Ask, Know, Do

Ask the Coach: Working from Home Tips

 

Q: I’m in a business that requires me to work out of my home. What tips can you provide that will help me balance my work and family life?

A: There's a clear trend toward integrating work and home life as home businesses ramp up

to full time operation and corporate managers are required to remotely work with employees in different countries and time zones.

The reasons driving working out of the home/telecommuting trend are diverse:

Many now work out of home offices integrated with their home life. Working from home has the advantage of eliminating commutes and staying close to family. In real estate terms, the presence of a “den/study” can add between 5 and 10% to the selling price of the house.

Family Dynamic Adjustments

The shift toward blending work and home is more of a psychological thing than it is making the home office space blend with the rest of the house. Working from home full-time requires family dynamic adjustments of who does what, where, when and how.

On a 24/7 basis, everyone must recognize the need to improve their own people skills and family communication in an environment where new furniture makes work look more like home.

Quickly Connecting Problem Solvers with Problems

The true structure any organization is not what is written down on an organizational chart, but what actually occurs as people connect through roles, influence and decision-making processes.

The connection and coordination necessary to get things done happens because of productive personal relationships based upon trust and reciprocity. Sharing knowledge and adding value to the organization depends upon the capabilities of workers to informally connect with others.

The challenge is to mine the tacit knowledge (in the heads of people where true knowledge resides) through providing an access method. The idea behind collaboration is that sharing knowledge leads to the co-creation of new actionable knowledge that leads solution development.

The key issue is getting people to think of themselves as part of a larger, collaborative community. However, changing people's behavior doesn't come easily, especially if they've been used to working independently in an office or factory location.

Understanding and facilitating business relationships, which flow through a web of professional networks and across functional boundaries and time zones, allows employees to create productive change. A company’s ability to structure and control the process of securing productive relationships, face-to-face or via home-based telecommuting, will determine its success in the marketplace.

In today's "global network society" (versus your father's "local box society" where most people went to work in an office or factory box everyday), you can conduct business wherever there is a telephone, wireless or cable connection.

Within this interdependent global economy, our challenge is to develop inclusion and commitment in a world of telecommuting employees, "free agents" and even "volunteer" talent in different time zones and cultures.

Ask the Coach: Product versus Services Revenue Shift

Q:  Last year, we sold more professional services than expected.  Now it looks like our services revenue will be higher than that generated from software product sales by the end of the year.  What key success factors should we watch to maintain our company profits?

A:  Managing professional services tends to be highly predictable with a steady positive cash flow.  Whereas, managing a product business can result in very unpredictable swings in monthly revenue generation. 

The fluctuation in revenue is one reason why product sales generally carry higher profit margins than the steady cash flow generated from service fees.  

Set and monitor product and service line gross profit margins 

Professional services have become a commodity in most industries and this has resulted in competitive pricing.  So, I would suspect that your concern about maintaining gross profits of the past, when product sales dominated your business, is very real now that operations are more services oriented.  When the majority of your revenue came from high margin product sales, you could afford to provide lower margin professional services to train new customers and implement product solutions.  Now that services are exceeding product sales, your overall gross profit margins are, most likely, dropping. 

Maintaining a profitable balance between services and product revenue can improve overall company profitability.  Proprietary equipment or software sales allow for slightly higher margin services fees when the customer is locked into your product.  Conversely, product-educated service providers can steer prospects toward buying your proprietary high margin products.  Everyone sells what they know will work best for the customer. 

Test business strategy by knowing what customers think of you

If you think your business is now and will be more services-driven than product-driven, it is time to rethink your business and pricing strategy.  Very large companies in the information technology industry, like IBM, are successfully moving from product-driven to services-driven businesses.  Having your product customers outsource their management and maintenance services to your company may prove to be a long-term win-win arrangement. 

