CorporateCoach

I was delighted on Saturday to see the Welsh flag flying from Birmingham’s Council House. This grand building, which is the local seat of government, dominates the square outside our head office.

St David is the patron saint of Wales and he is celebrated on 1 March. I used to live in Llanddewi Dewi, which is named after the famous saint, who visited there to preach. The legend is that David attended an important Church Synod meeting in the village. A huge crowd of people had gathered near the village church and many complained that they couldn’t see or hear what was going on.

David placed a handkerchief on the ground and stood on it. Suddenly, a small hill is said to have risen from under his feet so that he could be seen by everyone. Some say that a dove then landed on his shoulder, a sign from God. If you visit this picturesque village you will see that, indeed, the church is set on a small rise overlooking the square.

One of St David’s most well-know teachings was that people should ‘do the little things’ in life - in Welsh, ‘gwnewch y pethau bychain‘.

My house was called Dewi Well. The house opposite and set a little higher in the lane was called Ffynnon Dewi ( David’s Well). Again according to legend, the well in my neighbour’s garden had been found by St David. When the foundations for my house were dug, the well opposite dried up and a spring started to flow in my basement. It still does, with beautiful clear water.

So how does this relate to corporate life and coaching? Well culture is made up of stories and celebrations. What are the stories that define organisations that you work in or deal with? What are the sorts of events and sayings that are celebrated?

We talk a lot about the importance of beliefs and values but what are they and how do you learn and recognise them? Values are only expressed through behaviour - it is behavour that defines a culture, and values that underpin behaviour.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

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Roger Hamilton has two major events planned for the UK. As a subscriber to CorporateCoach you can get big savings on each event and download an extract from his definitive book "Your Life Your Legacy". Read on.

Just to give you some background, Roger is an international presenter and best-selling author on entrepreneurs and building wealth. In the last two years he has spoken to over 100,000 people across 14 countries.

Roger has studied the great entrepreneurs in history and has found that there are only eight ways to create wealth. More importantly, Roger’s content is truly unique; he explains eight wealth profiles and shows you with enormous insight the right path to wealth just for you.

You can learn more about his discoveries by downloading an extract from his book.

If you can clear your diary, do so because what you will learn from Roger has the potential to shift your business and take it to a completely new level.

The first event is in Birmingham on Monday 10 March - and it is F.R.E.E!! I shall be there and look forward to seeing you there too!

Find out more and book today

Your Life, Your Legacy - London 14-16 April

The Birmingham event is just a taster for The Entrepreneurs’ Event of 2008 at Alexandra Palace, London on April 14-16. Over 2,000 people are expected and it is being advertised in 20 countries. Because of our involvement with Roger, we have a special offer. Sign up at once and you have a chance of a ticket at £99, instead of the public price of £697.

If you are already curious about your own Wealth dynamics profile, you can find out here: Wealth Dynamics profiling

Use verbal signs

Indicate that you are listening with an occasional word or sound: yes, uh-uh, OK, fine, I see, Mmm, right. This tells the speaker you are still there (if you are on the telephone) and also encourages him to keep talking.

But beware, if these signs are overdone, you can sound condescending.

If you are in his presence, small nods, eye contact and other body language signals can demonstrate continued interest.

Be sensitive

You will gain more information, more effectively if you are sensitive to the underlying feelings and mood of the speaker, which may or may not be directly expressed. Try to recognise the fundamental direction of his intention and energy.

Seek Clarification

Ask questions to get additional information or to clarify what you have already heard. This will help you to expand the discussion and explore all avenues. Questions that are relevant, reflective and based on previous answers will demonstrate that you have been paying attention. Remember the difference between open and closed questions, and use an appropriate style.

Restate and summarise

It can help to restate or paraphrase key facts as they are given. Summarising from time to time will bring the discussion into focus. Both will help confirm your interpretation and understanding of the information, often serving as a springboard for further discussion.

Take notes

Never try to write everything down, just make a note of the key points and words. This will act as a reference point during the conversation and help jog your memory afterwards.

