OUR GREATEST CHALLENGE

For someone with a degree in applied science, I should know better. Maybe it was just that as a resident of a northern climate, I didn’t see the problem with the earth warming up a couple of degrees over the next few decades. (I like the idea of warmer winters.)

Whatever my reasons I have to admit to being so tired of the drastic claims and alarms, and so unwilling to accept the possibility of the worse case scenario, that I simply tuned out the “debate” about global warming. (The world still looks fine out my window. Can these predictions of massive change really be true? Isn’t it possible that these are natural fluctuations of the earth’s climate?)

As much as I would like to believe there is still a “debate” about Global Warming, (I really do enjoy my lifestyle and don’t want to change if I don’t have to) the undeniable truth is that there is no longer any credible, independent, body of scientists that remain in doubt about what is happening. Consider the following:

Uncomfortable Realities

1 ) Is It Really Happening? - Contrary to what you might hear from many of our political leaders, there is no longer doubt that the climate is warming dramatically, and that it is caused by human activity. Here is an excerpt from Science Magazine that summarizes the science:

“The scientific consensus is clearly expressed in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environmental Programme, IPCC's purpose is to evaluate the state of climate science as a basis for informed policy action, primarily on the basis of peer-reviewed and published scientific literature (3). In its most recent assessment, IPCC states unequivocally that the consensus of scientific opinion is that Earth's climate is being affected by human activities: "Human activities ... are modifying the concentration of atmospheric constituents ... that absorb or scatter radiant energy. ... [M]ost of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations" [p. 21 in (4)].

IPCC is not alone in its conclusions. In recent years, all major scientific bodies in the United States whose members' expertise bears directly on the matter have issued similar statements. For example, the National Academy of Sciences report, Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions, begins: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise" [p. 1 in (5)]. The report explicitly asks whether the IPCC assessment is a fair summary of professional scientific thinking, and answers yes: "The IPCC's conclusion that most of the observed warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community on this issue" [p. 3 in (5)].”

2) Who Cares If It Gets A Little Warmer? - Contrary to the widely held belief that a little global warming might hurt some, benefit others, and generally be manageable, the rising tide of independent science points to many unanticipated natural feedback loops that present catastrophic tipping points after which we simply cannot recover. For example, the rapidly receding ice caps are melting permafrost, which is releasing gigatons of methane into the atmosphere. As methane is 20 times worse a green house gas than carbon dioxide, its potential impact on the atmosphere is catastrophic. (The last time this happened, 251 million years ago, almost all life on earth was wiped out.)

Other emerging feedback loops that are accelerating warming concern two of the major mechanisms of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the oceans and the forests. As the oceans warm, their ability to absorb CO2 diminishes. As global warming changes traditional rain patterns, many of our larger forests (often called the lungs of the earth) are beginning to die off. The current severe drought in the Amazon is raising the possibility of a massive die off in the tropical forests.

So we are not talking about earth getting just a little warmer. What we are starting to realize is that we are in the midst of earth’s 6th mass extinction. There have been 5 mass extinction events in the last 500 million years. The last occurred 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs died off. This current extinction event is man-made and it is happening quickly. (Close to 70% of the biologists polled by the American Museum of Natural History believe we are in the middle of a mass extinction event. The normal rate of species loss is one every 5 years. We are currently losing over 25,000 species a year.)

3) Let Someone Else Worry About It – One of the unfortunate dividends of our materialist modern cultures is we are all too busy with our lives, careers and activities to get involved in bigger social/political/environmental issues.

We tend to delegate leadership and too many important decisions to our governments. (In the most recent Federal Elections close to 40% of eligible U.S. voters didn’t bother to voice their opinion - approx, 35% in Canada.) And it is my opinion that too many of our leaders, political and industrial, are too stuck in a win-lose mentality (maximize the wins for themselves of a narrowly defined “team”, even if it means a significant loss to others or the environment.) People are just too disconnected from each other and the world we live in to really see what is happening.

Clearly our existing leadership is not going to save us. We need to save ourselves.

What is Possible?

For over 400,000 years before the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere were in the rage of 190 – 290 PPM (parts per million). In the last hundred years they have risen to over 378 PPM. Many scientists feel that the atmospheric tipping point may be in the range of 450-550 PPM - as little as 24 years away at our current levels of production.

If we can all realize the severity of this threat, and act now, we may still have enough time to change direction. However our window of opportunity is small and closing quickly.

Other generations had their challenges. This generation is now waking up to the biggest challenge that ever faced humanity. Future generations will not forgive us if we fail to act.

What We Can Do?

Get informed - There is a lot of nonsense masquerading as science out there. To be a positive agent of change, you need to be well informed. Read. Listen. Watch. Learn. Come to your own informed conclusions on this important topic.

Get active – An issue this important and urgent cannot be left to others. We all need to take ownership of making change. Get involved. Support groups that are working on this issue. Raise money for political parties that are committed to initiate and support global (cross industry, multinational) initiatives for environmental change. (The cost per vote for the winning party in the last U.S. Presidential election was $5.92. To make a significant change in any election takes a lot of money.)

Walk the talk – Conserve energy wherever possible. Drive less, and if you have to drive, use more fuel efficient cars. At home, typically 60% of energy consumption is in the heating system, 22% in water usage, and 13% in lights. By shifting to more energy efficient technology you can dramatically reduce emissions. (By simply replacing my 18-year-old furnace, I cut the consumption of fossil fuels in my house in half.) Here are some other things you can do to conserve.

