Recent Articles
WARNING! Your Goals May Be Sabotaging You. Become More Process Driven
Feb 2, 2011 accountability, Executive Coaching, Goal Setting, How to Manage Your Team, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Management 5 Comments
WARNING! Goals May Be Hazardous To Your Success. Are They Sabotaging Your Selling Efforts?
Are you still struggling with your goals? Are you hitting your numbers? How many follow-up calls did you make today? How much good volume did you book this month? How many leads did you run this week?
These questions are relentlessly driven into our heads and for good reason. Like many sales professionals, there’s often pressure to reach quota or a certain level of acceptable performance. While having a monthly sales goal keeps your eye on the prize and your focus on the end result, it may actually do more harm than good.
I often hear salespeople say, “Results aren’t showing up fast enough.” At the end of each selling month, frustration and stress/overwhelm run rampant as salespeople scramble to do their best to close sales and meet their numbers.
If selling is transference of feeling, imagine the feeling that you’re transferring to your prospects? The stress of having to close more sales and the anxiety you’re feeling inadvertently puts undue pressure on every prospect you speak with, fostering an unhealthy relationship from the start.
The irony is, this constant push to reach sales numbers keeps you hooked on the goal, diverting your efforts away from refining the selling process needed to generate more business. The quandary then becomes, “I’m too busy to work on my process. I have numbers to meet!”
Consider this paradox; the result is the process. In other words, what if you shifted most of your attention away from your goal or the end result and onto the process?
After all, what’s the point of eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream; to get to the end or to savor every bite? How about the goal of a self-care or an exercise regimen? Unless you’re in it to compete professionally, it’s to maintain a level of health, vitality and personal satisfaction.
The same holds true for measuring productivity, maintaining your peace of mind and experiencing a sense of achievement at the end of each day.
After all, you don’t do the result; you execute the process, which produces the result as a natural byproduct of your efforts. That’s the paradox. By honoring the process, you can enjoy the benefit of knowing that you will attain your goals, since it’s the process that will get you what you want. (Imagine building a house without a blueprint!)
To generate better results, you’re either changing what you do or changing how you think. To continually exceed your sales goals and better manage your mindset, change your thinking to become process driven rather than result driven.
Ask yourself, “Do I have a (sales, prospecting, follow up, time management, customer service) process in place that I can trust?” When you look at your daily schedule, does it outline the specific and measurable tasks and activities you need to engage in that will move you towards your goal?
Chances are, salespeople who are solely focused on the end result don’t have a process they have faith in. As such, they concentrate more on trying to control the outcome; pushing for what they want rather than managing their process. After all, you can’t trust and manage the process if you don’t have a process in place to do so!
Trying to achieve more without a process to guide you would be equivalent to driving from New York to California without a roadmap while wearing a blindfold. Not only can it be stressful but you’re bound to wind up somewhere else other than your intended destination.
Schedule a time with yourself to develop your process for attaining each goal or task that needs completing so that you can see the path you will be traveling on. Look back on the successful sales you’ve made as a starting point for developing your process.
For example, if you’re looking to generate a certain number of sales each month, what activities do you need to engage in on a daily basis to do so? What skills or tools need further development? (Ex: Introductory cover letter/ email + prospecting and voice mail approach/template + frequency of calls/follow up = process driven.)
Once you have outlined a path and a success formula to follow (X # of calls produces X # of prospects which produces X # of sales), allow the doing or the process to be the reward and where the pleasure resides, not just the end result. This way, you can be responsible for your future goals without having to worry about them. If you continue your quest with your eyes focused on the finish line, you’ll miss out on the journey. Therefore, be careful not to hook yourself onto the future so that you can enjoy the process of reaching your goals today.
Knowing when enough is enough each day and the specific activities you need to engage in provides you with the freedom to trust the process you’ve put in place. After all, there’s always more to do. There’s always more that can be done at the office, at your home or in your life; another call that can be made or another email that can be read.
