get done today and check out a couple of links my own coach, Lynne, sent me today.

The first link is to a posting that introduces Seth Godin’s book Tribes. The posting (at http://www.conferencecalltraining.com/power/?p=214) focuses on Godin’s idea that, in social networking, we are leaders – we either participate actively so that our voice can be heard (we lead) or we don’t. The author writes in the context of arranging and facilitating conference calls. I read in a wider context.

I follow a link to another posting in which Godin answers ten questions about his work and especially about his new book, Tribe. I am struck by Godin’s dinstinction between branding and the tribe. It’s not entirely new to me as a concept and still it resonates with a fresh new tone. Tribal marketing attracts followers who sign up to your story – via a blog, newsletter or other means. Members of the tribe essentially give you permission to market to them and, because they already like you, they’re glad to hear from you when you do. What’s more, because you have an affinity with them, you know how to meet their needs – you could say (my take) just by being you. Of course, Godin knows his book better than I do so you might want to start with his words not mine – at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/tribal-manageme.html.

As I write, I realise that I am enjoying the sense of a new and fruitful idea and at the same time I’m enjoying the thought that I’m already on my way with this approach. I remember when I started my business and how surprised I was at how much work came to me immediately from people with whom I already had a trusting relationship. I think of my newsletter, my blog… Hurrah! I’m on my way!

And just as I’m about to press “publish” one more thought pops into my mind. Perhaps it’s because coaches are a natural tribe that we are so willing to share. Certainly, our commitment to coaching and to the profound benefits it can bring is such that many coaches are delighted to refer people to clients, trusting that this will be a win for everyone concerned.