Forget the need to be charismatic and smart. Remember Detective Colombo

Imagine you were a world famous business guru, like Tom Peters, standing up in front of a crown of 1000 people in a $1000 business suit. You fully intend to come off not only as charismatic and talented, but as one of the most intelligent people on the planet.

STOP!!!! This approach is great for talking in front of a big crowd, but is 180 degrees opposite to how you want to show up in a coaching conversation. Instead of using the likes of Tom as your role model when you sit down for a coaching conversation, think about Detective Colombo from the old TV show.

He never wore a $1000 suit, never tried to come off as charismatic, and never tried to prove to suspects how smart he was. Further, his trademarks were his cigar, humble raincoat, and his ability to engage and inquire: “Pardon me sir. I just wanted to ask you one more question.”

I have found that once you tell clients what your coaching is all about, “Impossible Futures, Leadership and Business Breakthroughs,” you are much better off drawing people out and asking questions.

Even though I have the ability to be charismatic and smart, I make a concerted effort in coaching conversations to have a very matter of fact way: “Well, I have listened to what you said, and if you would like to hear it, there is a Teachable Point of View I would like to share with you that may help in your situation…”

One great way to enroll people in coaching relationship is to have an initial conversation where you talk about how coaching can help people realize an Impossible Future for themselves and their business. Then, if people are intrigued, have them fill out a short questionnaire, which supports people to self reflect on their issues and opportunities and catalyze a powerful coaching conversation. Here’s a questionnaire I recommend. Robert

1. What is your general background? Passions? Talents? Interests? Position in your company?
2. If you were CEO of your company, what would you do to make a difference and impact results?
3. Are you ambitious? What’s your next step up the corporate ladder? (And after it?) Who or what is the biggest obstacle? What’s missing that could make a difference?
4. Do you tend to think that performance will be its own reward, or have you mastered the political chessboard? Do you need help doing that?
5. What would an Impossible Future for your business be that represents winning?
6. Do you have a Game Plan that tells everyone “this is how we intend to win in this business”?
7. Is your company growing profitably, or stuck in the No-Growth Morass? Are you ready to do something, but feel like you are staring at a wall?
8. In terms of your company, what are the relevant: a) facts? b) issues/opportunities? What’s your “Strong Suit” as a leader? Short suit?
9. Have you used an executive coach? What were the results?
10. What are you doing to develop the next generation of leaders for a global economy?

Balance excitement about realizing the Impossible Future with today’s calendar commitments.

I think that perhaps the thorniest issue I have come across in executive coaching is not whether someone has a vision—“game plan”—but whether they can execute on that amid the pressure of doing their day job and delivering short-term results.

I have found that it is very easy for an executive coach to get a decision maker excited about a new leadership roadmap or game-changing strategy, however, all too often, you discover when you check back a month later that nothing very much has happened.

As an executive coach, you don’t want to wind up associating yourself with all the things that didn’t get done, so let’s look at a three step action plan of what you can do to help yourself and your clients avoid this.

1. Do an Executive Calendar Review: Look with your client over three months of their schedule. Get an idea of how much of their average workweek is non discretionary (things you gotto do) and how much is discretionary (things you choose to do). The 80/20 principle may apply here, and if so, don’t load your client up with more change initiatives they can do in 20% of their time. Go over their calendar, get them to stop doing dumb stuff, which will free them up to work on their Impossible Future, and execute their Game Plan. For example, stop being an automatic Yes to every meeting request.

2. Stand in the future the leader wants to create and get them to act now. Once clients create a vision of their Impossible Future (Winning), coach them to create a maximum of 1 to 2 Catalytic Breakthrough Projects (CBP) that will fit into the 20% discretionary time box they have. For example, developing a leadership pipelines; working out a “Blue Ocean” strategy; implementing an Operational Excellence Initiative. The idea is to focus on one CBP vs. a laundry list of things to do. A CBP has four criteria: 1) top priority of the business unit, 2) total team effort, 3) aimed at a breakthrough result, and 4) takes you to a different place.

3. Hold people accountable! In service of the Catalytic Breakthrough Project, ask executives to make one 30 day breakthrough commitment that will move the ball forward. At the end of the 30 days, ask people, “Did you do it?” The only answers are “Yes” or “No.” If they don’t do it, avoid questioning people’s commitment. Instead ask, “What’s missing that if provided will make a difference?” or “Is there anything I can do to help?”

The Masterful Jae Chang Jeong, Founder of M Coaching

Jae Chang Jeong, CEO (source) of PSI Consulting in Korea and the new joint venture with MC called M Coaching, is tall and slim. Compared with some of my customers from Big Oil, who strut like Texas Longhorn Beef, Jae Chang Jeong walks gracefully like an Asian tiger on cat feet. Jae’s whole way of being speaks of leadership agility. He can step in one direction, then when the situation changes, he becomes aware, shifts his weight to the opposite foot, and steps in another direction.

