Coach Andrea

Coach Andrea’s Intro

Why is it that so many people think they have to “do it alone”? This week’s Tip shares the pluses of not doing it alone and hiring a business coach.

Quote of the Week

“You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world’s happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or is discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.”

~ Dale Carnegie

Eight Reasons Why You Need a Business Coach

By Andrea Novakowski

When I started my coaching business, one of the first things I did was get a coach of my own. I purposely chose someone who had built a successful coaching business herself. After all, why reinvent the wheel? I wanted to benefit from the expertise and support of someone who had already done what I was trying to do.

Later on, after my business was established, I was ready to develop another part of myself. So I found a coach who could help me grow my spiritual side.

My current coach is helping me change some behaviors that are no longer working for me. I’m learning to be less analytical and structured in situations that don’t require it, and having more fun in the process.  I picked each of these three coaches based on what I needed at a certain point in my business and in my personal life.

It’s lonely out there, but a good business coach can make it feel less lonely. Have you been feeling burnt out or stuck? Tired of trying to solve every problem yourself? Here are eight things a coach can do:

• Provide an outside perspective. If your work situation is muddied with internal politics and history, your coach can give you guidance based on what happens in the real world. At the same time, she can use her experience to help you navigate tricky political waters.
• Save your marriage. You know how when your spouse tells you something, it may not sound like a good idea, but coming from a professional it suddenly makes sense? Run your thoughts and ideas by your business coach – and take your spouse off the hook.
• Give you a safe place to let your hair down. Go ahead, tell your coach the real story: she has no ulterior motives, nor any agenda except your agenda. Her feedback comes without strings attached. She has no stake, emotional or otherwise, in what you do with her suggestions.
• Offer you her undivided attention. Your coaching session is a regular segment of time when you focus only on what is most important to you. It’s all about you and your success. Let’s be honest: where else in life can you find that?
• Be your creativity partner. Often, when we’re faced with a problem, we get caught in the trap of circular thinking. Recycling the same ideas over and over. A good coach will bring a fresh set of insights. She’ll ask what you want to do with your ideas, and she’ll give you the motivation to move out of your head and into action.
• Encourage you to dig deeper. It’s easy to get lost in the minutiae of a situation. A coach will help you get to the root of an issue by asking you what you’re not addressing – and what you’re going to do about it. She’ll keep you focused on the big picture.
• Break a problem down into manageable action steps. As we all know, goal achievement never occurs in a straight line. If you’ve wandered off course, your coach will remind you of your desired goal and help you do a course correction.
• Help you troubleshoot obstacles and challenges before they arise. Your coach has walked this road before, so she can point out possible stumbling blocks you might encounter.

Looking for a business coach? Seek out someone, as I did, who has expertise in what you want to accomplish. Then schedule a preliminary interview to make sure you’re comfortable working together. You’ll know when the chemistry is right between the two of you!

Coaching Call To Action

Is it time for you to stop doing it all alone?  List the top 3 ways you would benefit from hiring a coach. What is that support worth to you?  If you’d like to explore this further, call me at 508-231-0766 or email me at andrea@coachandrea.com.

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

If you are thinking of starting a business partnership with another individual, this week’s Tip is for you. In addition to analyzing the viability of the business idea, it’s key that you address how the two of you will work together.

Quote of the Week

“Successful people in this world are those who get up and look for circumstances they want. If they can’t find them, they make them.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

How to Have a Successful Business Partnership

By Andrea Novakowski

You and your friend have a great idea for a business. Your business plan is already half done. You can’t wait to get started: what could be better than working with a friend every day?

To launch a successful business with another person, you need more than a business plan. You have to plan your approach to working together, too.

Here are some questions to ask yourselves before you rush headlong into business with your friend – or with anyone else, for that matter!

1. Why is a partnership right for this business? Are you getting into business together for the right reasons or the wrong ones? A right reason might be that you’re compatible and have the same vision for the business. A wrong reason might be your fear that you can’t do it alone.
2. Do you share the same goals, objectives and values? Make sure the two of you are in complete alignment. Be open and clear and have lots of honest discussions. This is your chance to find out how well you two communicate.
3. What has your past experience with partners been like? Think about the kinds of people you work best with. Everyone has a different style. Some people are workaholics and others are more laid back. Some people love a good fight, while others appreciate calm and peacefulness. Are you and the other person a good fit? If not, don’t force it.
4. What are the strengths and positive qualities each of you bring to the partnership?
5. Who will assume which roles and responsibilities? Who will do sales, manage employees, handle the accounting? Is this a fair division of labor? It may help to list each person’s preferred tasks (independent of each other). Identify where there will be sole control and where there is overlap. Ask yourselves what’s missing and still needed to run the organization.
6. When and how will you communicate with each other? Will you meet daily? Weekly? How will decisions be made if you disagree?
7. How will you share start-up costs, expenses, profit? How much income do each of you need?
8. What are your short-term goals? What do you each think the company will look like in three years when it’s humming along?
9. What are your long-term goals? Envision the conclusion and timing of the end of your business. Are you looking to make it a lifestyle business with a finite income goal, or do you want to be the next Facebook? What is your exit strategy?
10. Are both of you 100% committed to the partnership?

