Celebrating Recognition, Self Worth, August 2010

• Editors Letter
• IIC - Benefits for our Members
• Celebrating & Recognition
• Top Tip- Self Worth Is A True Leader
• Your Questions Answered
• Improving Your Self-Worth
• IIC Member Benefit Spotlight: ICR
• A Day in the Life of…
• Recommended Reading
• Share this Newsletter with a friend

Editors Letter

Dear Subscribers

The month of August is a special time of year for me and I guess for many of you. Holidays with family and friends, B-B-Q food, parties and weddings are just a few reasons to recognise and celebrate one’ own achievements and those of others, all of which boost self worth. August is bathed in sunshine and blossoms north of the equator while hibernation and new growth is happening further south, comparable to the process of coaching.

Many of us make the effort to smile and pass a little joy into the hearts and lives of others. This small action involving 17 facial muscles opposed to something like 43 muscles to frown, within the scheme of things actually adds bliss to many a heart and creating a very satisfying experience for both the giver of the smile and the receiving parties.

Taking the topic of smiling further good manners in business is paramount, did you know that 68% of people will not do business with service providers that have poor customer service. So what can we as coach’s do about providing real value to our clients. I’d wager a guess that personalised mentoring to help clients focus on real solutions to their problems. An excellent helping of encouragement will motivate, to stay on track to succeed. Offering direction for on-going accountability to accomplish goals and so much more in life, read the article below on ‘Celebrating & Recognition’ our theme for this month. My coaching words to you this month are; ‘To Thine Own Self Be True’

I encourage all of you to follow those wise words from Polonius to his son Laertes, from Hamlet by Shakespeare. Read the article in our The Business of Coaching section.

Have you visited the IIC Social Media networks and listened to my Weekly Greeting broadcast yet? Go there today and tell your friends about how the IIC offers true value for money.

Yours in Coaching,
PaTrisha-Anne Todd, LCSi, AFC
Newsletter Editor

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IIC - Benefits for our Members

Build a Booming Business

Get Known Fast

The Science of Getting Rich

Coaches in Business Offer of the Month

What other Members offers would you like the IIC to source? Let us know by emailing our department for Members Offers.

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Celebrating & Recognition

‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ stands at the heart of coaching culture. A true expression for understanding and recognising how we build, develope, recognise and celebrate our coaching business. Being realistic about what needs to get done on a consistent basis will most likely give us the basic support we need to reach our coaching business goals.

Preparing our own mindset to achieve the success most desired with the ability to recognise when it comes along, no matter how great or small is the essence of recognition and celebration. I most heartily encourage you to celebrate your efforts and have fun it really does make all the difference to personal motivation levels.

Giving good value to your coaching clients for the money they pay also deserves recognition in itself. Coaching is a fabulous opportunity to help expand coaching clients’ perspective by simply deploying the coaching models and techniques learned whilst in training. Luckily as coaches we get to understand about the glass being half empty or half full.

High levels of professional agility in managing your business commands a cause to celebrate.

Recognition and Celebration Belong Together
Once you’ve started your coaching endeavours take the time to stop and celebrate what you have begun. This simple ritual will fire your motivation, you’ll then be in a position to continue with your efforts and make headway towards your personal success.

What else as a coach can be done to provide real value to the coaching client? I’d wager a guess that personalised mentoring to help clients focus on real solutions to their problems. Personal Mentoring is a service I have always provided in my own coaching business and is very much welcomed and enjoyed by clients. In return I’ve been rewarded with a good helping of seeing my clients make positive changes thus making progress towards their goals with capability to stay on track.

A personal service offers direction for on-going accountability to accomplish goals in all areas of life.

Working In Tandem
Another strategy that I’ve used with qualified candidates is the development of partnerships. This joint venture approach equips world class coaches to impart their skills set to clients to unlock their true potential.

The important benefits of recognising your accomplishments and celebrating them as they come along is quite stunning. I am confident that you’ll appreciate what I say as you blossom, making an impact on your lifestyle as you recognise and celebrate your phenomenal success.

From The Get Go
I’d also like to include the example of our school system as we know it. Each year hundreds of thousands of youngsters enter either the state run or private sector educational organisations around the civilised world. Apart from preparing, encouraging and providing knowledge past, present and even futuristic the school uses the structure of setting goals that when accomplished to varying levels are recognised and celebrated. Throughout a child’s early learning life healthy competitiveness is instilled into their young minds in the name of personal development. This attitude from the ‘get-go’ is a positive and productive one that endorses the concept of recognising and celebrating life’s little, even big achievements.

PaTrisha-Anne Todd, Email PaTrisha-Anne Todd
© 2010 PaTrisha-Anne Todd; All Rights Reserved

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Top Tip - Self Worth Is A True Leader

Mustering the courage to be true to your convictions depends on the amount of self worth you hold in your heart.

Regardless of what other income activities you may be doing alongside your coaching career humility is the only dynamic of your true essence in respect of your self-worth and then of your attitude towards others. You can with consistent effort prove yourself as a leader, a policymaker and an authentic representative of the coaching profession.

