Ever wanted help putting together a quick, practical plan of attack or evaluating something that you’ve already done? Maybe you just wanted to discuss whether/how leadership skills might be of direct use to you at work or in other areas of your life or how to handle someone whose leadership style made you uncomfortable.

Now’s your chance. In honor of b5Media’s 24-blog Sports Channel launch I’m giving away 24 mini-coaching sessions (by phone) that usually last 20-60 minutes depending on the subject. The offer is open to any person, at any level, who is out there DOING.

Coaches for both teams and individuals are common in all aspects of sports, but other kinds of coaching have really moved into the mainstream in the last few years. You can find coaches for all of your life or a small, specialized piece of it, such as health, fitness and finances. There are executive coaches and functional (sales, marketing, PR, etc.) coaches; I even ran into a gardening coach recently!

Who benefits most from coaching? Anybody with an open, flexible, curious MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy)^TM who wants to grow.

When it comes to business, who should pay for coaching? Many people believe that if it’s for work the company should pay, but that’s not always the wisest guideline. Sure, it’s always nice when your manager sees the value of additional training, but is he doesn’t, that shouldn’t hold you back.

Moreover, the learning opportunity needs to be relevant. Whether you’re in management or not and no matter who’s paying the question you need to answer when thinking about coaching is, “What’s in it for me?” This is definitely a decision that involves good old VSI (vested self-interest). Seems obvious, but you’d be surprised. For example, if you’re in customer service and are offered training/coaching in product support to pave the way for a promotion, but you want to move your career into marketing, how valuable is it, even though the company is paying?

You must be interested in the subject to realize the full value of coaching, or any kind of training. Even when the company pays the cost and it’s done on company time you still need to commit the physical and psychic energy to learn. Who wants to spend that energy on a subject that’s of no interest either now or in the future? When you get right down to it, coaching is about you, so you also want a coach who knows her stuff, is sensitive to your needs and learning style, and with whom you’re comfortable.

Coaching is similar to any other learning tool that enhances your career, opens more opportunities or helps you solve short-term, tactical problems and do a better job. If it pays off for you then it’s worth paying for-and don’t forget that business coaching is tax deductible.

So, if you want to be one of the lucky 24 call me at 866.265.7267 or write miki.saxon@b5media.com. Be sure to include b5media leadership offer in the subject line to avoid my spam filters (the phone number doesn’t have filters:)

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 3:02 am and is filed under About Leadership, Announcements, Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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