Feedback keeps you human

Too many of my career coaching clients are complaining about getting zilch feedback after job interviews. Not “only this is tough enough with the economy, but those guys who are seating in front of you with a position and some level of stability, won’t even dare getting back to you, even to say politely that they’re not interested…”.

I tried a few times myself to go through a complete application process, got the interview (which by the way seemed to go extremely well), and be left completely in the dark, even after two emails requesting feedback and one phone call leaving a message. What used to be a standard protocol to get back to candidates “thanking them for their time and interest in the company, but the position has been eliminated (most of the cases we are seeing today), or we found a better matching candidate, but will keep your application on file for future consideration…”

What is wrong with you? You have lost your sense of humanity? Did you feel even for one second the pain of someone who’s looking for a job to feed his/her family, competent, courteous, committed and potentially loyal to you who has been seeking for a position for over 12-14-18-28 months, in vain? Not getting back to him/her is like saying “I really don’t care”, “you’re not worth a reply”, “I wasted my time with this candidate”, “another one who does not meet my hiring criteria”… there is no doubt a recession like this sharpens sensitivity, emotional distress, over-reaction. Nonetheless, is it so hard to write a standard text and keep it in your email draft box, and use it each time you meet a candidate you’re not willing to hire? Do you realize your feedback provides clarity on a “pending status”?, clears up this person’s mind about not expecting anything from that interview so that he/she can move on? Is that too much asking?

I made my little survey and was totally shocked when I realize that 98% of 100 people I asked the question “do you get feedback after a job interview”? answered me NO.

That means, no feedback, no clarity, maintaining hope when in fact it’s an illusion, a mirage. Getting a job today, especially the higher you go in qualification or the older you are, the most difficult it is to swallow that pill, the one you dare throwing at someone’s throat without even realizing how painful this is.

Yes, there is enough coaches out there who will explain to their career-clients that it’s not worth the energy or the emotion to even think a minute about the frustration this lack of feedback can generate?

Let me suggest that you who have the privilege of interviewing candidates, offer job opportunities, and receive thousands of resumes to select from, do realize you are dealing with human beings, and in times of recession like this, sensitive ones! All of them, without any exception!  They might not show you this vulnerability, but I can assure you that they all deserve a reply, a little note from you, giving some respect, some dignity, and showing that you too, feel for their “pain”, appreciating their efforts, and admiring somehow their courage and tenacity as they are facing their bills everyday, their father’s husband’s or wife’s mother’s obligations, worried and constantly trying to energize themselves to face another day with potential frustration, rejection and desillusion.

There is nothing wrong to even push yourself beyond the threshold line and be nicer than ever, respectful and grateful you’re in a better position economically, having a job and a place to go to, to make a living. Those candidates of yours, still did not land on a safer space where they can perform and “play” their talents and skills to bring back a pay check home and feel finally better about themselves.

Thank you for your consideration

Your business Coach

The Power of Brain Washing

May I ask you to stop annoying me with your boring AIG or the next Bear Sterns kind of news? Haven’t you had enough talking about this every second of the day forever… whenever, wherever, using your power to brainwash instead of inform? Mrs. Media, Americans are smarter than you think. This is a countryof hope, where creativity and happy endings have been the dominant theme of its history. The whole world knows Americans are positive and optimistic people.

You seem to underestimate who your audience really is… and by the way, have you ever checked if you actually have an audience? Mrs. Media, never before in your existence have you and your peers performed such a cacophony of darkness and  ignorance. Taking everything at face value does not serve you very well. What is really behind all of this, Mrs. Media? Do you really care? Or is it too much fun feeling you have the power to determine the color of the day and how Americans think. Better, how you can make Americans think.

Have you asked the entrepreneurs and visionaries in corporate America what they really think about the economy or the potentials of their country, or about their knowledge about handling crises or strategizing for drastic changes? 

