Coach Andrea

Coach Andrea’s Intro

Whether you own your own company, manage others or are an individual contributor, you have a “boss.” Your boss may be your board of directors, your clients, and/or your manager.  No matter which category applies to you, this week’s Tip provides a great checklist for making your boss love you!

Quote of the Week

“Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.”

~ Eugene S. Wilson

Seven Ways to Make Sure Your Boss Thinks You’re Doing a Great Job

By Penelope Trunk

1. Know your boss’s priorities. If your boss is a numbers person, quantify all your results.  If your boss is a customer-is-first kind of guy, frame all your results in terms of benefits to the customer.
2. Say no. Say yes to things that matter most to your boss.  Say no to most everything else, and your boss will appreciate that you are focused on her needs.
3. Communicate the way your boss does. If your boss likes e-mail, use it.  If your boss prefers voice mail, phone in your updates.  Convey information to your boss in the way she likes so that she’s more likely to retain it.
4. Toot your own horn. Each time you do something that impacts the company let your boss know.  Whatever the mechanism, you need to let your boss know each time you achieve something that matters to her.
5. Lunch with your boss. If all things are equal, your boss will promote the person she likes the best.  So go out to lunch and talk about what interests her.
6. Seek new responsibilities. Find important holes in your department before your boss notices them.  Take responsibility for filling those holes and your boss will appreciate your foresight, but also your ability to do more than your job.
7. Be curious. Remember to take time to read and listen.  Then ask questions when they are not expected; you will make yourself more interesting to be around, and you will elicit fresh ideas from everyone around you.  Your boss will feel like having you on the team improves everyone’s work – even his own – and, after all, that is your primary job in managing up (Trunk, 2007, p. 145-147).

From: Trunk, P. (2007). Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success.  New York:  Warner Business Books.

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

One of my readers responded to last week’s Tip, Success is Supposed to Be Fun and Rewarding, sharing that she had not been aligned with her boss’s priorities and goals and was not feeling the love.  If you are in a similar situation or want to ensure you don’t get there, take time this week to put two to three of these ideas into action.

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

Many times when we think of leadership, the image that comes to mind is of someone who leads a company. This week’s Tip by Joelle Jay, reminds us that you can be a leader in any part of your life! You can be a leader wherever you choose.

Quote of the Week

“You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.”
~Anthony J. D’Angelo

Who Are You as a Leader?

By Joelle Kay Jay

• A business corporate leader. Corporate leaders often hold leadership positions in their organizations. You may even own the company. But you can also serve as a leader in your company even without the fancy title by the way you act and interact.
• A professional leader. You can be a leader in your profession whether you are a consultant, or an independent professional like an attorney, speaker, or physician.
• A community leader. You may have a leadership role in public service, as a nonprofit board member, in your church, or in your neighborhood.
• A family leader. As a mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, or cousin, you may take an active part in creating your family environment.
• An inspirational leader. You may be a leader among your friends, family, and by fans by the way you conduct yourself – as reflected by your character, your choices and your demeanor.
• A thought leader. You could be leading change with original ideas and new ways of thinking.
• An action leader. Maybe you’re the one with the energy to make things happen and the charisma to get others to do the same.
• The leader of your own life. No matter who you are or what you do, you get to take the lead in your life. No one else will do that for you. No one can. Every single one of us is leading a life, which may be the most exciting kind of leadership of all.

In what ways are you a leader? (Jay, p. 2-3)

Jay, J.K., (2009). The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership. Santa Barbara: CA, ABC CLIO.

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

As you think about all of the different roles in your life, where are you being a leader? Where are you not being a leader? What would it take for you to be a leader? What is the one step you will take that will stretch you as a leader in your life?

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

I belong to a networking group, WBN, that meets once a month. Long standing member, Linda Tatten of Travel by Tatten, exemplifies the skill of making yourself memorable. She always starts her 15 second introduction with, ” Imagine…” and then shares a beautiful image from a trip she is planning. It’s perfect! This week, Loren Ekroth shares 5 ways to stand out and be remembered.

Quote of the Week

“While we have the gift of life, it seems to me that the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die – whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness.”
~ Gilda Radner

Make Yourself Memorable

by Loren Ekroth, Ph.D.

It’s not just who you know; it’s also who knows you.

That’s especially true if you’re an independent professional or a business person. Are you someone that easily comes to mind of the customers you know and the prospects you meet? Show others that you’re likable, trustworthy, and expert and they’ll probably remember you.

Here are some simple tips to make yourself memorable.

1. Be easy to be with: friendly, engaged, a good listener.
2. Be distinctive. Demonstrate your uniqueness.
3. Make yourself “sticky” with your manner and style. Maybe it’s your sense of humor, or your colorful language.
4. Give them something unusual, like a special kind of business card they’ll want to keep. Example: I’ve used amber prescription bottles for my “Dr. Conversation” brand. People tell me they’ve kept them for years.
5. Follow up by sending people you meet a special report that shows your expertise. Or send a regular ezine. At least, give them a friendly phone call. You’ll stand out.

Loren Ekroth © 2010, all rights reserved. Loren Ekroth, Ph.D. is a specialist in human communication and a national expert on conversation for business and social life. Complimentary newsletter, “Better Conversations,” at www.conversationmatters.com. Contact at Loren@conversationsmatters.com.

Coaching Call To Action

Remember Gilda Radner? Now there was a unique comedian!  What will you do this week to let your uniqueness shine?

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

It’s hot here in New England this week!  So, I thought it best to keep this week’s tip short and to the point and provide something to chew on. Michael Angier’s article fits the bill.  It’s summertime.  We are combining our personal life and business life differently than we do at other times of the year.  A perfect time to check in and ask yourself if you are trying to be one way in one part of your life and another way in another part of your life.  It’s all YOU. Can you really separate yourself?

Quote of the Week

“Dare to be yourself.”
~Andre Gide

You Are NOT Your Business

by Michael Angier

Many entrepreneurs are so close to their business it’s hard to tell where their business starts and where they begin.

Their identity is very much tied up in what they do.

Other small business owners compartmentalize really well-maybe too well. They make a big distinction between personal life and business life.

For me, there’s no real difference between personal life and work life-it’s ALL life.

That doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be some distinctions around the time you spend, but trying to be one way in one part of your life and another way in another part of your life seems disingenuous to me.

And as the great Nido Quebein quips, “Be who you is. Because if you ain’t who you is, then you is who you ain’t.”

I suggest that you are not your business. Your business or your career does not define who you are. But to a large extent, your business and your career IS you.

What you say, what you do-or don’t do-reflects on your company. Who you are being, both at work and outside of work, is a representation of your business.

Who you are being touches every other aspect of your life.

Copyright Michael Angier & Success Networks International. Used with permission. Michael Angier is the founder and president of SuccessNet.org.

Coaching Call to Action

This week take some time to look at who you are being both at work and outside of work.  Are they different?  What if you were to align them so that you were being the same in both places?  What will you do more of, keep the same, stop doing?

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

Amazing!  Just when you think your new offering is foolproof, you find out it isn’t.  Earlier this year I offered 90 minutes of coaching in celebration of International Coaching Week to all of you.  The call in number I gave you had one wrong digit.  ARGH!  Had I followed Jeffrey’s advice and tested my offer, I would have discovered the error.  How might you be turning off your customers?

Quote of the Week

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
~ Bill Gates

Your Best, and Most Costly Lessons are Right in Front of  You

How good are you, really?
Be your own customer, and find out, really.

Yesterday I got the shock of my life: I tried to buy something on my own website and couldn’t.

Funny, I buy all kinds of things on other people’s websites. I’m a one-click buyer on Amazon. I’m a Paypal customer. And I have my credit card registered and saved on every site that will allow it. In short, I trust the Internet.

In short, short – if I decide that I want to buy something online, I want to buy it fast. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not crazy about filling out an online order form (where all the boxes say it’s “mandatory” to enter my information.)

