business coaching - 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.

Meeting Length vs Effectiveness: Effective Meetings Require Time

Posted on November 11, 2020 by Howard Shore

Meeting Length vs Effectiveness

Meeting length vs Effectiveness has a huge impact on how you should engage within your organization. Do you find that your organization faces the same problems and challenges year after year, with no resolution? Do you discuss the same issues concerns, people, and customers month after month? Do you find that right when you are getting to the heart of the matter in the middle of an important debate or topic, your meeting is over and you have to postpone for a later date? Do you create goals and plans that do not come to fruition?

These are typical results when you do not spend enough time meeting with your leadership team.

Cons of Not Setting Aside Time for Effective Meetings

Have you considered the amount of time, productivity, and growth you have lost by not setting aside enough time to properly make decisions, to debate and resolve issues, to align priorities and to hold leaders accountable? By avoiding meetings, critical decisions do not get made or are made poorly.

Failure to debate priorities and work through issues can bring organizations to a standstill while leaders wait until the next meeting or for a final decision, allowing your competition the opportunity to thrust forward. While it is counterintuitive to most leaders, spending more time in meetings could actually double or triple company productivity.

Optimal Meeting Lengths

The key to an effective meeting is a commitment to setting aside enough time. Assuming you know how to run an effective meeting (and experience says you probably need help), the executive team should be allocating the following time blocks to work on the business, to debate issues focused on strategy, accountability, setting priorities, new opportunities, evaluating your people, challenging the business model, etc.:

Daily Meeting Length:

10-Minutes a Day for a Huddle with Your Direct Team

Weekly Meeting Length

1 Hour per Week

Monthly Meeting Length

1 Full Day

Quarterly Meeting Length

2 Full Days (1 Day is Strategic)

Failure to have these meetings and to focus on the right topics robs you of significant growth and profits. Contact Activate Group Inc. for a FREE consultation or give us a call at 305-722-7213 to see how a business coach can help you run a more effective organization.

Learn more about effective meetings:

Effective Meetings Start On-Time
Effective Meetings Focus on Decisions
Effective Meetings Require a Purpose
Effective Meetings Have Conflict

Understanding the Levels of Trust

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Howard Shore

Most people consider trust as something you have or don’t have. However, it has become apparent to me that trust has various levels. Knowing which level you are at is crucial to the interactions you have with a friend, colleague, subordinate, client or prospect. In John Maxwell’s lesson on trust, he described trust as:

Trust Is An Attitude

Trust is an attitude that allows people to rely on, have confidence in, and feel sure about other people.

In a relationship, people have “free will” and use it to choose whether they will give trust to another person. As in any transaction, the person giving trust does so with the expectation of receiving a mutually desirable outcome. The challenge is that life and most exchanges are not so straightforward.

Trust in Business

Trust is a complicated beast. To give trust, a person must be willing to suffer loss in the cases where things do not go the way they hoped. As a result, trust in business is dependent on several factors:

A person’s past experience with you and/or your organization.
Experience with the matter at hand.
Someone’s attitudes about trusting others in general.
How many factors are controlled by the person/organization being trusted to deliver outcomes?
Perceived cost in terms of time, energy, and/or money that an investment of trust may be putting at risk.

The Different Levels of Trust

As a result of the above factors, trust has different levels. Building upon John Maxwell’s work on this subject, I believe that trust can have the following levels:

1. Contractual Trust:

Trust exists only to the extent that things are explicitly agreed upon. You only trust what people state in formal agreements.

2. Tentative Trust:

People are willing to give each other a chance; they believe that other parties are starting with good intentions. People earn trust by proving themselves. Full judgment is reserved to future behaviors. This “wait-and-see” attitude can be very limiting. Many times, the person “waiting-to-see” is subconsciously looking for things the other party does wrong rather than right. Each person has various expectations of the other but may not have specified them clearly. Failure to meet those expectations leads to a reduction or elimination of trust.

3. Cooperative Trust:

Belief in other people is not easily shaken by occasional mistakes, lapses in judgment, or errors. When such a breach occurs, a misunderstanding or miscommunication is believed to be the cause. When this level of trust pervades a partnership, each member is actively seeking ways to further understand the other and reconcile differences.

4. Unconditional Trust:

This trust exists when people rely on the word of each other without questioning it. Trust is unaffected by individual weaknesses. It exists among people when they are willing to take responsibility for their own actions and their own state, and they fully trust that others will do the same. Unquestioning faith is placed in the values, intentions, actions, and decisions of another.

Know Your Level of Trust

Knowing the trust level is crucial to understanding how to interact with others. I have found that “unconditional” and “cooperative” levels are less common than one would expect. In addition, when cooperative or unconditional trust has been reached, it is common for people to get sloppy with each other. They take the trust for granted and fail to explicitly agree upon things where appropriate. Unknowingly, people act differently from expectations causing the trust level to drop to a “tentative” or “contractual” level.

Situations Where You Lose Trust

I have found that it is best to treat every situation as if contractual trust or no trust exists. For example, let’s take the position that you get a new client and you are in the “dry cleaning business.” If you are in a position where you want to have people trust you, you have to remove opportunities to lose trust. Here are some examples where trust can be lost with a client:

Clothing is lost.
Client does not realize there is a stain on the clothing, and you are not able to remove it. The customer now believes you caused the stain.
Client receives clothing that is missing buttons.
Client delivers a piece of clothing containing a rip and does not know it is there.
Clothing is not cleaned or pressed well.
Clothing comes in with all buttons attached and leaves with one missing or ready to fall off.