I will always remember the story of the boss who realizes his direct reports have always cheated and lied, creating the illusion that all is well, getting their bonuses on the basis of re-arranged, even officially-audited, annual reports, but very distant from the truth. So he closes shop, yes, he drops the ball and files for bankruptcy. The following day, he creates a new corporation and sends a memo to everyone, proposing new jobs contingent on integrity and competence at much lower salaries, with no bonuses for at least three years, and requesting their sincere introspection and deep apologies.

In this world, everything goes through cycles. Truth pops up no matter what, and the realities reveal themselves, sometimes too late, but loud and clear, declaring a message for everyone to get.

There are thousands of AIGs out there, thousands of Bear Sterns and of mini-Madoff’s, and lessons to be learned, once and for all. Lessons about integrity and transparency (that reminds me of a political line somewhere, I wonder who said that …), clarity of communication, horizontal management structure, collegial decision making, credit sharing, appreciation, humbleness, shared vision, caring for others, giving back to society, and the list goes on.

There are lessons, too, about living according to the level of our true means and getting back to earth from the high- level mythology in the corporate world and among the large consumer community. Changes are not initiated or controlled by the government but by responsible individuals. A country like America, designed for freedom values, empowering individual responsibility and creativity, opens up large, infinite worlds of opportunities to everyone – where each one can blossom and contribute, be productive and positive.

Get to work,  Mrs. Media, and come on, change your tune, won’t you?! You’re stuck in the wrong key, playing a dirge.  We need melodies and dances. The day will come when we’ll be all dancing and laughing, remembering the pictures you painted here, polluting the atmosphere, hoping to create fear and skepticism in every single brain . This will be soon over, and then you will look at yourself in the mirror, ashamed and shocked to see how much we did not pay attention to you, and how happy we are, deep in our hearts, that we have faith.

 

Services

Brief presentation of coaching services

Creating your “own” space and enjoy your leadership

This fantastic feeling, away on a business trip, finding a couple of hours and relaxing in a luxurious spa… as they say “indulging”… right? Do you need to be a CEO to afford this special treat for yourself? What is it about? Is it seriously enjoyable?

You all probably had this experience. My favorites are Mii Amo, the Sanctuary on Camel Back or even Six Senses in Thailand and probably so many more around the world where you won’t resist and will book your slot to get a massage or a treatment after trying the sauna, pool and all the warm water generously pouring on your hurting body, so damaged by the miles and the seating at your desk !

Well,  what do I really want to convey to you here? The experience? The desire? or simply the invitation to prioritize your well-being no matter what happens to your bottom line, your P&L or your board of directors pressuring you or threatening your job?

How can a coach ask his client to become wise? Let’s even ask. How about adopting the “so what”? “let go!” “take a deep breath”kind of approach and experience it once and for all? How about making your complicated life, intense and the busiest it can be, take a “sabbatical” of some sort, and take the pause, wherever you are?

How about embracing life, charging the batteries, and really live through a tangible “brick and mortar” focus on your soul and you body, and give them a chance to connect with you?

Simple words, simple advice. Coaching executives is about simplifying and prioritizing. Performance comes from a pure place. Everything else is a myth. High performers can look cool and relaxed. Detecting the fake in this is not difficult. The foundation for making it real is to really enroll and embark in the journey for connecting to yourself.

It’s a paradigm shift. It requires discipline and a solid mental condition. The coach pulls out all his energy and experience of the corporate challenges and real situations to guide you through this process and make it real. The point will be quickly proven. It will be so true that an ediction can develop and build up the right path for you.

ROI (Return On Investment) from Coaching

The true challenge of the Coaching ROI (Return on Investment)For Coaches – For HR Managers – For Coaching Clients  