Concentrate

Focus your mind on the discussion and consciously tune in, especially when you are on the telephone. Try to ignore distractions, which can be of two kinds.
Physical distractions include background noise (at either end), lack of time, bad lines, people putting notes under your nose or talking to you while you are on the phone, lack of organisation etc.

Psychological distractions include personal emotion, such as feelings towards the speaker or the subject matter.

Better still, prepare yourself so that distractions do not occur.

Think before you speak

As the listener, you should be doing less of the talking. Try not to interrupt, jump to conclusions, make assumptions or finish sentences for them.

Ask questions

Construction:

• Include what, when, where, who, how much, how often
• Start broad and then narrow to increase focus
• Follow their interest and use their words

Process:

• Ask - listen - observe - ask

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I have been reading "Tuesdays with Morrie". This much loved small book is the record of a the dying days of a sociology lecturer, Morrie Schwartz, as experienced in a series of discussions by journalist Mitch Albom.

Morrie decided that an account of his dying should be a course in living and, Tuesday by Tuesday, he and Mitch discussed such matters as family, emotions, fear of aging, love, marriage and culture. The conclusion is that life is about relationships and that death is a natural part of life.

There is a series of questions that are often used in personal development.

• What would you do if you knew that you would live a healthy life for the next three months and then drop dead?
• What would you do if you suddenly received a very large sum of money so that you could pay off any debts and be financially independent?
• If you were able to observe your own funeral what would you like to hear people say about you?

The object of these questions is to identify what you really value in your life and to challenge you to make any changes in the living, rather than in the dying.

One thing that is often said about people at the end of their lives is that they would not have wished to spend more time at the office! I think that in my case I disagree. Not in the case of the office, but in terms of work. I love the work that I do in the office as I am able to indulge my creativity in the design of programmes and preparation of proposals. But there are other ways of achieving this fulfilment. However, I am fortunate that my real work involves many of the things referred to in "Tuesdays with Morrie". Coaching and facilitation are all about relationship, interaction and growth. So, the more work I do the better. And the more I shall be able to look back on, the better.

I recently carried out a simple exercise on myself. I headed a page of my journal "What do I want?" and then freely wrote down everything I could think of. There were no surprises in what I had written - I had written it because I knew it. However, there were some surprises in what I did not write. I recommend the exercise.

One way to stay young is to keep learning new things. I have mentioned that this year I am learning to ride. I am making great progress and am very proud of myself. Such success is very motivating and good for self esteem. In fact I have made such progress that in my fourth lesson I managed to fall off! I had progressed to cantering and was racing round the school when my hourse played a trick on me and suddenly changed direction. I have learned more about understanding my horse and reading its body language. I have also learned not to be smug!

I have bought a ticket to a football match. That might not sound too odd for an Englishman but my family will know that it is a major development. I have never been to such a match in my whole life, nor even watched one on television.

When you seek to challenge your clients you might remember that what is a stretch to them might not seem a stretch to you.

A major objective of coaching is to raise awareness. I thought you would enjoy the story in Coaching Notes about the consequences of knowing only part of the truth.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

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Roger Hamilton has two major events planned for the UK. As a subscriber to CorporateCoach you can get big savings on each event and download an extract from his definitive book "Your Life Your Legacy". Read on.

Just to give you some background, Roger is an international presenter and best-selling author on entrepreneurs and building wealth. He’s spoken to over 100,000 people across 14 countries in the last two years.

Roger has studied the great entrepreneurs in history and has found that there are only eight ways to create wealth. More importantly, Roger’s content is truly unique; he doesn’t present on shares, options, real estate, business or any of the specific "how to" strategies for creating wealth. Instead he talks about YOU. And he shows you with enormous insight the right path to wealth just for you.

You can learn more about his discoveries by downloading an extract from his book.

If you can clear your diary, do so because what you will learn from Roger has the potential to shift your business and take it to a completely new level.

The first event is in Birmingham on Monday 10 March - and it is F.R.E.E!! I shall be there and look forward to seeing you there too!