Once you decide on what drives your business, services or products, it is time to check to see how your customers and potential customers see your company.  Customers’ buying decisions are based upon their perception of the best value available.  Value is comprised of service, quality and price.  Note that it’s “perceived value” that counts. 

Perception is how others view us.  You have a great deal of control over that perception; in how you and your employees present your company in person, advertising, correspondence and brochures, and what you deliver in product or services.  If you clearly understand your company’s technical and marketing strengths relative your competitors, you can deliver a consistent and powerful message.  A key success factor is to periodically test to see how your customers’ perceptions have evolved---to always know what they really think about your firm. 

Periodically analyze what your customers want to buy from you

When you and your employees are delivering products or services to customers, you receive “grazing rights” within your customer’s place of business.  These grazing rights give you the ability to look for new opportunities where your firm can provide something that your competitors can’t readily deliver. 

Once you have defined what that new service or product might be, informally ask your customer contacts if they would be interested in buying such a product or service from you.  If their answer is “yes,” explore what it would take to structure your organization, your operations and your company’s image around these new strengths. 

Developing and delivering new customer-driven products and services can lead to consistently profitable revenue growth.

 John Agno: Can't Get Enough Leadership (ebook formats at $2.99)

 John G. Agno: Can't Get Enough Leadership: Self Coaching Secrets (Paperback at $28.99)

Who is John G. Agno?

John G. Agno's greatest value to others is he won't allow them to charge ahead without the proper preparation.   

John loves order (he's a systematic ENTP in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) but thrives in the unknown (a "developer" on the DISC).  He's an explorer, yet grounded in intelligent argument.  John knows how to articulate his principles clearly and concisely (nobody has to guess) and this makes his relationships straightforward and simple.  He is the most critical judge of himself and what he has to offer.  It matters little to him what others think.

 

He is a retired certified executive and business coach to clients and has practiced being an infomediary to the targeted audiences he serves.  

Coach Agno discretely coached clients to build their leadership capability and get to where they wanted to be in life and at work.  He worked with both men and women clients around the world.   

He makes a difference by sharing the knowledge he discovered through one-on-one personal executive coaching engagements to create a better life for many through his unique self-coaching tips; delivered to your computer, tablet, smartphone or via paperback books.

As a corporate executive, management consultant and executive coach, John G. Agno  investigated the factors that caused the strain, stress and frustration of his clients in order to help them create workable and profitable solutions.  His life signature was to communicate these unique insights in media interviews, blog postings and self-help books at prices so low that as many people as possible are still able to afford and use them in their personal and professional lives.  His free and low-cost self-coaching tips can provide life-changing possibilities to those who are ready to allow their perceptions to evolve. 

Additional professional information on Coach Agno and his self-coaching products can be found by keying in "john agno" into your favorate search engine or bookseller's website.  

His job has been to help clients achieve increased clarity and focus, improve personalized learning, expand awareness and design the life they want to live. This often translated into greater compensation, job satisfaction and the practical use of their unique skills and abilities. The purpose of the coaching relationship is to help you pay attention to your intentions and get to where you want to be. 

In personal coaching, there are 3 types of clients who tend to benefit most from a coaching relationship:

The first type of client is someone who is on a fast track and an emerging leader where he or she works.  Meaning that they reach most of their goals quickly but tend to get too far ahead of most people---people they must count on to make them more successful. We have  helped the client stay connected with others while showing them how to be even more productive. There is an art to this.

The second type of client is a financially successful executive or business owner who wonders if this is all there is? We have helped these clients understand how to build a bridge to where they really want to be. They learn how to integrate their personal and professional lives during this process. It's simply a fact that people don't fully leverage what they've got to get where they want to be. Every day, we have helped clients do this.

The third type of client is a person in transition. This is someone who's between something--jobs, careers or life stages--has read the self-development books and knows that there is something more needed to move forward. These clients are ready for something new that is in alignment with who they really are.

