Business Coach - Activate Group Inc

Three Things To Expect From A Business Coach

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Albert Noa

As a leader and entrepreneur, I always knew I had more to learn. I always seek ways to accelerate and raise the bar to achieve success. A key to getting maximum results from your advisors is to have a vivid picture of the outcomes you want to change. This allows you to understand the type of advisor required. When it comes to coaching, there are so many different types of coaches: behavioral, accountability, productivity, business, career, life, and other specialty coaching (e.g., communication, sales, speaking, leadership, etiquette, and so on).

Please beware of the term executive coach because it is broad and can mean too many things. To get maximum results, you need to hire a coach that is an expert in the area required. The best coaches focus on one or two types of coaching, and none excel in helping you in all areas. I have focused primarily on behavioral and business coaching, the two areas in which I excel.

I am often approached by people that want to achieve better results and are uncertain whether business coaching is right for them. A business coach brings three things to you and your organization:

1. REPEATABLE GROWTH SYSTEM

Your coach must bring a structured and repeatable growth system. This is not a system for every facet of your business. It is a proven leadership system that facilitates working “on” the business rather than in it. It is not a system for every function. Your functions (e.g., sales, marketing, operations) require knowledge from an expert in those functions and how to address those issues in your industry.

Don’t assume all systems are the same. Our Business Acceleration System^® is a repeatable framework designed to simplify the ease, speed, and confidence you have in growing your business. Driven by the CEO and delivered by your team, we help the team learn how to master and integrate six areas: cash, team cohesion, culture, execution, human capital management, and strategy. Most systems are deep in one or two of these areas.

2. SYSTEM EXPERT

You need a coach who is an expert in the repeatable process and ensures the team has clarity of role and position while keeping it highly cohesive and focused on the team result. Often you presume someone is expert because they have received a certification. Don’t allow certification to fool you. Certification indicates you have learned and shown proficiency in understanding the methodology. This does not mean they have put in 10,000 hours to master implementing the methods. Reading about and applying methods are both essential to mastery.

It is best if your coach has proven successful in many industries and companies. Otherwise, your company is a test bunny. It takes most coaches three years (or longer) to master a methodology. After being a coach for approximately 20 years, I can tell you my work is far better when compared with my first three years.

3. A PLATFORM FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

A software platform that creates daily behavioral habits leading to more clarity and alignment and a higher level of accountability. This is separate and distinct from your accounting, operating, and marketing software. As we have learned, no one software addresses all our needs. You must have the right platform that keeps the leadership focused “on” the business.

In addition to evaluating your coach’s ability to deliver the system and platform, I recommend that you evaluate a coach for culture fit, business acumen, and style. A great coach in a wrong culture leads to problems. As for business acumen, there are a lot of people that make good executive coaches but lack business acumen. Don’t confuse business acumen with industry experience. And it would help if you had a coach whose behavior compliments the team. Too often, leaders hire a coach that is most like them. While this may feel comfortable, it may not be what you need.

Howard M. Shore, Founder and CEO of Activate Group Inc. is a bestselling author, serial entrepreneur and business coach specializing in liberating leadership teams from the barriers holding them back personally and professionally. Howard has helped create over $1 Billion of value and authored two best-selling books, The Leader Launchpad and Your Business is a Leaky Bucket.

Law of the Lid

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Howard Shore

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Law #1 of 21: The Law of the Lid

In John Maxwells book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership he identified “The Law of the Lid”, which states that, “leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness. Without leadership ability, a person’s impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership. If a person’s leadership is strong, the organization’s lid is high. But if it’s not, then the organization is limited.”

Leadership Ability

I have spoken with three CEO’s in the last week that I am confident are causing a lid on their organization. All were reasonably successful and suffering from a clear case of “what got you here will not get you there.” We have found that the leaders that are able to take their companies to great heights are committed to identifying and addressing the changes necessary to take the business up a notch.

