Get the answer to your question from Coach John G. Agno. What we all want is interaction with others to clarify our thoughts before taking action and to allow our perceptions to evolve over time.
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What is the type of client with whom you can be most successful and with whom you are most likely to enjoy working?
As part of your strategic marketingprocess, you will explore the value you are able to deliver so that you can focus on those clients where you can make the greatest difference. This will help you define the type of referral that you would most like to receive. The two are, of course, closely linked.
Defining clearly the type of client with whom you wish to work and the factors that will allow you credibly to approach that type of client, you minimize the probability of summary rejection and maximize the likelihood of winning business once you meet the potential client. The result is that you save time and effort.
Many coaches believe that they are able to coach literally anyone successfully. In theory that may be possible. However, experience indicates that it is rarely the case in practice. In the mind of the client, your coaching credentials are only one element in the hiring decision. Factors such as personal chemistry and relevant experience often carry more weight, not least because relatively few clients have any objective means to judge your ability as a coach and the whole field of training and certification is confused and fragmented.
If the client perceives relevant experience to be the key selection factor for their coach, no amount of positive references and testimonials will overcome that perception and if you lack that experience, the chance of being hired is slender.
In order to develop a coaching practice that is successful for you as well as for your clients, you must decide early on what factors define a "perfect" client for youand what would cause you to decline an engagement.
The actual buying process for coaching seems to depend on the nature of the coaching sought.
However, in the vast majority of cases, the final decision on coach selection seems to rest with the person-to-be-coached. In the case of business/executive coaching, an initial shortlist may be made by the Human Relations (HR) or talent management department in the organization (at the request of a general manager, C-Suite executive or other leadership of the company). The final choice will usually depend on the personal chemistry between the prospective coach and the person-to-be-coached combined with trust that the desired personal development results can be delivered by the person-being-coached.
Coaching is such a personal and intense relationship that it is usually best for the client to select the person they feel best able to work with. It may prove necessary to transfer to another coach after a period of time when the person-being-coached is able to take advantage of a different, perhaps "tougher" approach.
In the case of career coaching and personal coaching, the selection may well be made by the person-to-be-coached with no formal external input or financial support. Choice may be based on referralsor in some cases search engine resultsfollowed by website review and a phone call that may then lead to a chemistry discussion or meeting. In some cases, the person-to-be-coached may rely simply on a referral as long as the personal chemistry is adequate.
Individual coaches therefore have an opportunity to use this situation to their advantage, with the help of an experienced mentor coach, in differentiating themselves from possible competitors.
As we approach Veterans Day, many young and older veterans are flocking to career fairs, causing long lines and exhausting hiring managers whose booths are overflowing with candidates.
More veterans stand in line, even though the caliber of jobs and companies represented at the fairs often isn't appealing to this group. These unguided out-of-work men and women don't have a clue how to go about landing on their feet by engineering the right job offer. Still, even senior-level veteran fair attendees are just hoping to make a connection in a marketplace crowded with more people just like them.
“The top line figure of 200,000 jobs is a lot better than in past months, but that number masks the loss of another 700,000 adults from the labor force,” says Hicks, director of Ball State’s Center for Business and Economic Research. “When three people quit looking for work for every adult who finds a job, we are in a very bad economic environment.
“Even more disheartening than the continued slide in the civilian labor force, more than six out of every 10 new jobs created was involuntary part-time employment. Moreover, two of the three biggest job gainers were the sectors of retail stores and restaurants.”
The U.S. Labor Department reported today a net 204,000 new jobs created for the month, though the unemployment rate rose to 7.3 percent, reflecting an increase in the number of people who quit looking for work and the impact of the recent shutdown of the federal government. Economists had anticipated about 120,000 jobs being created last month.
Hicks points out that the only bright spot was the continued recovery of manufacturing employment, which grew by 35,000 new jobs last month.
