With the increase in the number of organisations looking to embed coaching into their people and organisational agenda, the question many HR practitioners and executives are now asking is how to ensure that you get a return on investment for coaching.

I am therefore delighted to announce that our next masterclasses for the Association for Coaching in Ireland will be led by Dr Peter Hawkins, Founder of The Bath Consultancy Group and we will be addressing this issue directly.

The events will be taking place on the 1 April 2008 in Dublin and 2 April 2008 in Belfast.

Increasingly organisations that invest in coaching are becoming more discerning and eager to ensure that there is a demonstrable return on the investment being made.  In this master-class, Peter Hawkins will illustrate the key elements that need to be accounted for to ensure the best return on the investment of time and cost.

The key elements for the organisation include:

• Creating an effective coaching strategy
• Three way contracting between coach, coachee and their line manger, with built in reviews where the contracting needs to not only set goals for the coaching but link these to value creation for and through the organisation
• Harvesting the organisational learning from both internal and external coaching relationships while preserving confidentiality
• Targeting coaching on key talent at points of transition.

The key elements for the coach include:

• Developing an approach to coaching that balances the needs of the individual being coached, their organisation and the relationship between the two
• Being clear about the strategy of the organisation and how the individual being coached can increase the value they create
• Effective coaching supervision.

Each of the key elements will be illustrated with best practice from leading firms such as BBC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst and Young and Standard Chartered Bank.  There will also be practical tools and methods that both coaches and organisations can immediately apply to their own work.

Peter Hawkins is a leading consultant, writer and researcher in organisational strategy, learning, managing complex change, leadership and Board development.

He is the co-author of “Coaching, Mentoring and Organizational Consultancy: Supervision and Development” McGraw-Hill/Open University Press 2006 and the best selling “Supervision in the Helping Professions” Open University Press 1989, 2000 and 2006.

You can book your place to attend the Associaition for Coaching in Ireland Masterclass online - please do ahead of the event as numbers are limited. 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Talking Coaching: resources and guidance for professional coaches, executives and HR and Talent Management leaders interested in the leading edge thinking in the world of professional coaching

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As a business leader, one of the core skills I personally believe it critical to support the performance of your business is that of being a great coach and mentor.

Having had the wonderful opportunity to build and develop my expertise as an executive coach and coach supervisor over almost 20 years and with a remit for embedding coaching capability into the organisations I have worked with, I am always searching for great resources and leading edge practices.

One book that is definately is on my recommended reading list is a best selling book by Sir John Whitmore, “Coaching for Performance”.

I am therefore delighted to announce that Sir John will be our next speaker at the Association for Coaching Ireland November event which is taking place on the 27 November in Dublin and the 28 November in Belfast. His masterclass is entitled “Coaching: A Mandatory Skill for 21st Century Leaders”.

We are all ready selling tickets fast and we do have restrictions on numbers, so be sure to book your place soon.

Do let me know if you plan to attend - we’re expecting over 100 people at the Dublin event so it would be great to know whose faces to watch out for!

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Welcome to the September 2007 edition of ”A Carnival Of Productivity Tips”. I was astounded with the volume and quality of articles this month - we received no less than 70 submissions, each one I have reviewed.

The purpose of this carnival is to provide readers with high quality articles providing practical tips to get more done in less time and with less stress. So if articles did not fit those criteria I have excluded them.

I recommend that you first read Sagar Satapathy who presents Top 100 Foods to Improve Your Productivity posted at Bootstrapper, then choose your productivity foods and sit down for the next hour to browse through these articles.

And can I suggest  that you then read Luciano Passuello’s article which presents How to Recall an Entire Book in 5 Minutes or Less posted at Litemind, outlining how to make sure that you don’t forget what you have just read.

Financial Productivity TipsMillionaire Mommy Next Door presents Where Does Your Money Go? Tips and Tricks for Tracking the Flow posted at Millionaire Mommy Next Door, showing us how to be more efficient with our finances. 

Marketing Productivity Tips

Randy Nichols presents Advertising Jingles and Commercials - Radio & TV posted at Matt’s Creative Advertising Blog, provides tips to help you be more productive with your media plan.

Chris Tackett presents How to Write a Headline and Grab Your Prospect by the Eyeballs! posted at Direct Marketing News, providing tips for writing headlines for your markeiting copy.

Eric Hudin presents You Can Make More Working Less posted at Everyday Marketing Ideas, and shows us how to become more efficient and effective.

Personal Productivity Tips

Matt presents Build your right-brain playground posted at EverydayChange.com, saying, showing us how to enhance productivity by employing more right-brain-based thinking.

Jaxelamse presents Brain Flicks: The Secrets of Sleep posted at Brain Flicks, saying, revealing the science behind sleep.