When pursuing an Impossible Future, like putting M Coaching on the map, he is incredibly strong-willed, yet humble about himself, reveling in the talent of others. Start with a dream, then recruit the best talent in the world. He is not just a leader and manager, but willing to get down in the trenches and roll up his sleeves and get the job done. When he is not getting intended results from staff members, he can be very tough and compassionate in giving feedback. Yet, when someone comes on aggressively with him, he does not let his ego take over, but bends like bamboo. The combination of these things makes Jae hard to figure out, inscrutable, and mysterious.

Here is a letter we wrote to test with CEOs of emerging businesses. Let us know if you are someone we should be talking to, or if you can refer us to someone else in an emerging business.

Dear CEO,

We have selected you, and are sending you the enclosed “Your Coach in a Book” because our investigation has shown that your company has tremendous potential for growth, and we believe we can be of help to you.

We have worked for the last decade coaching high level leaders of large corporations to create an Impossible Future—growth, profit, and winning the talent war.

In the last year, after working with the leaders of several smaller businesses, we discovered that our Masterful Coaching methodology can have a powerful impact on emerging leaders, emerging business.

We would like to extend an invitation for you for a thirty minutes phone call to explore the possibility of being your Masterful Coach at work in your business.

If you accept, we really look forward to speaking with you. If you decline, we wish you a good read and hope that our book can trigger some powerful ideas you can act on. Before making a decision on our invitation, please take one or two minutes to read the enclosed one pager.

Sincerely,

Robert Hargrove and Michel Renaud

Draft of New Business Concept--Please Comment

It was only a few years ago that Google was an emerging business. Today, Google has produced 2 billionaires and 1000 millionaires.

Robert Hargrove and Michel Renaud are pondering starting up a new business under the Masterful Coaching brand name for the CEOs and executive teams of $15 to $50 million companies. The structure of the program will include both Executive Coaching and Team Coaching, but the overall focus will be on “Business Coaching.”

For Business Leaders with a Passion for Growth. The program will be designed for company leaders who have a passion for growth and want to realize an Impossible Future, such as tripling the size of their business in 2 to 5 years, with profits of at least 10% to 15% each year. The market we are going after is Emerging Leaders, Emerging Business, Emerging Markets—for those leaders who want to take their company to the next level, but have hit a wall.

Hunger for Coaching? It’s our belief that Emerging Business leaders in this category may prove to be hungry for coaching, given many have never had a boss who coached them, have done little in terms of executive development, and have lots at stake in their business—including the possibility of enormous wealth. It was only a short while ago that Google was an emerging business and today has produced 2 billionaires and 1000 millionaires.

Who are the coaches? The typical coach we retain might be a retired CEO of a big business, a president of a regional Business Unit, a division General Manager, or a successful entrepreneur who is ready to start a second career and has a secret ambition to coach and teach. They will be paid a generous percentage, plus the lion’s share of a bonus, if the business reaches its profit and growth goals.

Cost of the coaching program. The cost of the program, which includes executive coaching, team coaching, and emphasizes business coaching, will be 100K for one year. To help people get beyond initial money considerations, we intend to talk to the CEOs about what’s really possible for their business and their commitment to realizing it, as well as the power of coaching.

Feasibility Study At the beginning of each business coaching engagement, Masterful Coaching’s MBA research staff will conduct a Feasibility Study for approx $10,000 to determine whether the best course of action is to 1) Grow, 2) Fix to Sell, or 3) Close the company.

Please comment on the following questions. We think this might be a good business concept, but we would like to test our assumptions about the whole idea and would very much appreciate your comments on the following questions:

1. Do you think this is a good, great business idea? Initial reactions?

2. What do you think the absolute best way to market to the CEOs of these companies—letters, telemarketing, Web, associations, networking, other?

3. Do you think CEOs of these companies will pay $100k for the coaching service?

4. Do you think the retired executives we intend to hire as coaches will respond to the offer, given compensation, time involvement?

I bought a copy of Henry Kissinger's "The White House Years" over thirty years ago. It remained totally unopened until last Sunday morning when I was searching for something to read in my house in Ogunquit, Maine. Two minutes later, I had a powerful "aha" experience.

Kissinger was philosophizing that, when you are young, you have many new experiences so awe inspiring that time almost stands still. For example, the first time you behold a natural wonder, the first time you dance with a girl at a party, the first time you fly in a jet plane, stay in a swank hotel, or get a promotion or raise in pay.