Taking the time to discover their life purpose becomes the foundation for moving to the next level. Building their personal and professional outcomes of increased awareness, purpose, competencies and well-being is dependent on working inwardly, not just outwardly, during this transitional period. Using this strategy, the client's future is greatly expanded in fresh, rich ways--primarily by focusing available energy and resources.

Coaching Approach/Philosophy

Coaching is all about the person being coached....helping the person evolve their perceptions through increased self-awareness, competencies with a sense of purpose and well-being.

Speaking from the heart.   

As a former corporate executive, business owner and management consultant, I have recognized that in the business world, we don't speak much about the heart. Yet, since all businesses are ultimately people serving people, our life's work should come from the heart. Long after your products or services have been delivered, the feelings and knowledge shared during the business relationship remain.

I believe that people need connection, belonging and meaningful contribution. They need to know that their life and work matter. Many people find that personal or career transformation is an excellent time to better understand their life's work and direction. Coming from the heart makes sense in life and in business.

Credentials:

Coach Agno holds the designation of Certified Executive Coach (CEC) by the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches and is a Certified Business Coach (CBC) by the International Consortia of Business Coaches. 

He is a past member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), a founding member of CoachVille and founder of the Coach to Coach Network, a virtual community of 1,300 personal and business coaches from around the world. He has worked with coaches, executives, professionals and management teams to help them flourish in their professional and personal lives.

For more information, please check out our self-coaching books and the Self Assessment Center . 

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  Ask the Coach $.99 ebook or paperback edition

 Develop Leadership Skills: A Mobile Reference Guide $.99 ebook

 Can't Get Enough Leadership ($.99 ebook or paperback  edition)

  Women, Know Thyself: The most important knowledge is self-knowledge ($.99 ebook or paperback edition) 

 Women and Time ($.99 ebook or paperback)

 When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition 

"When Doing It All Won't Do: A self-coaching guide for career women"  

Purchase for the $.99 ebook Nook eReader and iPad tablets at Barnes & Noble   

Purchase at $.99 Amazon for the Kindle Edition   or Workbook Edition 

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What is Leadership?

Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.

Leadership is not just for people at the top.  Everyone can learn to lead by discovering the power that lies within each one of us to make a difference and being prepared when the call to lead comes.

Albert Einstein once said, "We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only serve."Leaders know and science has discovered emotionality's deeper purpose: the time worn mechanisms of emotion allow two human beings to receive the contents of each other's minds.

Emotion is the messenger of love; it is the vehicle that carries every signal from one brimming heart to another.

Leadership is applicable to all facets of life: a competency that you can learn to expand your perspective, set the context of a goal, understand the dynamics of human behavior and take the initiative to get to where you want to be.

Self-coaching helps you develop your leadership skills, clarify your values and guiding principles and build your reputation.  Self-knowledge provides the personal integrity to engage in productive and authentic relationships.

Here are five guiding principles that guide respectful conversations:

1. When peers connect change happens. Effective coaching can happen on the dance floor of conversation.

2. It's OK to begin a conversation by confronting the other person with questions that seem awkward but set the stage for a respectful exchange. Why waste time on small talk?  Just ask to-the-point information-seeking questions, like: "What are you here for? How do you wantto spend our time together?"

3. Conversations are not meant to be structured. Be open to conversations that you are unprepared for and focused on theinterests of the other person (not your purpose).

4. Don't get pulled into solving problems that may not matter to the other person.  Allow time for the person to get to what's really important. Provide spaces where they can express their doubts and fears by being a thoughtful listener--without taking on the responsibility to fix or debate the issue. After all, you have invited the person to talk about what matters to her or him, not you, so allow time for the articulation of those thoughts and feelings.

5. Personal transformation happens when the right questions get asked--not by providing answers. When you focus on the solution, you are trying to sell the person something. When you allow people to answer their own questions, they discover what they were not aware of---and what is needed to move forward. Personal transformation leads corporate transformation--one person at a time.