Raise Consciousness – Problems are always growth waiting to happen. Our biggest problem is that humanity’s power and knowledge has evolved faster than our collective wisdom and compassion.

We need to raise consciousness. We need to coach more people to begin to see how interdependent we all are, and how closely our own health and prosperity is linked to the health of the world as a whole.

Steve Mitten MCC

Life and Business Coach

WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT ARTICLE

Einstein once said that the greatest problems we face, cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them.

This principle is at work in all our lives. The big, recurrent, problems we face (in our lives, careers, and relationships) cannot be solved being who we are now. We need to grow. Growth shifts our perspectives, raises our level of awareness, evolves our consciousness and allows us to
transcend our current problems.

At it deepest level, this is a journey of spirit.

Unfortunately, based on how little effort our culture actually focuses on these issues, their is a lot of evidence we are all fairly addicted to our current level of narcissism. (Which is not good news for the planet.)

However, if you are one of the few who are interested in learning more about your own evolution, I can recommend the recent article in WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT magazine.

http://www.wie.org/j33/guru-pandit.asp?ecp=WIEN-0608

It contains a powerful discussion between Philosopher Ken Wilbur and WIE Editor Andrew Cohen.

I think you will enjoy it.

Life and
Business Coach Steve Mitten MCC

GET FAMOUS FAST INTERVIEW

Here is the text of an interview with Tessa Stowe, for her program GET FAMOUS FAST. You can see the program at http://www.salesconversations.com/gkf-ordera.html.

Tessa: Steve Mitten is a master coach with over 25 years of business experience. As a CEO, Steve has led and conducted businesses all over the world. As an entrepreneur, he has started five companies and taken two through IPO. He’s internationally known as a top executive and leadership coach. Steve also served as the 2005 president of the International Coach Federation.

Welcome Steve!

Steve: Thank you very much.

Tessa: Steve, you’ve obviously tried a lot of strategies for getting known. Some have been more successful than others. Some of the strategies have obviously cost a lot more than others, both in terms of time and dollars. What I’d really appreciate from you today in this interview is your sharing these strategies.

Steve: Absolutely.

Tessa: Great, thank you. Steve, what have been the biggest benefits to you and your business from being known internationally as a top executive and leadership coach?

Steve: I think the biggest benefit for me has been that it has just opened doors and allowed me to connect with, and work with, a wider variety of clients. It has opened doors and allowed me to talk to many other coaches. It has allowed me to gain a perspective of what’s needed out in the marketplace and what’s happened in the young profession of coaching.

Tessa: So Steve, when you say being known has “opened doors” for you, it has saved you having to bash doors down, so to speak?

How Getting Known Can Be A Side Effect

Steve: Yes. Definitely. And what struck me, in preparation for talking with you today, is that in my business, I never started out, really, with the intent of getting known. I recognized it as a calling. It felt like the right place where my strengths, my experience, my passions met a need out in the marketplace. By just seeking to do that very well, by seeking to master the training – the art and science of coaching – you just get better and better at adding value to clients. That was really my goal, just to do what I loved and get very good at it. Along the way I think, if you do that well, the getting well known is like a dividend.

Tessa: So getting well known was a side effect, really, of what you did?

Steve: In my case, it most definitely was. It wasn’t a goal. My goal commercially was to find a group of clients that had big needs, that I loved to work with, that I knew coaching could add a lot of value to. That was my commercial goal – in other words, to find a niche where my strengths met a need out there. I found that fairly early on and got better and better at learning what the challenges of that niche are and how to best communicate with the niche.

Tessa: Right. Therefore, it wasn’t so much that you had strategies that you used to get known, but as a side effect of what you did, you got known.

Steve: In the coaching community, I got known just through volunteer work I did, starting very early on, by just offering a number of free classes. When I started coaching, it was a really young profession. I’d see a lot of people come into it who loved to do coaching but didn’t know enough about the marketing. I just started to give away free classes to different groups in the ICF, to help coaches learn about marketing, so that raised my profile a bit.

I was asked to serve as a director of the ICF. That increases your profile a little bit. Then I was asked to be their president. In that capacity, people see your name and you go out and speak at conferences and speak at ICF chapters; so, a fair bit of profile comes with that, but it certainly wasn’t a conscious intention. I did that work because I really believe in coaching and know that our young profession needs better standards and a higher profile.

Tessa: But even though it wasn’t a conscious strategy for getting known – as a consequence – like, particularly, being the president of the ICF – I mean, that really does raise your profile significantly, doesn’t it?

Steve: I didn’t go into the ICF with the express intention to get known. I had a successful business before that. It was just something I believed in and something that I knew had to happen, so that’s why I went there and volunteered my time. As a product of that, certainly, it raises your profile.

Do What You Love To Do

Tessa: Yes. I very much get, though, talking to you, Steve, that you’re coming from your heart and you’re coming from the right place. As a consequence of coming from your heart and the right place, the Universe has rewarded you with your getting well known. It’s just been a consequence, really.

Steve: I think when you do what you love to do, when you do what you’re good at, when you strive to add a lot of value to the world, it comes back to you.

Tessa: Yes.

