Source: www.askacoach.com

The Internal Business Process Perspective

This perspective refers to internal business processes. Metrics based on this perspective allow the leaders of the organisation to know how well their business is running and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements. These processes need to be designed and measured with the customer experience in mind.

For example, how to collect and manage customer feedback is a critical process for any business. This isn’t just about how to address complaints well, but on a bigger scale, outline management responsibility in a measurable way. How does customer feedback influence future strategic direction of the business and the design of its products and services?

In addition to the strategic managment process, two kinds of business processes may be identified: a) mission-oriented processes, and b) support processes. Mission-oriented processes are the special functions related directly to the higher-level and customer-centric strategic objectives of the organisation. The support processes are more repetitive in nature, and hence easier to measure and benchmark using generic metrics.

Examples of support metrics could include on-time delivery of the product, regular internal communications like newsletters being consistently produced as agreed, or responding to all potential/existing client queries within 24 hours.

Coaching Exercises

Here are some questions to ask about your business. There are many more to be asked, so this is just a starting point.

1. What are your high-level internal business process objectives?
2. When do they have to be achieved by?
3. Is there a particular order in which they need to be achieved?
4. How are you evaluating these as important?
5. How are you measuring these objectives? In other words, what data and reporting mechanisms do you have in place?
6. What strategies do you have in place already, or which could be designed, to address each of the objectives? In some cases, there may be more than one strategy required to achieve the desired outocome?
7. For each strategy, do you have any dates identified to achieve them?
8. For each strategy, what are the measurement criteria and how specifically are you going to collect the data?
9. Who is responsible for each strategy? What reporting do you need from them?
10. For each objective, and for all stakeholders related tot he achievement of that objective, what learning and development objectives must also be met?
11. For each objective, what customer objectives must also be met? These may link to the financial objectives as well.
12. If you have already been measuring certain internal business process objectives, and have been able to identify that one or more of them is underperforming, which related financial, customer, internal business process and/or learning and development objectives are also underperforming? This information may help you in identifying root cause of the problem, and from this awareness, you can explore new choices and actions to implement to correct the issue.
13. If you’re unsure about the objectives, the data, causes of problems or opportunities to improve the situation, whom wihin or outside of your organisation could you be turning to for assistance? This is potentially part of your own learning and development.

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,

Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Source: www.askacoach.com

The Learning and Development Perspective

As the learning and development (or sometimes referred to as Learning and Growth) perspective feeds into all other objectives, we shall start our exploration of the balanced scorecard here.

This perspective includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. This is a lot more than just training however. It also includes having mentoring programmes, developing ways to share knowledge amongst key stakeholders, and helping people learn how to take responsibility for problem solving.

Do people know how to do what you expect and/or need them to do? What are you doing to support them develop in these areas? If your team doesn’t know how to perform, or how to perform better than they are now, then their ability to meet operational, customer and financial targets is diminished.

Coaching Exercises

Let’s ask some general questions about your business. There are many more to be asked, so this is just a starting point.

1. What are your high-level learning and development objectives?
2. When do they have to be achieved by?
3. Is there a particular order in which they need to be achieved?
4. How are you evaluating these as important?
5. How are you measuring these objectives? In other words, what data and reporting mechanisms do you have in place?
6. What strategies do you have in place already, or which could be designed, to address each of the objectives? In some cases, there may be more than one strategy required to achieve the desired outcome?
7. For each strategy, do you have any dates identified to achieve them?
8. For each strategy, what are the measurement criteria and how specifically are you going to collect the data?
9. Who is responsible for each strategy? What reporting do you need from them?
10. For each objective, what financial targets are required to be met to achieve the desired outcome?
11. For each objective, what internal business process objectives must also be met? These may link to the customer objectives as well.
12. If you have already been measuring certain learning and development objectives, and have been able to identify that one or more of them is underperforming, which related financial, customer, internal business process and/or learning and development objectives are also underperforming? This information may help you in identifying root cause of the problem, and from this awareness, you can explore new choices and actions to implement to correct the issue.
13. If you’re unsure about the objectives, the data, causes of problems or opportunities to improve the situation, whom wihin or outside of your organisation could you be turning to for assistance? This is potentially part of your own learning and development.