Exceeding your monthly sales quota will be the result of the cumulative efforts you make and the activities you engage in every day. When you’re mindful of the process, you now have the opportunity to recognize and celebrate your accomplishments on a daily basis (even the little ones) rather than pushing for or waiting until the “End.” (And when does that happen?)
New Book Provides A Solution to Developing More Successful Business Partnerships
Jan 26, 2011 All About Selling 2 Comments
*Do you find that your business partners have differing views on the business, the relationship and more?
*Does the thought of having a conversation with your partner leave you uneasy and frustrated -or do you avoid them altogether?
*Do disagreements between you and your partners leave your staff or customers unsure of decisions?
*Have you heard that most partnerships aren’t successful so you’re hesitant about getting into one?
You are not alone. Millions of smart and talented people suffer in their partnerships. Sometimes the business isn’t successful and it negatively impacts the relationship. Other times the individual needs of the partners change and they no longer align with the needs of the business. Whatever the causes, more than 50% of all business partnerships fail. And in those that don’t, partners often feel like their only option is to “grin and bear it.”
Finding the Fork in the Road is about partnerships: how to create one, how to build one and how to manage one when it goes off track. It’s chock full of checklists, assessments and other tools to use to determine partnership ‘fit’, establish compatibility, foster trust and measure progress.
Finding The Fork In The Road will help you, whether you are considering a partnership, are struggling in an existing one or are simply looking for ways to strengthen and improve your partner relationship.
Finding The Fork In The Road will reveal:
• When the problem is communication and what to do about it.
• Secrets to successful partnerships and what that means to you.
• How to determine the partnership fit if you are considering a partnership
• The realities of family businesses and how it affects the business and partnership
• And so much more….
Click here to learn more about Finding The Fork In The Road.
P.S. If you buy your copy of Finding the Fork in the Road today by clicking the “Buy It Now” button, you’ll also receive a free audio from Linda Finkle titled Stop Treating Symptoms as well as a host of wonderful bonus gifts from leaders in the fields of marketing, communication, leadership development, women, goal setting, motivation and more!
How Managers Position Their Sales Team For A Successful New Year and Enroll Them In Their 2011 Sales Goals
Jan 19, 2011 coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, Goal Setting, Hiring and recruiting, Sales Management, training for managers 1 Comment
It’s the third week in January. Do you know where your goals are? How about the plan that will enable you to achieve them? At this point, a good number of managers have already set their yearly sales goals for themselves and for their sales team. Whether these goals were sanctioned from the top, developed through a mutual collaboration between the salesperson and the sales manager, have been calculated by a formulaic process based on the salesperson, the marketplace and their territory or were developed and disseminated to their salespeople with a more reactive ambiguity, (“Just get out there and sell more this year!”) the majority of managers are thinking about making this a better year than its predecessor.
While some level of goal setting activity has taken place or a declaration has been made by the manager how important it is to “do better this year,” it’s the deeper conversation that follows the goal decree which I often find missing within sales organizations that needs to be facilitated by management.
Sure, you may have set the sales goals with your sales team, and you may have even discussed strategy with them; that is, how they are going achieve their goals. You may have gone as far as having your salespeople submit a business plan to support this. While these are healthy practices for management and for their salespeople, these sparkles of management brilliance do not encapsulate the full composition needed to ensure success throughout the year.
For example, when discussing your sales goals with your salespeople, did you address the following topics?
*Exactly how they are going to attain their goals; that is, the strategy that needs to be executed.
*Their level of buy in around their goal.
*Their level of confidence around attaining their goal.
*The potential roadblocks that can sabotage their efforts and prevent them from reaching their goals.
*The role they want you, as their manager, to play in supporting them.
*How they want to be managed around their goals.
*How they want to be held accountable around reaching their goals and how they want you to approach them if they drop the ball.
*The structure they need to put in place regarding how they will manage their daily activity that will move them towards attaining their goals.
What follows is a brief outline to use when conducting this conversation with your salespeople around their yearly sales goals that creates buy in, while ensuring your salespeople are bought into being coached and supported by you. You will notice that these questions will address the gaps I mentioned that often go overlooked until it’s too late. At this point, managers now find themselves in the reactionary position of spending their time managing problems and fires rather than managing goals and coaching their salespeople on achieving them.