Get Clear On Who You Love To WorkWith

Steve: So not every coach may want or have the opportunity to be president of the ICF, but when a coach gets really clear on who they love to work with and what those people need and want – coaching is such a young profession that most clients aren’t looking for a coach, they don’t know that coaching is a solution to their problems – but they all have challenges and changes and dreams and aspirations, and qualified prospects have things they’re spending money on now. So for coaches, if they can get really clear on who they want to work with, who they’re called to work with, and what are those problems their clients are willing to spend money on, then once you know that, you can package your coaching as a solution to those problems and look at the best ways to raise your profile in that marketplace.

Tessa: Right.

Find Yourself A Specific Focus

Steve: The challenge that I think a lot of coaches have, Tessa, is that – you know, by and large, most coaches are intuitive, feeling souls that love to work with lots and lots of people. As a result, in the early stages of their practice they just coach everybody, and it’s really hard to market to everybody if you don’t have a focus. If you don’t understand what your clients are using coaching for, it’s very hard to raise your profile and get noticed in your market.

Tessa: That’s right, because it is hard to build an identity in the whole wide world. It is virtually impossible.

Steve: There’s tens of millions of web pages, now, devoted to life coaching, and if you try to stand out in that sea of competition, it’s very, very hard; but if you find yourself a specific focus – if you pick a niche around adults with ADD or adult professionals with ADD – all of a sudden you have a much sharper focus and you can find out exactly what that group is looking for, you can find out what keywords they type into Google or Yahoo or any search engine. Then, as one means of raising your profile, you can have your website optimized to those keywords. When you know your niche well, it’s far easier to stand out.

Tessa: Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently from when you started out, so you could have gotten known faster or had your business accelerate faster?

Steve: Yes. I started coaching back in 1997, which was really early days for this profession. Coaches now think it’s a hard sell to go out and try to find coaching clients, but back in 1997, it was really “the bleeding edge” of the profession. It was MUCH harder. There just wasn’t a lot known about coaching and how to market it.

Over the years I’ve learned an awful lot about marketing coaching, and if I were doing it over again, I’d certainly benefit from those lessons. For sure, what I’d share with your listeners is – as early as you can – try to find a focus for your marketing. Don’t try to market to everyone, it’s impossible. You can’t stand out everywhere.

Find a group you love to work with, that you know has problems, and that you can reach in large numbers easily. For example, if you’re marketing to a particular group like dentists… they all belong to an association that has a monthly newsletter. They go to different conferences that you can speak at or write to. You can find the keywords to market to them online. Once you get a focus for your marketing, your ability to raise your profile and get known is far easier.

Tessa: Right, I’m very much getting that message from you, of focus, focus, focus, and – well, find a niche, isn’t it? Find a niche, and then focus.

Steve: Yes.

Tessa: So how much time should coaches devote to getting known in their first few years? What percentage of their working week?

Steve: That’s a good question. What I see happening is that, as coaches start out, they really don’t know who they want to work with yet. Most of their marketing is like a direct marketing approach of talking to individuals they meet at networking events and giving away complimentary sample sessions. I think that’s a very productive thing to do for six months or so while you get a feel for who you like to work with. With that marketing, on average it takes about five hours of marketing to get a client – three to five hours of direct marketing to get a client. So if you want ten clients, then you’ve got to put in fifty hours of marketing to get those clients.

Find Your Niche, Package A Solution, Raise Your Profile And Clients Start Coming To You

Once you find a niche or focus, and you know what your clients want – in other words, what problems they have to resolve – like, pretty much every small business wants more sales and less turnover – if your niche is a small business owner, then you develop a coaching program to help small business owners in a particular industry in a particular region build their sales and have less stress.

Once you have a program, my own gut feeling is that it’s ten times more effective to market to that group. So once you know who you’re marketing to and what they want and the best way to get a-hold of large numbers of them through speaking or writing or web marketing or networking, then, to get clients – I mean, they just start coming to you.

Once you have a focus, once you’ve raised your profile, they just start coming to you, and at that stage, your job is to continue to add value to that group in the most efficient way. For many people, they move into a permission marketing approach where, once they have an ideal client group, those clients are subscribed to their newsletter and they send their newsletter out twice a month giving them valuable information useful to, say, small business owners and telling them about your new coaching programs or workshops or whatever else that you’re selling. In that case, it really only takes maybe an hour a week of marketing to carry that off.

Tessa: That’s a big difference. So it’s basically find your niche, find their problems, then package up a solution, and…

Steve: Raise your profile.

Tessa: Yes. That’s just fantastic advice. Thank you! So, if someone does do what you suggested, how long do you think it would take a coach, realistically, to get known in their niche?

Steve: Well, there’s no average to this, but if you do a good job at choosing a niche – let’s say business owners of a high tech business who are seeking to build their business and have a family life, in a particular state or region – if that was your niche and you interviewed them and got to know what their problems and challenges are and how they view the marketplace and what they’ve spent money on, you’d be in a really good position to develop a coaching program for them.

In addition, when you’re doing those interviews, you can find out – what magazines do you read? What associations do you belong to? What conferences do you go to? When you know that about your clients, then you can say, “Well, you know what? I’m a good writer. They all read the same magazine. They’re all a part of this association that has a monthly magazine. So I’m going to read the last six back issues of this magazine and see what people are writing in to the editor and see what they want to know, and I’m going to write an article for that magazine.”

If you take that approach, then after two or three months of having articles written by you that gives them information they want, your clients are beginning to recognize your name; and so, at the bottom of your article, if you invite them to your website for a free report on the five biggest changes that the industry needs to make, you’ll get a lot of people that are going to start to come to you.