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,

Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Source: www.askacoach.com 

Overview of The Balanced Scorecard

Many business coaches use The Balanced Scorecard with their clients to help identify key business strategies to achieve objectives in the following four categories:

• Financial Focus
• Customer Focus
• Internal Business Process Focus
• Learning and Development Focus

The Balanced Scorecard is a strategy-focused measurement and reporting mechanism developmed by Kaplan and Norton in the mid nineties at Harvard Business School.

The four perspectives, or focus areas listed above, are all important.

As compared to other management models and approaches, the “balanced scorecard” approach provides a clear prescription as to what companies should measure in order to “balance” the financial perspective.

In other words, many businesses have such a focus on their financial targets, that the attention is unbalanced against other important areas of the business.

For a business to achieve its financial targets, it must be able to meet all of its customer targets. Customer targets can only be met if there are sound internal business process objectives being achieved. And none of this is possible without also focusing on the learning and development objectives of the organisation and its people, in order for them to perform the necessary behaviours in all categories.

According to The Balanced Scorecard Institute,

“the balanced scorecard is a management system (not only a measurement system) that enables organisations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results. When fully deployed, the balanced scorecard transforms strategic planning from an academic exercise into the nerve centre of an enterprise.”

Today and the next four day’s worth of blog entries will provide you with a number of coaching questions and exercises drawn from The Balanced Scorecard which you may find effective in analysing, planning and driving your business.

Coaching Exercises

Today, we’re asking some general questions about your business. There are many more to be asked, so this is just a starting point.

What is your organisation’s Vision Statement? In other words, what is the ultimate future-oriented goal of the organisation, which would also be the reputation you will have earned? How do you curently measure your performance against your Vision Statement? if you are not curently measuring it, what metrics could be used?

What is your organisation’s Mission Statement? In other words, what are the consisten behaviours and strategies you demonstrate and measure which will achieve your Vision? How do you curently measure your performance against your Mission Statement? if you are not curently measuring it, what metrics could be used?

What are your organisation’s Company Values? These are your core operating principles, either in terms of business practice or individual behaviours? How do you currently measure your performance against your Company Values? If you are not currently measuring it, what metrics could be used?

What are the top five objectives of your organisation right now and for the coming year or so? How are these documented and shared with the various stakeholders? If not documented and shared now, what are you willing to do to correct that?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

This is part 1 of the special series “Discover the Work You Were Born to Do”, by author Nick Williams. 

By the end of this article, you will discover: 

• An entirely new vision for work, and its place in your life.
• How your beliefs about work may be holding you back. 
• Why the work you were born to do is as unique as your fingerprint.
• The nature of ‘resistance’. 

The first step in discovering the work you were born to do is to understand the true purpose of work. Work lies at the centre of our adult lives…

… One prevailing belief is that work is, on the whole, an activity that must entail a degree of pain, boredom or suffering. It is something we have no real choice over - we just “have to do it”…

It can seem as though hard work and sweat are what justify our existence on this planet; indeed, many of us believe that the only route to success is through working hard and working long. All too often, it appears as though we are hard wired for suffering - and our work can be yet another area in which this idea is played out.

Similarly, work is often regarded as being a purely economic activity - it is what we have to do, and perhaps suffer for, in return for money. However, work was never supposed to be a form of economic slavery, nor an activity with which to punish ourselves.

If you have grown up with this set of beliefs, you may need to become inspired to a new vision for work and its place in your life.

In the twenty-first century, many of us have divorced our soul and ‘deeper self’ from our livelihood. So it’s high time that we reconnected our spirit with our work. A deeper part of us is calling us to let our work become a more complete expression of who we are, and a more joyful activity in itself.