This month make humility the reason why you get out of bed each morning. Be greater than the whole and practice diligence to humility as you go about your daily business.

Leadership is the manifestation of self worth from the essential quality of humility. We then gather those other qualifying factors of authenticity, courage, focus, passion and transparency all adding to form the whole.

Today decide to do three things that will ensure you boost yourself worth and become a true leader in your own lifetime;

Prepare your mind to be humble so you can achieve greater success in your life and business activities.
Be totally authentic and commit to change your attitude in order to boost yourself worth.
Express passion in all that you do after you have conducted due diligence to ensure you are on the correct pathway.

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Your Questions Answered

Question - “What are the best methods for clients to pay for my coaching services?”

Answer It is essential that you collect payment for your coaching sessions/programmes before they commence. This reinforces the client’s commitment to receive coaching and ensures the time you book for the client is paid for, whether they access the coaching slot or not. Obviously, it is your choice about what cancellation/postponement charges you enforce.

A lot of clients prefer to send a cheque for the required amount through the post and again it is important that this cheque is cleared before coaching commences.

However, more and more coaches are finding it much easier to encourage their clients to pay online. Firstly, you will need to set up a payment options page on your website, with a button that shows this option on every other page of your website. This enables clients to access the payment page from any part of your website.

There are various options to collect payment online, such as:

Paypal PayPal is an extremely safe and easy method to send and receive money on line. Once you have set up a PayPal account you are able to use the PayPal icon for visitors to your website to pay for your products or services online.

Set up: Free

Transaction fee: Standard rate is 3.4% + £0.20GBP, this reduces in line with volume of transactions

Minimal collection: none

For more information, visit www.paypal.com.

Google Checkout
Google Checkout allows you to process orders through either the Merchant Centre or your own order processing system.

Set up: Free

Transaction fee: monthly sales under £1500 – 3.4% + £0.20 per transaction, this reduces in line with volume of transactions

Minimal collection: none

For more information, visit http://checkout.google.com

Amazon Checkout
Checkout by Amazon accept payments on your website. You just need to add buttons using snippets of HTML code onto your payments page.

Set up: Free

Transaction Fee: Fees are assessed on a per-transaction basis and vary depending on the transaction amount. They are based on a percentage of the transaction amount plus a per transaction fee. Eg: 3 month average < $3,000 = 2.90% + $0.30 per transaction

Minimal collection: none

For more information, visit http://payments.amazon.com

Question - “What advice would you give to a coach to ensure they stay mentally alert for their clients?”

Answer It is obviously important to be mentally alert and prepared for a coaching session but sometimes when you are busy or spend long periods of time engrossed in working you can forget to take a break to refresh yourself.

Taking regular breaks away from the computer is essential. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recommends a 5-10 minute break from a VDU screen in each 60 minute period in order to stop eye fatigue, and back/neck ache from not sitting correctly. During these regular breaks it is a good idea to drink plenty of water to keep hydrated, go for a short walk to stretch your legs and get some fresh air, or eat something to remain mentally alert.

Schedule coaching sessions at realistic intervals allowing adequate preparation and time to write up notes afterwards. Spend a few minutes before each session removing other work from your desk which may distract your attention from your client. Also, spend a little time clearing your mind so that you are able to give your best attention to your client. Some people find meditation helpful or a few deep breathing exercises.

Remember, the quality of your coaching depends on you performing at your best so invest a little time in yourself so that you can give the best value to your client.

Answered by Helen Jones, Email Helen Jones
© 2010 Helen Jones; All Rights Reserved

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Improving Your Self-Worth

I read an article recently which stated that if you had to pay for all the services a mother undertook whilst raising a child from 0-18 years, you would have to pay £1,425,104. These tasks included taxi-driving, nursing, cleaning, nutritionist/cooking, childminding, counselling, PR etc. The list is obviously more extensive, but it raises the question, if you had to put a monetary value on everything you do outside of work, how much would another person have to pay?

When working on improving your perception of your self-worth, it might be worth considering how much someone would have to pay to receive the benefits of what you do through love, commitment or duty. We all complete many tasks each week which add value to our lives and to the lives of those around us and it is very important that we acknowledge that. Consider how each act we perform, no matter how small, enhances the wellbeing of others and improves our immediate environment. Did you take time to listen to someone without interruption? Did you see through a commitment regardless of the other demands made on your time? Did you make someone laugh or nurture a child? It is important that we don’t take these acts for granted and value ourselves for them.

Whilst it is important to acknowledge our value to others it is also our responsibility to support ourselves in keeping our self-esteem high.

At certain times events may occur which have the potential to knock our confidence and dent our sense of self-worth. Whilst we cannot control what happens to us, we can control how we respond to those events. When we have a high level of self-esteem and strong self-confidence, we have the courage and conviction to face these challenges, assess what action is best to take and move forward proactively. As the NLP principle states, “there is no such thing as failure, only feedback.” Understanding that when we do not achieve the desired result, we have learnt the valuable lesson of what did not work helps protect any damage to our sense of self-worth. If we had not taken that action, we would never have known whether it would produce the result we desired or not. Now we know we can adjust our approach accordingly.