Getting ready for the next career transition should be part of your workday schedule today. Be smart about how you approach looking for a new job because you could very easily shoot yourself in the foot by not implementing an effective job hunting strategy.
Michigan's University Research Corridor (URC) is proving to be a powerful business incubator for students and alumni, playing a dramatically increased role in nurturing start-up efforts and providing a boost to aspiring entrepreneurs, a new report shows.
Graduates of the three universities that make up the URC – Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University -- have started or acquired businesses at double the national average rate among college graduates since 1996. URC alumni were 1.5 times as successful as the average U.S. business owner at keeping those start-ups and acquisitions alive in the past five years, according to the Embracing Entrepreneurship report released today at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference.
The survey included responses from more than 40,000 of the three schools’ 1.2 million alumni. The responses revealed that more than 19 percent of the URC alumni surveyed have started a company, and some have created more than one.
That entrepreneurial activity reached to every state and more than 100 countries, with nearly half the new enterprises started or acquired in Michigan. URC alumni are making an impact far and wide, as can be seen by the careers of venture capitalist and University of Michigan graduate Peter Farner in Kalamazoo, Mich., Michigan State University graduate Nzimiro Oputa and his New York City fashion design business, and Howard Birndorf, a Wayne State University graduate who started a biotechnology company in California that he eventually sold to Eli Lilly and Co.
The report was prepared by East Lansing, Mich.-based Anderson Economic Group (AEG) using alumni survey data collected by Survey Sciences Group LLC (SSG). It showed that URC alumni were more likely to have started a business if they held a degree in business, the arts, communications, computer and information sciences, architecture or law. Most URC entrepreneurs started a business in an area outside their major area of study, suggesting that the URC universities are preparing graduates with a broad base of skills useful in launching a business.
“We often think entrepreneurs are people with an engineering or scientific background, but the survey shows that Michigan’s entrepreneurs come from many fields of study,” said University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman. “In many cases, you’re just as likely to start a business if you studied architecture or the arts.”
The three URC universities have revamped their curriculum in recent years and taken other steps to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit in their students and graduates. They now offer more than 40 programs and resources for students, alumni and faculty, including classes and degrees in entrepreneurship, business incubators, special advisers and gap funding to help start-ups get off the ground.
“Every year the URC institutions are graduating more than 30,000 students. The study suggests that a significant number of these alumni are starting their own businesses, and more than 50 percent of those businesses are here in Michigan, contributing to our state’s economic prosperity,” said URC executive director Jeff Mason. “The URC is committed to supplying the tools that can lead to new companies and more jobs.”
That increased effort is one reason 70 percent of URC alumni entrepreneurs who graduated in the past decade are starting their businesses at an earlier age–between 23 and 31 years old, the survey showed, although alumni of every age are involved in entrepreneurial activity. Some, such as southeast Michigan Emagine Entertainment founder and Wayne State graduate Paul Glantz, started their own business as a hedge in an uncertain economy. Baby Einstein founder Julie Aigner Clark drew on her Michigan State University education degree to offer parents educational videos once she became a stay-at-home mom. Kalyan Handique started Handylabs while a graduate student, taking advantage of entrepreneur programs at the University of Michigan.
Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon pointed out that the three URC universities conferred the most graduate and undergraduate degrees and the second-highest number of high-demand degrees among seven university innovation clusters nationwide in 2011. “Michigan’s three premier research universities are doing more every year to promote an entrepreneurial mindset while helping Michigan’s businesses grow by providing the talent they need,” she said. “By focusing on entrepreneurship at all three universities, we’re creating a deep pool of talented graduates who can help start-up companies succeed.”
A total of 589,840 URC alumni live in Michigan. Some bring their talents to businesses statewide, while others tap their talents to start their own enterprises. “The three URC universities see themselves as the leading engine for innovation in Michigan and the Great Lakes region, with a focus on increasing economic prosperity and connecting Michigan to the world,” said Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour. “Our coordinated efforts should encourage even more entrepreneurs and start-ups in the future.”
