One way they try to reduce risk is to conform to the attitudes and preferences of others. Family, friends, coworkers, and other groups influence your prospects and their buying behavior. Sometimes called reference groups, I call them “invisible buyers.” Your invisible buyers are a point of comparison for your prospect’s own choices and attitudes. Sometimes the influence of others is subtle; other times it is quite apparent.

For example, as a coach, your invisible buyers can influence prospects by. . .

– Directly recommending a specific coach or training approach they already know about or have used themselves.

– Giving your prospect a frame of reference and an opportunity to compare your coaching service to what is acceptable to group members.

– Influencing the prospect to change his or her attitudes about using a coach so that they are consistent with those of the group.

– Providing reassurance and approval to the prospect’s decision to use your services.

Occupation, memberships, social class, and education are all good indicators of which groups are important to your prospect. The prospect may even mention having had a conversation about using your service with a friend or coworker.

By noting how others in the prospect’s reference groups have used similar services, you can reassure your prospect that working with you is a smart choice.

I would strongly suggest that in your first contact with a prospect that you ask if they or someone they know has used a coach before. Probe a little into that area if they say “yes.” What kind of coach? Was it a positive experience for them? Would they do it again? How much weight does your prospect give to their prior coaching experiences or those of friends and coworkers?

The next step is to adjust your conversation to respond to concerns or experiences that might negatively influence a sale. Similarly, you can reinforce positive experiences and subtly refer to them during your conversation to help establish the value of your service.

There is a game being played somewhere right now within almost every government organization. The game is called ‘In Search of Best Practices’ and it is played something like this: “We’re about to launch a major change (like putting in a leadership development program). Before we do, let’s benchmark the best organizations around to find out what they do, and especially, let’s see what other government organizations are doing. After all, we don’t want to reinvent the wheel now, do we?”

So the change team dutifully goes out, does their research, makes some site visits, documents their findings, and then prepares a menu of best practices from which a program is built. The game proceeds by briefings up the line which are bolstered by citations from the Who’s Who of Best Practices—prominent companies in the news, selections from the 100 Best Companies to Work For, other Federal agencies, etc. The game is won when the program, designed around the Best Practices, is given the go ahead. So what’s the problem? It may possibly be declaring a premature end to the game by failing to realize that ‘best’ is simply a local term, not a universal one, and that there may be better and prior wisdom that is being ignored in the bargain. It’s something worth discussing.

Interesting Practices
The victory lap cannot realistically be taken until the program design actually produces the results that people intended because somewhere in people’s minds is the sneaking suspicion that if we do it like the big boys and girls we will be like the big boys and girls. But that syllogism can turn out to be false, and some have fallen into that trap—including me.

Dave Ulrich, perhaps the wisest human resources expert around, uses the term “interesting practices” to describe such approaches to a range of human resources initiatives. They may work in the long run–or they may not. The key is to understand the culture of the organization, the capabilities the organization possesses, and the needs it is trying to address. Keeping up with the GEs or the Microsofts of the world or even the IRSs does not mean your approach to leadership development will mirror the outcomes of theirs.

Five Best Principles
It may make more sense to start with a solid understanding of what can be called ‘best principles’ in succession and leader development and then see which practices will work for your organization’s culture and its specific needs for future leadership. If you begin with the best principles, you can then safely test out your proposed practices to see which ones best fit your situation. Here are five principles that have bred success, specifically in excellent Federal Government organizations:
1. They base their practices on the four proven principles of how leaders learn to lead—challenging and varied work experiences; significant relationships with senior leaders; self awareness based upon feedback, reflection and lessons from the hardship crucibles of life; and self development and selected training.
2. They make a business case for developing future leaders with decision makers that helps drive the mission and avoids the trap of simply being something ‘good’ to do.
3. They recognize that initiating leadership development, at least in the Federal Government, is most often a cultural change as well where leaders shape the culture and it is not simply a case of human resources development (HRD) standing up another new training program.
4. They understand that the key cultural change is this: it takes leaders to grow leaders—not trainers, not HRD experts, not consultants: leaders grow leaders—and that it will take a serious time commitment on their part.
5. Senior leaders hold themselves and their human resources development and training partners accountable for results—those results are that a next generation of good, solid leaders emerge (who, in turn, grow those behind them).

