CorporateCoach eNewsletter
Issue No. 56, 26th April 2004
CONTENTS
- Editorial: Change of life
- Coaching notes: I know how to make money!
ARE YOU EARNING ENOUGH? If you would like to learn
how to earn more, check out our workshops "Build
a successful business consultancy practice" on 10-11 May and
21 June.
1. Editorial:
Change 0f life
 Last
week I was at a comittee meeting of a local society. One of the members,
who had been a leading lawyer in the city, commented that he had been
retired for eleven months and that he had decided not to make any decisions
or commitents until he had been retired for a whole year.
He was wondering whether he should now offer his services to help other
people who were nearing retirement. After all "it is a real change
of life and you lose your self identity when you retire".
Later in the week I attended a dinner addressed by the former Vice President
of the United States, Al Gore. He asked us to think back and put ourselves
in his position three years ago. For eight years he had travelled in Air
Force Two. Now when he wanted to fly, he had to take his shoes off at
security!!
Now that is some change in lifestyle!! From potential president of the
world's remaining super power to ordinary citizen.
He reminisced that, soon after the change, he had been travelling along
a freeway in a hire car with his wife and had looked in the rear view
mirror and wondered what was wrong – he realised that is was the
absence of a motorcade. He said that he understood the personal costs
of downsizing – after all he had been the very first sacking under
the new presidency.
Al Gore has now become a teacher – a visiting professor ("VP;
after all I have to keep up appearances."). He is teaching a course
on family centred community building. He also has some roles within the
IT industry.
The conference I have been attending is on the site of the furnace of
a steel works. Twenty years ago it signalled the end of heavy industry
in this area. Now it is a modern hotel set in a beautiful canalside setting
with trees, commercial, retail, leisure and recreation developments around.
The community has learned new skills and the local economy is growing
successfully in the new millenium.
The retired lawyer at my committee meeting commented that he had heard
that for every year you delay retirement, you shorten your life by three
years. I understood him to mean as a result of the pressure of work. Many
years ago I heard a similar comment from someone who was definitely not
overworked. In this case the argument was that as you became older you
lost your ability to adapt to retirement.
In fact there are many major transitions in life these days and few can
expect to follow a single career path for their whole working career.
The ability to transition is a skill in its own right and is related to
an ability to develop new identities or to maintain a personal identity
that is unrelated to one's job role. Wise people protect a life outside
work and develop interests that will continue into retirement.
Transitions are the sort of events when coaching can be of great benefit.
I specialise in the transitions of promotion – from manager to director
to chairman, or from associate to partner. Andrew
Halfacre has been focusing on outplacement and the transition to a
new career, and others provide career
coaching.
I noticed as I left the committee meeting that all the other members
were retired. In fact, these days society relies on the retired community
for many voluntary services. Retirement can be as – or more –
active as paid employment. The difference is that you have to structure
your time for yourself, set your own pace and are able to focus on the
contribution that you want to make. But then it is possible
to do that throughout your career!
If you wish to enjoy life more, and get more out of it, then call in
a coach.
USEFUL LINKS:
PRACTICE BUILDING WORKSHOPS: Are
you earning enough yet?
Would you like to increase your earnings?
Of course you would. I know that many individual consultants, coaches
and trainers are earning less than they should. Recent research in the
USA and Europe suggests that in their first year 73% of coaches make less
than $10,000 and that only 9% of all coaches are making more than $100,000
a year.
This is clearly unsatisfactory. So what stops talented people from achieving
financial success? In our experience their greatest challenge is often
self promotion and finding clients. It is all very well expecting work
to come to you through referrals. But that will only happen after
you are successful. How do you get there from start-up? How do you speed
up the process?
Brefi Group has modelled beliefs and practices that work and will deliver
two workshops in central London to address this issue and help consultants,
coaches and trainers to build more successful practices for themselves
– faster.
Practice Building workshop, 10-11 May (£375 + VAT)
This two-day practical workshop is an opportunity for you to learn beliefs
and practical strategies that work for us and to develop your own personal
sales & marketing plan. You will have a chance to experience coaching
from Brefi Group associates and find out about our associates
scheme.
Lessons from CoachVille, 21 June (£175 + VAT)
This year's CoachVille
conference, "The Coaching Business: Create Your Own Magic",
is also dedicated to helping coaches expand their business and achieve
financial success. Brefi Group is attending the conference and will present
a follow-up, free standing event reporting all the best practice building
tips collected over the four days of the workshops and conference in Orlando.
Be sure to attend and get these hot tips only two weeks after the international
conference.
Book for both workshops together and you will save £55! For full
details click
here.
2. Coaching notes: I know how to
make money!
I recently met a young South African who said to me “I know
how to make money but I want to learn how to make money more holistically.”
My ears pricked up. “I know how to make money.” The
answer to my dreams. And key to the workshop I am running.
So I arranged to have lunch with him and was able to quiz him about
what made him say this with such conviction. I have a similar belief.
I know that I can organise any project or start any business
that I have never done before. I can say this because I know that I can
find out how to do it and learn quickly. But knowing how to make money
is different. It is unspecific. He did not say that he knows how to start
businesses or provide services that will make money. He knows how
to make money.
Here is what I learned: -
When he arrived in London four and a half years ago nobody told him
that the average earnings were £20,000 or that a manager’s
salary was £40,000. He just converted earnings from rands and as
a result has never earned less than a six figure salary! Starting from
scratch in his late twenties without a university education.
He believes in the law of reciprocity, and believes that reciprocity
can occur in many different ways. He believes that everyone knows everybody
else so that if he behaves badly it will get back to him. Values are very
important to him.
Whenever he does something for someone, he always asks how he could have
done it better. Like this he learns fast and has become the best lecturer
in the world on a particular German software product.
But the real difference that makes the difference is this: “I
ask myself ‘What do I have to do so that people will give me money?’”
“What do I have to do so that people will give me money?”
Then he can apply this in identifying or developing a business or service.
Notice the key words in his belief. What do I have to do? He
takes personal responsibility. So that people will give me money.
Not pay him money. What can he do so that people want to give
him money?
This one sentence: “What do I have to do so that people will give
me money?” was a revelation to me and will enable me to improve
the commercial basis of my business.
Someone else I met recently told me about another consultant, who was
charging £10,000 a day for the sort of work that I can do. "He
is very bright, and only 25." My next ask is to discover whether
I heard correctly and whether the facts are right. If so, then what causes
an organisation to be prepared to pay such rates, and what does a consultant
have to do to persuade them to do so?
So here are three exercises for you. Answer these questions:-
- What could I do so that people will pay me money?
- What do I have to do so that people will want to pay me money?
- What has to happen so that people will pay me loads of money?
These are just a few of the exercises we shall cover at our practice
building workshops.
USEFUL LINKS:
We aim to make the Brefi Group web site the premier developmental site
for teams and individuals in organisations, so do please send us your
suggestions and requests for further development. And let us know what you think
of this newsletter, and comment on the content.
THIS IS A FREE PUBLICATION! Please SHARE it willingly with a friend or colleague
who could benefit from knowing more about corporate coaching.
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Brefi Group is a change management organisation that provides corporate coaching,
consultancy, facilitation and training. Be sure to visit the Brefi Group web
site at http://www.brefigroup.co.uk
We hope you enjoyed this issue of CorporateCoach. If you would like
to learn more about how we can work together, then please contact me, Richard
Winfield:
Telephone: 08450 678 222, or +44 (0)121 704 2006 (international)
E-mail: editor@brefigroup.co.uk
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