If it’s another niche and they meet at annual conferences and you can only talk to 20,000 of them once a year, then it takes a little longer to get focused. But you know, Tessa, one of the easiest ways for people to contact their niche these days and get well known is really through the Internet. There are 972,000,000 people online right now, and the demographics of the people that are online are fantastic for coaches.

If you find a niche, find out what they want, find out what their search phrases are, then you can choose to optimize your website in a way that the search phrases that your ideal clients type in to Google or Yahoo have you coming up in the top five responses. You can do that very quickly. Within a couple of months, you can have a website that begins to come up in some of the major search engines. If you know the keywords, you can use pay-per-click advertising to begin to experiment with connecting online with your clientele right away. I mean you can literally put a pay-per-click ad together in a matter of an hour. So there’s lots of ways to raise your profile once you know who your audience is.

Tessa: That’s the key. It’s the ‘once you know who your audience is,’ isn’t it? It’s that focus, again.

Steve: And what I’ve found is that coaches kind of resist finding a focus, for a couple of reasons. One is that they think, well I love coaching all these people, I wouldn’t want to say ‘no’ to a particular client, I’d hate to focus in a particular group. That’s a very common concern.

Say Yes To The People You’re Meant To Work With

The reality is – look, if you find a group that you’re a good fit for, it’s like falling in love! You feel like this is the group you’re meant to be with. You know that it’s a group you’d love to add value to, and you know it’s a good expression of yourself. So finding a focus, your niche, doesn’t mean you’ve got to say no to people. It’s about saying yes to the people you’re best meant to work with.

Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone

The other resistance that coaches have to getting well known is stepping out of their comfort zone. We’ve really got to step out of our comfort zone, and it’s very hard for coaches to do that – not just coaches, anybody – to step out of their comfort zone. We’re conditioned at a very young age to fit in. You know, our parents, our teachers, everybody kind of teaches us to fit in.

When you talk about getting well-known, you’ve got to move past some deeply ingrained conditioning. It’s not something you just kind of think yourself through. You really do need some help, some support, some good coaching to move past your doubts and fears that you’re not ready yet. Maybe I’m not good enough to do this, maybe I won’t add enough value – those are real roadblocks for many people stepping forth and sharing their gifts with the world.

Tessa: So before focusing on getting known, maybe get some coaching on what’s blocking you personally, as you say.

Find Your Internal Resistance

Steve: Yes. I guess the bottom line here is, it’s not that the coaching world doesn’t know how to get known. There are more and more resources out there about how to do that. The bigger impediment is the internal resistance to really stepping out and showing up more fully in your career. If you really want to get well known, it means you’ve got to grow and change and work through an awful lot of limiting thoughts and feelings you have about yourself, and that’s not easily done.

Tessa: Right, and that’s a very interesting perspective. Thank you for that. As far as the biggest mistake coaches make when it comes to getting known, from what you’ve been saying, it would be the fact that they don’t focus. Correct?

Steve: Yes.

Tessa: Any other mistakes that you see coaches making with respect to getting known?

Raise Your Profile In Terms Of Outcomes And Not About Being A Coach

Steve: Yes. They try to get known as a coach – such as, I’m a coach, I’m a business coach, I’m a life coach, I’m a whatever coach – and very few people are looking for a coach. I encourage coaches to stop – and I’m very proud of being a coach – but when you go out to market, people don’t know what a coach is – they’ve never hired one. Don’t try to go out and sell coaching, people aren’t wanting to buy it.

People have problems, they’ve got challenges, they’ve got changes they want to make, they’ve got goals. Find out the problems, challenges, and changes that your ideal audience has, and use coaching as a solution for them. But raise your profile in terms of helping your ideal clients get the outcomes they want, not just about being a coach.

Tessa: Yes, that’s a very important distinction there, isn’t it?

Steve: There are just a lot of coaches that knocked their heads against the wall raising their profile on being a coach. That’s great for the few percent of humanity who have already concluded that the solution to their problems is hiring a coach, but for the vast majority of the market, they don’t know that coaching is the best solution to their problem. They just know they’ve got a problem and they’re looking for a solution.

Tessa: And they don’t care that the tool that you use is coaching.

Steve: Once they experience coaching, they’ll love it and they’ll see that, wow, this is something that’s customized to me, that’s focused exactly on my needs, that’s going to support me week to week so I really do change my behavior. They’ve all tried reading self-help books and going to workshops that were great but they forgot it all a week later.

Coaching is something that meets them where they are and supports them and calls them forward, and a good coach can add extraordinary value to their life. One coaching session is all they need to experience that; but until they experience that, they don’t know that coaching is that powerful. So it’s kind of useless to go out there and try to sell coaching to people who don’t know its value.

Tessa: Absolutely. So Steve, you’ve covered a tremendous amount today, but if there was just one single piece of advice you could give coaches with respect to getting known fast, what would that one single piece of advice be?

Find The Place Where Your Passions And Strengths Meet The Greatest Unmet Needs In Your Market

Steve: It would be, before you attempt to get known, find the place where your passions and strengths meet the greatest unmet needs in your market, or in your world. When you find that place where your passions and strengths meet a huge need, you will fall in love with that group, you will know what their problems are, you will know how to reach large numbers of them, and it will be a much easier task to get yourself well known. Don’t start with the goal of getting well known.

Tessa: Right.