André Politzer     August 1st, 2007

 ROI is one of the most intriguing topics for an executive coach working with Corporate.This is a challenging value that is often categorized as “intangible”.With my long executive experience in Corporate Europe and Corporate America, I appreciate and understand that most decision makers would be suspecting that the coaching impact can’t be measured on solid grounds until proven otherwise.After all, whoever would make the decision to hire a coach, has accountability for the engaged expense. and this one needs to be obviously addressed. Let me line up a few relevant outcome items from my first experiences of facing those objections.  If organizations and practitioners work together to set standards and monitor activity, they will both benefit. From that standpoint, decision makers who are buying coaching have a responsibility to ensure coaching service providers that have the appropriate experience and qualifications. In the last four months, I have been focusing on how some organizations view measurement of their investment in their talent development budget. First the scope of application of coaching has been addressed. I can mention the following mostly common bottom line items those “prospective clients” mentioned during this exercise: -Improve individual/team performance-Improve productivity of the division (P&L) or global organization-Improve quality of interaction and communication between division leader and direct reports-Improve leadership/management effectiveness-Improve staff retention-Improve customer service and client retention-Establish a strategic planning dynamic-Improve emotional intelligence With HR managers I addressed their approach to coaching and found out that rather than being part of a development strategy, coaching help them truly maximize and harness their own departmental internal performance promoting efficient resources to their top executives and top performing teams, and furthermore provide additional savings in training and recruitment costs to the company.  On the latter, by hearing several times that this is really a sensitive area for them, I could suggest we talk about the ROI applied to Coaching. It positions Human Resources inside the company and identifies the total financial benefit the organization draws like a learning/training program cost. We can subtract from that value the total investment it would take to develop, produce, and deliver that program internally. We had some challenges figuring out an exact measure of the costs associated with a training program and isolate the financial benefits from it. The suggested comparison was very well accepted and it was reasonable in the eyes of my HR contacts to assess this as a financial value. I suggested the following  formula:             (total benefit – total costs) = ____           X 100 = ROI
                             total costs

 Total benefits would include the money saved by the organization, an allocation of a revenue increase for the division or the company, and anything that adds directly or indirectly to the bottom line.Total costs would include the development costs (using a comparable expense the HR or the division engaged in the past), the employee’s time away from doing something else, the overhead in education and materials, travel, cost of coordination, and any other cost incurred. The more I used that analogy to training cost and the more I could gain comparative benchmarks and a sincere recognition from the HR executive that we had room for creativity to find the tangible measure criterion applied to Coaching especially when it comes to the objectives listed above. Now, where do we go from here? As we relate to ROI and not to sales argumentation tips, I will add that it helps to show some evidence about value and not neglect to refer to standards such as the ICF (International Coach Federation) www.coachfederation.org  and the coaching competencies, some of the mechanisms such as 360-feedbacks, project outcomes, coachees reports to their supervisor, etc. That process will build up over time generating some clear benchmarks the company will use along the way, when hiring external coaches. Surprisingly or not, some of the contacts I had during this process also expressed lots of skepticism and objections talking openly about their own experience of dealing with too many of what they called the “cowboys” coaches who use too much of  “anecdotal evidence”. It made me feel each time I heard this kind of comment that it is crucial to agree on a definition for the ROI and offer one they can relate to a financial approach. For example: 

• Return on Investment (ROI) is a traditional financial measure based on historic data. Coaching is a new topic for research and resources exist to find data and evidence on performance (provide them with some resources)
• ROI is a backward-observation metric that yields no insights into how to improve business results in the future
• In training, like in educational organizations, ROI has been used primarily for self-justification rather than continuous improvement. In Coaching, it’s all about continual improvement at the individual and group level

I was inspired to search for good ROI resources especially in the professional training space. There are websites and discussions dedicated to the topic and countless articles and reports, books and tools to justify and even calculate a Coaching ROI. Here are some practical examples I used in the Cyberspace. ROInet is a Yahoo! Group forum evaluating and measuring experiences shared with over 2,500 members: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roinet . It was created for HR professionals interested in measuring ROI in HR development projects. The ASTD  (American Society for Training & Development) is the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals  www.astd.org proposing a data-rich environment where you can find resources, discussion projects and issues related to measurement of ROI and it does not require any registration. I also found the American Evaluation Association www.eval.org an extremely relevant resource focusing a lot on HR performance evaluation tools. As a conclusion to this important topic, let me share a few tips I found useful when discussing ROI applied to Coaching: 

