As a coach I spend a lot of time with groups, teams and individuals exploring topics aligned with exploring who they are and what they need to do to be more effective. in group coaching Goals are important to explore as everyone will be on their own pathway. As a business owner, goals are critical for success as they provide us, and those who support our work with clarity around where we are going.

For those that work with teams, or are part of teams, team effectiveness is an important area to explore. Team effectiveness is part art and part science. The science behind it shows that there are at least sis key elements, which I call factors, which help teams thrive. The research from the last few decades from multiple researchers (Katzenbach and Smith, Hackman and Wagerman and others) continue to point to core elements which help teams thrive.

These include what I have termed the Six Factors of High Performing Teams™ :
#1 – Clear mission and vision (head back to Week 1 of this series!
#2 – Clear goals
#3 – Understanding what success is going to look like
#4 - Clear Roles
#5 - Shared Practices
#6 - Shared Team Commitment

This week’s Coaching Business Builder post explores #2 and 3.

I explore the Six Factors in my second TEDx talk, Coaching Teams Through Chaos, delivered in Toronto in December of 2022. You can view it here - or at this link - https://youtu.be/oQlu7zQeZ5E?si=OhlRlASBCeY3qAK8

Activity
Pull out your annual plan for the year. When was the last time you looked at this? Take note of your top 3-5 priorities. How are you sharing these with others? Re write the goals making sure they are:
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Timebound
 E – EXCITING?

Back to motivation and last week’s theme of your zone of genius and your pull factors, what do you love to do and need to do in order to thrive?

Also consider what is an ENABLER for this – What will help ensure success for this?

Also consider what is a DERAILER – What might get in the way of this success?

Goals are an important anchor for teams to ensure that alignment is happening. What conversations are important for you to have?
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Enjoy!

Our January 23rd 2024 Community call was on Creating an Effective Proposal. The recording will be posted when available.

As shared in the call, there are several steps you will want to explore in pulling together an effective proposal for a group, or team coaching piece of work.

You can download the one pager here to support you in these six steps of a proposal.

We go further in depth in proposals and your offer in the Coaching Biz Growth Lab program which meets throughout 2024 bi-weekly on Fridays at 1135 - 1220 pm ET. Join us!

And be sure to watch today's call below

Week # 2-  What’s your pull factor?

Question: Our vision is a pull towards where we want to go. Whether we are focusing on growth or opportunity it can be valuable to think about the pull vs the push. Where can you create momentum and its own energy instead of a pulling of all things?


In Focus – WHY
It’s important to have a pull factor in business, especially if things are “topsy-turvey” or are ever changing. Thinking about what’s going to pull you forward often involves:

• Connecting with your WHY? Why do you exist as a business? Why do you do what you do?
• Connecting into your FLOW
• Tapping into, and spending your time in what Gay Hendricks calls “Your Zone of Genius”
• What’s important for you to consider as a WHY for this work?

Activity – Identify what are your elements moving you forward /  pulling you forward vs resisting you.

Resources to explore

1. Part of our pull factor may involve leveraging our strengths, and doing more of those things that are in our natural inclination.
2. If you have not yet taken the Group and Team Superpower Quiz, check it out at https://bit.ly/gtcoachingsuperpowers. Which of the 5 styles are you? To learn more about the 5 Superpowers, check out this video at our Effective Group Coach YouTube Channel
   
3. Motivational factors – What motivates you as a business owner? Are you doing things to make a mark? Learn? Innovate? Serve others. Consider what motivates you to do your work and you may glean some insights around additional pull factors for you to keep doing work, and showing up, on a daily basis.
   

Have a great week
Jennifer

In Focus – What?
When business ebbs and flows, it’s important to continue to have a compelling WHY and Vision for ourselves and our business. 
This can help us lean into WHY we exist as a business. Is it to serve a certain # of people, or is it to make a specific impact in your work?
In addition to your vision, what would you say your mission is for 2024?