Please note that the following outline and questions have been developed with a few assumptions in mind:
First, you are already coaching your salespeople.
Second, your sales team is bought into being coached by you.
Third, you are truly coaching them using a proven coaching framework (rather than relabeling how you managed them yesterday as coaching). Finally, their sales goals have already been established. (We’re not talking about their personal goals at this time.)
Keep in mind, this is just an outline. While it’s critical to appreciate the importance of having this conversation with each of your salespeople, you may want to fine tune it to best fit your situation.
Step One: Schedule at least a one hour meeting. (This is a conversation too important for anyone to rush through. After all, planning for the race always takes longer than the race itself.)
Step Two: Set the expectations of your meeting and what the objective of the meeting is with them. For example, “I want to use our time today to discuss your goals, how I can support you around achieving them and how together, we can develop the best strategy for you that’s going to drive the results you want.”
Step Three: Discuss the goals that have been set. Ask questions such as:
1.“So, how do you feel about your goals?”
2. “How did you come up with that goal?” (If they indeed, did so vs. having a sanctioned quota.)
3. “How confident are you about achieving this goal?”
4. “Why?” “What’s making you feel that way?”
5. “What would it mean to you if you achieved these goals? (Personally/professionally)”
6. “What’s the cost you would incur if you don’t achieve them? What would it mean to you if you don’t achieve these goals? What would happen then?” (This isn’t old school motivation by fear or consequence. Rather,this question is more for those underperformers who need to understand that there may be a consequence incurred if they fail to reach their goals, this helps them articulate it in their words, instead of the manager standing on their pedestal preaching the consequences to them and sounding like the bad guy. Remember, people listen better and believe what they say more than what they’re told.)
Step Four: Enroll them in coaching (if need be). The timing to do so is perfect, as coaching is the means for them to achieve their goal and how management needs to support their people in doing so.
Step Five: Facilitate this conversation using the following questions:
1.What are the parts of your job that you’re exited about and motivate you?
2. What do you want to/need to achieve in the short term/long-term that will support your goals? (If you’ve already established this, i.e. in their business plan, you can skip this.)
3. What’s your action plan and strategy to achieve your goals? (If they don’t have one, make sure they have a top level view of what this could look like and make this one of their action steps that they need to complete for your next coaching session with them. You can start this process by asking them, “So if you were going to put together an action plan and a strategy to achieve your goals, where would you start? What would some of the necessary components of your strategy be? Think about the last goals that you’ve achieved. What has made you successful before?”
4. How can I best manage and support you to achieve these goals? (This is a great opportunity to discuss creating their Coaching Action Plan to determine the frequency and parameters of your coaching with them.)
5. How do you like to be rewarded/acknowledged for a job well done?
6. How will we measure your success and progress along the way? (30, 60 and 90 day milestones and mini-goals are critical to maintain your sales team’s focus and motivation throughout the entire year. A year end goal is a long way off. So, celebrate wins along the way and use these milestones as an opportunity to adjust or modify their strategy if necessary.)
7. What might sabotage your efforts to achieve these goals? What do we need to look out for that would get in the way of achieving your goals? What safeguards can we put into place to ensure that doesn’t happen?
8. What structure do you need to put into place in order to make sure you’re engaging in the right activities each day that support your goals while keeping the distractions at bay? (Hint: A structured routine!)
9. How can I hold you accountable around your goals in a way that will sound supportive rather than negative?
10. How do you want me to approach you if you don’t follow through with the commitments you make? What would be a good way to bring this up? How do you want me to handle it?
Step Six – Debrief:
1.So, how are you feeling about our conversation (and first coaching session)?
2. Do you have any concerns moving forward?
3. Great, and to reconfirm next steps, what are you going to be working on next? (What are the action steps you’ll be taking based on our conversation today?)