Even if you have known a person for years, a business partnership is very different than a friendship. Try collaborating on a few projects to get a feel for how you work together. A great book I often recommend to my clients is Partnership: Small Business Start-Up Kit by Daniel Sitarz. This book provides a pre-partnership worksheet, a partnership agreement, and other forms you’ll need to start a business together.

Coaching Call To Action

Thinking about a partnership?  Do you really know the other person?  What will you do this week to increase your knowledge of the other person and move closer to making the right decision for you?

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

As I mentioned last week, many of my clients are receiving and delivering performance reviews. This can be a stressful time where people might be on the defensive about what they are saying or hearing. What if you entered the review with an open manner, used Steve Straus’s question and really meant it?

Quote of the Week

“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.”
~Og Mandino

Feedback (great questions lead to great answers; weak questions, weak ones.)

by Steve Straus

“How am I doing?”

Feedback is one of the great “secrets” to having a successful life — seeking it, hearing it, acting on it, then looking for more feedback to see if what you added/changed/stopped really worked. It works in business, with your family, and with friends. Asking “How am I doing?” is a simple way to get feedback. At first glance, the question may seem an exercise in egotism, but if you really want feedback, you will be communicating so at a non-verbal level which is disarming rather than off-putting. How are you doing at getting feedback?

Copyright 2011 Steve Straus. All rights reserved. Steve Straus can be contacted at http://www.StrausUSA.com

Coaching Call To Action

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

This week’s Tip does not only apply to Small Business Owners. No matter what your level is in the working world, you could benefit by awareness to how these 7 flaws could be impacting you and the solutions to overcome them. I know I’ve suffered from each of these traits from time to time.

Quote of the Week

“Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.”
~ Dr. David M. Burns

Top 7 Flaws of Small Business Owners

Coaching Call To Action

Where are you holding yourself back by your behavior?  What new habit will you create to overcome this behavior?

What’s New

Thursday, September 23, 2010 – 9 am to noon ET
Pounce on a Project

Welcome back from the summer break!  I hope you all took some time to recharge.  What project would you like to get on top of and accomplish this month? Come to Pounce on a Project VI – - 2010.

Join Coach Andrea on Thursday, September 23rd from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Eastern. We will join as a group by phone and declare what you want to accomplish: preparing a marketing plan for Q4, starting the talk you have to give in two weeks, getting your new website finished, or getting rid of the piles of completed projects that grew over the summer.

During the morning, the group will gather by phone a few times to check progress and get any support needed to finish with a bang. At noon, the group will celebrate their accomplishments. Who says projects have to be boring and tedious? Bring your lightness and fun and join us for the energization.

To sign up or learn more, call or e-mail me by noon on Wednesday, September 23rd. Feel free to share this with friends and co-workers, the more the merrier. (Cost of the program is only the cost of long distance phone calls.)

Thursday, September 23, 2010 – 6:30 – 8:30 pm ET
Being Resourceful at The New England Chapter of ACRP

If you are like most people, you already have more than enough resources (people, places, and things) in your life that can be used for support or help when needed. But, are you using them effectively to increase your productivity and to develop your career?

Join me at The New England Chapter of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals
as I provide tools to show you how to: identify your resources, use your resources to the fullest, and handle resource “roadblocks”.  Capitalize on your resources to achieve the results that are most important to you .at Jasper White’s Summer Shack in Cambridge from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.To reserve your place, contact Patricia Seymour (pannseymour@yahoo.com).

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

This morning I was preparing for a managerial skills training I’m delivering next week on Effective Delegation. One of the key points is knowing to whom you can delegate. The intent is to give the tasks to other people on your team. Steve Straus’s tip this week on Delegating Discipline expanded my viewpoint on delegation. Steve succinctly gives ideas on delegating to people who can easily get you on track by bringing discipline to areas that are not your strength. This allows you to focus on the priorities and passions of your business (and what you’re good at).