Through our work we can express the spirit within us and allow our energies to flow out into the world. This is the true meaning and purpose of work - and it lies a full 180 degrees in opposition to the traditional economic and suffering based view.

The true purpose of work has always been to use our unique talents and gifts in order to make a difference and serve others, and in doing so, to inject a little more love into the world, spread more joy, and then get paid for it.

… and as well as the means to earn our living, our work can be about our own creative expression, our soul’s growth, rediscovering our potential and making our unique contribution to life.

We all need to feel there is a reason for our being here - something for us to do that is worthwhile and meaningful - that uses our talents and abilities, and contributes to the lives of others.

We deserve to feel fulfilled through our work, know that people are grateful for what we do and who we are, and at the same time, we deserve to be fairly compensated for our efforts. All of us want this - and even though it may not yet be clear to you - the Universe is set up to support each one of us in achieving it. The noblest view of work is that it can be the way we make our love visible in the world, a means of sharing generously with others.

As such, it has the potential to fulfil and enrich you.

Whether you feel it is your true calling or not, you can nevertheless perform your current work (whatever it may be) with love, thereby making it a more meaningful and fulfilling experience for you. However, I would like you to know that there is other work out there that you are uniquely qualified for and suited to, which will be a perfect match for who you are, your special talents and your enjoyment in life.

This is the work you were born to do, and you will find it at the intersection where your joy meets the needs of the world.

… It is borne in your imagination and YOU bring into the world. This work is not something you can simply sit down, dream up and then decide to undertake; it is something whose seeds have already been sown in your heart, and the memory of this lies safe within your soul.

For fifteen years, I have been helping people discover and live the work they were born to do. Later on in this course I will share with you the nine ways through which people discover what they are really here to be and do.

Who you are BEFORE what you do

Before asking the question, ‘what is the work I was born to do?’ each one of us needs to address the question, ‘who am I?’

Less important than what we actually do for a living is our willingness to access who we really are and bring that to our work.

As well as possessing a personality, we are spiritual beings - each blessed with talents, gifts and resources.

We are made in and from love.

… our existence is a blessing. There is core in each one of us that is whole and intact, untouched by our life experiences. Our mind and heart are the most amazing things in the Universe, and we are souls who are powerful beyond measure.

I agree with the poet William Wordsworth on the nature of our true selves:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home […]

William Wordsworth,
Ode. Intimations of Immortality

… So your own credentials are pretty sound!

There is nothing wrong with you and yet there is so much right with you.

You have the capacity to inspire and be inspired! You were not born as some kind of blank page waiting for the world to stamp its imprint on you. You showed up in this life as a highly individuated soul, with a specific destiny to fulfil.

You too have unique talents, a calling to enact, challenges to face, rewards to treasure, obstacles to overcome and a Self to become. Your job in this life is not to try to shape yourself into some idealised version of yourself, but to find out who you already are ‘in embryo’ and then become that individual in full.

There is a potential-Self in you that you are here to realise, which holds the answer to why you are here on this planet. Realising this inner Self defines the work you were born to do -and it is your calling and vocation to discover and unlock its latent brilliance.

However, none of us has unlimited choices and it is a fact of life that we can’t all be absolutely everything we want to be. But, your personal calling is as unique as your fingerprint, and the best way to succeed is to discover what you love doing and then to find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, allowing your heart and the energy of the Universe to lead YOU in the process.

Now that you have a sense of what it means to discover the work you were born to do, it’s time to turn our attention to the parts of your psychology and personality that hold you back. In the next section we’ll be tackling the subject of ‘resistance’.

The parts of you holding yourself back

Now, as well as a spiritual nature, you have a personality, and even as you are reading this you will readily acknowledge that there are parts of your personality that may sometimes act as major blocks to your success.

You may have had a lifetime of conditioning that goes counter to the ideas I’m proposing. This conditioning contributes to what I term your ‘resistance’ - the tendency we all have to self-sabotage, undermine ourselves, procrastinate, make excuses, divert ourselves, rationalise away the need for change and hold ourselves back.

