Coaching Leaders about Employee Attraction and Retention

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It’s a seller’s labor market. Jobs everywhere are going unfilled. Unfilled jobs handicap an organization’s ability to deliver on its promises. Unfilled jobs can even become an existential crisis for some companies.  Let’s look at how you might be able to help. Most companies seem to think that money is the answer. But for organizations looking to get out in front of their competitors for talent, it is only part of the answer. Unfortunately, many leaders don’t know what to do when they play the money card and it doesn’t work. Dan Pink, in his book Drive, talks about what motivates employees beyond money. Pink notes that the thinking and practices that most companies use today evolved to solve problems that were very different from the ones your client organizations now face. He calls it Management 1.0. Those problems and solutions have their roots in the Industrial Revolution. In those…

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What Do You Do?

Coaching

Every coach has to build a book of business, a fancy way of saying you have to get clients who will pay you for your services. So how do you do that?  Building a book of business takes two steps, marketing and selling. Marketing involves letting people know that you have something to offer, what that something is, and why they should want it (in other words, how it can help them). Selling is closing the deal. Let’s talk about marketing this time. Or really, marketing prep. Marketing probably makes you think about websites, Google ads, and other forms of communication. But that’s the wrong starting point. Those things are all about getting your message out. But first you have to know what that message is. What do you want potential clients to know that will make them want to come to you? To begin to find out, answer this…

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Could Your Coaching Help Save Us?

Coaching

In today’s post, I argue that the work that you do has potentially enormous value that you may not yet have recognized. Let’s start with something a bit frightening. (Please don’t head for the exits. I know that there is too much to fear these days, but stick with this post. It goes somewhere!) A volunteer in a community organization to which I belong shared this article. It describes a new kind of warfare, cognitive warfare, which is designed to disrupt whole societies without firing a shot. Then, on March 30, 2023, the Washington Post published this article, describing how Russia is doing just that. Both articles are important, but are long and not that easy to get through. Here is the gist: Cognitive warfare uses recent advances in psychological and neurological science to create social media, chatbots, and the like, to sow fear and divisiveness. The goal is to…

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Text-image. In light grey in the background, it says EQ over and over again. On top of that in black text it says, "team leadership, supervision, culture change, relationships presentations".

Coaching Models and Emotional Intelligence

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(See my challenge at the end!) Twenty-five years ago, I was beginning my evolution from psychotherapist to executive coach. I had a lot of thinking and learning to do. That need became apparent as I tried to imagine going to an organization to offer coaching services. The following very short conversation came to mind: Dana: “I’d like to offer my services to your company as a coach to your senior leaders.” Decision Maker: “Really! That’s interesting. We’re actually in the market. How do you go about your coaching? What is your focus?” Dana: “Ummm.” In response to that nightmarish imagining, I did what all of you have done. I thought about what models I could l use to inform my approach to coaching. Which ones, I wondered, best fit what I wanted to accomplish? I had learned as a therapist that having several models in my repertoire was essential, as…

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Confessions of an Introvert

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I am, by nature, on the introverted side of the scale. Many coaches tell me that is true for them as well. Introverts find marketing more difficult than extraverts. At least, that is what they may expect. After a career of building a thriving executive coaching business from nothing, I’d like to do a little myth busting by sharing some stories. Introverts can be great marketers. Let’s review what introvert means. It simply means that we “refuel” by having time to ourselves. Big social gatherings are not our preferred evening out. We like time at home, or with a small number of friends. We are likely to be introspective, a good trait for a coach. (A coach without self-awareness is a disaster.) Introvert does not mean that we lack social skills. We are able to establish rewarding, deep relationships with people. We just don’t have to be with them all…

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