As you can see there are a number of circumstances where the cleaners may be blamed for something they did not cause and could not or did not fix. A person/organization that uses the “contractual” trust would inspect clothing carefully both when it is brought in and before delivering back to the client. When taking clothing in, they can go over all of the issues with the client upfront so there is complete understanding of what it will take to return the clothing in proper condition. Prior to delivering the clothing, another careful inspection should occur, and any issues should be resolved or brought to the client’s attention prior to the client finds them for themselves. A person that assumes “unconditional” or “cooperative” trust might not be as diligent in intake and quality control and lose a client forever.

Maximizing Trust in Business

An executive business coach can help maximize the trust level of your business by identifying current leaks, improving organizational strategy, and increasing leadership effectiveness. Learn more about how Activate Group Inc. can help you create a thriving business atmosphere and reputation.

Please contact us at 305.722.7213 for a FREE consultation and get started right away.

Keys to Manage the Growth of Your Business

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Howard Shore

Most business owners want to manage their growth so it is profitable, cost – effective, and does not over extend their cash resources.

For many business owners, managing profitable growth remains an elusive goal. Most lack a plan, are not sure where to invest their sales and marketing dollars, or how to leverage the time and money they do have to invest towards growth.

Growth can be managed effectively and profitably if owners are willing to spend the time to create and communicate a growth plan and make informed decisions on the use of their growth funds. Owners who document and communicate their growth plans double their chances of achieving their growth objectives (SunTrust study on Growth )

“The key to profitable growth is to have clear growth strategy that the average employee understands” Edward Hess, Author of the Road to Organic Growth

A best practice research study of thousands of fast growing businesses identified six commonsense and highly effective actions you can take to actively manage your growth.

Put a one-page growth plan in writing.
Find, track, and develop the people who refer you business.
Treat sales and marketing as an investment, not an expense.
Allocate more of your time to prospecting and customer development.
Calculate the payback on a new salesperson and hire one.
Create sales and marketing pipeline to measure the effectiveness of your growth investment.

We have developed practical solutions to assist you in growing your revenue and profits and expanding your business, ask us how today.

Louis Partenza is a business leadership consultant and partner of Activate Group Inc, based in Miami, Florida. His firm works with companies to deliver transformational management and business coaching to their executive leadership. To learn more about business leadership coaching through AGI, please visit activategroupinc.com , contact Lou at (305) 722-7215 or email him.

Better Candidates With Better Job Descriptions

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Howard Shore

How do you know if you have the right person in the right position? How do you know if your employees and leaders are successful? How can you tell if they are achieving what you expect of them? More importantly, how do they know if they are focusing on the right activities? The truth is, unless you have defined realistic yet challenging success metrics for each position you have no better idea of your employees’ success rates than they do. This is the basis of Human Capital Management.

Creating employee success starts with the hiring process. It starts with writing the best possible job description—I call it a position profile. The difference between a standard job description and a position profile is huge.

Position Profile vs. Job Description

Typically, job descriptions are used in job posts to advertise an open position, to determine compensation, and/or to establish a basis for performance reviews. However, job descriptions are not constructed in a manner that allows for the vetting of potential candidates or the measuring of performance—a position profile does.

The position profile identifies a role in the context of the organization, and communicates the link between business strategy, internal processes and your people.

In short, a position profile:

Documents the expertise, skills and experience needed to perform the job
Communicates expectations for performance and results
Detailed description of the job from three key perspectives:
- Supervisory (Strategy & Direction)
- Employee (Role & Responsibilities)
- Customer (Quality & Acceptance)

By clearly defining each employee’s role in the context of the organization, and providing detailed success metrics and milestones that employees and managers agree on, you will not only target the right candidates for open positions, but you will also understand your overall team performance.

To learn more about creating a performance-based talent system for your organization, download the free eBook on Human Capital Management from our homepage.

Howard Shore is a human capital management expert and sought-after business coach based in Miami, Florida. His firm works with companies to deliver transformational management and business coaching to their executive leadership. To learn more about human capital management through AGI, please contact Howard at 305.722.7213.

The Recruiting Mistake Made by 99% of Companies

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Howard Shore

Recruiting is an art that few have mastered. At AGI, we work with many companies to create systems for Human Capital Management—for each company a customized strategic system for managing employees through every stage of their employment, from recruiting to retention. When we evaluate a company’s employee processes, one of the first things we look at is recruitment.

Recruiting “A” players is the goal of most HR professionals, but recruitment is one of the areas where many miss the boat completely. That’s because 99 percent of companies start the recruitment process with the wrong tool: the resume.

Starting the candidate evaluation process by reviewing resumes is one of the biggest mistakes you can makes. Here’s why:

Resumes aren’t accurate. Let’s face it, the resume is the most overinflated self-promotion tool invented. Most resumes are embellished heavily and some are flat-out inaccurate.
Resumes don’t reveal personality. Resumes are, at best, clinical lists of accomplishments and experiences. They tell you almost nothing about a person’s attitudes or working style.
Resumes encourage bias. Formatting, language, word choice, past employers, schools—whatever. All of these things can trigger an irrational “like” or “dislike” of a candidate that could very well be the “A” player you are looking for.

Use Talent Assessment Tools

After posting an open position, the next step of the recruitment process should be assessment testing. Candidate assessment tool like Topgrading provide revealing and unbiased information about a candidate’s natural abilities and inherent skills—these are the most important qualifiers for the successful matching of candidates to jobs.

A resume should be used only as a guide for interviews and a tool for sharing potential candidates with the hiring manager and other decision-makers. Using resumes as the first step in qualifying candidates will definitely make you pass over “A” players.

Howard Shore is a human capital management expert who works with companies that need leadership development and strategic business coaching. Based in Miami, Florida, Howard’s firm, Activate Group, Inc. provides leadership and management coaching to businesses across the country. To learn more about human capital management through AGI, please contact Howard at 305.722.7213.