Quote of the Week

“Do not run away; let go. Do not seek, for it will come when least expected.”
Bruce Lee

Delegate the Discipline

by Steve Straus

Some people simply aren’t born with the discipline “gene.” Even though they’ve heard all their life that they need to be disciplined if they want to win, they just don’t have it in them. In fact, they don’t even have enough discipline to develop some discipline!

What to do? Try delegating the discipline.

Having a hard time getting to the gym to work out? Hire a personal trainer. Knowing he or she is waiting for you and that the meter is running will help you show up and quickly do the workout.

Is your office messy and you never seem to take the time to organize it? Hire someone who loves to tidy up, organize, and file stuff. You’ll be more effective and they’ll have a blast.

Slow typist? Install a speech-to-text program. Talk away and delegate the typing to the program.

Trying to be someone you are not is futile, exhausting, and, ultimately, useless. It’s like trying to teach a pig to sing. Or a canary to run. You’re going to fail. (And it irritates the heck out of the pig! Or canary.)

Copyright 2009 Steve Straus. All rights reserved. Steve Straus can be contacted at http://www.StrausUSA.com.

Coaching Call to Action

This week consider what’s draining your energy, what’s holding you back and what would give you the greatest relief if you were to delegate it?

What’s New?

Thank you for celebrating International Coaching Week

What lively conversation we had on Wednesday in celebration of the Twelfth Annual International Coaching Week! Thanks to those of you who participated and made this worthwhile and interesting for all.

You have inspired me to do this again. Watch this section for the next 90 Minutes of Coaching Offering.

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Quote of the Week

“There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.”
Katharine Butler Hathaway

Coach Andrea’s Intro

One of the reasons people who own their own business hire me as a coach is because they haven’t yet found or created the right mix of support that’s necessary for them to thrive. I liked that Gergen and Vanourek delineate the need for this. A great reminder.

Roots and Wings

by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek

As much as we ascribe to the hero’s journey, we are more fragile and vulnerable than we care to admit. We need others to fortify our resolve, provide perspective, and back us with emotional support. The deepest sources of strength among the life entrepreneurs we interviewed were their life partners, families, friends, mentors, and business partners. These close relationships give us roots and wings – roots to ground us and wings to help us fly.

The important people in our lives encourage us to be a person of character and integrity. They hold our feet to the fire when we drift or waver, help us back on our feet when we stumble, and encourage us to leap when we are ready to soar. They provide us with the all-important emotional foundation that we need to step forward in the world with confidence, willing and able to take risks because our root system is strong (Gergen & Vanourek, 2008, p. 112-113).

From: Gergen, C. & Vanourek, G. (2008). Life entrepreneurs: ordinary people creating extraordinary lives. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Reprinted with permission from the OSU Leadership Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, (614) 292-3114, http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu.

Coaching Call to Action

What, if any, support structures do you have in your life? What do you tap to give you “roots and wings”? Do you have a strategy for resources (people, places, and things) in your life that can be used for support or help when needed? Are you using them effectively to increase your productivity and profitability? Your ability to systemically identify these assets and use them is an important key to your success.

Community Involvement

January 28, 2010
Pounce on a Project I – 2010

Come join us for the first Pounce on a Project of 2010! What project would you like to get on top of and accomplish this month that would start the year out with a bang? Come to Pounce on a Project I – - 2010. Join Coach Andrea on Thursday, January 28th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Eastern. We will join as a group by phone and declare what you want to accomplish: setting goals for 2010, getting taxes ready for the accountant, cleaning out those boxes of old projects and clients in the corner, getting your website updated or reaching out to prospects. During the morning, the group will gather by phone a few times to check progress and get any support needed to finish with a bang. At noon, the group will celebrate their accomplishments. Who says projects have to be boring and tedious? Bring your lightness and fun and join us for the energization.

To sign up or learn more, call or e-mail Andrea by noon on Wednesday, January 27th. Feel free to share this with friends and co- workers, the more the merrier. (Cost of the program is only the cost of long distance phone calls.)

February 1, 2010
Accomplishing Goals that Truly Matter to NEW – Network of Enterprising Women

Andrea will provide her six-step program for identifying what’s important to you and creating and achieving goals that fit your priorities. Network of Enterprising Women is an organization of women business professionals from the Metrowest area of Massachusetts. NEW was formed to provide business support, education, networking, and marketing opportunities, and to help facilitate both personal and professional growth for its members. Members meet monthly. To learn more go to http://www.new-ma.com/.

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