At the behest of the URC, Anderson Economic Group studied the contributions URC alumni entrepreneurs have made, their economic footprint, and the steps that the three universities have taken to encourage entrepreneurship. Surveys went to nearly half a million living alumni, and more than 40,000 responded.
“The careful steps taken by our research team, the URC and other partners, accompanied by the very large number of responses, mean we can be confident in the findings,” said Patrick Anderson, principal and founder of AEG, and a URC alumnus. “Companies of the future are being started by URC graduates, and this study shows that the universities are preparing students in Michigan to take on roles as business owners.”
Successful commercialization combines the "science" of formulating a winning physical product/process with the "art" of marketing strategy and implementation. In a way, this combination of product science and marketing art emulates the craftsmen of yesteryear who applied crude tools with a system of methods and principles into a skillful performance that could not be learned solely by study.
In today's high-tech world, most technically-oriented product developers would be well advised to seek out a marketing artist to work with — rather than trying to become the all-in-one craftsman.
For more self-coaching tips on commercializing your start-up, get a copy of the new "Ask the Coach" ebook or paperback at your online bookseller.
Self-coaching is about coaching yourself. As powerful and effective as professional coaching can be, it is only affordable to less than one percent of the workforce.
Coach John G. Agno shares his decades of professional coaching and consulting knowledge to create a better life for many through proprietary self-coaching guides; delivered to your smart phone, tablet, eReader, and computer or via low-cost paperback books.
Self-coaching invites and encourages people to reflect through learning by reading and listening to themselves, asking questions and empowering themselves to facilitate their own development and improvement in performance.
"Ask the Coach," provides free and low-cost self-coaching resources. These human resource (HR) coaching tools include online self assessments to provide more self-awareness.
Being unaware, we unconsciously engage our default behavior. Only when we become aware of something, are we able to make choices as to the action we wish to take. Sometimes, just being aware, allows the problem to solve us--rather than requiring us to solve the problem.
Self-coaching tools are about designing and using the information in a way most appropriate for its purpose. Often, coaching tools are labeled with the prefix "coaching" because they are more sophisticated, flexible, adaptable or customized than other standardized, off-the-shelf solutions. Please note that the term "self-coaching" may apply to specific as well as general tools. Terms like "leadership coaching tips," "career women coaching tips," and "baby boomer life coaching tips" may emphasize that these areas are understood and done in a coaching way.
Frequent self-coaching keeps you abreast of what's effective in your area of interest. Also, people learn better and are positively motivated when supported by regular coaching.
This new self-coaching (via Internet access) using mobile smartphones, tablets, eReaders and laptop computers can be seen as more eclectic, proactive, pluralistic, dynamic, inclusive, differentiating, sophisticated and integrating than previous approaches.
Here is a list of free and low-cost self-coaching and access sources:
Q: It’s New Year Resolution time again. Please give us some reasons why it is so hard to make our resolution goals.
A: First of all, we must understand that change hurts and that is why we all have a strong immunity to change. Powerful countervailing forces appear when we attempt to engineer positive change. We discover our competing commitments pull us in opposite directions causing us to spend a great deal of energy attempting to satisfy each: "I'm going to lose 20lbs but I really love to eat and drink." or “I am going to start a business of my own but I really like the security of the paycheck I get from my job today.”
Most people don't respect their strong immunity to change and, therefore, don't develop the rituals and support systems necessary to overcome this powerful equilibrium to stay the same. However, there is untapped energy to be found if we can become less embedded in this immune system that protects us from change. Understanding how our brain works helps us to recognize what we must do to make changes in our lives.
Our emotional brain trumps our analytical brain
Given the high-energy cost of running the prefrontal cortex or analytical brain, the control center of the brain prefers to run off its emotional brain that has much larger storage capacity and sips, not gulps, fuel in the form of glucose or blood sugar. This part of the brain stores the hardwired memories and habits that dominate our daily lives.
