In lead up to the May 1st launch of the Amplify Mastermind we’re going to explore the SUPER SIX Amplify Levers which form the backbone of the program.
So far we’ve looked at our focus on #1 – 3:

• Amplify You
• And Amplify Your Business
• Amplifying Your Products
• Amplifying Your Message

​ Today we are going to look at Amplifier #5 – Your Results

While this comes as #5 in fact amplifying your results is the core of all we do and all we communicate. While we’ve already done work on your vision, values, mission and purpose, we’ll return to that.

Over the course of our work together in the Amplify Mastermind, we'll also build out a Strategic Plan and if you  haven’t already booked your half day Business Design Session with me we’ll hold that. The Design Session will leave you with the opportunity to build out your Business Canvas and get further clarity on where you are and where you are going.

Another way you will be AMPLIFYING Your RESULTS is by getting clear on your STRENGTHS. 
​
Together with the Strengths work we are doing as part of this program (you’ll have access to your Top 34 in CliftonStrengths and also have the opportunity to complete your Coaching Superpowers and Hybrid Work Styles), you are going to be much clearer on the unique levers and activators you can draw on for results.
 
Not everyone in the 6 month Amplify Mastermind is going to be doing the same thing that’s where  you are able to focus in on what’s important to you, dipping into the vast resource library I have crated over the years.

As you consider the next 6 months, what’s important about AMPLFYING your RESULTS?

Check out what the Amplify Mastermind is here and SET UP A CALL to discuss how this program could support you.

If you prefer to watch videos, check out this short 10 minute video I did on the program.
 

 

Understanding Your Entrepreneurial DNA: The Blueprint of Your Coaching Journey
Introduction: Decoding the Essence of Entrepreneurial DNA
 
Just as DNA serves as the blueprint for life, entrepreneurial DNA serves as the blueprint for businesses and coaches alike. It encapsulates the fundamental elements that define who you are as an entrepreneur and shapes the trajectory of your coaching journey. In this blog post, we explore the concept of entrepreneurial DNA, unraveling its significance in the context of coaching businesses.
 
What is DNA and its Business Context?
 
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the genetic material that carries the instructions for the development, functioning, growth, and reproduction of all known living organisms. In a business context, DNA symbolizes the unique combination of traits, values, beliefs, and experiences that distinguish one organization or individual from another. It encompasses everything from the mission and vision of a business to the leadership style and approach of its founders.
 
Applying DNA to Your Coaching Journey
 
Just as DNA determines the characteristics of living organisms, entrepreneurial DNA determines the characteristics of businesses and coaches. It influences everything from the services you offer to the clients you attract and the strategies you employ. Understanding your entrepreneurial DNA is essential for crafting a coherent narrative, building a strong brand identity, and aligning your actions with your values and goals.
 
In Focus - Values: The Core of Your Entrepreneurial DNA
 
At the heart of your entrepreneurial DNA lies your values. These are the guiding principles that inform your decisions, drive your behavior, and shape your interactions with clients and colleagues alike. Whether it's integrity, authenticity, or empathy, your values define who you are as a coach and set the tone for your coaching practice.
 
By aligning your actions with your values, you create a sense of authenticity and trust that resonates with your clients. You attract like-minded individuals who share your values and beliefs, fostering deeper connections and more meaningful relationships. Moreover, living your values allows you to stay true to yourself and maintain a sense of integrity and purpose in your coaching journey.

If you have not yet downloaded the Values Checklist published last month here at the blog head back to the values post - week 6 of the 52 week series. You can find it here.
 
Conclusion: Embracing Your Entrepreneurial DNA
 
In conclusion, entrepreneurial DNA is the blueprint that guides your coaching journey. It shapes your identity, influences your decisions, and determines your success as a coach. By understanding and embracing your entrepreneurial DNA, you can unlock your full potential, build a thriving coaching practice, and make a meaningful impact on the lives of others.

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
— Thomas Jefferson
 
Focus Question: What are your talents and strengths? How do you leverage these in your work, hobbies, life and relationships?
 
Description
In times of change and disruption it is likely that we are turning to our strengths, maybe even to the point of overuse.

Research/Story
For many decades now, Gallup has studied the impact of strengths on work. They have found some very compelling statistics behind why we should focus more on helping people connect with, and leverage, their strengths every day at work. Did you know:
Gallup has found that when employees get to use their strengths every day they are:

• 6x more engaged
  
• 3x more likely to report having excellent quality of life
• 8.9% more profitable
• Teams which focus on strengths have 12.5% greater productivity.

(Source: Gallup Strengths Center)
 
Author Marcus Buckingham undertook research and he writes that “1.5 Million employees on 50, 000 teams were surveyed, and they found that the most important lever to team performance was ‘Do you have an opportunity to use your strengths at work every day?’ (Reference: Go Put Your Strengths to Work)

Those that “strongly agreed” found:

• 38% highly productive
  
• 44% high customer satisfaction scores
• 50% higher employee retention

(Marcus Buckingham, The Business Case for Strengths, 2016)

While we cannot use our strengths at work 100% of the time every day, over time we may gravitate to jobs or roles which do cultivate our strengths. As we set up businesses or work remotely, being able to leverage strengths regularly can be an important motivational factor. When we are able to leverage strengths, we are more apt to move into flow and find greater job satisfaction.

NOTE: Strengths over-used can become a blindspot. We may over-use of over-lean into our strengths in times of pressure, urgency and resource constraints. Notice what happens when your strengths become over-magnified.
 
Activity
If you have not yet worked with strengths, spend some time identifying what your strengths are.  There are several different strengths assessments you may want to explore including Clifton Strengths as well as Positive Psychology’s VIA Character Survey.

