Mandy Schumaker

PERFORMANCE COACH, TRAINER AND SPEAKER

Coaching

Is it Time For You to Hire a Coach?

by Leave a Comment

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that I wholeheartedly believe that everyone should invest in a coach at a minimum of at least once in their life and ideally, on a fairly frequent basis. You can now hire coaches for almost anything you can think of, to help you lose weight, find a mate, lose a mate, get over a mate, put your baby to sleep, have a healthier lifestyle, healthier business-you name it, there’s a coach for it.

I often get people who, upon learning what I do for a profession say, “I could sure use your services”, but upon further conversation and follow-up don’t really take action on their comment. But how do you know when is the right time to hire a coach?

Coaches can provide a lot of different results, depending on what you’ve hired them to help you do. But I believe there are three basic areas where people can greatly benefit from coaching:

1-Accountability-it is very difficult, in fact nearly impossible, to hold yourself accountable without some kind of consistent mechanism or system to keep you on track. Most of us “know in our heart of hearts” what we need to be doing in our businesses, diets, relationships etc., but have trouble sticking with the game plan-because there’s no accountability in our lives. Having a coach provides that mechanism and weekly or bi-weekly check-in with a coach can provide the stability to “stay the course” so we can start to get traction and make progress that up until now, we’ve only dreamed about.

2-Support, Motivation and Tough Love– While we all have family and friends who can provide at least one, maybe two of these traits, it is often rare to find someone who can provide all three. A coach’s job is to hold your vision and goals for you and keep your eyes directed on the prize-even when the road gets tough, particularly when the road gets tough. Having a coach who has an objective viewpoint, AND holds your best interests in mind is what makes the difference and helps you to see the longer view, or bigger vision for yourself or your business.

3-Revealing our Blindspots-We all have them and it’s also impossible for any of us to see our own blindspots. And yet, it’s often our blindspots that can keep us stuck and feeling overwhelmed. A coach is trained to help you uncover your blindspots and help you look at things through a different lens.

If you’ve considered investing in a coach to help you in some area of your life or business, I strongly urge you to follow your intuition and interview a coach or two to get a sense of what kind of results they are getting for their clients. In fact, I would welcome the opportunity to have a 30 minute get acquainted session with you to learn more about your business and to explore whether there may be an opportunity for us to work together. Click here to schedule a time for us to chat!

Mandy works with talented, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own. .Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” right down below.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Are You Committed, Or Just Interested?

by Leave a Comment

I recently heard a wonderful quote from John Asseraf: “If you’re interested, you’ll do what is convenient-if you’re committed you’ll do whatever it takes.” This quote really spoke to me. Many years ago, I struggled a long time as to whether I should have my own coaching business, but I always had a lot of excuses as to why I couldn’t or shouldn’t. It was fear talking. Then when I finally started my business seven years ago, looking back, it was clearly from an “interested” place. “Oh,” I’d say, “if this doesn’t work out, I can always go back to a corporate job”. Or I’d leave the backdoor open by always perusing the help wanted ads, or when someone called me with a potential position, I’d be so excited about the possibility and rush to send in my resume.

It was clear I wasn’t really committed. I hadn’t shut the back door and said to myself, “this is it, you need to do whatever it takes to make this thing work”. And it wasn’t until I got that mindset, and it took several years-that it finally did start working. I started getting referrals, more speaking engagements; my marketing became more in alignment with my niche.

Where are you in your business? So here are some things to think about:

What’s stopping you from doing whatever it takes? What is preventing you from “shutting” your back door and having a “do or die” approach to whatever it is you want to achieve? Whether it’s a promotion, starting your own business, changing jobs, careers-what is stopping you from totally committing to that vision? I found it was really important to answer this question. Identify the things that were blocking me. For me, it was fear of failing, and a need for approval from others close to me of what I was doing and creating. Once I realized, unless I was fully committed to my coaching and consulting business, I would indeed fail and that by not becoming fully committed, I would cause disapproval from loved ones around me. Only then was I able to start doing whatever it takes. Really take some time to answer this question for yourself, it’s so important.

How do you stay strong to what you believe in? This question reminds me of the Mary Oliver poem, The Journey:

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do.

You already know what you need to do to stay committed to your vision, but do you love yourself enough to allow it to happen?

Get the support you need. One of the best pieces of advice I received when I was struggling to decide should I keep working on building my business, or go “get a job”, was “don’t go it alone”. Find the support you need to stay true to your course. It is not always easy to follow our vision, or destiny, and it’s certainly not always supported by some of those closest to us. So it’s important to find someone – a friend, a mentor or coach to help hold that vision for us, through bleak days, long days and even the darkest of days.

Remember, when you find the destiny you were born for, all you need to bring is your honor, your courage and your commitment.

Enhanced by Zemanta

So, What Do You Value?

by Leave a Comment

“Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and VALUES are in balance”

Brian Tracy

One of the most important things you can do for yourself and your business is to get clear on your values. This not only allows you to understand the points on your internal compass, it also motivates you to head towards them! They can be used as a framework for which all decisions you might make can be held up against for consideration.

