Writing a book can open all kinds of doors—from reaching more people with your message, to growing your business, to meeting like-minded inspirational colleagues, to the satisfaction of fulfilling a lifelong dream. Yet, if you’re like most people, you’ve put it off—or started and stopped—for years.

People put off writing their books for a number of reasons:

• Can’t find the time
• Not sure what to write
• Afraid of success or failure
• Not sure where to start
• Don’t have the support to see it through to the end
• Not a good enough writer

Here are 10 Quick Tips to Get Started that address each of the challenges above.

• Write your vision and goals for the book’s results—both for your readers and for you.
• Envision your readers and get a clear picture of who your core audience is.
• Decide what you’ll give up so you can find time in your busy life for this book.
• Prioritize your writing with all the other important things you must do.
• Schedule specifically by writing in your calendar the exact times you’ll write.
• Get professional support to guide you—editing, courses or coaching can all help with writing the right book and writing it well.
• Treat it as a learning process to help break through potential blocks.
• Get organized by structuring and outlining your book before you start writing (color coded index cards can help).
• Enjoy the process, since, if you have fun writing, your readers will enjoy reading.
• Start with the end in mind, envisioning your future to pave the way with ease.

National book writing coach Lisa Tener helps authors write their nonfiction/how-to books and get published. Her clients have been featured on Oprah, CBS Early Show, Good Morning America and more. Lisa serves on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School CME publishing course. Lisa works with private clients and also teaches an 8 week book writing course by teleseminar and in person in Rhode Island.

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

Within the realm of Executive Coaching, Emotional Intelligence has emerged as a key tool when working with the C-Suite. It is widely held that senior leaders are not lacking in technical capacity; this usually is what got them to that level in the first place. However what separates the real leaders is their ability to also work effectively with all the various stakeholders whether customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and indeed the community. They have the ability to connect; they are emotionally intelligent.

What are the specific characteristics of people who can do this?

• Self Awareness – can see in themselves what others see
• Confident Communicators – say the right thing at the right time to the right people
• Awareness of Others – foster believability rather than like-ability
• Decision Making – work with the feelings as well as the facts
• Self Managed – rebound quickly from setbacks
• Management of Others – can hold the space in a positive way
• Self Control – possess the ability to respond rather than react

Think about the current CEO of BP Petroleum, Tony Hayward. He is obviously a very smart individual and nobody can question the magnitude of challenge he faces. He is probably among the world’s least popular people if there was such a list. This is despite the fact that BP has admitted full responsibility and will to pay for the damage caused. Of course the responsibility and liability are technically sound business decisions and you would think that citizens and lawmakers would be happy with that. That is clearly not the case and so one wonders to what degree his lack of Emotional Intelligence has become his nemesis.

Let us know what you think!

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

One well recognized Coaching Organization, Coachville provides some great resources in terms of the benefits of Group Coaching both in terms of the dynamic and financial benefits. They say that:

• It enhances your business model in two strong ways
  • It can work as a low cost entry point into your practice AND
  • It can work as a powerful maintenance program for clients before or after they complete 1-1 coaching engagement with you.

• You create a powerful group environment
  • Each member feels like they are part of a highly connected and supportive team – which builds confidence and community.

• Group Coaching is often the perfect entry into organization coaching
  • High-impact and low-cost per person coaching is highly valued by organizations especially as a follow on to skills training programs.

One of the keys for Group Coaching to work effectively is to have a very clearly defined process to follow. You may not be able to do much of the inner work that traditional one on one coaching allows but you certainly can do some generic work around clarity, priorities, goal setting and action planning, to name a few. The results from this are that clients:

• Make positive changes in their lives
• Gain a better understanding of coaching,
• Appreciate the value of the coach
• Tell other people

So perhaps a key to getting Coaching more widely accepted and embraced is to recognize that working in groups is a very effective model and to be a great coach you also need to be a great teacher.

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

In a recent paper by Ruth Donde and David Rock of Result Coaching Systems, they highlighted how one can measure the effectiveness of training internal coaches. The four parameters under which they assessed the initiative were as follows:

Reaction

Through a series of pre and post evaluations they assessed participants’ reaction to the training in terms of such things as:

• Perceived value by the organization
• Levels of stress experienced.

Learning

For this participants were asked questions that assessed their level of confidence in helping others. Examples of questions asked included how they helped others:

• Manage time and priorities
• Grow and develop

Behavior

Through the pre and post evaluations, measures were created that assessed participants ability to demonstrate communication skills and also rate their communication acumen.

Business Impact

The more tangible ROI impact to the business was assessed by reviewing key business metrics around revenue growth, cost control, employee retention, and general productivity of the people directly supported by coaching.

From this it is apparent that the impact of developing internal coaches can have far reaching impact to the organization, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

Recognizing the benefits, companies are now creating their own cadre of internal coaches, an initiative which is been driven by the Human Resource function. This need is being met by having staff participate in formal certification programs or creating an internal initiative. This has led to business improvements but also to the fact that the HR function is being seen in a new light in the following ways.

• By creating a cadre of coaches, HR is making accessible to many key company personnel the very resources used in the development of senior leadership.
• The core skills learned are applicable in all interactions and not just for formal coaching arrangements, thereby making HR practitioners much more effective and efficient.
• The proactive nature of coaching is positioning the HR function as a more strategic partner where they are seen as proactive facilitators of positive change rather than the traditional problem fixers.
• HR professionals are now seeing themselves as much more valued to the organization and are therefore more motivated and productive.