4. Lets go ahead and schedule our next meeting. What are you willing to commit to having completed by then?
5. I’m looking forward to working with you so that you can achieve your goals this year!
TIP:
Give your salespeople the space to answer these questions. Remember, some of these questions are not only questions you may have never asked your salespeople, but questions they, themselves have never been asked before. So, don’t rush them through this important process of self discovery and do make sure they answer your questions completely.
After effectively facilitating this conversation, you and your team will have a greater sense of comfort, confidence and a stronger focus regarding what they need to do to achieve their goals and what you can do to support them that will create a successful year for your company, your team and yourself.
Stop ‘Shoulding’ On Yourself. Align Your Goals With Your Priorities
Jan 10, 2011 accountability, Career Advice, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, Insights in Business, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Time Management Tips 1 Comment
With the timely pressure that we place upon ourselves in the New Year when declaring our resolutions and charting our goals, many people often fall short of attaining their goals or honoring these resolutions. Sure, there are many reasons why we may not reach our goals but before we point our finger at things like lack of execution, resources, skills or effective time management, we need to first look at the source of the problem; that is, the goal itself. In other words, are you sure you’re setting the right goals for yourself?
Sure, our goals are supposed to resemble and support that which we want to bring into in our life or career, yet many times, people set goals around what they think they want, what they think they need or what they think they should be doing.
Several years ago, I introduced the difference between priorities and goals and the importance of aligning the two when setting the right goals. Here is the full definition and an example to make sure that you’re setting the best goals for you.
Priorities vs. Goals- What’s the Difference?
Definition:
Priorities: What is most important and meaningful in your life today (activities, values, beliefs, lifestyle, principles, standards, hobbies, integrity, etc.) that you are not willing to compromise or sacrifice in pursuit of something else (such as a goal).
Goals: A future based anticipated expectation, possibility, measurable end result or experience that you are working towards creating, achieving or bringing to fruition that has not yet been realized in the present.
Comparisons:
*Present Focused vs. Future Focused
*What Is Happening vs. What Will/May Be
*In The Present vs. In The Future
Here’s an Example:
John had a goal of being a top producer in his company. As such, he looked at the other top producers and the activities they engage in which make them successful. The top salespeople are working twelve hour days, sometimes even seven days a week. Thinking, “It worked for them, so I guess I should do that too,” he decided to give up a chunk of his family/personal time and other enjoyable activities/hobbies in his quest to become financially successful.
Although John’s priority was spending time with his family, he didn’t understand why he felt miserable and encountered resistance while attempting to achieve this goal.
Once he created a personal strategy and a routine for achieving his own bigger goals that supported his lifestyle and priorities without having to sacrifice what matters most to him, he was able to reach his goals with less effort and enjoyed the process even more.
Here’s The Key Point:
If you are encountering resistance while attempting to reach certain goals or performing certain tasks, chances are it’s either something you really don’t want to be doing, an old goal that may not serve you anymore (a “should“) or you are operating from someone else’s agenda (also a should)! The bottom line is, these goals don’t support your priorities and you’ll continue to feel “off” or out of your integrity throughout your pursuit of these misaligned goals.
Take the time to align your goals with your priorities. Otherwise, you’ll feel confined or powerless to make changes, allowing situations, circumstances or other people to influence or control you. Discover what YOU truly want by aligning your goals with the priorities in your life rather than the “shoulds.”
The fact is, “Should-based goals” do not support your priorities or personal vision. So, if you are unsure whether the goal, activity or task classifies as a should, take a look at your lifestyle, values and priorities and see if they are all in alignment. If the goal doesn’t support them, it’s a “should.” So, don’t “Should” on yourself!
Benefit of Getting This Distinction:
At the end of the day, your goals need to be aligned with your priorities. Honor the priorities in your life by making them non-negotiable.
Before you map out your goals, determine the priorities in your life that you’re not willing to sacrifice. This way, you can identify the activities you need to engage in and what you are willing to give up today (maybe even a conscious, short – term sacrifice of certain priorities) in pursuit of a bigger dream tomorrow.