When You Focus On What You Do Extraordinarily Well, The Natural Outcome Is That You Get Well Known Quickly

Steve: It’s like, you know, you talk to children, and ‘what do you want to do when you grow up?’ When you talk to them at a very young age, they want to be a dentist or a fireman. When you talk to them when they’re teenagers, they all want to be rich or famous. Well if you just go after being rich or go after being famous, you know, that’s really not a terribly rewarding path. Those are the outcomes of doing something extraordinarily well. When you focus on finding what you do extraordinarily well and sharing that with people that really need it, then the natural outcome is you get well known quickly.

Tessa: Which is really – to come back to the beginning of our interview today – is really how you became really well known, wasn’t it? You found your passion and you found where it could meet the greatest needs, so that’s been your overall main successful strategy, yes?

Steve: It was just a recognition of what was happening around me more than some master plan strategy.

Tessa: Right.

Steve: I wish I could tell you that every great move in my life was carefully thought through, but it just wasn’t. Most of the big changes in my life have been, you know, just a recognition of here’s a path that has more heart in it, here’s a place that I really feel alive, here’s a place where I can make a difference. And if I tune into that, then I find myself going along paths that are far better than I would have ever planned for myself.

Tessa: Right. Someone’s obviously looking after you!

Steve: I think, when you follow your passions, the Universe looks after you.

Tessa: Yes, that’s good! Steve, before we wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to add?

Steve: Just good luck with what you’re doing here. The world needs more information about how to succeed commercially as a coach, and getting yourself known is a big piece of that. So good luck with what you’re doing!

Tessa: Thank you. And Steve, could you just tell people a little bit about your products and services and how they can get in touch with you?

Steve: My main website is www.acoach4u.com, and that’s got articles on how to become a coach and marketing. I’ve got a monthly newsletter on marketing and coaching skills. I wrote a book called “Marketing Essentials for Coaches.” I do teleclasses for affordable coach training. There’s a wide range of things I do for coaches, to help them find their way to commercial success. We’ve got a lot of good coaches out there. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have the infrastructure industry that gives them the knowledge they need to succeed commercially, so I’ve devoted a chunk of my practice to putting together affordable things to help coaches do that.

Tessa: Great! Thank you so much, Steve, for coming along today. You’ve been inspirational, and I wish you all the very best. Thank you very much.

Life Coaching

Executive
Coaching

Business
Coaching

 

HOW TO MAKE IMPORTANT CHANGES

Many of us want to make important changes in our lives, careers or businesses but we just don’t seem able to make it happen.

Many of us never break free enough from our current habits to even attempt a change.

Others go through the motions of initiating change, but quickly fall back into an existing comfort zone, which judging from a wide variety of research doesn’t appear to be to “comfortable” for many of us. (The Gallup organization estimates that 71% of workers are not engaged - interested or fulfilled - in their career. Over 75% of new businesses struggle to succeed. Over 50% of couples are in risk of divorce. 70% of us live paycheck to paycheck. 47% of us are experiencing significant levels of stress in our lives, and most of us are far from the levels of health and fitness we desire.)

Clearly there are many important changes we could make to enrich our lives; we just don’t know how to do it.

Having helped thousands of people navigate past their resistance to achieve meaningful change, I can share a few insights into the process.

1. Create Space – Change requires time, effort, attention and growth. If you are already running at 100% capacity, you will not have the time or energy needed. To effect change you need to first free up some space in your life. (Research from the field of Emotional Intelligence has clearly demonstrated that we cannot learn or grow well when we are under constant stress.)

2. Get Clear On What Is Important To You – Many changes fail because what we are attempting to achieve is not really important to us. Before you invest in making a big change, take some time to get clear on what is really important to you. For example, you might think you want a promotion, but if that promotion will take you further away from your family, the promotion may not be in alignment with what you really value. When you know what is truly important to you, it is easy to create a vision for yourself that will result in far more fulfillment.

3. Generate a Plan – Once you have a clear vision of what you are working towards, break it into smaller, more manageable stages and prioritize them. Don’t try to do too much all at once.

4. Leverage Your Strengths – When you go about making changes, it is important to know what your strengths are, and build on them. Collectively we focus far too much energy on our weaknesses and shortcomings (which make us feel powerless) rather than focusing on the strengths and talents that empower us. For example, if you are starting a business and are very strong in the strategic or big picture tasks, but mediocre at implementing, don’t focus all your energy on implementation. Develop a great strategic plan, and partner with people that are great at implementing.

5. Keep Focused – It is the intensity and frequency of our attention that reinforces the new perspectives and thought patterns that support our new behaviors. Do not try to make major changes all by yourself. Create a strong support structure around you that will keep you on track and moving forward, past all the inevitable challenges.

Getting Professional Assistance

The young industry of professional coaching has blossomed in the past 10 years, specifically to help individuals, businesses and organizations make meaningful change. If you are considering making some changes in your life, career or business you might consider working with an experienced, credentialed professional coach.

Generally, a good coach will always focus on what's most important to you, and help you find the most natural and effective way to make the breakthroughs you want. Coaching is all about setting up a trusting, confidential and supportive relationship that you direct; and working together week-to-week to help you move forward faster than you could possibly on your own.

Coaching really works. Industry research shows 98.5% of clients are satisfied with their coach and 83% of coaching clients stay with their coach for over 3 months. When coaching is taken into organizations, it routinely generates ROIs of between 500 and 700%.