"Most of the time the basal ganglia (the emotional brain's limbic system) are more or less running the show," says Jeffrey M. Schwartz, research psychiatrist at the School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles. "It controls habit-based behavior that we don't have to think about doing."
The way to get past the analytical brain's defenses is to come to our own resolution regarding the concepts causing our analytical brain to bristle. These moments of self-awareness or insight (in coaching, we call them epiphanies) appear to be as soothing to the analytical brain as the unfamiliar is threatening.
Once you have had that initial insight or epiphany that change is necessary, you need to repeat the experience in order to reinforce it and to experience the potential pleasure that can be derived from it. The complex brain connections that are formed during the epiphany phase need to be supported to begin the process of hard-wiring the emotional brain.
"The epiphany is the catalyst and stimulus, but it's not the whole deal," says Michael Wakefield, senior enterprise associate at the Center for Creative Leadership. "You have pathways in place, and they're simply too strong to be changed in a single moment. You need to be able to integrate it into your psychological behavior for it to become part of a new pattern."
"Learning is the antidote to change resistance," says Wakefield. "Learning lets you reframe the change from being something bad for you to something that can have value for you. You have to give people the sense that feeling uncomfortable is a normal part of change and address their concerns about losing face because of their lack of confidence and competence."
Self-directed learning helps you to discover an ideal vision of yourself and feel motivated in developing the abilities necessary to get you where you want to be. That is, you see the person you want to be---living with the capability necessary to create and sustain the new you. This personal makeover becomes the source of the energy required to work at the difficult and often frustrating process of change.
Now that you know where you want to be, the next step is to look in the mirror to discover where you really are today---how habits are making you act, how others view you and what comprises your deep assumptions and beliefs. Some of this reflection will represent gaps between where you are and where you want to be.
The realization of the gap prepares you for developing a plan of action needed for the detailed guidance on what new rituals to try each day to make the new habit sticky while you build your strengths and move closer to your ideal self.
You've heard (and probably used) the phrase, "I'd rather watch the game on television."
It's what a sports fan says if he doesn't want to face traffic jams, inadequate parking, overpriced tickets, noisy crowds, and possibly a poor view of the game.
These days, however, something else is keeping professional football fans at home:deflation.
Since the economic slowdown that started in 2007, fewer people are willing to fork over money to attend games. In turn, NFL teams are forced to play defense with ticket prices.
A Sept. 10 Yahoo Finance article points out that "10 teams lowered ticket prices this year," and that, "average ticket prices to attend [an Atlanta] Falcons home game are down 8.1% this season. This is the biggest drop among the 30 NFL cities."
Overall, NFL attendance has dropped 4.5% since 2007.
The article goes on to say: "It's telling us that the overall economy still isn't as strong as it was back in 2007 ... . It's also telling us that the upper-end consumer is still retrenching, they're still pulling back. They haven't felt the burst of either better employment numbers or better income and they're actually attending fewer games."
A weak economy leading to lower game attendance leading to lower ticket prices is a "domino effect" -- and it says plenty about how deflation works in the larger economy.
The psychological aspect of deflation and depression cannot be overstated. When the social mood trend changes from optimism to pessimism, creditors, debtors, producers and consumers change their primary orientation from expansion to conservation. As creditors become more conservative, they slow their lending. As debtors and potential debtors become more conservative, they borrow less or not at all. As producers become more conservative, they reduce expansion plans. As consumers become more conservative, they save more and spend less. These behaviors reduce the "velocity" of money, i.e., the speed with which it circulates to make purchases, thus putting downside pressure on prices. [emphasis added] These forces reverse the former trend.
Even so, many observers say the economy is past due for a recovery. They promote this view despite the evidence, which points to the new deflationary trend.
Most economists are unwilling to abandon the growth consensus, but the reality of an economic contraction is starting to become unmistakable.