Getting It Right
In my opinion these are tantamount to being non-negotiable principles of developing future leaders, forged from experience. These must be the framework around which any leadership development program is designed before anyone starts thinking about best practices. And if you look carefully, four of these five principles are based on an assumption that it takes leaders to grow leaders. These principles are not a menu; each one is critical to success. Successfully applying these principles requires hard work and persistence over a long period of time—make no mistake about that.

So, what do you see in your own leader development efforts in your organization? If you are a leader, are you actively engaged in developing the next generation in your own organization at whatever level (and devoting the time it takes)? What barriers do you face in doing so? If you are an aspiring leader, what can you do to help imbed these principles if they are not yet implemented? Do you think you can make such an impact on those above you? Finally, is it a realistic expectation that the public service leaders of today have the time and the capability to help grow the next generation or the awareness that their contribution is sorely needed?
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Ray Blunt is currently the Associate Director and Fellow at the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture. For the past 12 years he has served as a leadership consultant and teacher for the Council for Excellence in Government and the Federal Executive Institute as well as for several government and non-profit organizations. He spent 35 years in public service in the US Air Force and the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Since the success of your practices are fundamentally based on the success of our client relationships, it makes sense to interact directly whenever you can with potential customers. Seeing and talking to you will give the prospect a real sense of your style, interest, and professional manner. That’s where trade shows fit in.

Given the large number of trade shows available throughout the year, how do you know which ones to attend?

Before allowing some other experts in trade show marketing chime in, let me lay down CNE’s tradeshow marketing rule #1: The attendees at the prospective show need to closely match your target market profile. For example, if you do life coaching and your target market consists primarily of stay-at-home moms with a home business, don’t waste your money going to trade shows designed to meet high-end business executives. Of course, if they are your target market, by all means go.

In 25 years of marketing I can say with some certainty that most of the waste in marketing budgets goes for marketing programs that reach the wrong people. So, do your homework, define that target market, and then choose the trade shows you want to consider.

In a very helpful post, Trade show Marketing — Getting Ready for the Big Event, author Patty Stripes offers advice about several essential topics. Some examples:

Demographics of previous trade shows: Did the last show done by the trade show provider have a decent show of visitors? Is the trade show provider boasting about the numbers on its marketing material or hiding it in some obscure corner for the number crunchers? Did the trade show provider have a professional organization draw up the demographics of the visitors? Do the demographics fit your requirement? Answers to these queries should help you decide if you should use this trade show as a sales and marketing vehicle for your company.

What is the total number of booths and what is the occupancy rate a few weeks before the show? The thumb rule is that a trade show can have about 5 to 10 percent of empty stands about 2 weeks before the event which eventually gets filled in my last minute confirmations or by sponsors. If the numbers are higher that this, you should check the official reason given by the exhibitors to ensure that you don’t end up participating in a show which has too many empty stands.

Is the trade show provider offering a ‘desperate’ discount and doing unusual number of follow ups? If you get an offer for a trade show booth which is just too good to believe then it is probably too good to believe. ‘Desperate’ discounts are offered by event planners as a last ditch attempt to sell all booths as you should only participate is such trade shows if you have unique reason to do so.

Want to know the Common Exhibit Marketing Mistakes: Ten Tips on How to Avoid Them? You can find all ten in an article on Marketing Today, written by Trade Show Coach, Susan Friedmann, CSP. Giving visitors an incentive to come to your booth and having “giveaways” that work are two common sense pieces of advice.

Trade-Show-Advisor.com bills itself as a one-stop trade show resource and knowledge base. Indeed, I found plenty of sound advice for someone considering a trade show. For example, under Trade Show Promotions they suggest the following –

Personalized contact with your target audience prior to the event. This includes pre-selling attendees through phone calls, personalized invitations, direct mail, email, or meaningful giveaways to introduce your products and encourage conference registrants to visit your booth.