How To Choose A Professional Coach

As a profession, coaching is still quite young, yet it's growing quickly. As the demand for coaches grows, so does the supply. However in any fast growing profession there are challenges. One challenge professional coaching faces is the large number of people jumping on the bandwagon and calling themselves coaches without formal training or relevant experience. To ensure you are among the over 98.5% of all coaching clients who are satisfied with their coaching, here are some suggestions to help you choose a great coach:

· Talk to several coaches and find one you have a rapport with. Does the coach listen well? Do you feel they clearly understand what you want to achieve through the coaching? How do you feel when you get off the phone with them?

· Choose someone that is a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and is therefore governed by professional practice and ethical guidelines. This is important. (The ICF is the largest, independent governing body of professional coaches.)

· Ensure your coach has completed advanced training, and become certified, at one or more of the many ICF accredited training schools, and has earned a credential from the ICF (The ICF has three levels of credentials for coaches. From most experienced on down they are; MCC – Master Certified Coach, PCC – Professional Certified Coach, ACC – Associate Certified Coach.)
· Choose a coach that has sufficient experience. How long have they been coaching? Do they do it on a full time or part time basis? Also, if you are looking for specific help on various career or business agendas, make sure your coach has the relevant background and training.

· Have potential coaches spell out what services they deliver, and what the total cost of those services will be. Also, what sort of commitment does the coach ask for? Some coaches ask for a commitment of 3 months or more, but stay away from long-term-pay-in-advance contracts. (Many experienced coaches do not require any contract because they know their clients will achieve great value out of every session.)

No one ever said making big changes was easy. However when you consider how much more success, meaning, peace, health and joy is possible in your life, and how valuable that might be to you, change may be exactly what you are looking for.

Steve Mitten CPCC, MCC, of ACOACH4U.COM was the 2005 President of the International Coach Federation. He is a Master Certified Coach and an expert on human potential and change. Steve has helped thousands of leaders; entrepreneurs and independent professionals find the fastest and most enjoyable route to more meaningful success. Life Coaching Site Executive Coaching Site Business Coaching Site

On Dealing With Anger or Other Strong Emotions

To me, emotions are most often our bodies reaction to thoughts.

If the thoughts are outdated or otherwise untrue, our reactions may not serve.

If we are unaware of the thoughts or the reaction, we can end up being emotionally hijacked, which rarely ends well.

I believe awareness is curative and transformative.

Whether it is our habitual thoughts, our old wounds, or the postures where we have long stored our unreleased emotions in our body, the arrival of awareness brings up back to choice.

If the reaction serves us, great.

If it does not, then any of these approaches will help:

- Process or somatic coaching to truly feel and dissipate the emotion.

- Journaling to further explore, excavate and express the emotions.

- Regular exercise to shift you out of the fight or flight reaction, to the relaxation response.

- Any regular mindfulness practice.

- Connecting to an emotion of gratitude or optimism.

As the authors of A GENERAL THEORY OF LOVE (Drs. Lewis, Amini, Lannon) teach, “Emotional impressions shrug off insight but yield to a different persuasion: the force of another person’s Attractors {established neural responses} reaching through the doorway of a limbic connection {relationship}.”

This means, we revise our behavior best through emotional connections to others who have different behaviors – not through the power of reason or will.

This points to the importance of ongoing relationships with people {friends, mentors, coaches} who exhibit the behaviors we seek to adapt.

Finally, for the sake of any new coaches who may not understand the legal division between coaching and therapy, in most jurisdiction we coaches must refrain from what is termed "emotional counselling" which is often interpreted as doing personal archeology into the old emotions of our clients.

Cheers,

Steve Mitten

http://www.acoach4u.com
http://www.principalevolutions.com

Happiness

One of the ironies of our modern existence is that even though we in the developed world; have unprecedented levels of material well-being, are living longer than ever before, have access to all the food we could ever eat, and have ridiculous amounts of technology to "make our life easier", collectively we are not appreciably happier than our predecessors. For many, our modern lives generate such high levels of stress and anxiety that we are living joyless lives of struggle, distraction, and excessive consumption that does not fill our hunger.

Over the past 10 years, there has been an exceptional amount of research looking into the science of positive psychology. While books could be written about the different theories and findings, some of the most powerful work (Seligman, Diener, etc.) can be grasped and applied by tending to three key areas:

Pleasure

For higher levels of happiness, we need to know what brings us pleasure, and do those things that make us laugh, smile, and be content. (Our society is pretty adept at this. Many of us focus an inordinate amount of time and money pursuing pleasure. Unfortunately, this is the least important of the three components. In other words, the pursuit of pleasure is necessary but not sufficient to bring us happiness.)

Engagement

To experience high levels of happiness, we need to be deeply engaged in our life. This includes our work, those things we do in our spare time, and especially our key relationships. (Studies are showing us to be far more social creatures than we previously thought. As modern life precludes us from spending time with our friends and family, we suffer.)

Meaning

Significantly higher levels of happiness are experienced when we apply our personal strengths to a higher goal. (This is what we typically experience when we begin to get over self-absorption and contribute to "helping others", or work in service of a "greater good", or a "higher cause".)

When I was a young boy, my grandmother used to tell me to "be kind", and "count your blessings". She had overcome the loss of her husband at a very young age, and managed to single handedly raise five children through the depression and second world war. She was subsequently pre-deceased by all her friends and several of her children. Nevertheless, her kindness and attention to others allowed her to keep healthy, active, happy, and deeply loved for 96 years.