Questions – So What?
A well-defined vision provides direction, purpose, and alignment for an organization, contributing to several aspects of success, including employee engagement, strategic decision-making, and long-term sustainability.
One notable source supporting this idea is the Harvard Business Review (HBR). In various articles and case studies, HBR has explored the significance of a clear vision in guiding organizational strategy and fostering a shared sense of purpose among employees. For specific statistics or recent studies, you may want to explore the Harvard Business Review's database or other business research databases for the latest insights and empirical evidence on the correlation between a clear vision and business success.

Activity –
DRAW out your Future using the following questions. Write in current tense – such as:
It’s January 2025, and I am celebrating my achievements for the last year. For example, we were able to serve 100 students in our certification program and we were also able to work with 48 teams over the course of 2024 through strengths based work, our Hybrid Work Styles and also team coaching initiatives

Answer questions like:
Where are you now? (Write this out on the left hand side) Where do you want to be at the end of (the year/3 years/5 years) (wite this out on the right side of the page.
What’s going to help you move from where you are now to where you want to be?
Who are you serving?
What value are your clients/customers receiving?
What’s the big problem you are solving for others?
What are the values your work is anchored in?
What do you want to achieve?
Who do you want to be?
What mark do you want to make?
​
Resources
Check out the 2024 Vision Session I recorded a couple of months ago or Refer to the Vision Questions at the Start of Section 3 of either PlanDoTRack or Coaching Business Builder.

Happy New Year! Now that the Group Coaching Ins and Outs blog is getting a refresh, and having more visitors, I thought that it would be valuable to do a weekly mid-week blog post for those coaches who are growing their coaching businesses. Whether or not you have a copy of Coaching Business Builder, or are with us at the Coaching Biz Growth Lab, creating a sustainable business is critical for success and it takes time and effort - Daily Steps and Consistent Action to create Momentum.

Each Wednesday this year I'll be bringing you a mid-week Coaching Business tip, influenced by what we are doing in the Lab and also what I wrote about in CBB. This year I also hope to release a book I've been working on for a few years for Digital and Service Based Entrepreneurs like Coaches. I'm going to gauge your response to help determine what book release order we see in 2024. My hope is there may be 2 or 3 in the Reconnecting Workspaces series which comes across the finish line of publication this year.

So now onto Week 1 of 52 weeks with Creating a Clear Vision:

 oIn Focus – What?
When business ebbs and flows, it’s important to continue to have a compelling WHY and Vision for ourselves and our business.

This can help us lean into WHY we exist as a business. Is it to serve a certain # of people, or is it to make a specific impact in your work?

In addition to your vision, what would you say your mission is for 2024?
 
Questions – So What?
A well-defined vision provides direction, purpose, and alignment for an organization, contributing to several aspects of success, including employee engagement, strategic decision-making, and long-term sustainability.

One notable source supporting this idea is the Harvard Business Review (HBR). In various articles and case studies, HBR has explored the significance of a clear vision in guiding organizational strategy and fostering a shared sense of purpose among employees. For specific statistics or recent studies, you may want to explore the Harvard Business Review's database or other business research databases for the latest insights and empirical evidence on the correlation between a clear vision and business success.

Activity –
DRAW out your Future using the following questions. Write in current tense – such as:

It’s January 2025, and I am celebrating my achievements for the last year. For example, we were able to serve 100 students in our certification program and we were also able to work with 48 teams over the course of 2024 through strengths based work, our Hybrid Work Styles and also team coaching initiatives

Reflect on questions like:

• Where are you now? (Write this out on the left hand side) Where do you want to be at the end of (the year/3 years/5 years) (wite this out on the right side of the page.
• What’s going to help you move from where you are now to where you want to be?
• Who are you serving?
• What value are your clients/customers receiving?
• What’s the big problem you are solving for others?
• What are the values your work is anchored in?
• What do you want to achieve?
• Who do you want to be?
• What mark do you want to make?

Resources
For more on this topic, check out the 2024 Vision Session I recorded a couple of months ago or Refer to the Vision Questions at the Start of Section 3 of either PlanDoTRack or Coaching Business Builder.

Share with us in comments your most exciting vision element for this year? What are you going to do to keep it visible throughout the year?

Enjoy the conversation and reflection!
Jennifer