When your goals are aligned and balanced with your priorities, natural strengths and talents, you’ll maintain your integrity, feel calmer and will experience greater peace of mind while traveling on your path to achieving bigger goals and meaningful, long lasting results. You’ll find the process of working towards these goals more enjoyable and fulfilling, without feeling as if you’re continually pushing for something to happen. Instead, you’ll be pulled towards your goal with less of an effort.
Once you can orient your life around your priorities, you’ll find that you will actually have fewer goals that you’ll feel compelled to attain or be driven and consumed by. If you design your life and career around what is most important to you on a daily basis, you’ll avoid becoming hooked or attached to creating something ‘better’ at a future point in time, which can rob you of the quality of your life today.
My New eBook, Coach Up! Now Available For Download – My Holiday Gift to You
Dec 9, 2010 All About Selling, Books, Books by Keith Rosen, Career Advice, career coaching, coaching for managers, coaching tips, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Sales Coaching Leave a comment
“Is it acceptable to tell your boss what you really want and need from them?” Yes! If your manager has not yet come to you to establish certain boundaries, expectations around your position or relationship with them (especially as it relates to coaching) or approached you regarding a recurring problem that needs to be addressed, it is only in your best interest to be the one to take the initiative. The question is, how do you approach your boss?
The good news is, you can coach up! Rather than waiting around for your manager, you can enroll your manager in a way that would open them up to want to listen to you. You can safely bring up how you want to be coached, managed, communicated to and supported. How effective you are in conveying this to your manager is dependent upon your ability to craft your message in a way that creates a new possibility you may not even be aware of, rather than a confrontation.
Discover how to leverage the power you have to create the positive results you never thought possible and strengthen the relationship you have with your boss. This book will explain how to Coach Up, while addressing and removing any reluctance to doing so. You will also find several templates and specific examples of what you can say to your boss when coaching up around some of the common situations you find yourself in that will foster an open dialogue so that you and your boss can both win.
Price: $8.95
Special Offer: This holiday season, I’m giving you a copy, my gift to you. Download this for FREE for a limited time!
(All we ask is to please respect the intellectual property rights in the book.)
Here’s the link to the download page.
Listen Now! Management Q & A and Coach Training Webinar: How to Become a Better Coach. Recording Now Available!
Nov 23, 2010 coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, coaching tips, Sales Management, training for managers, webinar 1 Comment
Listen and watch this free webinar here. (Note that your browser may prompt you to download the playlist. It is a link to the recording. Save the link to your hard drive or click on open with the application you choose.)
Last week’s management coach training webinar has been archived and is now available for your immediate and free access!
Click on the link here and you’ll be able to listen in to the event as well as view the PowerPoint that supported this program. In this hour long webinar, I’ve shared my experiences and best practices so that you can learn how to get your salespeople and managers to accelerate their performance – today.
We also had more time for Q and A. With over two thousand participants on this webinar, we covered some pressing and relevant questions. Some of the questions that people asked which you’ll hear me answer are below:
1: Can you substitute one to one coaching with team coaching, especially if a manager has a larger team?
2: How much coaching is actually enough?
3: Where is your time best invested, working with the top performer, mid or underperformer? Where do you achieve the biggest return on your investment?
4: How can you coach your top performers, especially if they don’t want to be coached? How do you enroll your top performers in coaching?
5: How much time do you put aside specifically for an actual scheduled coaching session vs. situational “all the time” coaching?
6: Does it make sense to have a top performer take on some coaching responsibilities and coach some other people on the team? How about a top performer coaching an underperformer? Is this a good idea?
7: How much time do you give an underperformer to get back on track and produce to expectations?
8: How effective is remote coaching vs. face to face coaching? How do you coach remotely? Does it always need to be done in person?
9: How important is observation?
10: What is the difference between coaching someone and closing them?
11: What if you’ve tried coaching someone and it doesn’t seem to work? What if there’s resistance to being coached?
12: Is there such a thing as over-coaching someone?
13: What do you do about someone who is very defensive and resistant to hearing feedback around her sales techniques?
14: When coaching someone, is there ever a time when you give them the answer?