Find out more and book today

Your Life, Your Legacy - London 14-16 April

The Birmingham event is just a taster for The Entrepreneurs’ Event of 2008 at Alexandra Palace, London on April 14-16. Over 2,000 people are expected and it is being advertised in 20 countries. Because of our involvement with Roger, we have a special offer. Sign up at once and you have a chance of a ticket at £99, instead of the public price of £697.

If you are already curious about your own Wealth dynamics profile, you can find out here: Wealth Dynamics profiling

One day, three blind men happened to meet each other and gossiped a long time about many things. Suddenly one of them recalled, " I heard that an elephant is a queer animal. Too bad we’re blind and can’t see it." "Ah, yes, truly too bad we don’t have the good fortune to see the strange animal," another one sighed.

The third one, quite annoyed, joined in and said, "See? Forget it! Just to feel it would be great."

"Well, that’s true. If only there were some way of touching the elephant, we’d be able to know," they all agreed.

It so happened that a merchant with a herd of elephants was passing, and overheard their conversation. "You fellows, do you really want to feel an elephant? Then follow me; I will show you," he said.

The three men were surprised and happy. Taking one another’s hand, they quickly formed a line and followed while the merchant led the way. Each one began to contemplate how he would feel the animal, and tried to figure how he would form an image.

After reaching their destination, the merchant asked them to sit on the ground to wait. In a few minutes he led the first blind man to feel the elephant. With outstretched hand, he touched first the left foreleg and then the right. After that he felt the two legs from the top to the bottom, and with a beaming face, turned to say, "So, the queer animal is just like that." Then he slowly returned to the group.

Thereupon the second blind man was led to the rear of the elephant. He touched the tail, which wagged a few times, and he exclaimed with satisfaction, "Ha! Truly a queer animal! Truly odd! I know now. I know." He hurriedly stepped aside.

The third blind man’s turn came, and he touched the elephant’s trunk which moved back and forth turning and twisting and he thought, "That’s it! I’ve learned."

The three blind men thanked the merchant and went their way. Each one was secretly excited over the experience and had a lot to say, yet all walked rapidly without saying a word.

"Let’s sit down and have a discussion about this queer animal," the second blind man said, breaking the silence.

"A very good idea. Very good." the other two agreed for they also had this in mind.
Without waiting for anyone to be properly seated, the second one blurted out, "This queer animal is like our straw fans swinging back and forth to give us a breeze. However, it’s not so big or well made. The main portion is rather wispy."

"No, no!" the first blind man shouted in disagreement. "This queer animal resembles two big trees without any branches."

"You’re both wrong." the third man replied. "This queer animal is similar to a snake; it’s long and round, and very strong."

How they argued! Each one insisted that he alone was correct. Of course, there was no conclusion for not one had thoroughly examined the whole elephant. How can anyone describe the whole until he has learned the total of the parts.

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I have recently been preparing some material on Customer Care. Increasingly organisations are recognising the importance of customer care to differentiate their product or service.

Two issues reinforce the importance of customer service and customer care in the Internet age.

We have been having a series of problems with customer service from the British bank, Abbey. The staff have been very friendly and may well have been on customer service courses. However, in each case they have been failed by a lack of systems and been unable to deal with simple - and surely common - occurences such as death and change of address. We have so far discovered two web sites specifically established to pass on examples of bad customer experiences at Abbey.

The grapevine these days is supercharged!

The other lesson is the opposite. Ron Paul was a republican candidate in the USA presidential primaries. He managed to raise more than $10,000,000 in small donations using the Internet. How did he do this? The power of social marketing! Social media, the Internet and a viral moevement amongst social site aware surfers who cared enough about his message to spread it across the global network of social sites.

So, remember, if you are the source of a story - good or bad - you might be very surprised at how quickly it can pass around the world.

-o-O-o-

I have just read a fantastic book by Gregory David Roberts. It is a novel but is based on his own expereinces of the slums and mafia of Mumbai at the the time of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. It is a long and gripping book of more than 900 pages. It is not just a thriller, but includes some philosophy and and theories of life.