That is why leadership development is not an event. It is a process of participating in respectful conversations where the leader recognizes his or her own feelings and those of others in building safe and trusting relationships.

For human beings, feeling deeply is synonymous with being alive.

 Can't Get Enough Leadership (ebook $.99)

 Develop Leadership Skills: A Mobile Reference Guide (ebook $.99)

 Ask the Coach (ebook $.99)

 

 Send leadership tips to your Kindle: http://amzn.com/B0036B9SWQ  

 

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The Elephant in the Room

What is a Market Presence?

To survive and prosper, a small company must establish a marketing presence based upon a sustainable competitive advantage.

Let's begin to explore this principle (which makes it easy for people to buy from you) by first defining some terms:

Marketing presence is the message your organization communicates to its prospect and customer base.  To be effective, the message should be clear and simple -- and contain the key attributes you want associated with your business.

Competitive advantage is the sum of those attributes that differentiate your business from its competitors. This is your core competence. You develop, build and enhance it through a clear understanding of your customers' wants and needs. You implement it through a strategic plan (a directional compass) that can help you quickly adapt to changes in their wants and needs.

Sustainable means to keep in existence, to maintain and affirm the validity of, to support the spirit, vitality and resolution of, to encourage, to endure and withstand. Only through your continuous understanding of what makes your business competitive can your business survive and prosper. GE's former CEO, Jack Welch, once said, "If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete."

Since it takes two -- a buyer and a seller -- to make a sale, the reason for establishing a viable marketing presence is for your business to be on the prospective buyer's "short list" when the buyer is ready to buy. You want to be sure that your company is among those being evaluated when the prospect's need arises.

When you think about your competitive advantage, consider that in your prospect's mind your company "fits" into some category.  For example, you are either a "low-cost" or "value-added" supplier. A low-cost supplier is categorized as one who consistently provides a lower cost with acceptable quality. A value-added supplier provides a differentiated product or service that contains substantial attributes which command a premium price.

Likewise, you are either a "generalist" or a "specialist". A generalist is categorized as having a broad scope -- serving all types of customers in an industry or geographical area, offering a broad range of products or services.  A specialist focuses on specific products or services and dedicates all efforts to that one niche or market segment.

The key element in your thinking should be to make a difference. You must take the risk to create a recognizable choice from your rival companies.  Your worst error here would be to imitate rival companies or being all things to all people.

As you think strategically about establishing your market presence, consider this process:

Conceptualize your strategy -- this is pure and analytical.

Engineer general agreement to the strategy -- here you are muddling over the practicality of what you want to do and sharing your ideas with others and getting their input.  You might also seek the help of a business coach during this period.

Prepare a mission statement and business plan -- to discover and clarify what business you are in and how you plan to approach it.

Communicate the statement and plan -- both internally and externally.

Live the plan -- if all the steps feel right, start to implement the plan -- but with the full expectation, knowledge and intent that you will continuously adjust and adapt it to market changes.

For articles on leadership, visit The Leadership Blog at: CoachingTip.com

For executive & busness owner mentoring and coaching services, go to: ExecutiveCoaching.us.com

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What is the best show in town?

Ask a Las Vegas cab driver, 'What's the best show in town?'  He will probably reply with something like this, 'Oh, Jay Leno!  My wife and I just went to see him. He gives a special show for taxi drivers at two in the morning.  Otherwise, we could never afford to go.  Kenny Rogers does the same thing when he's in town.'

You wouldn't think that anyone as big in the entertainment field as Jay Leno and Kenny Rogers needs to give away their performances, but they do.  Both realize that some of the best word of mouth advertising they could have would be taxi drivers raving about their shows.

If you could do just one thing to help your customer and your business, what would that be?

The short answer is to give more of what you have away.  For the long answer, go to:  http://www.LawofReciprocity.com

John G. Agno, certified executive & business coach, http://www.agno.info/ 

 John Agno: Ask the Coach

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