1. Make sure you discuss and agree the outcomes your prospect wants to achieve from coaching at the outset
2. Make sure those are realistic, clear, and genuinely relevant to individuals and teams inside that organization (if you have the opportunity to evaluate that aspect directly with the stake-holder who will be involved with the coaching program, that will ascertain this crucial level of clarity)
3. Record these outcomes as part of a potential “coaching contract” and it will be used as a basis for determining what has been achieved
4. Try to develop some tangible measures like the examples I listed above
5. Establish right from the inception of this relationship a process to review performance with the coach and the coachee at given times to make an ROI estimate
6. HR and P&L Divisions are presenting budgets and forecasting to their supervisors. They are accountable for their expenses. Just keep it in mind and offer your support to provide all the tools and the resources needed to make a balanced mix of tangible and intangible criteria allowing to present a reliable ROI formula

 The challenge for each of us is to avoid the assumption that our clients support our way of thinking. I suggest we try to appreciate all facets of our clients, especially when they are only prospects. Looking at the Return of their Investment on our services already makes them trusting we do care about their accountability.

Coaching in Silicon Valley

The format Coaching is suggesting to self-starters in unusual to them. They can just leave Stanford or UCLA with an MBA or a PHD and completely freak out in front of a professional coach just because the format is different.
It is a learning process. But it is entirely tailored to you. You’re in the center! You set the agenda. You make yourself accountable. You hire a coach to practice your business muscles and optimize your impact in the world.
You can have all the great knowledge about business principles and theories, made enough research on trends and how to make a difference in the market place. When it comes to you, it’s a different ball game. How your interaction with partners, employees, suppliers, customers and product developers will develop is a total different planet.
You have your particulars. You even built up a vision for the company. You might even be challenged by the next Google (or the current one) or Yahoo! who just made you an offer for $1Billion you just rejected violantely because you want to keep having fun without the big bullies on your head!
Coaching helps you connect to your guts, live the moment, use most of what it offers you to get and give back in the world.
Joe, the client I just agreed to coach for a lower fee as he is starting up his new company with very limited funding is an exciting guy. He just married a fantastic woman who, like him, graduated from Stanford last year.
They both have a passion for networking and following Joe’s lead and genious ideas, decided to build the first network website for couples graduated from the same school. They are convinced the dynamic of this will bring a very new type of space out there, offering multitude of opportunities for inspiring people to work with each other, finance each other, learn with each other…
The harmony of love, mixed with creativity in business and innovation. What Joe told me he is looking for using a coach is to help making the steps into building a team, prioritize his plans and identify what are the best synergies to use with his wife to maintain a balance in their lives, and make work another “room” where they can share passion and fun.
I accepted the challenge because I like Joe and feel I can contribute a lot. I see in this a potential for coaching his wife too, and his new team members. With the dynamics of planning and the framework of starting up a business and build profitable plans, I know coaching can be a precious source for Joe and make his dreams come true…
Keeping the balance, measure reasonably and keep your head above the frenetic pressure VC firms are still enjoying when they share the risk with people like Joe. Joe is smart enough to avoid the VC’s like he would avoid a contagious area infested with a vicious virus.
Yes, Joe is right. Silicon Valley can also be a place for new couples eager to win and make money while having fun and quality of life. I trust he is right. Thank you Joe for the opportunity! Looking forward!

Let’s talk bizcoach today

Do you know how many French investors and executives are seeking for opportunities in the USA today?We joined this month several clubs and associations also to feel the temperature and see for ourselves if this is just a perception or a reality? At Inter-French, we met about 100 CEO’s and 40 who were visiting the Valley to learn what can be the CEO of tomorrow, and why are they coming to the Bay Area? Is the Silicon Valley Dot Com Legend still alive and vibrant? You bet it is! With DBF each first of the month (or just about), you can meet the most established and dynamic community of C-Level and Entrepreneurs France can produce for “exporting” these bright and creative brains to this side of the Atlantic. Now why Coaching? Why Your Focus Point Coaching? Why me, to be the ideal designated coach for French born executives who come here to realize their dreams? Look at our French site I-encadrement  and you will understand. Here, a real intense and fascinating story has just begin. We have this privilege indeed to bring decades of experience in Europe and US Corporate with a fantastic portfolio of clients and companies who enjoy the infinite resources of coaching, and soon after hiring a coach, can’t live without it!