I am pleased to use Roberts’ description of Occam’s Razor as the basis for this week’s Coaching Notes.

-o-O-o-

I recently attended a presentation by Yeow Poon of People and Organisation, a local but international organisation transformation consultancy. In his final reflection Yeow included some comments based on the famous quote of Rene Descartes, "Cogito, ergo sum". I thought you would enjoy them

• I think, therefore I am.
• I believe, therefore I will be.
• I am mindful, therefore I am aware.
• I study, therefore I know.
• I do, therefore I become.
• I learn, therefore I am no longer the same.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

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Roger visits the UK

You might have heard me mention Roger Hamilton and his wealth dynamics profiling system.

Last year I travelled to study with him in Bali and was also able to work with him in London on a couple of occasions.

For the first time he is visiting Edinburgh and Birmingham and I strongly recommend that you take this opportunity to hear what he has to say. There is no charge for readers of CorporateCoach. He is also visiting New Zealand - see below.

Just to give you some background, Roger is an international presenter and best-selling author on entrepreneurs and building wealth. He’s spoken to over 100,000 people across 14 countries in the last two years.

Roger has studied all the great entrepreneurs in history and has found that there are only eight ways to create wealth. More importantly, Roger’s content is truly unique; he doesn’t present on shares, options, real estate, business or any of the specific "how to" strategies for creating wealth. Instead he talks about YOU. And he shows you with enormous insight the right path to wealth just for you.

Roger’s profiling system, called “Wealth Dynamics”, helps you understand your passions and your purpose, your natural skills and abilities. Your Wealth Dynamics profile will show you the path of least resistance to wealth specifically for you and is really powerful when building a team to run a business (consultants and coaches take note).

Which one are you?

If there truly are eight paths, which way is right for you? What strategies should you focus on and what should you avoid? Who should you role model? What types of people can most help you succeed? Who should be on your team and who should be off it?

To be a Great Entrepreneur you need to lead like a Great Entrepreneur. You need the clarity to know what opportunities are for you and what you should leave on the table. Roger Hamilton delivers that clarity at this event:

• Discover the 8 entrepreneurial leadership styles
• Discover the universal law that EVERY great entrepreneur has employed (and it’s not what you might be thinking).
• Find out why Entrepreneurs don’t work
• Learn who YOU (personally) should be reading about and learning from – and who not to.
• Find out who you need to have on your core entrepreneurial team.

So if you can clear your diary, do so because what you will learn from Roger has the potential to shift your business and take it to a completely new level.

Like all of Roger’s events, it’s likely to fill up really quickly. If you would like to attend, book your complimentary tickets today by clicking on the special link below (this will allow you to bypass the payment system):

I shall be at the Birmingham event and look forward to seeing you there!

Edinburgh: Monday 11 February
Birmingham: Monday 10 March

Find out more and book today

Roger visits New Zealand

Roger Hamilton is also visiting New Zealand:

Auckland: Monday 18 February
Wellington: Tuesday 19 February
Christchurch: Wednesday 20 February

Find out more and book today

Wealth Dynamics

Occam’s Razor is named after William of Occam (1285 - 1349), who was an English Franciscan monk and a very influential thinker. Among many other interesting propositions, Occam argued that any kind of problem that we’re trying to solve or investigate "should be stated in its most basic terms."

The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae ("law of parsimony" or "law of succinctness"): "entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem", or "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity".

This is often paraphrased as "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities. It is in this sense that Occam’s razor is usually understood.

Work with this tool as often as you can, and do your best to make it an intellectual habit to apply Occam’s Razor. Actually say the words, in your mind and in your discussions with your friends and colleagues: "If we apply Occam’s Razor, we can see pretty clearly that the explanation you’re providing is much more complicated than we need …" Use it in everything, from an analysis of the reasons why nations go to war, to the reasons put forward for economic "rationalisation" within societies. With practice, the tool will serve you well, and become one of the handiest in your coach’s toolkit.