Marketing activities during the event to attract conference attendees to your exhibit booth. This includes live entertainment, hands-on activities, audio-visual programs, unique trade show booth attractions such as a cash cube money machine or high-tech interactive game, tradeshow giveaways (make them as distinctive as possible), and food - if permitted. Of course, a well-trained, professional, and welcoming trade show staff is essential to your success.

Follow-up initiatives after the show with each individual who visited your booth to help turn leads into sales. Send a personalized handwritten note, along with a customized company information packet or other appropriate material, within a week following the trade show event.

You can also find a very thorough guide to all things trade show in this lengthy PDF file, Trade Show Marketing Manual. Take a look!

Happy marketing at your next trade show! And don’t forget to bring plenty of candy (to keep your blood sugar up!).

As reported in Alchemy Exchange, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) is sponsoring a conference next month focusing on the psychology of coaching, the impact of coaching and best practices in coaching that maximise return on investment (ROI).

A study by The Human Capital Institute and DBM found that 60% of American companies use executive coaches and 78% consider coaching an effective way to develop leaders. But although most coachees and their managers agree that executive coaching is a valuable exercise, the managers need credible evidence to show top management that coaching is a worthwhile expenditure.

The SIOP conference will bring together leading-edge scientists and practitioners to explore meaningful ways to measure the value and return from investing in executive coaching. With executive coaching costing $20,000 to $40,000 for a six-month engagement, it is easy for decision makers to focus strictly the costs especially if they do not have a clear understanding or first-hand experience of the value that coaching. These decision makers need to be convinced that, if properly executed and deployed, an investment in executive coaching can add significantly to their business bottom line.

Click here to get more information about the conference,

Birds do it. Bees do it. Most of us writing blogs do it.

Social networking as a business development tool now seems as ordinary as sending out press releases used to be. The question is: are the some social networking strategies and tactics that are more effective than others?

Charisse, owner of Emergence Business Coaching believes their are. In a blog post titled Get Social, she offers some of her best thinking about social networking.

Here are some of the tips she gives to her business clients:

• Limit your participation to just a few websites, highly targeted to your market.
• Spend the necessary time with your profile to create the brand you seek (People recognize a rushed profile)
• Decide the type of people you’d like to network with, and seek them out
• Make it personal – get to know people, and ask how you can help them with their business
• It’s not about the quantity of people in your network, it’s about the quality.  One or two powerful connections can make a huge impact on your business.  Focus on finding them.
• Allot yourself a certain amount of time each day for participation on these sites.  Set limits.

As you would expect, Charisse is personally sold on the value of social networks.

These social networking sites are helpful for people who see the value of connecting with people they would otherwise not meet.  They become a valuable platform to showcase your business.  They offer a cost effective (mostly free) way for people to brand their business, and potentially gain client relationships or joint venture partnerships.  Social networking presents powerful opportunities to enhance your business.

A certified business coach, Charrise founded Emergence Business Coaching in 2006. She is a published monthly feature writer for several magazine publications, and has written her first book called “14 Lessons on Power”.  Visit www.emergencebiz.com for a look at her blogging.  She is actively engaged in public speaking and training workshops, sharing her unique message with the world.

Now and then I run into a coaching blog that tries to get it right but stumbles here and there. “Stumbling here and there” is what we humans do. To err is human, right?

Most of us with blogs have had this experience: we edit, proofread, spell check, read it again, and feeling we’ve covered all the bases push that “publish” button. Only then do we see the mistake, the name we didn’t get right, the link that isn’t working, etc. So, back we go, hoping we can correct our errors before anyone sees it.

Today I found a blog post that seemed perfect to discuss on CNE: “The Important Rules of Business Coaching.” We all want to know what the rules are, how they might complement whatever “rules” we currently follow, or if — as some might suggest — there are no rules.

Here’s the link– the actual blog post is useful. I don’t know if it is original material, but that’s not why I mention it. The problem is that the blog itself is not ready for prime time. In the header it reads, “Let us healp you Earn Some Wealth.” Beneath the blog name, “Earned Wealth,” we have those ubiquitous Latin fill-ins “Lorem/Ipsum/Dolorem.” Not exactly the way to build confidence in the author or the wisdom he/she is trying to share with us.