15: What if you feel that you’re asking the right coaching question and the person still doesn’t come up with the right answer?
16: What are your options when you think that you have tried everything and you’re still not getting the results you want?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the webinar, so feel free to post your review or email me with any questions or comments.
NOTE: When you click on the link your browser may prompt you to download the playlist. It is not the actual recording but a link to the recording. So you can simply save the link to your hard drive or click on open with (windows media, etc.)
Access the webinar here and enjoy! No registration required!
Coaching Up. The Benefits of Coaching Your Boss and The Cost of Avoidance. Epilogue – Part Seven
Nov 9, 2010 accountability, Career Advice, career coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, Executive Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Coaching 4 Comments
When it comes to coaching up, that is, coaching your boss, initiating these types of conversations is probably something that most people have not tried, and the issues addressed may not have ever been discussed with a boss in the past. Compound this with the concern that people have around how receptive they envision their boss to be when approaching them in this manner. Yet if these issues go left unexplored, they are bound to perpetuate indefinitely.
(You can read through this entire 7 part series here: Part One , Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Part Six.)
Conversely, imagine what would be possible if you can create the type of experience and outcome you really want, beginning with just one conversation. Consider the time it would take to have this one conversation that can solve your current dilemma, compared to the efforts that you would need to put forth around your other options, such as finding and acclimating to a new job.
Think about where you are now and where you want to be. Maybe it’s not that bad. However, I know for certain that there are people reading this who simply cannot afford another sleepless, stressful night. Some may already have their resume ready to be sent out the door to a new prospective employer. If that’s the case, you’re always going to be the victim or one step away from the win if you never take the shot – whether it’s in your current situation or your next employment opportunity.
And if you approach your boss only to discover that it doesn’t work out, at least you are now able to make a decision around the facts rather than your own assumptions, or drawing your own conclusions without the evidence to support them.
Everyone, for the most part, has a boss or someone to answer to. You have more power than you realize – the power to create a new possibility through the language of coaching and enrollment.
Yes, coaching is a learned and developed skill; it is a way of communicating and engaging with people in a deeper, more meaningful way. It is the art of creating a new possibility, the possibility that you may not even be aware of nor even believe in at the present moment. When you can transcend your current level of thinking, the real value is that you and your boss can both win.
Encore Presentation! Coach Training for Managers on 11/17. A Must Attend Webinar for Every Manger!
Nov 9, 2010 coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, Executive Coaching, Live Events, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, seminars, webinar 1 Comment
Click here to register for free and for a chance to win a copy of my book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions.
If you missed this live webinar last month, you’re in luck. Due to popular demand, I’m delivering an encore presentation of this webinar next week! Plus more time for a Live Q & A I’m facilitating afterward! So, have your most pressing questions ready to be answered.
Join me in this free webinar, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions, to develop the new standard of leadership. After coaching thousands of managers worldwide around my coaching principles, I’ll be sharing my experiences and best practices with you so that you can learn how to get your salespeople and managers to accelerate their performance – today.
How many salespeople on your team are not realizing their fullest potential? The solution to winning more sales today isn’t more sales training but better coaching. When managers become better coaches, coaching becomes your competitive edge to foster long-term, positive changes in behavior.
When: Wednesday, November 17
Time: 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern Time
Duration: One hour
Register: Registration page is here.
Cost: Free!
Attend this event and discover how to:
• Avoid the most common barriers to effective coaching that will generate greater results.
• Develop a self-motivated, loyal and fully accountable team.
• Generate a measurable ROI from your coaching efforts.
• Make more time, more sales and more money.
• Surrender your time consuming role as Chief Problem Solver.
*Bonus! 50 lucky webinar attendees will receive a copy of my award-winning book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions!
If you have not done so already, you can get the hardcover or electronic version of my book here.
Click here to register for free and for a chance to win a copy of my book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions.