Chris Russell presents Enhancing Human Performance posted at Productivity Planner,  covering how to understand people’s needs in order to increase motivation.

TheRoadtoCEO presents A Motivation Secret of Top Performing Managers posted at Get More Done with Activity Logs, outlining a motivation strategy that you can use to encourage voluntary contribution from everyone around you.

Charles H. Green presents Deer in the Headlights Decison-Making posted at Trust Matters, outlining how meetings may bog down and guard the status quo. 

Tupelo Kenyon presents Don’t Take it Personally posted at Tupelo Kenyon, explaining that when people criticise it’s not always about you.

Lorraine Cohen presents Are You Creating a Success-Setting Environment? posted at Powerfull Living, asking is your physical environment work for or against you?

Ralph Jean-Paul presents Be A Presence In Any Room posted at Potential 2 Success, sharing with us how we can walk into any room or in front of any audience and project confidence by becoming a presence.

Ralph Jean-Paul presents Turn Potential Into Success posted at Potential 2 Success, saying, “Turn your skills, goals, and potential into success”

Living Better presents Help for the Disorganized posted at PlainAdvice, saying, “Getting back to the basics is often the best way to increase your productivity!”

Phil B. presents 13 Steps to be Productive « Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity.

SpiKe presents The Productivity Formula posted at Organize IT.

Will Mitchell presents Lucid Dream Experiment - WILD Method posted at Sparkedblog.

Shane Magee presents An exercise to boost your concentration span posted at Sri Chinmoy Inspiration Blog.

Luke Houghton presents 5 golden rules of making a presentation posted at Luke Houghton.

Louise Manning presents Does the work environment you provide affect employee performance? posted at The Human Imprint.

David B. Bohl presents Productivity, Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Balance - Knowing When Enough is Enough : Slow Down Fast Today! posted at Slow Down Fast Today!.

Arin Vahanian presents A Quick Primer on How to Eliminate Fears and Bad Feelings posted at Super State.

Jon presents Unscramble Your Brain & Get More Done posted at Art Of Money.

Moneywalks presents Ways to Avoid Procrastination posted at moneywalks.

Bill Urell presents 10 Easy Tips for Setting Positive Life Goals posted at Addiction Recovery Basics.

Christine Kane presents What?s Easy. What?s Not. posted at Christine Kane’s Blog.

Ellesse presents Want To be More Productive? Play More posted at Goal Setting College.

Christine Scivicque presents 5 Tips for Better Phone Communication posted at The Executive Assistant’s Tool Box.

Alvaro Fernandez presents The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution.

Do let me know if you adopt any of the ideas from this months articles.

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When we are considering making a purchase of a product or service there are a number of questions we need to have addressed before we make a final decision.

This includes the results that we can expect with the particular product or service.

One of the other key criteria that we assess is whether the service provider is credible.

There are many areas of credibility to consider when potential clients assess a professional services firm, but one that many business leaders overlook is the following…

… do they implement the strategies you are selling to your clients? Are they at the leading edge?

For example:

• How much confidence does a cosmetic dentist in need of dental treatment instill in their patients. You might laugh, but I attended a number of events with dentists in the UK last year and without a doubt their teeth were probably in the worst state I have ever seen.
• What about the optician offering laser eye surgery or contact lenses, but they continue to wear glasses? What does that say about their confidence in the services they are offering?
• Or the webdesigner who professes to know all about building your brand online but who as an Alexa ranking in the millions and who has not the first clue of how to build visibility online other than with pay per click campaigns?
• Perhaps you came across the personal branding expert who is completely unknown in their location both online and off line?

Yes there is a saying that the “cobblers children are the worst shod”. In other words, if we are leading a professional services firm and are very busy with clients that we do not make sure our own back yard is in order as we do not have time to implement the strategies we teach our clients.

That however is not a satisfactory situation. Your clients want to see results and if you can not demonstrate them in your own practice that is not going to instill confidence in your capability and credibility.

So as you consider your business development plans for your own practice this quarter, consider what areas of expertise do you bring to your clients.

What actions do you need to take to ensure that you implement these strategies in your own business?

After all if you can not implement these strategies in your own practice, why on earth would your potential client want to hire you to do the same for them?

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Many business leaders that I meet are real powerhouses of ideas. Their minds are constantly working in over drive and exploring different opportunities.

What is it that sets apart some business leaders and entrepreneurs from others?

You see one of the biggest problems many business leaders have to face is the ability to focus on outcomes and delivery of a project - particularly if they are running their own business. And this is supported by being accountable to deliver what you promise.

Consider it as the following equation for success:

Focus+Accountability = Success Continue reading

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