This article is based on an extract from Gregory David Roberts web site, Shantaram.

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Apparently today is called Blue Monday, the most miserable day of the year! Obviously, the good news is that every day in the rest of 2008 is going to be better.

Blue Monday marks the start of the final full week of January and is seen as the time when people experience a series of combined effects. According to stress expert Dr Cliff Arnell, six external factors collide to create the problem, including the weather, the festive holiday being over, the impact of over spending at Christmas, failing to keep up your New Year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and a feeling of needing to take action.

Obviously this is a northern hemisphere problem, but it is always good to sieze on something that implies that the future can only be better.

So, how has it been for you? Did you set any resolutions? Have you been keeping them up? What about your clients?

My year has been really good. Perhaps it is because I set some very simple resolutions. I am recording what I do with my personal time. not only so that I use it better, but so that I realise when I am doing so. My sense last year was that I was working hard and not getting enough time to myself - partly the result of taking on so much personal and business development and expecting to do it all outside office hours. I have also re-arranged my office to include an area for ‘casual reading’.

I am also monitoring my business time to ensure that I achieve at least one thing a day - it doesn’t matter how small as long as it is specific. Instead of feeling that time just flows away, I am now able to congratulate myself at least once a day - sometimes several times!

I understand that John Grinder, co-founder of NLP, aims to learn/do something new every year. This includes things like taking up ice climbing - not my style! However, last year I booked to go whitewater rafting, which caused me to join the local gym to ensure that I was fit enough. I have kept up my membership activity and probably average five swims a week and normally two weights session. I have developed muscles that I did not have and am definitely fitter. This year I have booked to go on a cattle drive in Montana and have therefore started riding lessons. It is more than 15 years since I last had lessons and I never felt confident. However, I now making great progress after only three lessons and it has done much for my morale.

What steps could your clients take which cause them to change a habit for the better, something more than just a resolution?

One of the things that I have been developing is a relationship with Buy1GIVE1Free™. B1G1 is a global service that matches businesses with worthy charitable causes right around the world so that every business transaction makes a difference somehow, somewhere, every second, every day. The matching is designed so that every transaction is linked to a very specific outcome. Collection and distribution of funds is automated so that, unlike many international charities, the administration costs of fund raising can be kept to between 3% and 8%.

B1G1forCoaches.com is a dedicated gateway to Buy1GIVE1Free™. By bringing together partners with similar businesses and interests, we are able to simplify the matching process. Instead of identifying and negotiating with a specific charity for every partner, we select a small number of charities from which partners with similar interests can choose. This means that the cost of joining can be kept low.

We have already selected UnLtd India, which provides microfinance and mentoring for social entrepreneurs, as one of our worthy causes and I am appealing for suggestions for others. Ideally they should be on different continents, especially Africa, and for different purposes, still related to coaching, mentoring or training. For example they could include a local charity which feeds children at school or provides schooling, or one that coaches or trains village women in health or nutrition.

The objective is to deal with local charites that administer their funds directly at grass roots, which do not have large bureaucracies, but which as a result might lack regular income.

If you have a suggestion, please contact me.

In the last issue before Christmas I recommended Andrew Halfacre’s new guide to setting up a small business. I am very impressed by it and have persuaded him to offer another discount for a limited period. In addition, for the first time I am including an ‘advertorial’ Coaching Notes.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

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If you are thinking of leaving your job and starting your own business or becoming your own boss then you are probably the kind of person who wants practical information that you can use straightaway.

However, when you confront the mechanics of starting a business in the UK, you’ll discover pretty quickly that no one explains it all step by step and it can take a lot of time to figure it out. There are 12 key decision areas that you need to sort out. The Red Stuff Handbook covers, in detail, these 12 key decisions…

1. Are you building income or equity?
2. Which legal structure are you going to use (e.g. Sole Trader v. Ltd Company) and should you buy a franchise?
3. Do you need an accountant and a business bank account?
4. Are you going to register for VAT - now, later or never?
5. Should you buy a company car or van?
6. Are you clear about business expenses and how to claim them?
7. Do you know how to organise yourself, send invoices and get paid?
8. How will you price your goods or services?
9. Will your work be caught by IR35 and can you avoid it?
10. Which insurance cover should you buy?
11. Should you employ other people - now, later or not at all?
12. Do you need a website and should you trade on the internet?

