How Do You Help Your Clients Achieve Elite Performance?

Over at the ScheduleU website, I just shared the first post in a series, based on the finding in a Linkedin study. It revealed that only 11% of professionals surveyed complete all the items on their daily To-Do List.

As a trainer/coach, you may instinctively know what this translates into – a lot of failures.

When a client or prospect approaches you with this problem, what is the best way for you to respond? In this opening article, I introduce the first idea of many to be shared in a series of posts.

By the time we are done with this topic, I hope to prove you some solid direction on how to help someone who has the will to be an elite performer in time-based productivity but lacks the necessary skill.

Here is the link to the article:

Becoming like the elite 11% who get all their tasks done each day

Teleclass on Wednesday Night

On Wednesday I’ll be offering the first teleclass for the year – a unique opporunity to learn some advanced techniques for time advisers.

I’m going to ask an obvious-sounding question, given the fact that you are on my list of time advisers…

Are you interested in building your coaching practice to include more or better time management clients?

The question is probably obvious, but what’s not as clear is way to get at the answer. I can’t claim to have the complete answer, but here are a few things I believe are missing for most coaches, trainers, professional organizers and consultants.

1. You don’t have a clear process to follow – the client/trainee senses that you, the time adviser, is making things up as they go along and that not much thought has been put into the sequence of events being followed.

2. You don’t have a philosophy – when you know little more than your clients, or can’t do better than Google, they tune out and reliy on their own Google searches for answers. Case in point: anyone can do a YouTube search for “time management doesn’t exist” and pull up 20 videos on the topic. If you are still operating like it does, and can’t explain why / whot not, you’ll be in trouble in trouble.

3. You don’t have fresh tools – pulling out old, tired chestnuts like the Important/Urgent Diagram popularized by Stephen Covey (who came long after Dwight Eisenhower made it known) won’t get you very far. Clients just don’t need you to explain what it is – the guy in the cubicle next-door will do just fine.

In the course of speeches to the International Coaching Federation, the American Society of Training and Development and the Institute for Challenging Disorganization I have been answering these questions – pushing time advisers to solve the real problems clients have today, not the ones they had 20 years ago.

Are these the keys to getting more or better clients?

If you believe clients are like kids, who don’t know anything about the topic, then “No.” Most of the blog posts, books and programs treat clients as if they know little or nothing.

However, if you are convinced that the best clients are already effective in many ways, and already know a lot about time management then you must have the three things I’ll provide you in the teleclass:
1. An 8 Phase Process to follow
2. A Philosophy
3. Fresh Tools in the form of Cheat Sheets for the 7 Essential Fundamentals (which I have never-before released to the public.)

Also, I’ll be inviting you to join me in my new individual time adviser training program – Baby Steps Online.

Visit the link below to register – it’s absolutely complimentary.

http://www.mytimedesign.com/wordpress/teleclass-on-wed-june-7

Preparing for the ICF Conference

If you plan to attend the International Coaching Federation Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, you may be on the search for the handout for my session, How to Provide Expert (vs. Novice) Time Management Coaching.

If you haven’t yet done so, an excellent way to prepare for the session is to obtain a copy of my Special Report – The 8 Fatal Assumptions that Time Advisers Make. You can also read through this blog and start to immerse yourself fully in the world of time advising.

In this way, you’ll arrive at the session with the basic questions answered, ready to engage in the questions and exercises that will truly make you a more effective coach.

The materials for my ICF session are available here.

Interviewing a Master Organizer – Judith Kolberg

Judith Kolberg is one of the founders of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization and also the author of a recent book – Organizing in the Age of Endless. It’s a book that deals with contemporary challenges in both time and space and she makes some powerful observations about how well we are struggling in a world that allows more of everything to come at us.

Tune in to hear the podcast here.

The 8 Fatal Assumptions that Time Advisers Make

8 fatal assumptions 3d2I’m happy to say that a long period of collaboration with Janice Russell has produced it’s first output – a special report for coaches, consultants, professional organizers and trainers.

It’s called The 8 Fatal Assumptions that Time Advisers Make.

As a free download, we share some of the mistakes that we see people in our profession make again and again leaving them (and their clients) frustrated, dispirited and resigned.

To receive your copy, simply sign up by entering your name and address in the form at the lower left of this page.

Also, if you’d like to discuss the contents of  the report, please visit us over at our new forum at my book’s website – search for the topic related to Time Advisers. See you there!

How to Work With Trainees and Their Mixed Motivations

indian womanAs a trainer in time management it’s a guarantee: you will have trainees who have no interest in being in your classroom. They are there because were sent by their manager, and had no interest in coming… until they were ordered to attend.

You have a problem at the very start – how do you nullify their effect on other participants, at the very least, and maybe get them engaged in the materials, at the very most?

The answer is simple – your course must powerfully address their self-interests at the very beginning.

Sure, their bosses wants them to be more productive and to get more work from them. They also want them to get to work on time, and provide deliverables on a set schedule.

But that’s not going to get them engaged in your program, especially if they believe that they are already being maxed out, and that their boss is being unreasonable – wanting blood from a stone.

You’ll need to address their more basic needs, such as:
– the pressure they are getting from their boss to improve and how to deal with it effectively
– the areas of their life that are out of balance right now (weight, relationships, spirituality, personal time, etc.)
– where they are experiencing the symptoms of having a system that’s not keeping up with their lives
– how to deal with the fact that the demands on their life are increasing all the time
– how to cope with information overload
– how to stop feeling dissatisfied at the end of each day that so little got done
– how to keep up with other people in the office and do better than them
– how to become the last person they’d consider letting go because you are so productive
– how to avoid ruining your reputation by not delivering
– how to have an uncluttered office

It doesn’t matter which angle you take, you must spend enough time in the training to capture the imagination of a critical mass of attendees. If you do that, then the unwilling may give you enough space to work magic with the other attendees.

In my training, I make sure to have paired activities so that people can work with each other, in order help each other.  I have noticed that it’s hard to remain resistant when you have the opportunity to help others who are serious about getting all that they can from the learning opportunity.

These are just a few the approaches I use – do you have ideas for others?