Certainly this is an egregious example of not being ready for one’s readers. However, it makes a point worth making: sometimes the most glaring mistakes are the ones we miss.

For several weeks I had a blog sidebar that was getting pushed down to the bottom of the page. I never saw it because I always used my main desktop computer to work on the blog. Only when I loaded the blog into my laptop did the error show up. Goodness knows how many readers also saw it. So now I review all my web sites and blogs on both computers, each with a different OS and web browser.

In the spirit of ”what are friends for,” perhaps it would be proper to drop a friend a carefully-worded note if we do see something out of kilter on their blog or web site. Besides being a good reason to touch base, your friend will appreciate your thoughtfulness — after the initial embarrassment wears off.

For me distractions mean everything other than work: taking care of the dog, reading non-business email, feeding and re-feeding myself, reading books or magazines not related to my work, surfing web sites, doing chores, reading blogs that are not feeding my business. The list could go on and on and on. . . .

Perhaps even more distracting than non-work related matters is spending time thinking about work ideas that are not related to my immediate tasks. I think it is important to keep the mental doors open to new ideas, to be able to brainstorm, to explore new business concepts or approaches. The problem is, for some of us, those brainstorms can take control of an entire day. . .or longer. The result? We don’t stay focused on our current work.

Here’s the deal I make with myself in order to stay focused on what I need to do today –

Each morning while I am still drinking my first cup of coffee, I give myself 30 minutes to sit with a notepad and take what I call “brainstorming notes” — writing down business ideas that have floated to the surface that I might want to look at more carefully in the future. If something comes up that I think looks promising, I will plan to spend the time I need investigating the idea in more detail. That time has to be scheduled in. . .which leads to my next “staying focused” strategy.

While I am still sitting there with my notepad — before I put myself in front of the computer — I list my tasks for the day, estimate the time for each one, and give them a priority level from A to E. If there is time available, I will schedule in my “brainstorm” ideas. If not, they have to wait for another day. Eventually, I will look at them more carefully — perhaps in the evening when my other tasks are done.

There’s a reason why I write out my task list on a notepad first, before turning on the computer. For me, the computer is one big distraction machine. I want to read all the news I can find, read and respond to tons of email that has nothing to do with work, look at the latest NBA news, check out some blogs, etc. etc. Before I know it, half the morning can be swept away before I’ve even thought about my real job.

So, my rule is that when I go to the computer for the first time each day, my first task is to check the calendar on my Personal Information Manager and enter the task list I wrote on the notepad. That process helps to keep me mentally focused on the things that matter most today. I just remind myself that even home business owners get breaks for lunch (usually), and I can always read the online edition of my local newspaper at noon.

I know that everyone has to develop their own time-management strategy, but I thought I would tell you what works for me. By the way, I’ve used something called Time and Chaos (now called Intellect) for many years as my PIM and contact manager. I’ve tried using Outlook but feel like I am lugging around a 600 pound dead guerrilla whenever I use it. So I stick with Chaos.

This “staying focused” topic has all sorts of alley ways and side-streets — I hope we can go down a few of them.

Got some ideas of your own? Feel free to comment or drop me a line.

Obama talks from the heart, he is authentic. Being honest I’m not really in a situation to say whether his politics are sound, whether his budget adds up but do you know, “that doesn’t matter”. When you decide to ‘follow’ a leader the majority of the tme you never really know the facts as they get to see them. . . . So what are you really buying into? Simply whether or not you actually trust the person, the human being, the fact that if it all goes horribly wrong, even if you don’t really get it, you trust them to make a decision that you can and will believe in.

Some might argue that authentic leadership also means “walking the walk,” not just “talking the talk.” Trust, as Bloom emphasizes, is a key ingredient in authentic leadership. However, an executive who says one thing and does something else will neither be trusted nor endure as a leader.

Bloom admits that he does not follow politics closely. I’d venture to guess that most Democrats would say that Barack Obama is an authentic leader who can be trusted; most Republicans would argue that he isn’t. Ulimtately, any presidential candidate who actually makes it into the White House will be judged by his or her deeds, not just rhetoric.

So what might executive coaches say about the nature of “authentic leadership”?