Experience shows that even with all the help available to new start-ups, you still have to struggle to put all this information together yourself and it soon becomes clear that there is a whole lot of stuff that you don’t know about.

Why Red Stuff? Because you need to understand the mechanics of how it all works - tax, national insurance, expenses, VAT, whether to be a partnership, sole trader, limited company or one of the four other business structures you can use. It’s the lifeblood of any business - saving you money and saving time if you can find the most effective way to manage the mechanics.

This is weighty tome, packed with information. So that you might choose to download it in time to study it during the holiday break, we are offering it at half price until 31 December..

Normal price £65.00. Price until 31 January £32.50. Purchase now

Andrew Halfacre

I’m fortunate to spend a lot of my time doing a very specific form of coaching, namely, helping people who are leaving a job in the UK to set up their own business.

Maybe this is something in your mind for 2008? If so, there are three main areas that you are going to need to pay attention to:

Firstly - will anyone buy what I’m offering? This is especially important if you are a knowledge worker and plan to sell what you know.

Second - is it for me? Do you have an appetite for the risk and flexibility that goes with taking control of your own life?

And thirdly, have you got a grasp of the mechanics of tax, NI, VAT, insurance, using an accountant, legal structure, expenses etc? Understanding this area is vital if you are to avoid the many traps for the unwary.

Interestingly, I find that 95% of my clients have 90% of their attention on the mechanics as this is the stuff that have heard about but don’t know about. So naturally people are curious about it and it gets all the attention.

Most start-up guides and other handbooks published on this subject start in the right place - with personal attitude and sales potential.

In my experience though, that’s not where most people start. Often people leaving a job to start their business run into a real fog around all the mechanics of how to do it. They hear conflicting messages and feel confused by the wealth of things they need to think about. Telling them to have a winning attitude or that "anyone can do it" does nothing to help with this. Nor do the war stories of dragons and gurus.

On my workshops we spend the best part of a day breaking down the mechanics into easy steps. It’s the stuff that accountants either won’t tell you or charge a lot of money for. Clients often find that this explanation of the mechanics blows all the fog away from this area.

I’d love to get this information out to a wider audience and I’ve recently spent a month distilling it into The Red Stuff Handbook which covers the 12 basic questions asked by over 95% of clients on the Start Your Own Business workshop.

It’s written for people who want hard nosed, fast, practical help with the mechanics. It’s for people at the transition stage who have been curious and concerned about the mechanics and want to arm themselves with some information and answers before talking to other professionals. It is, for example, an ideal handbook to work through before you start talking to accountants.

If 2008 is the year that you finally start your own business then please check out The Red Stuff Handbook which is available for download right now.

Andrew Halfacre is an associate and lead trainer with Brefi Group.
He is also principal of Lighthouse Coaching and Training

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They say that there is only one opportunity to create a first impression. But how many chances do you have to become the new new thing? Steve jobs has made a habit of it and Apple has benefited greatly. But I read recently that Google, which is continually launching new products and gives employees time for invention is losing staff to Facebook. However, powerful and exciting Google is, it is no longer the latest thing. What’s more the opportunity for fantastic early stage share options has passed. Could Google be becoming middle aged? Facebook is where it’s at now and the sort of staff who enjoy the excitement of start-ups are moving over.

The same applies to individuals. If you are not continually reinventing yourself or at least evolving, you are slipping backwards. As you grow older, you cannot stay the same. We have a saying "mutton dressed up as lamb". It normally refers to women dressed inappropriately but a more extreme version involves too many visits to the ‘cosmetic’ surgeon. Do you remember when Tom Jones was famous? It was 40 years ago, but when I went to his show a couple of weeks ago he was mostly trading on that old reputation and old songs - though I must say, the theatre was packed.