They realize that those changes begin with changing themselves and permeating that change throughout. As a general rule, the lid is a byproduct of employee expansion and reflects a leader’s ability to gain follower-ship among a greater number of employees. The first major lid happens from between 50 and 60 employees, and the second lid we find around 150 employees.

Leaders Evolution of Growth

It is important to note, that if you have no one following you, you are not a leader. To get more people to follow you (because they want to) you have to become a greater leader. And, the more people you have, the more easily one can see leadership effectiveness. It is all too easy for successful people to get full of themselves and believe they have arrived. In business and success, you never arrive. It is an evolution of growth.

Breaking Through Leadership Lid

Only one of those three leaders mentioned above has positioned themselves to break through their current lid. The biggest difference was her desire to break her personal lid. She has strong self-awareness, self-grounding, and foresight to hire a third party to help with her transition. This person deserves a lot of credit as she runs one of the most profitable companies in her industry sector.

She realized that her company was not growing as it should over the last few years, despite having a better strategy than the competitors. In initial meetings with her coach, she has recognized that she is going to have to learn how to work through an extra layer of management, communicate more proactively and clearly, and to shift her role from top producer to head coach.

Improve Your Leadership Ability

Contact Activate Group, Inc. for a FREE consultation or give us a call at 305.722.7213 to see how an executive business coach can help you run a more effective business or become a more effective leader.

10 Signs Your Employees Are Mediocre

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Howard Shore

It’s pretty rare to find a product or service that is truly unique. In my opinion, the only two ways to truly differentiate your business from the competition are through people and company culture. So let’s talk about people. Every leader with whom I’ve consulted says they only want to hire top talent. They say they have pride in their people and mediocrity is not an option. So why do they end up with a bunch of “C” players on their team? They don’t have a solid strategy for the management of human capital, and they ignore the following signs of mediocrity:

People picking up the slack of others who don’t do their job.
Positions are created to fit existing employees instead of hiring the right person for a position created to fit the company strategy.
Managers tolerating the same mistake by an individual over and over again.
Persistent complaints from co-workers about a particular employee.
People waiting around to be told what to do instead of taking initiative.
No innovation.
High turnover in key positions.
Higher overall turnover than best-in-class competitor.
Managers spend more time “doing” instead of coaching, mentoring, recruiting and evaluating performance.
Employees who aren’t held to the same standard because of their long tenure. i.e. their job is theirs forever.

At their core, these problems are human capital management issues that result in lost revenue, increased costs and lower margins. Ironically, some leaders find it easier to deal with revenue issues and their consequences than to learn how to build the right organizational structure and manage their human capital. By taking the time up front to do it right, they would grow faster, have more time, reduce costs, and expand margins. Instead, they choose what is comfortable.

Howard Shore is a sought-after business coach and an expert in human capital management who works with companies that need help with recruiting, hiring and developing the best talent. To learn more about AGI’s executive coaching, management consulting, and leadership training, please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

How to Set SMART Goals

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Howard Shore

The first step in successfully executing a goal is to state it properly. A well-stated goal clearly explains what you are trying to achieve and in what time frame. A well-stated goal is the foundation of an effective business action plan. An acronym that is commonly used to define a properly stated goal is SMART:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistically High
Time-based

While these criteria seem simple, they can be difficult to perfect. Allow me to summarize briefly what each of these criteria means:

Specific. Fuzzy goals are destined for failure. For example, “We are going to establish a new training program for our supervisors by 10/1/XX.” You are not defining what you want your supervisors to learn.

Measurable. How do you know when the goal has been achieved? State the goal in a way where this is clearly described. For example, “We are going to increase the frequency of meetings with our hourly staff.” How often will you meet and what will be discussed?

Realistically High. Goals must be lofty enough so you challenge yourself but still realistically attainable. In other words, you don’t want to trip over them. If the goal is too low/easy it will not motivate extra effort, but if it is too high no one will take it seriously because it seems out of reach.

Time-Based. What is the time frame for completing this goal? Set a deadline so the goals aren’t just floating out there for years.

