Coaching and Your Business

As a small business coach, I work with different types of clients – both individuals and companies. Some individuals work for somebody else but hold the desire to begin their own company, while others have been in business for a few years yet seek to move their business to the next level. A growing pattern in both small and large corporations is the human resources division acknowledging the importance of coaching for personnel, which in turn supports a more powerful bottom line for the company. Before hiring a corporate coach for you, your business and your staff, it would be advantageous to have an understanding or an appreciation of a few simple corporate coaching concepts and techniques. The familiarity of how coaching works and what it can help you achieve will make it simpler and easier for you. These are:

a)  Select the appropriate coaching model
b)  Communicate effectively with your coach
c)  Get maximum returns on your investment (on hiring a coach)

Coaching Objectives
Coaching essentially works on three tiers and in a corporate setting can often meld with the roles of consultancy. The first level or tier is performance, the second is behavior, and the third or outer layer is solution. The following provides a brief description of each layer.

Performance  Your coach will observe as well as study your sales and profit levels, employee productivity, business financials, and your senior management team or leadership team. Depending on your business situation, your coach may end up making suggestions and offering new perspectives to enrich your profitability from its current levels. To make certain the coach stays in a coaching role and does not fall into a consultant's function, it is imperative that your senior management team is on board with the styles of brainstorming for solutions communication that will take place. Performance transitions into reviewing your guidelines of effectiveness to make certain the staff is empowered to be as efficient as possible. Keep in mind, employees can be only as successful as the tools they're given, and your business's guidelines and processes are vital to their success.

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Mentoring: Encouraging Success

Once you establish your own company, we have a tendency to look at our previous experience and how it has encouraged your employee's success – to notice what worked and what didn't. One of the essentials of a flourishing business is the openness to share your wisdom and enthusiasm of doing what you love with others. One of the easiest ways is to create a mentoring program. Mentoring doesn't always mean you are "grooming' new employees for their rise in the corporation; it also means mentoring students toward gaining much-desired skills in the work place.

I would like to share with you a few of the advantages of how establishing a mentoring program can encourage your small business to be even more successful while also touching on how setting up a mentoring program in a small- to medium-sized organization can help you develop your human resources and use these resources in the most efficient manner possible.

To begin, let's identify the key advantages of mentoring programs.

Reduced Learning Curve

When an organization establishes a mentoring program, it can prove to be individually one of the most important resources for employees in their initial learning phase or the new hire period. When a member of staff is transferred or promoted to a new department, having an adviser supports a less-demanding or stressful work environment.

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Business and Your Education

There isn’t a child in the world who hasn’t been asked the question, “So what do you want to be when you grow up?” And depending on their personal situation, external influences and experiences, their answer will change by the day. As we enter high school we become clearer about what drives us, fuels our spirit and motivates us to do better. The clock is ticking to choose a path for our lives, our careers and our futures. Entering college and choosing to complete your academic journey with a business degree always seems most desirable when we are looking to go into business for ourselves, climb the corporate ladder or just not sure about where we might be headed in life but still want to keep the most options open to ourselves. But as a small business owner, how does the integration of an individual’s educational focus and training impact her success—or does it?

There are those who believe if a student wants to succeed in the business world, then receiving an education in business is where she needs to begin her career. Her education in any subject matter will ultimately support her…

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A Look into Business Psychologists

Choosing the right career path is becoming a bigger than life challenge–not only for those in the midst of completing their education, but also for those who are seeking a greater challenge in life or who have the desire to switch careers. Nevertheless, there are jobs that are still quite in demand, and there are many articles and blogs dedicated to highlighting the most sought-after careers as well as the ones that are the fastest growing.

One such career choice that has little focus is business psychology. Not everyone has heard of this, nor do they have any idea what a business psychologist does. Essentially, a business psychologist focuses on maximizing the primary asset of a company: its people. This is achieved by recognizing the impact behavioral issues have on the bottom line of any enterprise and creating the most synergistic balance through education, information and teamwork.

Business psychology operates at four different levels.

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Training and Development Benefits and Techniques

Training and developing human assets are among the most important responsibilities of any HR department. After all, it is essential for an organization to adapt itself to the ever-changing business scenario if it wants to grow and expand in the long run.

Apart from this obvious benefit, there are several other goals that good training and development practices can help an organization achieve. The following are a few of the benefits.

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Is Your Canine Best Friend a Therapist?

When I adopted Tito, never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate he would become the type of dog suited to support others in transitions, challenges and personal journeys. But slowly, after he out grew his puppy, teenage and young adult stages and matured, his true inner beauty and kind heart emerged. Now, looking at my dogs Aine and Tucker I can see their inner healers boldly shining. Aine, the gentle soul, was born ready to be a Pet Therapist and will be able to officially wear her vest by the end of August 2010, whereas Tucker will take a few years to mature before stepping into this roll. But I’m patient!

When you look at your dog, do see “just” a dog or do you see a healer? If you want to spread some happiness through your friendly and loving pet, then it truly begins with you. Your intention and attitude toward your dogs will empower them to expose this healing side sooner rather than later (or, sadly, never).

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Expanding the Skills of Employees

Whether you own a small business or a large firm, the need to embrace the notion of upgrading and improving your staff’s skills is critical to their loyalty and level of happiness in the workplace. Not only does providing on-site training to support your employees slake their thirst for knowledge, it also allows you to keep your business current regarding new trends and opportunities while increasing your business’s chances of staying ahead of the competition.

On-site training of your staff can be done by either yourself or someone within your organization who is already trained in the subject matter you are seeking to pass onto the rest of your team. There will come a time where you may need to hire a training provider to upgrade the skills of your employees when you feel the need and there is no one on staff skilled or trained to do so. Making the investment to hire an outside firm can be challenging, but after all your employees are your most important resource and the success of your business depends on their efficiency. This means you need to choose the best when it comes to hiring the right training provider for your business.

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Reiki - Training and Education

Good Morning,

Thanks for making us part of your morning. I wanted to focus a today on the training of Reiki Practitioners which hopefully will enable you even if Reiki is not new to you to understand what the education and training of a Reiki Practitioner.

There are three levels of practitioner training; these are:

Level 1 ~ First Degree or Shoden: First degree teaches you how to heal yourself, creating balance between your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels. At this level an individual is not truly a practitioner but is definitely in a place of self learning and self healing. My Reiki Master Teacher believes from Level 1 we are ready to work on others but we need to be sure we have a routine in life which incorporates Reiki into it daily and as we become more confident with hand positions etc our soul will be guided as to when is the right time to begin sharing this gift with others. There are a few Reiki Master Teachers which offer Level 1 and Level 2 together.

Level 2 ~ Second Degree or Okedun: Completion of the Second degree an individual is considered to be a Reiki Practitioner. It is at this level a practitioner learns Distance/Time-altered Healing.

Level 3 ~ Third Degree or Shinpiden: The third degree is for Reiki Practitioners who, having completed the second degree, wish to become Reiki Masters and Teachers. In most situations individuals wishing to move forward in their training wait at least 12 months prior to taking Third Degree. The reason for this is to allow ample time for Reiki Practitioners to embody the healing as part of their ongoing life's journey.

There are many places, organizations and individuals who offer Reiki training. The best advice when choosing to work with a Reiki practitioner or when choosing to embrace the knowledge of Reiki is to follow your heart. It will truly guide you to the right practitioner and/or training facility that is right for you at this time in your life.

Until next time, embrace your inner wisdom!

Namaste,
Karen