Coaching Your Boss. Crafting The Message When Coaching Up: Addressing Your Concerns and Boundaries Around Coaching. Part Six
Nov 8, 2010 accountability, Career Advice, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Coaching 3 Comments
Building upon my last post, here’s an example of what you can say to your boss in order to foster an open dialogue that would create the possibility to strengthen your relationship with your boss and enable you to address your concerns about coaching and being coached in an open, collaborative way, without putting anyone on the defensive.
(If you haven’t already, you can read through this series by reviewing my prior posts, including Part One , Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five.)
When reading through this, feel free to modify so that the dialogue fits best for you and your style of communicating, without changing the core intention and focus of the message.
While you are positioning the conversation and your agenda in a collaborative way, you are also creating the opportunity to hold up the mirror so that your boss can recognize certain areas they can improve upon and come to that realization on their own, without running the risk of making them wrong, telling them what they’re not doing or not doing well or putting them on the defensive. By doing so, you are, in fact, honoring one of the core principles of coaching.
3. Addressing the Concerns, Parameters and Boundaries Around Coaching
If you find that you need to address some sensitive concerns (especially if there’s a trust issue), while establishing the parameters around your manager’s coaching efforts, you can use the following approach when speaking to your boss.
“I have a few questions about moving forward in a coaching relationship with you that we have not addressed to date and I don’t want anything to become a barrier to the great work we can accomplish together. So, I felt it important enough to bring this up to you, because I do value our relationship and your support. As we both (read in the article, the book, heard in the training, etc.) coaching is a two way commitment to the process and requires ongoing, open communication and trust on both ends, as well as both parties being open to feedback. Especially when it’s an employer/employee coaching relationship, it’s important that we are very clear on what we will discuss in coaching, what we will not discuss, what information will be kept confidential and never compromised or used beyond our coaching, and what information will be acceptable to use during a performance review.”
“That said, would you be open to discussing these things that, once addressed, would help strengthen our relationship and make the coaching even more effective and valuable?”
Coaching Your Boss. Crafting The Message When Coaching Up: Establishing How You Like To Be Managed and Motivated. Part Five
Oct 29, 2010 accountability, Career Advise, career coaching, coaching for managers, Communication, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living 2 Comments
Building upon my last post, here, I’ve provided another example, a template, of what you can say to your boss in order to foster an open dialogue that would create the possibility of reinventing your relationship with your boss, as well as establishing clear expectations and boundaries around how you like to be managed and motivated.
(If you haven’t already, you can read through this series by reviewing my prior posts, including Part One , Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.)
When reading through these templates, feel free to modify them so that the dialogue fits best for you and your style of communicating, without changing the core intention and focus of the message.
Notice in each one of these, while you are positioning the conversation and your agenda in a collaborative way, you are also creating the opportunity to hold up the mirror so that your boss can recognize certain areas they can improve upon and come to that realization on their own, without running the risk of making them wrong, telling them what they’re not doing or not doing well or putting them on the defensive. By doing so, you are, in fact, honoring one of the core principles of coaching.
2. Establishing How You Like To Be Managed and Motivated
If you find that your manager isn’t providing you with the support or acknowledgment you need to fuel your momentum and keep you producing, here is an example of an approach you can take to position a conversation that would enable you to inform your boss how you like to be managed and motivated.
“Throughout my career, I’ve noticed certain things that some of my prior managers have done, including some of the things that you do, which have had a positive and measurable impact on my performance, my attitude and the quality of work I produce. Since we both have a vested interest in my success here, and since each person you manage is motivated by something slightly different, I thought it would be beneficial to share with you what I’ve seen you do that has really motivated me to perform at my best.
The fact is, I really appreciate when you do these things and thought this was a way to first, thank you and second, to let you know that it’s really working for me. I know how busy you are and that you have so many things coming at you. And I know that a lot of the time, you’re hearing about the problems and what’s not working rather than hearing some acknowledgment of what is working.
Since I do value your opinion and support, I thought that by sharing this with you and putting this in front of your line of vision, it will reinforce what you may already know that’s working and save you some time down the road by helping me avoid some pitfalls I may encounter while keeping me at the top of my game. Would you be open to me sharing this with you now?”
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