In contrast, I have since attended a big show "Jasper Carrott’s Rock with Laughter" together with more than 10,000 others. Jasper Carrott is a 62 year old comedian who grew up in my home town and I was interested to read a feature on him in our local paper.

He explained that as he had grown older he had repeatedly reinvented himself. He has been on top for a period of thirty years starting as a stand up comic and moving through sketch shows, sitcoms and quizzes. Although stand up is his forte, he said, he recognised that it is a young man’s game. Comedy thrives on freshness, upon new things because the biggest element of comedy is surprise. In his latest incarnation he is a promoter, investing his own money in developing this annual Christmas show and inviting his own selection of top music and comedy stars. His public role was only as compere, introducing and supporting his famous guests, as well as a smattering of bright young things. But with 40,000 tickets sold over four nights, he is obviously now a successful businessman, too.

So, as we come to the end of 2007, it is time to review. Are you up to date, stagnating or moving forward? Are you looking forward to an exciting next phase, or complaining about how the world is changing?

Someone who continues to develop and try new things is my colleague Andrew Halfacre. He has developed a very successful course on Starting Your Own Business. Now he has published a compilation of all his resource notes. We have a special holiday offer on The Red Stuff Handbook; see below.

-o-O-o-

In our last issue, I commented on Al Gore’s "An Inconvenient Truth" film about cllimate change.

Here are a couple of comments: -

My feeling is that no matter what we do it is not going to make a big enough difference. In saying that, it doesn’t mean we should do nothing at all. I certainly don’t believe that the whole global warming situation can be attributed to burning fossil fuels and that natural evolution may play a major role, as in the ice age. From what I have heard of Al Gore’s world tour (or how to keep yourself in a job once you are no longer Vice President!) I cannot subscribe to it.

I have every admiration for the Avaaz team who are publicising all of these world situations and, by the medium of email, reaching millions of people worldwide and giving us an opportunity to have a voice.

Christine Murrie

I know that it won’t surprise you to hear from me about the Inconvenient Truth. Your points about the GROW model and the need for well formed outcomes are well made; the lack of use of even basic change skills and psychology is staggering, and accounts for much of the lack of progress that’s been made so far.

The level of change that is needed is both frightening and potentially healing, for both homo sapiens and the planet.

Andy Middleton

I have also come across an online game, Consumer Consequences, that enables you to discover the environmental consequences of your lifestyle.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• Consumer Consequences online game
• Avaaz
• Red Stuff Handbook
• MyVideoCoach
• Contact us about video

If you are thinking of leaving your job and starting your own business or becoming your own boss then you are probably the kind of person who wants practical information that you can use straightaway.

However, when you confront the mechanics of starting a business in the UK, you’ll discover pretty quickly that no one explains it all step by step and it can take a lot of time to figure it out. There are 12 key decision areas that you need to sort out. The Red Stuff Handbook covers, in detail, these 12 key decisions…

1. Are you building income or equity?
2. Which legal structure are you going to use (e.g. Sole Trader v. Ltd Company) and should you buy a franchise?
3. Do you need an accountant and a business bank account?
4. Are you going to register for VAT - now, later or never?
5. Should you buy a company car or van?
6. Are you clear about business expenses and how to claim them?
7. Do you know how to organise yourself, send invoices and get paid?
8. How will you price your goods or services?
9. Will your work be caught by IR35 and can you avoid it?
10. Which insurance cover should you buy?
11. Should you employ other people - now, later or not at all?
12. Do you need a website and should you trade on the internet?

Experience shows that even with all the help available to new start-ups, you still have to struggle to put all this information together yourself and it soon becomes clear that there is a whole lot of stuff that you don’t know about.

Why Red Stuff? Because you need to understand the mechanics of how it all works - tax, national insurance, expenses, VAT, whether to be a partnership, sole trader, limited company or one of the four other business structures you can use. It’s the lifeblood of any business - saving you money and saving time if you can find the most effective way to manage the mechanics.

