Venture Coaching Blog

The Art of Leadership is coming to Calgary!

Laura Watson — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:52:45 +0000

The Art of Leadership is coming to Calgary, November 7, 2011. Business owners and company leaders should make a point to be there.

Speakers include:

Patrick Lencioni (author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team),
Robin Sharma (author of The Leader Who Had No Title),
General Rick Hillier,
Steven Shapiro (author of Personality Poker),
Susan Scott (author of Fierce Leadership), and
Leonard Brody (author of The Myth of Generations)

Learn more at: About The Art of Leadership… | The Art of Leadership.

Robin Sharma on Leadership and Success

Laura Watson — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:55:05 +0000

Word-renowned self improvement guru Robin Sharma has made it his mission to teach others how to become great leaders. Watch this video to hear what Robin says regarding reaching your own potential and becoming a successful and inspiring leader.

Are you stretching yourself and staying focused on your dream? Or do you hold yourself back at times? Would you like to pursue your dream faster?

Laura Watson, ACC, MSW is President of Venture Coaching Inc., and was a finalist for the 2010 Canadian Coach of the Year Award. Venture Coaching provides leadership, business, and communication coaching programs to entrepreneurs. Venture Coaching provides the tools, process and support for new awareness, new choices and new results.

To learn more, call Laura Watson toll free at: 877-669-8684 or email her at: Laura@VentureCoaching.ca

Winning Gold In Business: Plan Performance Like An Olympian!

Laura Watson — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:35:59 +0000

Carla Macleod is a defense woman for the Canadian women’s gold-medal winning hockey team. I met her at a luncheon where she was speaking about what it takes to be successful.

Hope is not a strategy

Carla first fell in love with hockey as a teenager. She played hockey endlessly, hoping of one day getting onto the World Cup team. Carla had passion for her sport, drive, determination and a willingness to play hard. She thought she had all the necessary ingredients for one day making the team. Carla caught the attention of the World Cup coaches and was considered for the team twice. And twice she was passed over. Carla learned that hard work and hope is not enough to achieve success. She realized she needed to set an intention and support it with a plan.

Many business owners start their business because they are passionate about something. They work hard and they hope for success. Unfortunately, this strategy often leads to exhaustion, burnout, estranged relationships, financial ruin and shattered dreams.

Set an intention, within your control, and set a measure of success

A few years later Carla was chosen for the World Cup Hockey Team, and then she was training for the Canadian Women’s Olympic Team. When Carla shared her story about preparing for the Olympics, she said the team set an intention not to win gold, but to be the best prepared team amongst their competition. They set this intention because they knew they could control the outcome of preparedness. Carla reminded us that in the end, hockey is a game and that winning can go either way based on the referees, the skill of the other players, and feeling “on” or “off” any particular day. Many of those factors were beyond their control. What they could control was their training and how well prepared they were, physically, mentally and emotionally for the game.

Setting an intention means setting a goal, with a plan for execution. What’s your intention for your business in the next 3 months? 6 months? 12 months? What’s the most important business project you need to focus on? How will you measure success of this intention?

Develop new habits

To prepare for the Olympics, Carla and her teammates adhered to a grueling training schedule. The team members were brought together in an isolated location for their coaches’ version of “Olympic Boot-camp”. The training program was designed to help every member of the team develop and strengthen excellent habits.

Many entrepreneurs exhibit destructive habits (often stress-coping mechanisms) that sabotage success. In regards to the intention you have set for yourself, what new habit do you need to develop in order to achieve your intention?

Get support

A fundamental element of Carla’s success and the success of the entire Olympic team, was that the girls had support. I’ve talked with many Olympians and every one I’ve met has been extremely grateful for the support they received from family, friends and especially their many coaches.

Why do so many entrepreneurs think they have to go it alone? Elite athletes tell us time and again that success does not happen in isolation. It happens from enrolling others in supporting us, and our vision.

Who will you ask to support you in achieving your stated intention? Do you need a mentor? A consultant? A coach? What kind of support do you need? Do you need fresh perspective? Or accountability?