Most of us take a lifetime to understand who we are. Through life’s experiences, some unpleasant, we gradually come to know what we value, what we believe and what we have for gifts and skills to make a difference in the world.

Unless we know ourselves and understand our values, we become attached to what lures us in, and mere objects of other people’s will. We can become outer-directed and lost inside. We can easily be attracted to money, power, control and prestige. The chase for these things often leaves us feeling empty and yearning for something more.

The three most important rules to understand with values are these:

1-There are no right or wrong values. Only right or wrong for the individual. Your values are right for you and mine are right for me. It’s highly unlikely any two people will have exactly the same values because there are an infinite number of permutations.

2-Only you can determine which values are most important for you, someone else cannot determine your values.

3-If somebody’s values do appear to be blatantly wrong-refer back to rule #1

Assignment

Make a list of your values. You might want to take a look at a list of possible values to help you get started.

1-Circle the key values

2-Now identify your top five. Don’t try to override your gut feelings with an internal conversation that goes something along the lines of : “I suppose I should really have family at number one, otherwise the wife/husband/kids will kill me.”

3-Examine these top 5 values by responding to these questions:

  • Are you living out these 5 values? In your family? In your business? In your community?
  • How are you doing with these values? Very well, or not so well?
  • Where are you living out of alignment with your values?
  • If these values were missing from your life, how important would that be to you?

Value-centered living or leadership is acting on our beliefs and our values. When we use our values to make decisions or help us lead our business or lives, we become inner-directed and outwardly motivated.

Feeling Stuck? Five Tips To Get Yourself Unstuck And Back On Track

by Leave a Comment

It happens to all of us at varying times.  We get stuck.  We know what we “want” to be doing, or where we “should” be going, or what we “ought” to be achieving.  But something is holding us back between what we desire and where we are in our job, business, or life.  As a leadership coach, I often work with clients who are stuck. Stuck in their current job or position.  Stuck in a business they don’t find fun or fulfilling anymore. Perhaps they’ve gotten caught up in the details and have lost sight of their intended vision or outcome.  Or perhaps they are unable to focus on what they really want because they have a fear of the unknown, or a loss of confidence.  Often times they just feel plain overwhelmed and don’t know where to start and can’t make a decision.  Whatever the reason, it’s painful, frustrating and downright depressing to be stuck. 

If you are a leader or business owner, being stuck also has an impact on our employees and organizations.  New ideas, projects and innovation within our organizations are jeapordized.  Your direct reports feel frustrated that things are not moving forward and there is probably a loss of trust and respect.  Productivity and profitability are compromised and customers may start to lose interest and patience with your products and services.

Again, we all get stuck at different times of our lives but what’s most important is how we choose to move through what’s keeping us stuck.  After working over the years, with clients who have found themselves stuck in a job or business,  I have found the five following tips help get most people unstuck and moving toward their goal and vision.

1) Consider playing a bigger game.  Perhaps your goal is too small and you are bored, which if the case, will clearly not motivate you to take action and move forward.  Look at your vision or goal…and double it!

2) Perhaps your goal is too large and you need to play a smaller game.  If your goal is too big, you could easily get overwhelmed and stuck in a rut.  So either set a smaller goal, or set milestones along the way and target those.

3) Do the opposite. What might happen if you started doing the opposite of what you’ve been doing to help move yourself forward, or reach your goal?  Sometimes taking a 180 or even a 90 degree turn is what’s needed to help move you along.

4) Ask yourself:  Is this really the goal I want, or is this a “should” goal.  So often I ask my clients this question when they are stuck and many, many times it’s a “should” goal.  Not something that’s coming from your heart.  Fill in the blank and answer the question, “If I do _______________, am I doing it to make ME happy or just to make someone else happy?”

5) Identify your top five values.  This is a very helpful exercise in getting clear on what values in your life are most important to you.  Only then can you authentically move forward towards a goal or objective that clearly expresses your value(s).  Working with a coach or mentor is an excellent way to identify your value list, which helps create the cornerstones for any change, movement, goal or objective you hope to achieve.

I would really welcome your comments  on this subject.  If you’ve found a successful way in helping get yourself unstuck,  I would love to hear from you.  In the meantime, if any of this post resonates with you and you’d like to have some support on getting yourself unstuck,  please feel free to call me at 207-653-6977.

Related articles

Is Consistent Feedback Part Of Your Leadership Style? (Part II)

by Leave a Comment

In Part I of this topic,  I noted how one woman business leader, taking part in a recent panel discussion, described her leadership style as, “Coaching, I coach constantly, giving feedback at every turn, both positive and constructive”. And while coaching is more than just giving feedback, providing feedback — both positive and constructive — on a consistent basis is the most one of the most important competencies of an excellent leader.  Many of the executives I work with tell me they either do not have the time to give feedback or they do not want to deal with the potential conflict or defensiveness that may arise from the conversation.   As I stressed in Part I of this post,  one of the most important responsibilities of your role as a leader — if not THE most important — is developing people.  That requires consistent, constructive feedback at every turn, which does take time.