Here is an example of a SMART goal:

Get 10 appointments with decision-makers in the hospitality industry that employ more than 250 people and are located within 50 miles of Miami area by the end of the quarter.

Take a few minutes a write a SMART goal for yourself—personal or professional. Work to refine it until it encompasses all the above criteria.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

Setting Examples Helps Employees Care About the Bottom Line?

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Howard Shore

As a leader in your company you are the foundation of the company culture. Like many business leaders, you may be struggling with how to build a sense of fiscal responsibility within your team. It’s a challenging thing to try to get entry-level employees to care as much about the bottom line as you do. The number one way to get employees on board with penny-pinching?

Set the example.

Spending money is a responsibility. And it is public, whether you want to believe it or not. When you spend the company’s money, employees make mental notes. If you are spending money frivolously, employees will get the impression that the company is rolling in dough. And when they see company leaders spending money left and right on non-essentials, they usually believe it’s okay for them to do the same.

I’ve seen CEO’s spend thousands on employee outings, perks for management, personal trips and entertainment, gadgets, etc. Not only do employees see this as a sign of prosperity and therefore excess, but also they see it as selfishness and favoritism. Giving certain employees (like yourself) valuable perks and excluding others is favoritism and a huge demotivator for the rest, which equates to less work effort overall.

By not controlling your company spending you are sending two very bad messages to employees:

Spend money carelessly because I do.
Only special employees get perks…and you aren’t one of them.

Double whammy on your bottom line.

The good news is that setting a good fiscal example is pretty easy. All it takes is discipline and prudence. Here are three easy tips for controlling your spending:

Set an annual client entertainment budget. When it runs out, that’s it.
Set an annual employee recognition budget. This could be spent on things like an Employee of the Month program and/or annual team party. Again, when it’s gone it’s gone until the next fiscal year.
Instead of handing out individual perks to management or “favorite” employees without context, hold some kind of internal performance contest and reward the winners. Prizes should come out of the employee recognition budget.
Never pay for personal perks or entertainment out of company coffers. As the company founder/leader you many feel entitled to reward yourself, but resist it because the message this sends is: “I worked hard and deserve a personal perk on the company dime.” You don’t want your employees thinking that way, do you?

Have you ever rewarded yourself on the company dime?

About the Author

3 Lessons Learned from the Penn State Scandal

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Howard Shore

The Penn State scandal has been all over the news these past few weeks and it got me thinking. I wondered how such a respected and seemingly professional establishment could have allowed this situation to go so far. How did these secrets stay buried for so long and how could an organization with such moral conviction let these decades-long accusations fester in the dark without follow-up?

Looking from the outside in, I can only assume that the internal communications and processes for handling crises are severely flawed on many levels. Here’s what I think we as business leaders can all learn and apply to our own organizations after watching the Penn State scandal unfold.

1. The truth will always come out.

It’s the golden rule of public relations: attempting to hide a negative, potentially damaging situation within the company only makes it worse. By trying to bury the accusations against Sandusky, Penn State made the entire situation far worse by being exposed after it festered beneath the surface for years. I’ve seen it happen in many organizations. If someone in your organization—I don’t care who it is—is involved with something unethical or illegal, it must be dealt with immediately. Damage control processes need to be activated with your corporate communications folks and a crisis plan needs to be created. Because the truth will always come out, even if after many years in hiding.

2. The open-door policy must be lived, not just talked about.

Most companies have an open-door communication policy but many don’t live up to it. In the Penn State situation it was clear that Sandusky’s improprieties were witnessed and reported to superiors. Nothing was done about it. But something made the whistleblower stop there. Was he told to let it go? Was he made to feel like a detractor for blowing his whistle? Whatever the case may be, we can all learn that when an employee comes forward with something it must be taken seriously and there must be absolutely no element of discouragement or retribution for being the one that came forward. An open-door policy that is lived is one that instills a sense of comfort and safety for employees that need to bring bad things to light.