Consequently mid level management, high potential individuals and key entry level positions are now being exposed to coaching and having their development accelerated considerably. Although traditional group development still has its place, providing one-on-one guidance in the form of coaching serves to further enhance the learning process and quickly leverage the strengths on the individual.

New England Coaching provides the formal ICF accredited iPEC Certification and also works directly with companies to create internal custom initiatives.

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

In marketing language, they talk about two constituent groups, namely the Total Served Market and the Total Available Market. Let’s understand what these represent and then contextualize it for the Coaching Profession.

• The Total Served Market (TSM) is all of those individuals who utilize the product or service that you have to offer. In coaching terms this is made up primarily of executives, business owners and individuals committed to their own self development; all of whom can afford individual coaching services.
• The Total Available Market (TAM) is made up of all those individuals who could truly use your service or product but for a number of reasons have not. In coaching terms these are all the people who could benefit from coaching and would be willing to pay for the services if they fully understood how it could help them.

The difference between the TSM and the TAM is where growth can occur and particularly so in young emerging professions. Often the gap between these is quite large and nowhere is this more evident than within the Profession of Coaching.

The key to addressing this is collaboration. What would happen to accounting firms and law firms if they had not pursued the partnership model? The answer is that most would struggle and have little time to truly practice their profession; just like coaches today.

The additional benefits to collaboration are:

• Greater product depth and variety offered,
• Marketing efforts consolidated and more focused,
• Strengths aligned toward the better good of the overall partnership (and not the individual).

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

In our last blog How Coaching Supports An Organization, we spoke about External Coaching and Internal Coaching. However coaching can have its most profound impact if it can become part of the MO (Modus Operandi) of the management and supervisors of the company.

In truth, this type of coaching is totally under developed because it is more aspiration than reality. Companies want their managers to behave like coaches but have provided little in the way of resources to demonstrate that they are serious about it. The key to a successful “Coaching Approach” strategy with your organization lies in the following:

• Training – as much as people might think they know the skills, different people know them to varying degrees. Create a consistent learning approach that fits your organization’s culture.
• Model Behavior – do not expect middle and front line management to be coaches if the communication from the top is not the same. This needs to be a core behavioral expectation for the entire organization.
• Consistency – you cannot coach one minute and then flip the switch. People need to be in this mode all the time. That is not to say that you cannot be upset or discipline people; you can! It’s all about how you handle it.

This is obviously not an overnight strategy. However with planning, training and commitment to execution, a “Coaching Approach” can have the most profound impact on the quality of communication and relationships, and ultimately, morale and productivity.

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

More recently organizations have moved to develop their Human Resources specialist and generalists to becoming Internal Coaches. Although these individuals may not have the confidence and competence levels mentioned previously, they do understand the business and the human challenges that their organization are faced with. With the appropriate Coaching Training, these individuals are now making coaching accessible to many more people but are also using coaching methodologies as their normal modus operandi – with great results. Consequently the perception of HR is changing; they are now seen as much more strategic, rather than the traditional “problem fixers”.

If you are interested in learning more, check out New England Coaching’s Corporate Coaching Certification.

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

Here are 4 reasons why having a good tool can truly help achieve success.

Business Promotion

• Clients need to understand what they will be challenged with, what the flow looks like, how progress is measured and how will it ultimately benefit them. A good tool will enable you to articulate this in the business development phase.

Coaching Experience

• Clients want to see outputs – whether it’s some form of diagnostic or tracking system but something that is more than just the conversation. By providing a report or visual deliverable this can expand the overall coaching experience and provide additional value to clients.

Process Facilitator

• A good tool can very effectively facilitate a great coaching conversation. The structure it provides enables both the coach and the client to be totally present and optimize the relationship.

Enhanced Sustainability

• When the coaching sessions are complete, clients need a framework to ensure that sustainability is achieved. Having a mechanism whereby they can independently track their own progress means that the benefits can continue long after the coaching has ceased.

The Possibility Board™ offered by New England Coaching is one such tool.

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

1. Create an Environment of Respect (not fear)

The reason some leaders operate from a place of fear is that is all they know. It is easy, feeds the ego and allows them to move on to the next problem quickly. This may well be the case but rest assured that the next problem is just around the corner waiting for them to solve also.

2. Sharpen your Professional Resolve

Leaders must understand the big picture and be crystal clear on the organization’s direction. This requires a strong self-discipline, goal setting and decisive time based actions. This strength in resolve gets translated into a sense of urgency and everybody becomes very clear on what needs to be done by when.

3. Become Painfully Curious

Curiosity manifests itself in powerful questioning. This in turn invites introspection, inclusiveness and is probably the most subtle form of delegation. Leaders should not feel that they must always provide the answers; they should coach the solution from their people. Once people know you are more likely to question, they will begin to challenge themselves first and resolve their own issues.

4. Ensure Total Accountability

People need to understand what is expected of them. Spend the time up front considering and articulating your expectations and then hold them accountable. This should be an ongoing process and not an annual review.

5. Demonstrate a genuine Personal Humility

The organization should not revolve around the leader. On the contrary, the leader should revolve around the organization. They should be available to serve the needs of all the stakeholders of the business, whether its employees, customers or shareholders. Humble leaders put the cause before themselves and that’s why people follow.

The transition from Entrepreneur to Leader is not easy but by adhering to some of these ideas above it can happen.

©2010 New England Coaching. All Rights Reserved.