However, at some point, the delight you take in each new experience is suddenly displaced by the comfort of familiarity, a progression of interchangeable experiences from the past. As the expression goes, "been there, done that." Kissinger was describing that his life, though progressing rapidly from Harvard professor, to NSC adviser, to Secretary of State, followed this same hum-drum pattern.

Then one day, he found himself flying from Pakistan across the Himalayas on his way to meet Mao and Chou Enlai, a visit that would open China to the West and visa versa. At that moment, Kissinger had another one of those awe inspiring new experiences where time stands still and he felt as if he was reborn.

I think Kissinger's story speaks for millions of successful people of yesterday, today, and tomorrow who have been there, done that. One point we might all take from his story is that the kind of soul-stirring experiences, like Kissinger's flight across the Himalayas on a mission to change the world, don't just happen, we have to make them happen.

For as long as I can remember, I have made my way in the world being a masterful coach/ business guru who can walk into a CEOs office or conference room and charge abundantly for my words of wisdom. Helping people deal with their leadership, busines, and career challenges on the corporate chessboard with all of its vagaries is for me like attacking an intensifying crossword puzzle with relish.

At the same time, I've been strongly influenced by a talk I heard a number of years ago by Michael Gerber, author of the E Myth, who said that any entrepreneur worth his salt should "work on the business" vs. "work in the business." After all, Ray Kroc, founder of MacDonalds, never worked in a hamburger stand. I've wanted to take the "work on your business" path, but haven't been sure how to do that.

Aha!!!! The acid test of a new business model is the financial formula.

In the past year or so, the Masterful Coaching brand has been building and we have received calls from all over the world from peole who wanted us to certify them as masterful coaches.

While this might lead to a good business for wannabe coaches, it was hard for us to figure out a good business model. The dilemma: MC certification is time intensive and what we could charge a MC candidate would, in comparision to our normal consulting rates, be miniscule.

For me, this was a great lesson in the fact that a business model can be awe inspiring, but you've got to get the accounting right. As former ATT Chairman, Harold Geneed, said, "the business is in the numbers."

The Eureka moment arrives at last

After realizing that MC certification for individual coaches didn't work, we began considering joint ventures with consulting and training firms.

In the spring last year, Jobs DB in Singapore, the Asian version of Monster.com, invited me to come to their small, but dynamic country to give a MC workshop. What really impressed me on my trip was the company's CEO, Stephen Seek, who showed little interest in the workshop itself and great interest in some kind of joint venture.

He told me, "Masterful Coaching has great content, and you need to figure out how to create products you can license, and then turn those products into dollars and cents." He said instead of thinking about how you can charge one client $100,000, relegating you to a small market of 25 clients, you need to start thinking about how you can charge 100,000 clients throughout Asia $25.

I went away thinking Eureka! why not create a workable business model around a product I can franchise and market in emerging markets throughout Asia, where there is an abundance of cheap labor, but a scarcity of emerging leaders who can run a business. More to come...

I have always wanted to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos—especially as I had a leadership training business in Switzerland for a number of years—but could never figure out how to wangle an invitation. If anyone can give me an answer, I would like to hear from you.

The 2006 Forum was just held in January with 100 plus CEOs and government leaders gathering to discuss world issues. There are many interesting webcasts and podcasts of these sessions. http://gaia.unit.net/wef/worldeconomicforum_annualmeeting2006/default.aspx

This year the theme was the creative imperative—harnessing private corporation’s capabilities to deal with public issues like hunger, malaria, and basic education in developing countries. I think the Masterful Coaching CollabLab process would be perfect for groups to generate innovative solutions to global challenges. The CollabLab is a process that brings together people to discuss the big themes and brainstorm action.

In my field of executive coaching, a lot of conversations happen in great restaurants where you can indulge in what one of my clients, Bill Scott of Colonial Pipeline, calls the three basic food groups: 1) steak, 2) scotch, and 3) cigars.

When I met with Professor Wen, I wanted him to feel free to confide in me during our conversation, so I decided to not take him to a Chinese restaurant where he might be seen or overheard. I chose to take him to the Captial Grille, which I have never been disappointed in.

The restaurant is a chain, but is consistently excellent in the areas of steak, service, and atmosphere. The old English wood paneling in the Newbury Street establishement in Bsoton makes you and whoever you're with feel important from the moment you walk in the door.

The Professor and I ordered Johnny Walker Black and Red, a 50 year single malted wiskey, which allowed us to ease into an extraordinary conversation about our mutual goals and challenges and began to soon build the bonds of human friendship.

I ordered the Delmonico steak, which was out of this world, and the Professor imbibed in a grilled Ahi tuna steak. This was accompaniesd by real masted potatoes and spinach sautéed in olive oil and garlic. The mashed potatoes were so good that the Professor heartily indulged in the second order I placed. The bill was under $100. Not bad at all.