Manage yourself effectively

Carla, high performance athletes and successful entrepreneurs know that the most challenging and powerful key element to success is learning to master your self. Learning to master our internal mental and emotional game makes all the difference in achieving success! Roadblocks are going to show up as we pursue our intentions. When we hit these walls, it’s easy to step down, play small and sabotage our best-laid intentions. Mastering how to lead our selves separates the elite performers from the wanna-be’s.

Stay committed to your intention

Carla had a one-time goal of playing in the Olympics. She committed to working hard and getting support for a set period of time, and she won gold. Entrepreneurs; your Olympics is your business, and you live it every day for years and decades! Your success will be determined by your commitment to the intentions you set, the habits you develop, the support you seek and the coaching you invest in to master your internal game and keep you stretching to new heights. Plan your performance like an Olympian and may you win gold in business and life!

To learn more, call Laura Watson toll free at: 877-669-8684 or email her at: Laura@VentureCoaching.ca

Are You Sabotaging Your Staff?

Laura Watson — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:40:00 +0000

While coaching Louise this morning, we had a key insight! While complaining about her manager’s poor performance, Louise realized she was actually sabotaging her manager’s success.

Louise’s goal is to have her manager, Sue, be independently operating a retail store. Louise thought she could support Sue by reassuring her and telling Sue that she believes in her ability. Yet, when Sue comes to Louise with questions, Louise tells Sue what to do because Louise is not fully confident in Sue. We realized that Louise’s practice of giving Sue the answers was keeping Sue dependent on Louise and was undermining Louise’s goal of having Sue be confident and independent.

We framed the situation as follows:

Telling someone we believe in them puts a small deposit into the confidence “bank account”. But when we turn around and give that same person the answers to their questions, or tell them “just do it this way” (because it seems faster and easier to do so) we send a message to that person that we don’t really believe they are capable. This message withdraws “confidence capital” from the account for both parties. Over time, this behaviour of giving people answers actually sabotages their personal growth and success and keeps them dependent on us for the answers (think your kids and your staff).

Asking questions that help the other person find their own answers, then letting them put their solution in place to test the result, puts a much larger deposit into the confidence bank account for both parties and is an investment that pays higher returns over time.

Are you sabotaging or supporting your staff?

To learn more, call Laura Watson toll free at: 877-669-8684 or email her at: Laura@VentureCoaching.ca

Laura Watson, ACC, MSW is President of Venture Coaching Inc., and was a finalist for the 2010 Canadian Coach of the Year Award. Venture Coaching provides leadership and business coaching programs to entrepreneurs. Venture Coaching provides the tools, process and support for new awareness, new choices and new results.

Conceive And Acheive

Laura Watson — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:40:00 +0000

What we can conceive, we can achieve!

This is a great video of Napoleon Hill talking about success secrets he learned from Dale Carnegie. Success is all based on what you think. Enjoy!

To learn more, call Laura Watson toll free at: 877-669-8684 or email her at: Laura@VentureCoaching.ca

Tony Robbins on Motivation in a Slump

Laura Watson — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:52:00 +0000

Tony Robbins is one of my favourite personal improvement experts. In this clip, he talks about the importance of being emotionally fit. Emotional fitness gives us the ability to keep our business and life moving forward.

How emotionally fit are you? Do you let your emotions get the better of you? How is this affecting your business? How is this affecting your life?

Emotional fitness skills can be learned. In 1 session, I can give you a key tool for developing your emotional fitness!

To learn more, call Laura Watson toll free at: 877-669-8684 or email her at: Laura@VentureCoaching.ca

Google CEO Endorses Coaching

Laura Watson — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:30:00 +0000

Greetings!

I recently came across this short clip of Google CEO endorsing coaching. Please take a look:

So, do you have a coach? If you do, please share what you love about being coached.

Are You Ready To Be Your Best?

Laura Watson — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 02:04:00 +0000

You are the most influential leader of your business and your life!

So many of us under-estimate our abilities. Do you have someone in your life who holds you to a higher standard? Are you ready for that?

How would your life be different if you had someone beside you, helping you be the best you can be?