A focus on trust is a good place to start. But consider how people talk about “building trust.” We naturally understand that trust doesn’t just happen. It is a process, a series of experiences between one person and another, or a group of others.

One of the best books around about leadership and trust is The Trusted Advisor. I highly recommend it. Although the book’s focus is on the relationship between consultants and their customers, the principles it lays out can be used to create trust in many kinds of relationships – between executives and their staff, between coaches and their clients, between politicans and voters.

The Trusted Advisor was written by David Maiser, Charles Green, and Robert Galford. Here’s their very useful list of “Common Traits of Trusted Advisors”:

1. Seem to understand us, effortlessly, and like us
2. Are consistent (we can depend on them)
3. Always help us see things from fresh perspectives
4. Don’t try to force things on us
5. Help us think things through (it’s our decision)
6. Don’t substitute their judgment for ours
7. Don’t panic or get overemotional (they stay calm)
8. Help us think and separate our logic from our emotion
9. Criticize and correct us gently, lovingly
10. Don’t pull their punches (we can rely on them to tell us the truth)
11. Are in it for the long haul (the relationship is more important than the current issue)
12. Give us reasoning (to help us think), not just their conclusions
13. Give us options, increase our understanding of those options, give us their recommendation, and let us choose
14. Challenge our assumptions (help us uncover the false assumptions we’ve been working under)
15. Make us feel comfortable and casual personally (but they take the issues seriously)
16. Act like a real person, not someone in a role
17. Are reliably on our side and always seem to have our interests at hear
18. Remember everything we ever said (without notes)
19. Are always honorable (they don’t gossip about others, and we trust their values)
20. Help us put our issues in context, often through the use of metaphors, stories, and anecdotes (few problems are completely unique)
21. Have a sense of humor to diffuse (our) tension in tough situations
22. Are smart (sometimes in ways we’re not)

Paul Bob Velick, a life coach based in Santa Monica, California, specializes in helping men who are seeking personal balance in their lives, as well as those who are striving to improve their performance at work.

Says Paul –

Having a coach in your corner means having access to a new set of powerful tools that are uniquely designed to address the domains of career and life that may be slightly or very much out of alignment.

Through his coaching practice, A Coach In Your Corner, Paul does both individual and group coaching.

“The core work,” he says, ”is about being your own man and the man you want to be in your work, relationships, with family and friends and, of course, with yourself. My coaching style delivers actionable results by leading men through new steps large and small to make real change in their lives.”

Paul’s career combines twenty-five years as a creative leader in the the multi-disciplined arts, design, marketing and branded media including over ten years of human potential work, organizational leadership and facilitation. 

For more information about A Coach In Your Corner, visit Paul Bob Velick’s web site.

Kevin Weir, a Spokane Valley franchisee of Australia-based ActionCOACH, says in a recently published profile that the tough economy has boosted his client load significantly, spurring revenue growth of 54 percent over the past year.

Rick Thorpe, a business adviser at the Small-Business Development Center (SBDC) in Spokane, which offers similar services for free to small businesses here, says he also has seen more clients in recent months.

“Because of the economy, more businesses are struggling,” Thorpe says. The SBDC offers what it calls business advising, including teaching business owners how to read their financial statements and doing other one-on-one consulting with them.

Personnel problems are among the top three problems local business coaches say business owners typically identify, along with time management and a desire to increase their business’s customer base.

Business consultants are also seeing the positive impact of a bad economy on the demand for their services.

The use of the term ”business coaches” instead of “consultants” is one side of the same coin, at least according to some consultants. Calling coaching a “buzzword,” Spokane consultant Bob Petet says “coaching differs from consulting simply in that coaching typically is tailored to smaller companies, while consulting generally is a term used to describe providing such services to larger companies.”

Although some might disagree with Petet’s definition, one fact is clear: more small business owners are reaching out for help and business coaches and consultants can benefit.

Weir says the cost for services from his ActionCOACH office range from $300 for a planning workshop to $4,000 a month for intense coaching. He says clients usually work with him for an average of a year and a half. Petet says that the cost of coaching services can vary widely depending on client needs. For example, setting up a health program for a client’s employees might cost between $1,000 and $3,000, he says.

For more on this story, click here.