It seems Granny had figured it out long before the Social Psychologists. Everyday she would practice service to others, kindness and gratitude. The very things that science is now proving contribute the most to our inner happiness.

http://www.acoach4u.com

http://www.principalevolutions.com

http://www.stevemitten.com

IN SEARCH OF A GREAT COACHING MODEL

(Where Science, Intuition and Experience Come Together To Optimize Client Change)

Introduction

I believe there is an art and science in great coaching. Up until now, our young profession has leaned heavily on the art, with much of what we know about coaching coming from intuitive insights of those passionate souls who were first called to do this work.

To anyone who has been trained in the various models and techniques of coaching, their impact is evident. A variety of studies have verified the value of coaching. Early ICF studies indicated 98.5% of clients saw value in working with their coach. Subsequent studies indicate that over 83% of clients stay with their coach for over 3 months. The majority of clients stay with their coach over 6 months. Other studies have shown return on investments of over 500% when coaching is taken into organizations.

Yet for all the progress we have made in our now billion-dollar industry, there is precious little in the way of hard science to provide structure and direction to the art. Many of the existing coaching models make sense and certainly help people gain clarity and move forward. However the typical;: set a goal, raise awareness, evaluate alternative courses of action, commit to action, set up accountability, approach has its limits.

The Need for Research Based Coaching Models

Conventional coaching approaches work well if the intended result is within the comfort zone or the existing developmental level of the client. However for big client agendas that would require a significant change in behavior, many of the existing "will-yourself-forward" models fall short of achieving the desired results. As coaches we have few scientifically proven tools to help clients convert their intention into new behaviors. (There is a rising tide of research that shows that intention is not enough to change behavior. If it were we would all keep our New Year’s Resolutions.)

It strikes me that to reach more of its potential, and deliver better and more consistent results to our clients, the profession of coaching needs models based on verifiable science. I suggest the era of proprietary coaching models not supported by first-rate research has outlived its usefulness. I believe our evolving profession needs and deserves an evidence based model of human change that optimizes the realization of human potential, and stands up to professional scrutiny.

The Science – Some Relevant Work to Date

Over the past few years there has been some excellent research that, I believe, sets the foundation for a science based coaching model. Here are some findings of particular note:

• Dr Paul MacLean’s work on the Triune brain, which essentially mapped out the differences between the reptilian, limbic (feeling) and neocortical (thinking) brain. http://www.ezls.fb12.uni-siegen.de/mkroedel/paul_maclean.html
  
  
• Further work to clarify how behavior is influenced by the limbic and cortical brains such as Drs. Lewis, Amini, and Lannon outline in their book A GENERAL THEORY OF LOVE. http://www.nobeliefs.com/theoryoflove.htm Of particular relevance is the limits of the thinking brain to influence behavior. It turns out we cannot easily “will” or “think” ourselves into new behavior that does not “feel” right. In other words coaching that relies solely on supplying insight and accountability is not sufficient to effect major changes in behavior.
  
  Relevant quotes from A GENERAL THEORY OF LOVE include:
  
  - “He cannot will himself to want the right thing, or to love the right person, or to be happy after disappointment, or even to be happy in happy times. People lack this capacity not through a deficiency of discipline but because the jurisdiction of will is limited to the latest brain {neocortical} and to those functions within it purview. Emotional life can be influenced, but it cannot be commanded.”
  
  - “To the neocortical brain, rich in the power of abstraction, understanding makes all the difference, but it doesn’t count for much in the neural systems that evolved before understanding existed. Ideas bounce like so many peas off the sturdy incomprehension’s of the limbic and reptilian brains. The dogged implicitness of emotional knowledge, its relentless unreasoning force prevent logic from gaining salvation just as it precludes the self-help book from helping.”
  
  - “The neocortical brain collects facts quickly. The limbic brain does not. Emotional impressions shrug off insight but yield to a different persuasion: the force of another person’s Attractors {established neural responses} reaching through the doorway of a limbic connection {relationship}.” (This means, we revise our behavior through emotional connections to others who have different behaviors – not through the power of reason or will. This points to the importance of an ongoing relationship {such as with a coach} to effect behavior change.)
  
  
• Dr. Richard Boyatzis has contributed a great deal to our understanding of the effects of stress on our ability to learn and function effectively. He has also created “The Boyatzis Model Of Intentional Change” as a template to optimize change. Some of Boyatzis’ key insights (from the book RESONANT LEADERSHIP by Boyatzis and McKee) include:
  
  - “As humans, we have the distinctive ability to create our own stress, with its full bodily response, merely by thinking about our anticipating future episodes or encounters that might be stressful.” (Many researchers including Dr. Gregg Jacobs, in his book THE ANCESTRAL MIND concur and point to the fact that our ability to think ourselves into stress, coupled with our busy and uncertain modern lives leave far too many of us in a chronic state of stress.)
  
  - “Under stress not only does the brain shut down and lessen our ability to function, it also loses capability to learn.” (It seems that when we are under the effects of stress, we cannot learn, grow, or change. Under stress we cannot access our creativity, intuition or people skills. In coaching terms we are at a level one – focus on self – place and are essentially uncoachable.)
  
  - “Mere rest does not lead to recovery...”, “So among other things, to renew ourselves, we need to remain hopeful even in the midst of real difficulties. We need to truly care about the people we are leading, and we need to experience compassion – both directed toward other people and coming from people to us. We need to attend to ourselves and to other in mind, body, heart and spirit. Mindfulness, hope and compassion enable us to be resilient and function effectively even in the face of challenges.” (To effectively coach people they need to be in a place where their parasympathetic nerve system – think relaxation response – is engaged, which in turn changes their body chemistry and allows new behavior to be learned. Helping people find their own daily “renewal” routine is important to keeping them out of a downward spiral of stress that would preclude growth and change. Connecting clients to a hopeful or inspiring future vision moves them out of the stress response and available for growth and change.)
  