The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, August 2012
Learn Why Deflation Is the Biggest Threat to Your Money Right Now
Discover Robert Prechter's views on the unfolding deflationary trend by reading the 90-page report, The Guide to Understanding Deflation. This guide will help you understand the signs of deflation and allow you to prepare for what's to come.
This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline Pro Football Plays Defense Against Deflation. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.
From an internal publication of a large global consulting firm:
Coaching is a powerful tool and one that should be used to help guide, direct and nourish our people to become better performers. According to John Agno, a certified executive and business coach, "In today's environment of changing technology and evolving organizations, coaching can have a strategic impact. It provides continuous learning and develops people to meet current and future needs. Coaching is an investment that you make in developing your key resource, people, for the long-term benefit of the organization."
So what is professional coaching and how does it differ from consulting?
To many novice investors, chart patterns might as well be tea leaves. Can they really tell you anything reliable? And even if they can, how in the world do you know what to look for?
Experienced traders know that the answer to the first question is a resounding "yes." As for the second one, we at EWI are all about recognizing chart patterns. To help you get started on this path, we've put together a free Club EWI resource called How to Use Bar Patterns to Spot Trade Setups.
It's a collection of lessons in trading and pattern recognition by one of EWI's top trading seminar instructors, Jeffrey Kennedy (who is also the firm's senior commodities analyst).
Enjoy this quick excerpt -- and for details on how to read this report in full, free, look below.
Chapter 1: How To Use Bar Patterns To Spot Trade Setups Double Inside Bars
While many of my co-workers jog, bicycle or play in bands for a hobby, I amuse myself by looking through old price charts of stocks and commodities. Let’s look at a bar pattern that I call a “double inside day.”
Many of you who subscribe to my Daily Futures Junctures have seen me mention this bar pattern. I think everyone should be familiar with it. Why? Because it often introduces sizable moves in price -- always a good reason for a trader to pay attention.
So let’s begin with a basic definition: A double inside day, or bar, occurs when two inside bars appear in a row. An inside bar is simply a price bar with a high below the previous high and a low above the previous low.
Notice that the range of price bar number two encompasses price bar number one, and price bar number three encompasses price bar number two.
Figures 11-2 (Wheat) shows an example of double inside days and the price moves that followed. (Continued.)
Read the rest of this 15-page report online now, free! All you need is to create a free Club EWI profile. Here's what else you'll learn:
How To Use Bar Patterns To Spot Trade Setups
How To Make Bar Patterns Work For You
How To Use An Outside-Inside Reversal to Spot Trade Setups
This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline Learn How to Use Bar Patterns to Spot Trade Setups. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.
There are only two possible paths for the U.S. stock market from here but only one likely outcome.
You know what a mystery the Dow's 1,000-point drop on May 6 has been. Wall Street is looking for a smoking gun -- a trader's mistake, a computer glitch -- but nothing definite has been found yet.
If you're familiar with Elliott wave analysis, last week's shocking decline gets less mysterious. The chart you see below is from Robert Prechter's latest, May Elliott Wave Theorist. Notice the price area where the drop occurred.
As you see from Prechter's chart, the Dow reversed after the rally off the March 2009 low had retraced about 61.8% of the 2007-2009 crash. To be exact, "The Dow met the .618 retracement level when it reached 11,258 at 11:15 a.m. EST on April 26. Then it reversed, as shown in Figure 9," writes Bob in the May Theorist.
Why is that important? Because in Elliott wave analysis, .618 is a common Fibonacci reversal area for market corrections.
Based on the Dow's 300-year-long Elliott wave pattern, Prechter sees a huge difference now compared to the last two significant tops in 2000 and 2007. In fact, "This massive stock market top is preparation for something big," writes Bob.
The May 8 Theorist shows you two Elliott wave paths that stocks will likely take from here -- and both point in the same direction.
There is more -- you also discover the likely final outcome if this decline indeed develops into "something big": Prechter gives you his ultimate DJIA's price targets several years from now.
This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts lead by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.