In short, resistance is an expression of your fear in its many forms.

A considerable stage in the journey you are embarking on now may be taken up with breaking your old habits and patterns, transforming yourself and liberating yourself from the conditioning you’ve had in fearful thinking, so that you can become a clearer instrument for the work you were born to do.

You may be able to unravel some unhelpful patterns in the twinkling of an eye, whilst other strands of your fearful thinking may run very deep and require hard work to enable you to become free of them.

The freer you become, the more new opportunities will wash up on your shores and the greater the success and rewards you’ll reap. Believe it or not, life is set up for your self-realisation, and you already have a power in you that is greater than your resistance.

You can learn to access and harness that power!

About the Author:

Through his books, and live talks, workshops, personal coaching and on-line learning programmes, Nick has inspired tens of thousands of people to discover the work they were born to do. Nick then helps them to live that either through employment or by being entrepreneurial through their own business. He also helps them develop the wisdom and courage to harness their inspiration, talent and their fears as forces for growth and creativity.

Website: www.nick-williams.com
Blog: http://nickwilliams100.typepad.com

Everyone is wary of the unknown. Some of our potential therapy clients have concerns. These people need your product or service, but you must convince them that you can be trusted and they should work with you.

Often their concern comes from limited understanding of what you do. Or, they may have a friend or family member that had a bad experience with a therapist. There are bad people in every profession and unfortunately there are times when others have to overcome problems caused by these “bad apples”.

Understand and Appreciate Their Concerns

Never say “You can trust me”, “You are silly to be worried”, or to “Put yourself in my hands”. These are condescending and won’t win over the potential client. Keep in mind that the potential client has every right to be concerned and to request more information. Instead of dismissing these concerns, you need to address their worries. Confirm that you can help them and that you want to gain their trust and confidence.

These are a few examples of comments that you can use.

• “It’s understandable to be worried…”
• “I understand why you have concerns…”
• “You’re obviously not a person who takes risks…”
• “I remember you mentioned your friend who…”

These comments show that their concerns are justified and that you understand them. However, you shouldn’t make these comments if you don’t believe them.

Give Power to the Client

When you communicate with potential clients, share your knowledge with them. You can do this on your website or Blog with educational articles and useful content. In other cases, you can share information with them face to face or through your promotional materials, such as: flyers, brochures, etc.

It’s important that you use wording that the person will understand. Using big technical terms can be frustrating to others and especially when you should be helping them understand your therapy and your practice in more detail.

You give the potential client power through the additional knowledge. Educate them about your products or services and help them understand why you are the right person to provide the therapy or products that they need.

Through this knowledge, you give them the power to make an educated decision about whether to deal with you. This is also a great way to show that you respect them and are willing to put forth the effort to overcome their concerns.

Repeat the Important Points

When any customer asks a question - listen to them. This is true whether they ask you in person, on the phone, through email or an online comment. Listen to what they have to say and give them a complete and accurate answer.

Share the additional knowledge that they need to understand more thoroughly. Repeat the important details and be sure the customer understands. Understanding is critical in helping a hesitant and concerned potential client move past these concerns. 

You need to provide enough details so that they get the point. Every client has different needs and it is up to you to give them what they need. These concerns are usually a big part of the reason they are hesitant to visit a practitioner for the first time or to go back to a therapist.

Their own negative experience or the experiences of friends or acquaintances that were bad can be a powerful deterrent and it will keep them out of your office. You can accomplish similar goals through your website by providing a series of articles.

The clients who need information can click on additional articles if they need more details. Always remember you learned more over time. Your customers are on the same learning curve. Help them understand and they will be appreciative.

About the Author:

Kim Richardson is one of the few people in the United Kingdom who specialises in coaching complementary therapists, counsellors and psychotherapists. He is also an accredited counsellor and a successful author, with nearly 40 books to his name.

To download your FREE 7 Part mini course ‘Seven Steps to Marketing Success’, go to www.therapysuccess.com.