If you have not undertaken one of these assessments to ascertain your top 5 strengths, take a few minutes to do that this week, reflecting on the questions:

• Where are you able to use your strengths regularly?
• How does this support your work and priorities right now?
• Where are you over-utilizing your strengths? What blind spot is that creating?
• What other strengths are needed in your work? How do you outsource these pieces of work, or bring others onto the team, over time?
• If you are part of a team, what do your team strengths look like?
  

Curious about what these look like for you? Set up a 15 minute conversation with me to explore your strengths more in-depth.

As a coach you may also want to refer to the Team and Group Coaching Superpower Quiz which will give you a coaching strengths-based look at your preferences and style. Take the 2 minute quiz now to learn which of the five coaching strengths you may be leaning into.
 
Connection to the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner
There are several touch points throughout the planners to get you thinking about your strengths, including - Section 4 of both books which explores the Ecosystem as well as your individual strenghs and how you may be connecting them for business opportunities.

​ What are your strengths, and how you can leverage them?

Best wishes,
Jennifer


 

Like a compass, values provide an important anchor for us. They influence our decisions, ways we work, and how we connect with others. What are the values which influence your work?
 
Research/Story
Working with Values as a Coach is a foundational part of what we do. There are many different ways to work with values as a coach including:

• Values Checklist (see below)
• Getting people to speak to a peak experience they have had
• Creating a Word String, adjectives which further define who we are.

This week you have the opportunity to revisit your values. Your values as a coach, as an individual and as a business owner. Note when these are similar, and how they are different.
​
​Activity
Values Checklist
Use the downloadable values checklist (found below) ​to highlight different values you hold. Once you have identified your top 5, give them a tagline or 3-4 adjectives each.
For example: If one of my values is high touch, that also means – small group size, integrating 1-1 calls with group calls, and taking time to really connect.
​​
Connection to the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner
Given that values are such a core part of our work, you are invited to review these several times throughout the workbook. Don't have a copy of the Coaching Business Builder workbook yet? Grab a downloadable PDF copy off our website, or head to Amazon for a paper copy book.
As part of the Iceberg you are invited to identify your top 10 values for you and your business. Write these out on page 24 (CBB) or page 25 (PDT). You may want to read through this entire section from pages 23 – 29.

There is also space on page 38 under “Be True to Who you Are” - The Micro-Vision on page 38 (CBB) or page 42 (PDT).

You are invited to return to this in the Ecosystem in Section 4, noting your top 5 values as part of your anchoring system, grounding you (page 104 – CBB; page 108 – PDT). Note your top 5 values there as well. What do your roots look like? Are they deep? Do they connect? Draw them out in terms of what you think they look like.
​
Enjoy!
Jennifer

Welcome back to week 5 of the 52 week series for coaches around building your Coaching Business, with the Coaching Business Builder process. Be sure to check out the first 4 weeks here at the blog.

Questions this week: What's going to get you and keep you in the flow of Momentum (i.e. your daily steps and consistent action?).
What are the smaller parcels and milestones of your bigger goals?

In Focus – WHY
As an entrepreneur it’s likely that your To-Do list will keep growing, day by day, with big tasks merged with little tasks. For many, it can feel overwhelming.

One strategy to combat the overwhelm is the Chunk big tasks down into smaller bite sized pieces. So in other words, break it down to Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly and Daily pieces.

Some common activities you might find at each of these layers are:
Quarterly tasks – reviewing vision, checking statistics, program planning and updates. Use the Quarterly Planning Section in PlanDoTrack or Coaching Business Builder for a structured review process and planning.

Monthly tasks – Setting your top 5 goals, Thinking about key relationships to foster, Project Planning. Lessons Learned, Setting a Monthly To Do List. Setting Your Theme for the Month - maybe rolling the dice or selecting 5 of the Conversation Sparker Charms to frame your theme for the month.  Use the Monthly Review pages part of the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder books)

Weekly tasks – Review of key stats - i.e. analytics for website, revenue. Use the Week in Review page found in the monthly planning section of PlanDoTrack or Coaching Business Builder to do a structured review of the week - lessons learned, key accomplishments etc.

Daily tasks - Responding to immediate issues, building relationships, addressing strategic issues, program delivery, coaching conversations. At least 5-10 minutes of daily planning and reflection. While PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder were not created as a daily planning tool, there is a daily planning page you can use at the back of it.
​

 

Activity
Pull out your running To Do list check out this blog post at PlanDoTrack for more on the running to do list) and break it down to smaller task bundles. It might make sense to break it down chronologically,  or it may be better to break it down in buckets.

Have a great week,
​Jennifer

​
In Focus – WHY
Goals are just goals which many assert are simply “dreams” unless we make them really tactical and practical. Last week we explored what goals could be. This week let’s look at your milestones.

A milestone is a significant point or event in a project, process, or development that marks a notable achievement, progress, or completion of a specific phase.

Milestones are often used to track and measure the advancement of a project or goal, providing clear points of reference for evaluating success and planning future actions. They serve as key markers along the timeline, helping teams and individuals stay focused, organized, and motivated by breaking down larger objectives into smaller, manageable components.

Milestones can represent various accomplishments, such as the completion of a critical task, the attainment of a certain level of performance, or the achievement of a specific deadline.

Overall, milestones are essential tools in project management and goal-setting, providing a framework for assessing progress and ensuring that objectives are met in a systematic and measurable manner.
 
Activity
Taking a look again at your top 3-5 goals (for the quarter, or the  year). What are the MILESTONES for each one. Write these down and schedule them out. 
Who are you going to be accountable to? When will you share this with them?

Resources
Use the One Page Plan to capture your milestones. You will find a copy of this at the back of PlanDoTrack, Coaching Business Builder and/or in Reconnecting Workspaces (as one of the Team Tools at the end of chapter)
 

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?
​
Enjoy!

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

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