Also consider what you are tolerating in your life. Negative influences can have a draining effect on your self-worth and you deserve to reduce these as much as possible to avoid unwanted distraction and stress. Take steps so that these influences can be avoided or reduced so that you are able to be true to yourself and perform at your best?

The way we talk to ourselves can massively boost our self-worth. You are a unique human being. No-one on this planet has the same combination of personal attributes and skills as you do and therefore only you can harness these resources to offer value to those around you and progress your own personal development. How much would others have to pay for those benefits if you charged them? Whether you give it a monetary figure or not, the benefits of what you offer must not be underestimated. You may motivate, inspire, support, champion, empathise, nurture, forgive or educate. What a loss it would be to not acknowledge the value that holds.

Written by Helen Jones, Email Helen Jones
©2010 Helen Jones; All Rights Reserved

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IIC Member Benefit Spotlight: ICR

The International Coaching Register is for any individual who trades as a Coach, who help individuals and/or organisations for example, establish a work life balance, manage stress levels and build communication skills amongst many other specialist areas.

Everyone who has qualified as a Coach with a recognised Coach training company should now take the opportunity to register. This will dramatically cut down on any misrepresentation that goes on within the industry. Many people have websites and call themselves a Coach but have no actual qualifications. The register will stop these people and raise the profile of genuine Coaching and how it can transform people’s lives.

President of the IIC Gerard O’Donovan said “the register has been administered by the IIC for the benefit of the world of Coaching and Coaching clients. It is also a great way for Coaches to get business as members of the public can search for registered Coaches in their area. It brings Coaching transparency at last.”

As a Member of the IIC, Have you published your details on the International Coaching Register, at no charge?
To do so:

Login to the IIC Members Area, and then select the ICR Register Edits menu option on the left hand side of the screen.

Create your entry by selecting:
Insurance - enter your Professional Indemnity Insurance details here.

Training - enter the details of all the training courses you have completed here.

Workshops - enter the details of all the workshops you have attended here.

Accreditation - your IIC Accreditation details will automatically be included here. You also have the opportunity to enter the details of all the accreditations/credentials you have been awarded, as an independent verification of your Coach training and experience.

Business Details - select or enter all types of Coaching you include in your Coaching Business/Practice.

Organisation Membership Details - enter the details of all Business Organisations in which you hold a Membership -these could be other Coaching Bodies, Chamber of Commerce, or any type of organisation that is appropriate to your business.

Display - do not forget to DISPLAY your details.Selecting yes your details will be displayed on the International Coaching Register. For IIC Accredited Coaches, your details will also be displayed on the IICs Coaching Referral programme.
We look forward to seeing you on the International Coaching Register.

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A Day in the Life of…

Susan Jane Pain, ELITE Consultant and expert in Impression Management to ladies and gentlemen, shares her secrets on staying cool, calm and confident this summer while making a great impression conducting business.

First impressions are so important. It isn't always with what you wear its how you wear it, and how you carry yourself. Here are some tips on how to look refined and appear confident, as we enjoy the summer days.

Choose comfortable styles and fashions that suit you. If you decide to wear something knowing that it's not really suitable for you, you’ll not be able to portray yourself with confidence.
Decide on the image that you want to portray. Don't mix different fashion styles. It’s confusing for others and dilutes your brand.
Pay attention to your grooming. Match your hairstyle with your outfit. It’s your crowning glory.
Ladies please consider you jewellery, gentlemen your neck chain, cufflinks, watch and rings. Wear the appropriate jewellery for the outfit you’ve chosen to wear and the occasion. There are a lot of fashionable pieces of jewellery but some pieces do not go well with some outfits. You can wear costume jewellery with class and elegance when it's worn with the appropriate outfit. Remember elegant outfits will look so much better with elegant jewellery, and you’ll look and feel a million dollars.
Accessories need to compliment your outfit and be appropriate to the event.
Wear the appropriate foot wear. Elegant and comfortable foot ware is so important – make sure that they are clean, polished to a high standard and that the heels are in good order. By making sure your shoes are suitable for the occasion and that you can walk well in them will add to your posture and outer appearance. Choose your foot wear in colours that compliment your outfit.
Walking. Even if you are feeling tired and hot - walk proud with grace and sophistication. Walk by putting one foot in front of the other, walk with smooth even steps keep your arms loosely at your side.
Stand Tall and be proud of who you are.
Talk with confidence and clarity - never shout when you're talking. Don't interrupt others when they are talking. Make an impression by speaking loud enough to be heard, and put you point across with self belief.
Self believe in yourself – you look amazing – you are comfortable – you are neat tidy and elegant – believe in yourself and you’ll make the correct impact.

Susan Jane Pain, ELITE Consultant Impression Management Showcase on 3 September 2010 at the Royal Bath Hotel more information http://www.elite-training-academy.com/NEWS.html

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Recommended Reading

Links to books available through amazon.com that were published by our members, as well as any other books which we find particularly helpful for coaching ideas and insights will be placed here. Cheers to reading!

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