Laura Watson, ACC, MSW is President of Venture Coaching Inc., and was a finalist for the 2010 Canadian Coach of the Year Award. Venture Coaching provides leadership and business coaching programs to entrepreneurs so they can create success on purpose! Venture Coaching provides the tools, process and support to accelerate your business and personal growth.

Stop Your Downward Spiral Now!

Laura Watson — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:45:00 +0000

The #1 Way To Get “Unstuck” And Shift Into Forward Action

Last week I started a coaching session with a client by asking Bill (not his real name) how he was doing. He said, “fine” with a tone that told me otherwise. When I challenged Bill he responded, “you’re right, I’m frustrated, irritable and having bouts of uncontrollable rage”. Then, with a chuckle, he tried to make light of his coping strategies of “driving like a maniac (140 km.hr) to meetings” and his plan to drink 40 oz of whiskey on the weekend (instead of his usual 26 oz). It was clear. Bill was stuck in a downward spiral of self-sabotage that was putting him, his business and others at risk. He needed to switch out of his destructive pattern and back into his constructive patterns again. Bill even knew he was in a downward spiral, he felt out of control and he didn’t know how to switch back again.

How many times has this been you? How much time, energy and money have you wasted being stuck? How many relationship or partnerships have you damaged? How many times have you realized you’re in a downward spiral and you don’t know how to get out?

Getting unstuck is a skill we can learn like any other. First we need to recognize the pattern, know what to do when it happens and then apply the skill. And, just like learning yoga or golf, it’s easier and more effective the more we practice. In order to help Bill get “unstuck”, I introduced him to the “switching model”.

The Switching Model:

Original Source Of Model: Personal Best Seminars

Understanding The Switching Model:

The Downward Spiral:

Everything starts with an EVENT. The downward spiral is triggered when we resist the event. Our resistance leads to an automatic negative emotional reaction. This reaction is based on some limiting beliefs we hold (whether or not we are conscious of them). We react with some automatic behavior (ie. defensiveness, anger, confrontation, drinking) that leave us feeling worse. The downward spiral has begun. We feel stressed, irritable and out of control. This downward spiral is our self-sabotaging pattern in action.

This spiral typically keeps spinning and we can sabotage our selves for days, weeks and months. This spiral keeps looping around and down until the negative feelings eventually dissipate over time. Meanwhile, we feel miserable, we lose sleep, we over eat, we over-react to people (damaging relationships) and we often use vices as coping mechanisms. A lot of time, money and energy is wasted while reinforcing the limiting beliefs that started the cycle in the first place.

Constructive Pattern:

Getting unstuck requires us to return to the event. The key now is to see the event merely as words or actions with no meaning attached (ie. not our judgement or the meaning we assumed). When we do this, we can see the event as being neutral. We can accept the event for merely being an event, with no meaning attached and we can initiate our constructive behavior patterns again. It’s important to remember that we may not always be able to control the events around us, but we can always choose how we respond to them. Once we shift ourselves back into a positive place of choice, we feel in control, confident and calm. We resume being productive and constructive.

Once Bill reframed his interpretation of the events upsetting him, he reaped the benefits immediately. His rage and frustration dissipated, his creativity opened up and we created a plan together for how he would approach an important meeting that afternoon. In a follow up call, Bill felt excited for hosting a successful meeting, he had not received any speeding tickets and he enjoyed his weekend with his family.

We all have an amazing ability to choose how we view events around us and choose how we let them affect us, destructively or constructively. A key role of a professional coach is to help people develop mastery over the ability to apply choice. When we apply the power of choice, the average destructive to constructive cycle-time shifts from days to minutes or even moments. Less time, energy and money is wasted and the positive impact can be huge!

Laura Watson, ACC, MSW is President of Venture Coaching Inc., and was a finalist for the 2010 Canadian Coach of the Year Award. Venture Coaching provides leadership and business coaching programs to entrepreneurs so they can create success on purpose! Venture Coaching provides the tools, process and support to accelerate your business and personal growth.

Zig Ziglar Shares His Wisdom

Laura Watson — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:53:00 +0000

Enjoy this fundamental wisdom I received from Zig at a recent conference. If the rest of the world followed this advice, it would be a much better world!