This is weighty tome, packed with information. So that you might choose to download it in time to study it during the holiday break, we are offering it at half price until 31 December..

Normal price £65.00. Price until 31 December £32.50. Purchase now to study over the holiday period

Sometimes the fundamental question we ask ourselves can be a source of stress at work. Take John, a recent client of mine. He has moved to a new job in a new company with a handy promotion but now finds that he has landed in an alien culture where he is experiencing frustration.

As I listened to him pouring out his frustration about the new team, the way people say yes to actions but don’t do them, the bureaucracy and how it compared badly with how the team worked together at his previous employer and so on, something became obvious.

He was unconsciously using the fundamental question "Why?"

• Why won’t they listen?
• Why can’t I influence them to action?
• Why does everything take so long around here?
• Why can’t they see that there is a better way to work together?
• Why am I having trouble getting their trust?

These are quite legitimate questions, but the big problem with why questions is that they send you off on a pointless quest for answers and leave you frustrated.

The problem with frustration is that it is a nominalisation - a doing word masquerading as a noun. Frustration does not exist. Only the process of being or doing frustration exists. If you are doing frustration it’s usually because you are choosing to do that instead of something more helpful.

A much better fundamental question is "How?"

• How can I be heard?
• How can I structure this meeting or pre-empt these questions to make it easier to sell my ideas?
• How can I understand the informal relationships that are the key to getting things done?

Asking "How can I" is more effective than "Why does it" because it puts the locus of control back in your hands and if you pay attention to your physiology as you ask it, you’ll notice that it also has a more expansive impact in your head - it opens you up to possibilities instead of looking for explanations for problems.

And, of course, asking "how can I?" naturally leads you to doing curiosity instead of doing frustration.

If you are creating frustration for yourself anywhere, maybe it’s time to change your fundamental question?

Andrew Halfacre is an associate and lead trainer with Brefi Group.
He is also principal of Lighthouse Coaching and Training

USEFUL LINKS

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• Andrew Halfacre
• Lighthouse Coaching and Training

I have at last managed to view Al Gore’s film "An Inconvenient Truth" about climate change.

Whether it was my preconditioning or not, my sense afterwards was that we are missing the point.

I had a similar experience when I saw "Supersize Me". This featured the gain in weight and deterioration in health of Morgan Spurlock, who ate only McDonalds food for 30 days. The implication was that this was the result of eating hamburgers and fries. In one scene a doctor says he had never realised before that eating meat could lead to diabetes. But Spurlock also drank Coca Cola and obtained a third of his calories from sugar - which is know to cause diabetes. The facts were in the film but not the conclusion.

The key facts are in the Gore film. The situation is that the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing rapidly. However, the problem is not the amount of carbon being burned each year. It is the total amount of carbon that has been burned so far. When we burn coal, gas or oil, we release carbon that was trapped millions of years ago. To return that carbon into the ground will take further millions of years.

Ice cores were shown that revealed weather patterns from tens of thousands of years ago. For those ice cores to exist now, they must represent snow that has fallen over tens of thousands of years. Where ice has melted and ice caps retreated it will take tens of thousands of years of snow fall to replace them.

So, it seems to me that while policies to reduce the production of carbon dioxide may be relevant, they may be necessary, but they do not constitute a sufficient strategy.

When a boat is sinking it may be useful to pump out some water. But is also wise to man the lifeboats!

If we were to take a coaching approach (see Coaching Notes below) to the situation, we could use scenario planning, the GROW model and setting well formed outcomes. A major function of coaching is to raise awareness, confront reality and commit to goals. Never has the world needed us more!

You might not agree with my conclusions, but perhaps you can see the benefit of the process. I look forward to your comments as I jet over to Las Vegas tomorrow!

This week I include a second review of Dr John Martini’s last London Breakthrough Experience. Jennifer Mcleod, who attended in September, reviews her experience.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.

USEFUL LINKS 

• Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
• An Inconvenient Truth [2006]