Coaching and Training
the Leader within Each of Us
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Coaching and Training |
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CONTENTS:
The need for passionate action in business is discussed by Jack Welch in his bestsellers Straight from the Gut and Winning. The need for passionate action in personal lives is discussed in every heart, at some time, by every person I have ever met. This new book could not come at a better time. Passionate Action; 5 Steps to Creating Extraordinary Success in Life and Work is a practical guide designed for any of us. It is filled with inspiring stories, activities that work, and case studies. For the price of a pizza you could buy a copy for someone you care about, or you could buy multiple copies. We all need roadmaps. This book will expertly guide you through the 5 essential steps to action-based success. Details and bonus gifts are at www.action-learning.com/pa.html. Or buy it at www.amazon.com and send me an email and I promise to send you the tremendous bonus gifts.  I need your help promoting this book. My goal is to help hundreds of thousands of people find their passion, and experience more success. Actions lead to success! I want to get on Oprah! You can help by forwarding this email to everyone you care about. My sincere hope is that they, and you, will experience more passionate action-based success. 2. ADVENTURE TRENDS: Lessons from the New River Gorge, WV ... and fast pitch softball in Charlotte, NCA. 30-hour Odyssey Adventure Race in the New River Gorge, WV: (Note: Adventure racing is a sport with continuous travel in unfamiliar environments. It is a passion of mine. And it is a business metaphor, with good lessons!) Last month I received a call from two friends in NYC who wanted to race in West Virginia. They are busy financial professionals. I have met them on longer expedition races, and usually finish ahead of them. They laugh a lot, and bring a "Whassup your problem?" New York City edge that keeps me going in the middle of the night. So I said yes. I registered on Wednesday, they cancelled on Thursday. I raced solo on Friday. The bums! That edge helped me race fast. LESSON LEARNED: Make sure your teammates are committed to the same goal. These friends said they were committed. I took them at their word and paid my money. However ... Here is another example. Last week I worked with a CEO who wanted his HR director to initiate a coaching program for their senior leaders. I said yes. Then when I initiated contacts with the senior leaders they asked, "What is going on here?" They had not been properly informed of the initiative. The company is in a growth mode, and is working out of a transition. Once we became clear on the same goal, and a timeline, we rolled out the initiative and the coaching work led to immediate results. LESSON LEARNED: Focus on the immediate challenges. Most of the time when I race I have teammates who keep me alert. This race started with a whitewater raft, then a 30+ mile run. There are no flat sections in West Virginia, the steepest state in the country. At the top of the first long uphill I heard feet behind me. A 24 year old solo racer from MA was actually gaining on me. We ran fast and talked for miles. In the midday heat, I slowed to walk uphill and reduce the muscle pain. In the afternoon 60+ mile mountain bike section I stopped to splash in a gushing waterfall. In that dreary middle of the night trekking section I napped for 5 minutes. I studied the map carefully. Most of the time I was alone. When I focused on the immediate challenges I got results. By 2:30 a.m. I started an orienteering section. I selected a course, and pushed through miles of brambles and rocky mining slag rock to find checkpoints in obscure places. By 9:00 I finished the race, with 6 CPs. No one else found more than 2. They said I won the race, but the 24 year old did. When you keep your focus on the immediate challenges you will win. B. Fast Pitch softball in Charlotte, NC is one of the competitive centers in the U.S. Try to imagine hundreds of teams of girls ages 8-18 playing in contiguous fields for glory and hardware. 12-year old pitchers clock 56 mph from 40 feet. Then they add curves, drops, rises, and change ups. Hits are frequent. Tournaments can last for 8 days. Each team may play up to 5 games each day, from 8:00 a.m.- 11:00 p.m. Everyone dreams of college scholarships and watches the colleges and Team USA on ESPN. The parents are filled with enthusiasm that curbs on distraction. Get the picture? LESSON LEARNED: Be prepared for anything. The girls may hit it over the fence. Or it may look like a replay of the Bad News Bears. The girls may cry when hit by an inside pitch, or if they make an error. The parents may scream at one another at 8:20 on a Sunday morning. The umpires may make consistent calls. Or not. So, the role of parents may be reduced to 1) providing money for gatorade or nachos, 2) providing hugs and consoling words after someone said something mean, 3) privately stating life lessons about working hard as a team. Just like any productive work team. LESSON LEARNED: Spirit can trump skills. When these girls are excited they cannot lose. They do pre-game line dances on the base line with lyrics like, "We got the spirit, we got the shake. Boom boom chicka boom, shake shake. Do you hear it?" They taunt the other team. Then they taunt the parents, "Got spirit? Let's hear it!" They taunt one another, "Turn around, touch the ground, wiggle it, just a little bit ... one more time…" If someone makes a bad play they say, "That's alright, that's okay. Shake it off, shake it off." My favorite is "We got a rally going, uh oh, uh oh…" Summertime is perfect for watching softball games. A coaching question is, "How well are you showing your positive spirit?" 3. ACTION STEPS AHEAD: Customer service for you, and financial advisorsMany of my clients are financial professionals. A longer form of this article was published online at Horsesmouth.com, where I am a contributing author. However, all of us need to focus on customer service. I hope these 4 tips help you. Creating Customer Delight -- 4 Tips Beyond customer service, which all successful advisors measure, this top producer measures customer delight. You can too, with these 4 tips. (Editor's note: This case is based on an actual client whose name has been changed to protect his privacy.) Many successful financial advisors measure customer service, with traditional measures such as process time, customer satisfaction, or portfolio increases. If that's all you are doing, then your practice is falling short. One of the metrics at Bank of America is customer delight, yet Wachovia currently scores higher. Customer delight is measured throughout service industries, from hospital care to fine restaurants to sales experiences. So, how do you create customer delight for your clients? Meet William. William has been an advisor for 4 years, in a fee-based business with $30 million in assets under management and an average monthly gross of $10,000. His business is representative of thousands of advisors. However, his customer delight practices make him unique. Virtually all of his clients are attorneys at big law firms in New York. He describes them as "highly educated people. Most were at the top of their class, all of them are very busy, and all are charging at least $300/hour rates." Here are 4 of his 8 tips:
One final story summarizes William's ability to provide customer delight. One of his clients, Paul, has used William for several investments, including life and disability insurance, college funding, mortgage financing, and long term investments. Paul said, "William, over the past 3 years you have helped me with all of my investment needs. You're my guy!" Then Paul emailed a hot stock pick that he thought William would be interested in. The bottom line: Paul doesn't know William's interests at all! William dismissed the stock pick with a smile. He said, "He doesn't need to know that my interests are long term yields. He just needs to know that I'm his financial guy!" My question for you in your business is: What are you doing to create customer delight? Please forward this newsletter to any of your colleagues or friends! To add a colleague or friend to the action-learning newsletter: http://www.action-learning.com/contactus |
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