What are other things a manager can do to improve feedback?

Focus on the outcomes

An excellent starting point when giving feedback is to focus on business results.  When you focus on a business result, increased sales,  increased service, developing talent, it becomes an opportunity to solve a problem rather than to criticize.  This approach also helps lessen a defensive reaction from the recipient because you are hanging your feedback on a business result, not on their character or personal traits.  Focus on your positive intent of the conversation.  “Julie, I’d like to give you some feedback to help mirror for you a behavior I’m seeing that you might not be aware of”.   You’ve set a positive intent for the conversation by telling Julie you want to “help her” see something that you’re not sure she’s aware of.  That’s very different than saying, “Julie,  I need to talk about your behavior at the meeting.  I didn’t like it at all”.  That approach sets a very different tone to your conversation and most likely will illicit a defensive reaction from Julie.

Describe your observations and the impact of the behavior

Describe specifically only what you have observed and the impact of the behavior.  “Julie, I’ve noticed in the past couple of staff meetings,  you haven’t participated or contributed to the conversation.  In fact, your body language and facial expressions have appeared to look angry. It’s off-putting to the other members of the team and I’d like to have a conversation concerning that issue to see if there’s something we need to air between us, or if there’s something else going on that I should k now about.”  In this example, you’ve told Julie specifically what you’ve observed, not attacked her personally, but relayed your positive intent on trying to get to the bottom of the anger.  You even suggested perhaps you are the target of the anger and would like to try and  resolve it if that is the issue.  You’ve also stated the impact of her behavior.  This is crucial step when giving feedback, it provides the connection between the behavior and how it effects the team, another employee, performance etc.  This gives the person on the receiving end of the feedback to understand how their behavior is impacting a situation, person or performance and with that comes a much greater chance of the employee to change or modify that behavior.

Focus the discussion on solution

If the employee  has not responded to your observations and feedback, ask for a response.  There must be a dialogue between the manager and employee for there to be a change in the behavior.  By creating an atmosphere where the two of you can have a discussion on solutions is also vital to impacting change.  While as the manager, you most certainly have some suggestions for solutions, let the employee initiate the list of possible solutions to the issue.  When a possible solution can come from the person who needs it, it is far more likely to get integrated and you will get the desired outcome on a lasting basis.

Reinforcement is most effective form of feedback

While often times an employee is able to integrate your feedback immediately and change happens quickly, many times it takes several feedback sessions of follow-up.  As a leader, it is very important to acknowledge when you observe a positive change with the employee.  Be sure not only to acknowledge it, but do so when immediately upon observation.

So take a few minutes and ask yourself, are you a leader providing consistent, constructive feedback?  Perhaps get some feedback from your direct reports and ask them that question…

If you would like to learn more about improving your feedback and coaching skills, contact me today for a consultation at 207.653.6977 or e-mail me at mandy@mandyschumaker.com.  I would welcome a conversation with you to see how I can help.

Related articles

Is Consistent Feedback Part Of Your Leadership Style? (Part I)

by Leave a Comment

I had the opportunity last week to listen to four very successful women leaders sitting on a panel answer this question:  What is your leadership style?  Their lists were fairly similar:  good listener, collaborative, communicative.  But the one answer I found most satisfying was the leader who said,  “Coaching, I coach constantly, giving feedback at every turn, both positive and constructive”.

And while coaching is more than just giving feedback, providing feedback — both positive and constructive — on a consistent basis is the most one of the most important competencies of an excellent leader.  For managers, it’s an important tool for shaping behaviors and driving better performance; for their direct reports,  its an opportunity for development and career growth.

So why do so many managers have trouble giving feedback?  And why do so many on the receiving end say they don’t get enough feedback they can actually use.  What are the reasons behind this disconnect?  Often times it’s strong emotions on both sides, and a focus on character rather than the behavior. Frequently it’s a lack of clarity around what needs to change and why.   Many of the executives I work with tell me they either do not have the time to give feedback or they do not want to deal with the potential conflict or defensiveness that may arise from the conversation.  But as someone once told me, “withholding feedback is like sending someone out to sea without a compass”.

What can a manager do to improve feedback?

Take the time

One of the most important responsibilities of your role as a leader — if not THE most important — is developing people. That requires consistent, constructive feedback at every turn, which does take time.  Developing the people in your organization through consistent coaching, training and conversation not only  develops a stronger team, but in the long run also brings more innovation, growth and profit to your company.  Find the time, make the time and give the time.  It is well worth it.

In part II, we’ll take a look at what constructive feedback looks like.  In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about improving your feedback and coaching skills, contact me today for a consultation at 207.653.6977 or e-mail me at mandy@mandyschumaker.com.  I would welcome a conversation with you to see how I can help.



Related articles

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta