Musings of a Business Coach...

Application trumps information.

This is one of Maximum Impact's "themes" as it were. We love this theme because of the truth behind it.

No matter how much we THINK about something -THINKING about it makes absolutely NO DIFFERENCE out here in the real world. We tend to think that what we think about an issue or a strategy in business makes some kind of difference. I get caught up in this kind of thinking all the time!

It's when we can take an independent action. An action that is separate from our thoughts about it. It is in THIS state that we start to produce different results. As a coach I am most concerned with your results NOT your philosophies, ideas about, or conclusions you have drawn about any given subject. I can't coach your thoughts. Your mind is not available to me to SEE how it works!

In business if you have the idea that you have to AGREE with something before you do it -you'll get left behind. When I worked for companies I was asked to do tasks and carry out strategies that I thought were completely stupid and irrelevant. I didn't agree with it. I sometimes had conversations about that but most of the time it never worked in changing whether or not I was to carry out the strategy or task.

It was ONLY AFTER RESULTS were generated (or not generated) when I had some power to have a conversation about those strategies or tasks. It is because results matter! What you think about them doesn't matter so much.

I ask my clients to take certain actions. Even without agreement to those actions. This measures their level of coachability and will also have them doing something different than they are used to. The ones that are not coachable like to argue and try to take the focus off of themselves (they're not taking any action about most things!). I request that they argue with me by using the results through action instead of using their mental faculties. There is usually resistance at any turn!

As soon as they take action and decide to be coachable they start to see very different results (this really does mess with their head). By then they usually GET what coaching is about. It's about RESULTS!

If you want to have intellectual conversations then you would need to hire a therapist! :-)

In business we tend to ignore the soft skills and concepts and focus on getting dollars into our wallets. This focus limits the amount of dollars that will actually flow into our wallets! :-)

There's a basic soft skill that I call "being complete." This distinction is simple and powerful and will always yield a result in the business world.

When we are complete with things we are free to focus fully on the task at hand as well as operate from a creative paradigm.

How do you know you aren't complete with something? You can't let it go. It haunts you (or at least hangs around in your brain more than you are comfortable with). Getting complete can be difficult because of all the crap we have around it. Things can be over or "finished" but the person can still be incomplete. High School is a great example, there are people who have graduated High School, gone on to College and are currently in their careers who are still not complete with High School. The thought of getting complete about High School is misunderstood with the idea that you are somehow weak or mentally inept. Others may even judge you in saying something like "Dude, it was HIGH SCHOOL! 20 years ago! Get over it!"

But when you're incomplete there's no way to "get over" it. Because something's incomplete. You need to do something, hear something, or say something to get complete about that. Once you're complete -it will no longer weigh you down, get in the way, take up space in your thoughts, feelings, or being. It's gone. Done. COMPLETE!

Sometimes we carry incompletions around our whole lives and don't even know it. I had coffee with an old acquaintence a few weeks ago who wanted to make amends for something he did to me over 30 years ago. I was between 9-12 yrs old. I couldn't even remember the deed. He brought it up and pushed through the conversation. Feeling incomplete himself about the whole thing. I didn't think much of it at the time. I thanked him, told him I forgive him -and we kept talking for awhile then we went on our way. On the drive home I was overcome with emotion about it. Kind of snuck up on me. It was a wonderful experience to become free of a blind incompletion in my life. It was really peaceful. Again, the power of completion.

So what does this have to to with attracting business to you? Just EVERYTHING! When you are complete you become a clearing for more powerful relationships to arise. You start to serve others with more clarity and focus on them -not yourself. This is automatic as you become more and more complete.

All business is about relationships so it stands to reason that you will be increasing your relationships and therefore your business.

To get compete, take a book and write out EVERYTHING you can think of that you regret, are disappointed in, want to repeat (this could be a good thing -not just negative things!), or events that happened that you feel have shaped who you are today.

Next, ask yourself what you would need to do (any actions you need to take) that would have you never have to think of this event again. Or you may have to hear something (from someone or something online). Or you may need to get into communication with someone to say something about this event. To have that person really listen to you and "get" you. It is the act of being "gotten" that has completion occur.

Once you do this you'll notice things change in your life and business almost automatically because in a way you now are seeing life through a very different context. It's a new view that isn't tinted by the incompletions of your past hanging around.

This blog post is not complete. :-) 

When my clients are trying to wrap their heads around what I call in business coaching "breakdowns" they start to think of a nervous breakdown. While a nervous breakdown is actually a type of breakdown it is quite dramatic from what we mean by breakdown in general.

Breakdowns and breakthroughs exist with each other. You can't have one without the other. Like night with day, 2 sides of a coin, etc.

So what is a breakdown?

A breakdown is anything that gets in the way of what you say you're committed to. The actual commitment you make produces the breakdown. So there's nothing inherently good or bad about them. You want them because they're cemented to breakthroughs.

The ordinary person can't create breakthroughs because they reject them by refusing to accept the breakdown it's attached to.

You deal with breakdowns in 3 steps...

1. When you notice that circumstances are occurring to you in such a way where you can see that you're not going to get what you're committed to -declare a breakdown while giving up your focus on trying to change your circumstances.

2. Engage in the inquiry: "What's missing -the presence of which would make a difference?" or "What can I add, create, or invent that would have what I'm committed to naturally manifest?" Speculate and write out as many "missings" as you can.

3. Pick one of your "missings" and take ACTION on it right away.

I wish you many breakdowns today and this next week so you can experience amazing breakthroughs!

Coach George

What makes the New Year new?

Human beings DECLARING it new -that's what makes it new. You and I agree with the story that somehow January 1 every year is new.

We seldom stop to think about it -but EVERYTHING in society is invented and created by us humans. Someone had an idea and then tells another. That person agrees and then the two of them spread the story to the rest of the tribe. Pretty soon we believe things like the world is flat and you'll fall off the edge. Then we changed that to the world is round. What is round? Round is something made-up to describe a shape. And on and on it goes.

The power in knowing that everything's invented is that you start to look at the world in a wonderful mystic sort of way. The possibility springs to life that you and I could actually INVENT our own lives and create a new ending for humanity.

Why not?

My son wants to go to Stanford and study psychology there. One of his acquaintences urged him to have a more "realistic" goal in mind. "Who says what's realistic?" he asked. "And why should I accept their view of what's real?"

Sometimes our assessments of what's so limit us and we make choices based on these assessments. Nothing's wrong with the whole process and I'm not even suggesting that anything's wrong with how we made everything up either. It's just a distinction that gives us some possibility. Possibility to create.

As the end of the year draws near let this realization that all is invented rumble around inside you as you start to speculate on what you want to create in 2012.

I know I am!

When I sit with my clients who are struggling with selling or creating a business agreement -I've noticed a HUGE missing over there in their world... It's the ability to live inside of their client's shoes, to get into their world. There are some powerful questions that can help you do this and I want to share them with you. I can't remember where I got these and I just want the reader to know that I didn't create them -I stole them! :-)

The magical 8 questions to ask yourself ABOUT your client that get you inside of their world are...

1. What keeps them awake at night?

2. What are they afraid of?

3. What are they angry about?

4. Who are they angry at?

5. What are their top 3 daily frustrations?

6. What trends are and will occur in their businesses or lives?

7. What do they secretly desire most?

8. Why won't they buy from me?

Once you go through these and answer them you will have some raw data to create a powerful marketing piece and to generate a powerful story that will really get the attention of your target market!

Happy Creating!

Coach George