Many of you subscribe to my weekly email magazine and have taken advantage of the “deal of the week,” a special offer on a bundle of my books and CDs. Last week we decided to present something for the first time – a $20.00 discount off any of my upcoming public seminar tickets. Fair enough…

So I went to my own site to test the offer. I put in a request to buy five tickets. The website (my website) promised a fast and easy purchase. And that promise was ANYTHING BUT the truth. It was a pain in the butt. I clicked off of my own site in frustration and disgust.

I immediately pulled the offer and we went through an e-commerce exercise that brought me back to reality. We revamped the purchasing process to where it IS fast and easy. And easy to understand. It’s now fixed for the short term, and we have a long-term plan in place (actually in motion) to make it even faster and easier.

MAJOR CLUE: Had I not tried to buy something from my own website, I would have never known. I would have danced along actually believing my own words, never realizing that customers were frustrated – and worse – not purchasing. Clicking off – abandoning the next step in the buying process because it was slow, cumbersome, and uninformative.

How’s yours? Think your e-commerce is great? Ever try to buy something from yourself, or are you just taking “IT’s” word for it. Or worse, believing your own instructions?

CHALLENGE: Be your own customer at least once a month.

In these “trying” times, many customers (yours and mine) are struggling to maintain volume, profit, and productivity. Somehow the stimulus package and bailout have not yet reached them – me either. You?

REALITY: Each of us is responsible to stimulate and bail out ourselves, in spite of what you may be hearing.

If and when your customer calls or goes online, they expect instant answers, instant service, and instant delivery of whatever they need – or they will seek a competitor.

And they expect multiple options to connect with you, any time of the day or night, to get the help they need, or purchase the product they need.

REALITY: Their need is your opportunity. Your challenge is to turn them into a happy, LOYAL customer who is willing to repeat purchase, tell others, and refer others to you.

Not “satisfy” them.

Here’s what to do to self-insure your own success: 1. Call your business five minutes before you open, and try to place an order, or get service. 2. Call your business five minutes after you close, and try to place an order, or get service. (That should be enough to make you angry – but wait there’s more!) 3. Go online and try to buy something. How long does it take (how many clicks?) compared to Amazon’s one? 4. Call your business during the day and complain to someone. Then ask for the person’s boss – or even your CEO. Make certain you have plenty of Pepto-Bismol on hand – because I promise your stomach will be turning upside-down. 5. Now call yourself and listen to your pathetic voicemail that tells me everything I DO NOT want to hear, and DOES NOT tell me the one thing I want to hear – where the heck are you?

REALITY: Whatever your experience is when you call yourself or buy from yourself online, that’s the same thing your customers, your life-blood, and your money-line is experiencing. OUCH!

Fix it fast. Your customers need you.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Red Book of Selling. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com.

© 2010 All Rights Reserved – May be reproduced with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer · 704/333-1112.

Coaching Call to Action

Be your own customer at least once a month.  Give your business a test drive, kick the tires, call yourself.  See what you find out about what’s working (and celebrate this) and what’s not (and fix this)!

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

I know as a business owner you are moving quickly, in many directions, wearing many hats.  Yet, it’s imperative to remember what you are promising to others and yourself.  At the beginning of my coaching engagements, clients sometimes have difficulty gauging how much they can really accomplish in-between coaching sessions.  They tend to over promise and under deliver. The accountability that is built into coaching helps them to quickly see this about themselves, recognize the impact, and make changes.  Loren’s article highlights the impact on your integrity of not keeping your word and 5 tips for keeping your agreements. Don’t you want to be known as someone who keeps their word?

Quote of the Week

“Our character is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.”
~ George Santayana

As Good As Your Word?

by Loren Ekroth

Legend has it that years ago in the American Southwest, cattle were traded and sold on the basis of a few words and a handshake.  No contracts necessary.  A man’s word was his bond.  Similarly, within the councils of Hopi and Navaho tribes, speaking the truth was a requirement.  Words were thoughtful and few and carefully chosen.  Participants spoke truth.

