The Business Results of Coaching

Without a doubt, coaching is the hottest approach to enhancing the performance of the people in an enterprise—whether it’s teams of coaches working with managers in an association, Fortune 500 company, transition coaching for new C-level executive hires, or coaches working with the owners of small businesses or sole proprietorships. It is clear from the increasing acceptance and investment in coaching, among the broad spectrum of business in many countries, that we believe coaching works.

But how well does it work? And how hard is it to measure?

In recent years, there have been a couple of detailed, well-documented studies that put the ROI of major coaching engagements within Fortune 500 companies between 600% and 700%, depending upon how improved retention was calculated.

But studies of this precision—funded by the corporate clients—are generally too costly to be meaningful as a sustained way of assessing the business benefits of coaching even at the level of large corporations.

Moreover, the issue of the benefits of coaching is, if anything, even more relevant to small business. For many firms considering hiring a coach, the notion of funding a major study to assess the results is laughable, yet it is critical that they be able to associate the benefits they are deriving from their investment in coaching.

To a certain extent, the challenge of measuring the benefits of coaching depends upon why the coach has been engaged in the first place. In some cases, the goal of a coaching engagement can be fairly easy to quantify—improving meeting management skills, for example. You can measure how many meetings start on time, how many end on time and survey meeting attendees for their evaluation of the effectiveness of the meeting. With a little imagination, such measures could be converted to hard dollar savings or productivity increases and an actual ROI developed.

Often, however, the connection between the behavior and the result isn’t so clear.

“One of the biggest challenges in measuring coaching is that tangible, behavioral change is usually linked to intangible mindsets and beliefs,” explains researcher Terry Bacon, of Lore International Institute. “Effective measurement strategies require that we make those intangibles measurable.”

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http://www.mbrownassociates.com/businessresults.html

Do You Need A Business Coach?

If you are just starting out in business, or currently a business owner, a Business Coach may be just what you need!

I was recently interview by Business Week online and I invite you to view this video here:

http://www.mbrownassociates.com/whatsnew.html

Ultimate outcomes of coaching expectations

What outcome should your expect when hiring an Executive Coach?

As for what you should expect, that really depends on what you decide to bring to the coaching relationship. Remember, it’s your agenda, not the coach’s. I can tell you that an effective exec coach should provide:

- Ongoing inquiry for you (the client) to create your own solutions;
- Encouragement and accountability for you (the exec); and
- Ways for you to enhance awareness of your unique strengths, skills and abilities to improve your mgmt and leadership talents.

In addition, it should be a team approach that will help you eliminate obstacles that might be draining your time and energy. You and your coach should develop a plan to make your life the way you want it to be.

Coaching is effective“The Exec Coaching Project,” a recent study, by CompassPoint and the Sylvia Yee, Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, underscored “the need to develop various strategies for supporting and retaining leadership talent in the nonprofit sector. Exec dirs are called upon to be strong mgrs, strategic thinkers, reflective philosophers, successful fundraisers, public speakers and inspirational leaders. Key recommendations included recognizing leadership and mgmt skills as essential assets for organizations – assets that must be strengthened and sustained.”

The project studied 24 exec dirs over one year. The report concluded that “coaching has much to offer exec dirs in their professional and personal development, including increased confidence in exercising leadership, improved ability to connect with the organization’s vision and better relationships with staff and boards.”

Read more of this article here: http://www.mbrownassociates.com/coachingexpectations.html

Find out about our Executives Executives Who Deliver Results™ Coaching Program here:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/executivecoaching.html

Balance is a Matter of Mission and Focus

How can you have more balance in your life while being more productive?

Often, it seems we’re so busy putting out daily fires that we don’t ever accomplish anything of real significance – those things that would make us happiest in the long run. Life becomes something to “get through” instead of an exciting path to greater fulfillment.

The efficiency of technology only increases the pressure assn staffers feel to do even more than ever before. All of it leaves professionals feeling too busy and robbed of a sense of accomplishment. So, what can you do to increase personal productivity? I’ll share some tips with you to help get more done in less time, and to find a way to do what you really want to be doing.

Often “busyness” is a cover for not knowing what the best thing to be doing is. To get around this, you have to know what your priorities are in the moment. To determine this, you need to know what your larger life priorities are.

Read more of this article here:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/balancemissionfocus.html

Posting yourself online

The Internet, if properly and wisely used, can be a very effective and efficient way to market your story, i.e. your resume. Your resume can be distributed in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, to an unlimited number of recruiters and employers. And therein lies a problem. With a traditional print resume, you can control its distribution and can customize qualifications according to what you believe are the needs of a specific organization.

To conduct an online targeted mar-keting campaign, you need to have some selectivity over who reads your resume and a way to reach those you want.

Also, use some caution when conducting online job searches, since it is possible for a supervisor or colleague to come across your resume. You do not want this to happen, particularly if your current employer is not aware you are seeking a new position.

You are likely familiar with basic Internet research tools, such as Google or Yahoo. You also can take advantage of search engines as information resources to help focus and narrow your marketing arenas. Think about your job search needs and use web sites to:

* Identify organizations where you have some interest in working;
* Research organizations that have job openings for which you intend to apply;
* Review job listings on an organization¹s web site;
* Locate on-line job databases specializing in your field or industry;
* Become informed about salary range norms and other benefits;
* Learn of local networking events and headhunters¹ offices;
* Investigate cost of living and other needed community information, if considering relocation.

First and foremost, to rise to the top in electronic sort and retrieval activities, your resume needs to contain key words and phrases. Second, when you upload your resume, make sure it can be scanned easily. Third, make sure a copy of your resume has been converted to ASCII or plain text for Web/e-mail readiness and store it in an applicant database.

Read more of this article here:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/articles/041105.htm