Welcome to Advantages!

A monthly newsletter to help you reach your next level of success!

by Kate Steinbacher

“One of the reasons people don’t achieve their dreams is that they desire to change their results without changing their thinking.” John C. Maxwell , Thinking For A Change

As a personal and corporate coach I partner with people to create change in their lives, whether it is changing the career path they have chosen, the level of management they are seeking, the kind of clients they want to be selling to, or the balance they want to experience between their personal and business lives.

When an individual begins the coaching partnership it is often because they are frustrated with their current progress, it is not moving along fast enough, they are experiencing many roadblocks and they can’t seem to keep focus or stay on track towards their goal. Our first step is usually to discover where they are on, what I identify as, “the clarity scale”. Do they truly know what the goal is and why they want to attain it? Have they defined the goal in a manner that they can feel connected to its purpose? What are their thoughts in connection with the goal? Many times the first questions are answered with great detail and they have even created a strategy to reach the goal they wish to attain, broken it down into manageable steps and have begun the process to reach the goal. Most often the missing piece that causes the roadblock to success is not their ability or knowledge or even their organization, but the thoughts they harbor around the goal.

As a new college graduate I was given the opportunity to become a supervisor of a department I had been a member of for the last 3 years. I was promoted due to my knowledge, experience and potential. It was a great honor and one I felt ready to accept. After about a month on the job, the productivity of my department had plummeted. I was frustrated, and went to my manager to try to discover what I was doing wrong. My manager gave me these words to ponder: “Think like a supervisor.” After mulling this over, I discovered I was still thinking like an hourly employee. I had made the leap to supervisor, but my thought processes had not changed along with me. This time I went to my supervisor with a list of new thoughts: how I think about myself in relation to the supervisory position. I was on my way to changing the way I thought about my job and my person in that job. With each discovery, I became a more valuable supervisor and my department began to excel. Success in this situation was about changing the way I was thinking to mirror the new position.

Coaching Challenge: Examine your thinking around your goals and who you are with this goal. Ask yourself some questions to trigger understanding of your current thought processes and what changes you may have to make. If your goal is to balance your home and work days: Do you believe it is possible? Do you think you deserve to have a balanced life? How does a balanced person think, react, look? If your goal is to change your client base to a more affluent group of people: How do you have to think differently to make this change? What thoughts do you have that will inhibit/forward this goal? Begin to change the way you think to enhance your goals.

Please feel free to send this newsletter to a friend or colleague!

To learn more about how coaching can impact your life and business... TCA Home.

Want to try coaching ? Group Coaching is a great way to try it on. The cost is small and the value is excellent: New groups starting in September 2008: drop an email with groups in the subject line and I will send you further information....kate