Executive Coach In Miami - Activate Group Inc

5 Signs You Need a Leadership Coach

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Howard Shore

Of the many hats I wear at AGI, I think my favorite is that of leadership development coach. The experience of working one-on-one with business leaders and helping them become the best leaders they can be is very rewarding. Once in a while, I encounter people who don’t know if they are at the right point in their careers to benefit from leadership coaching.

Here are five easy-to-recognize signs that you are a leader who would benefit from a professional coach:

1. You frequently wish you had mentor. If you regularly have issues you wish you could bounce off an experienced executive, a leadership coach can help. Having an experienced advisor can help you gain reassurance that your decisions are thorough and can be an enormous benefit to you, your employees and the company. We coaches are also unbiased so we can offer sound, rational advice.

2. You want a strategic collaborator. If you need guidance from someone that can help you develop or review strategies, you are ready to hire a leadership coach. We’ve been a part of creating hundreds of successful business strategies, in boom years and downturns. When it comes to crafting the right strategic plan, we are incredible resources to draw from.

4. You need a confidential advisor. Like a consillere to the Godfather, a leadership coach can be your personal and private advisor. We all have moments when personal issues make us vulnerable and times when we need to discuss sensitive business issues. At those times, a leadership development coach can talk through things and keep the discussions “in the vault”.

5. You want access to the best tools and practices. Leadership development coaches have access to strategic tools that have been proven to increase company and people performance. When you engage with a coach, you automatically get access to those tools without the commitment of long-term contracts.

Think you might be ready for a leadership development coach? I’d love to hear from you!

Howard Shore is a leadership development coach 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 leadership development coaching through AGI, please contact Howard at 305.722.7213 or email him.

Employees Are Your Most Important Customer, Part 2

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Howard Shore

I wrote an article about the many reasons why your employees are your most important customers. I wrote about how keeping your employees happy is one of the easiest ways to keep your customers happy. Happy employees give great customer service and create great word-of-mouth for the company.

When I read an editorial in the New York Times written by an ex-employee of Goldman Sachs on his last day of work, I was reminded again about the value of keeping employees engaged. This is a real-life example of how unhappy employees can cause considerable damage to reputation and potential threats to customer retention.

The Goldman employee, Greg Smith, spent his entire career at the company, rising up in the ranks and maintaining a great amount of pride in the company and its values. He says in the wake of a recent leadership change, the company lost sight of its values to focus on blind profits. He decided to exit the company in dramatic fashion by writing this lengthy editorial detailing his first-hand experiences and resulting disgust. He exposed degrading language used within the company and the practice of selling worthless assets to unsuspecting buyers.

Was his account accurate? We don’t know for sure. Regardless, what he did (besides commit career suicide) was create a great amount of doubt in Goldman’s trustworthiness. Plenty of Goldman customers read that editorial and some probably considered whether it was worth remaining customers.

Remember, your employees are the eyes, ears and voice of your company. They can be your biggest cheerleaders or your worst nightmares. It is crucial you keep them engaged and satisfied. Training, coaching and communication are keys to their engagement. And if they become disengaged for too long they will tell you…or anyone who will listen.

Howard Shore is a business coach who works with companies that need leadership development and strategic business coaching. Based in Miami, Florida, Howard’s firm, Activate Group, Inc. provides strategic planning and management coaching to businesses across the country. To learn more about management coaching through AGI, please contact Howard at (305) 722-7216 or email him.