3. No one is immune from responsibility.

Joe Paterno is probably the most loved college coach of all time, and clearly a pillar of the Penn State organization—not just the football team. Yet even he is not immune from doing the right thing when faced with a difficult situation with one of his employees. All leaders should take this to heart. As a leader, you are responsible for the wellbeing of your company first. Personal relationships must take a back seat to the law.

Have you ever faced a difficult legal or ethical situation in your professional life? How did you choose to deal with it?

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Successful Sales Techniques: It’s All Semantics

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Howard Shore

As a long-time sales consultant, I have seen it all when it comes to unpolished sales technique. Of course every industry is different, but industry has almost nothing to do with the tried-and-true tactics of the most successful salespeople within it.

When coaching salespeople, I help them refine their process to encourage dialogue and create more opportunities to get the prospect engaged enough to say ‘yes’. One of the most overlooked skills that can make a real difference in sales success: semantics.

You read it right. Word choice is huge for salespeople. The way you speak to prospective clients can make the difference between closing and not closing the deal. Here are some useful phrase substitutions that will project an air of professionalism and polish that will build authority, encourage dialogue and help close more business.

INSTEAD OF… USE:

Who is the final decision maker? Who else, besides yourself, is involved in making this decision?

Do you have any questions? What questions do you have?

Keep us in mind for the future. When can we further discuss moving forward?

Is now a good time? I’m glad I was able to reach you.

Do you have any pet peeve statements or sales don’ts?

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Make a Decision

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Howard Shore

Decisions, decisions, decisions…who’s making them in your company? Do you have a good decision process and are the right people involved in the decision making? Are they being made in a timely manner? Are they good decisions? If you find yourself mired down in a bog of disappointment by the answers to these questions, the following reasons may be why:

There is a lack of good decision-making processes for key decisions.
Too much time is being spent on matters that are unimportant.
Not enough time is spent on matters that are critical.
Companies fail to make decisions regarding critical matters.
Senior management involves itself in the wrong issues.
Many decisions should be delegated to lower tiers, but senior management does not delegate responsibility.

Does any of this sound familiar? To start pulling yourself out of that bog of disappointment, there is a framework that we have come up with to guide you through the decision-making process:

For all decisions, 12 questions should be asked:

What is the goal in the decision?
What are the consequences/costs of making a bad decision?
Why am I involved in this decision?
What is my role in this decision?
Do I (we) have the expertise to make a proper decision?
What criteria should we use to make a good decision, and how will we rank and weight them?
Are there proven tools to help us make this decision?
Who else should be involved in this decision, and what rile should they play?
How much information is appropriate for this decision?
How much time should I spend on this decision?
How long am I willing to wait to make this decision?
How many alternatives should be considered?

By using this list, one can help avoid making major decisions without taking proper precautions. The list also helps balance risk, time, and cost.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Does Beauty Equal Success?

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Howard Shore

There was an article written I read that can be found on Economist.com that brings up the argument that better looking people are more successful in just about all aspects of business. The article “The Line of Beauty” mentions that “physically attractive women and men earn more than average-looking ones, and very plain people earn less.” It seems that looks are considered more of an asset than the education you earned to be a success.

We are all told during our educational years, that to enter the professional field we must look the part. The clothes we wear are just the superficial aspect of it though. As humans, we naturally gravitate toward beauty. We would like to think we are above it all, but studies have shown that the majority of us are not. Daniel Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle, both economics professors, held a study that concluded that less attractive people earn 5-10% less in all occupations across the board.

Surely when planning your business and focusing on making your company a success the last thing on your mind was how your looks may affect that success. And that is where those thoughts should stay, in the back of your mind. Your professional appeal is important, but maintaining your business goals and seeing to the growth of your company take precedence over how someone else may perceive your facial structure. The bottom line is just that, the bottom line, and if that’s where your focus lies and you continue to see that bottom line grow, well then isn’t that a measure of your success?

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

6 Tips for Setting Better Client Expectations

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Howard Shore

Think for a moment about your last unhappy customer. Maybe it was a client who didn’t see the results they wanted or a customer who had a bad experience. Continue reading “6 Tips for Setting Better Client Expectations”