Fast-forward to 2010 with these two examples:

1. I invite an acquaintance to a dinner and social evening at my home. She replies, “Thanks, I’ll try to make it.”

Should I set a place for her at the table?  Probably not.

She is being polite, and the connotation of what she says is “I’ll be there.”  But the chance is better than 50/50 that she won’t attend.

(As Yoda said in Star Wars, “Do or do not… there is no try.”)

2. I ask a fellow, “We need help serving at our church potluck dinner on Sunday. Can you help out?”  He says, “Count on me.”

But he doesn’t show up, so we’re short-handed.

Later, when I see these two people, they may not even mention not having kept their agreement, implying that I should understand because “something came up,” or “it slipped my mind.”  No apology needed.

What’s going on here?  Do words have no weight?

It appears that these folks think talk is cheap and that keeping your word is not important. However, here’s a principle that’s solid:

Your agreements show your integrity.

Therefore, take all agreements seriously, and don’t make any agreements you don’t plan to keep, or cannot keep.  As well, make sure your agreements are clear.  If the agreement involves money or other assets, put it in writing.

Recently a friend told me of a woman who temporarily shared his apartment. A nurse, she would be able to help him from time to time. (He has a serious heart condition.)  At one point she told him that she was in financial difficulty and asked for a loan of $1500 with a promise to pay him back “soon.”  He agreed and gave her the $1500 based on her verbal promise to pay him back “soon.”

A few weeks later she paid him $200 “on account.”  Shortly after, she moved out and went to another state, no forwarding address.  With no way of contacting her, he has said goodbye to $1300.

Have you been having this experience with people whose word is not good?

If so, here are a few things you can do, starting with yourself:

1. Make very few agreements, and only those you are quite sure you are able to keep.  Make very, very few promises.  Keep those you make.
2. If you can’t keep an agreement, renegotiate it or cancel it.  “I’m awfully sorry, I can’t help you out on Sunday.  My child is sick.”
3. Be careful with whom you make agreements.  Certainly don’t make agreements with those whose record is not keeping them.
4. Don’t make agreements to do anything you don’t have control over, such as assuming what others might do before you’ve checked with them, as in “I’ll be happy to help you move and will bring 3 friends to help.”
5. Be absolutely sure of mutual understanding, so you don’t accept language like “I’ll pay you back soon,” or “I’ll call you next week.” Ask, “What’s the specific time you can call me?”  If that time is convenient to both, confirm it and put it in your schedule.  (Have you noticed how your dentist’s receptionist will call you to remind you about your appointment a day in advance?  And that if you are a no-show, you’ll be charged?)  Reminders are good.

If a person makes and doesn’t keep agreements with others, it is likely that they don’t keep agreements with themselves, either.  They tell themselves they are going to do something like study for a test, but they don’t do it.

We can be friendly and civil to people we know even if their word is not good.  (We may even have relatives or co-workers who are well known for not keeping their agreements, especially if money is involved.)  But, if that’s the situation with you, follow the advice of Polonius to his hotheaded son Laertes (in Shakespeare’s Hamlet):

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”

Loren Ekroth (c) 2010, all rights reserved. Loren Ekroth, Ph.D. is a specialist in human communication and a national expert on conversation for business and social life. Complimentary newsletter, “Better Conversations” at www.conversationmatters.com. Contact at Loren@conversationmatters.com.

Coaching Call to Action

This week become aware of all of the requests being made of you.  Before you make an agreement to a request, make sure it’s something that you are able to keep.  If you find that you are not able to keep the agreement, make sure to let the person know.  No one likes surprises.  In using this process, do you make more agreements?  Fewer agreements?  More meaningful agreements?  What changes for you?

What’s New?

March 10, 2010 – 6:30 to 8:30 pm at Keefe Tech Continuing Education
Empowering Yourself!

Do you feel like you need to make a significant change in your business or personal life and would like some support to address these issues? I will provide my 5-step program for gaining control of your life. This seminar is scheduled for Wednesday, March 10th, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Keefe Tech, Framingham, MA. To reserve your place, please call 508-935-0202 or go to www.ktconed.org/health_and_lifestyle.htm.

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