  - “Don’t try to do this alone. As you begin to engage in intentional change, you need to involve other people – connection is essential.” (Relationship is needed to effect significant change.)
  
  - Boyatzis’ Model of Intentional Change can be seen at the bottom of this link http://www.ncsl.org.uk/media/F7B/92/randd-boyatzis-emotional.pdf . This model backs the intuitive leaning of many natural coaching approaches and, I believe, provides a theoretical structure that can be adapted for effective coaching models. One of the key contributions of this model is to recognize that by having a client focus and connect to the ideal, hoped for, future state, actually moves them out of the realm of the sympathetic nerve system (the place of reaction and stress where growth is not possible) and stimulates the parasympathetic nerve system (the relaxed normal state where change and growth are possible).

My Disclaimer

I am not a researcher and I claim no authorship. I am not suggesting this is the only or best path forward. Nor do I claim to have completed a thorough review of the state of the art.

My goal is to begin a dialogue that will result in the raising of the bar on professionalism in coaching, and hopefully lead us to an effective, simple, powerful, science-based model for optimizing human change.

What follows is a first attempt to adapt, capture and apply some of the latest findings in the field. Taking what research has created, and integrating the practical considerations of dealing with a wide variety of coaching agendas and situations, I have synthesized a draft of a coaching model currently named “THE MODEL OF INSPIRED CHANGE.”

This is a work in progress. I am not putting this forth as my work or arguing that this is the ultimate coaching model. Rather I am putting it forth to start a discussion with other professionals that might lead us all to higher ground, where the great power of our intuition and experience meet on a structure of good science.

Also please consider this a meta-model. Its goal is to provide a strategic structure for the work we do with clients. The specific coaching techniques and processes you use to move a client through the stages can vary according with your training and preference.

THE MODEL OF INSPIRED CHANGE – VERSION 1.0

Step 1 - Create A Vision of an Inspiring Ideal State Or Outcome

This model begins in the center with the client imagining and connecting to an outcome that inspires. They need to “feel” this outcome as a real and compelling possibility.

This is the place to ask questions such as: “Where do you want to be in your business or life one, two or three years down the road?”, “What is the best possible outcome?”, “ Who do you need to be, or what qualities do you need to bring forth, to be the person more success will flow to?”

This is the stage where a coach would ensure the client’s agenda aligns with their values, and would lead them to a place of greater engagement, expression, effectiveness and fulfillment.
The greater the client’s emotional experience (the more they can actually connect with and embody) of this future state, the more energy will be available for change.

Ongoing - Renewal / Support /Relationship

To make substantial change, we need to routinely move past our existing comfort zone or limiting beliefs and fears. To do that, we need to keep the vision of our desired outcome alive, so our internal state is one of resilience, hope, inspiration and possibility (not fear or stress). Therefore we need to create a daily renewal process, and establish support structures to keep us inspired, accountable, experimenting, and moving forward. This is best done in relationship with others.

Step 2 - Compare The Ideal to The Current State

Once we have clearly pictured the ideal state, we can contrast it to where the client is now. This process will clearly identify the gaps we need to close in the areas of who we need to BE, what we need to KNOW, and what we need to DO, to achieve the outcomes we desire. Once we have identified the gaps, we can prioritize our action. The introduction of the factors associated with BE, KNOW, DO provide distinctions that help the client raise their awareness on all the factors that will contribute to their successful outcome. For example – if they just focus on what they need to know, or who they aspire to be - and never translate it into action - success will not be possible. Note - Boyatzis points out that attempts to effect change by going directly into a discussion of shortcomings put individuals under stress and therefore minimizes the chance for change. By starting in the ideal future state, you prepare the client to look at the gaps from a non-stressed state. However caution should be exercised to ensure you do not focus on too many gaps at one time. Generally you want to focus on building strengths rather than mitigating shortcomings. Experience indicates that for most people a good news/bad news ratio of 5 to 1 keeps people inspired and moving forward.

Step 3 – Create a Plan, Learn and Grow

Knowing where we want to end up, where we are now, and having a clear understanding of priorities in the gap we want to close, we can create an action plan, to learn, grow and build the strengths required. (Good plans would build on signature strengths, and benefit from all prior art on good goal setting.) This is also the stage to draw on our allies and try out our new knowledge and behaviors in safe places.

Step 4 - Move Into Action

Implement the plan by taking sustained and courageous action while maintaining the support and renewal you require. Again here, ongoing accountability, support and relationship are crucial.

Step 5 – Evaluate Results

Compare our results with our intentions, and make whatever adjustments are necessary.

Participation

If you would like to be part of finding, adapting or evolving a new coaching model please feel free to participate. It would be very useful to hear your feedback on:

• Does this approach make sense to you?
• What works, what doesn’t?
• How could we make this simpler, more effective, more useful?
• Are there any other science based models you like?
• Etc.

Keeping Informed

If you would like to simply keep informed of the developments on this topic, simple email

SteveMittensCoachingNotes-on@zines.webvalence.com

(I will update everyone on my almost monthly newsletter.)

www.acoach4u.com

www.principalevolutions.com