L Perceiving value of coaching http://www.yourfocuspoint.com/ It does not take very long to figure out if the one you’re talking to understands the value of coaching or not. Just ask “hey, did you ever think about using a coach for yourself?”, “a what?”, “C.O.A.C.H!” – “someone who cares, has skills, is seriously involved, understands business (let’s say has experience), can identify to your challenges, be your closest business partner, works with ethics and applies even the International Coach Federation core competencies and ethics guidelines.” Look, that’s the whole point of starting this blog today. We, as coaches, are coming accross fascinating and unique situations every hours of the day. Through the eyes of our client, we can see the entire world, feel the challenges and tremble when it comes to sensitive situations or genuine breakthroughs. Let’s start today with this incredible story. (We are using nick names and are changing slighlty the context of each situation to keep the client’s confidentiality). At 9:00 AM, my client Rob who is the founder and the chairman of this 500 employees high-tech multinational public company said loud and clear in the news that he was about to jumb out of the Golden Gate Bridge last night but thought at the last minute about his 10 kids and dear wife that he indeed cherish and had to step back, not even swetting or shaking. Because he had an interview at the first hour this morning on the radio, he said it, on air, without hesitation. Now he is talking to me and sets the agenda for his session on how he can continue to be himself and when he is interviewed, not create any new characters or fake anything! After reiterating the boundaries between Coaching and Therapy, I reframed this objective by suggesting he looks for the best disposition he can find for himself when he is exposed, and represents others than himself when he speaks as a chairman of a public company versus talking to anyone privately. Basic concept? Naivety? Total lack of sensibility about remaining decent as a public figure? After addressing the drastic amound of adrenalyne he invested in the day, yesterday, wondering about the meaning of his life, the nature of his contribution to the education of his kids, and some other intimate aspects I am always actively listening to but do not respond to, we could finally focus on him as a Chairman and the impact of his declaration on his own people.Not to mention of course the number of articles we’ll be reading in the press and the value of the stock for the next few days… What is the problem here? Should we look into his direct reports? Who is most affected by Rob’s depressive inclination? What is lifting his morale? What triggers to his falling pattern? Did it already happen but luckily not in sequence with a public appearance so that this can go away from his mind and remove him from the vulnerability of reacting or be impulsive? Far from setting any standard remedy to this situation, I feel the incident is some what revealing. I cannot pride myself that this is happening everyday and that I injected the most powerful vaccine to protect my client from this incident to happen again. Little by little, Rob gained some awareness about his surroundings, his responsibility and the minimum tolerance benchmarks. We, in fact concluded on a set of three benchmarks for him to keep in mind at any price, so that his exhibitionist tendancies are not coming back at those critical times. Family remained at the top – he is a spiritual and material core source for nourrishing his dearest ones, the purpose for him to still work after he made his money in 93 when the company went public is definitely to create jobs and be a productive philanthropist and last but not least, the appreciation of life through his religious values as the unavoidable outcome of completing the suicide that night would have caused him to become a murderer… Using this extreme – provocative image, connecting him to true deep values, made him very satisfied and complete. He had the tools he could himself use at anytime and self-generate on a permanent basis. Rob asked we address a communication strategy and an action plan to create all the fences he needs for whatever the consequences of the interview will be so that he is prepared and keep a strong profile about it. By the way, my dear first readers, do not think for an instant that the above story is reflecting any kind of expertise on my part. Each situation has its magnitude and intensity. With the discipline of using competencies and reflection with research when it’s needed, I simply try to remain professional in any given situation.  Coaching is a process. There is many approaches to it. What makes a coach a good one is probably his/her ability to cope with your specific situation and apply the proper strategy.

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Perceiving value of coaching

http://www.yourfocuspoint.com/It doesn’t take very long to figure out whether or not the person you’re talking to understands the value of coaching. Just ask “hey, have you ever thought about using a coach?” “A what?” “C.O.A.C.H! Someone who cares, has skills, is seriously involved, understands business (let’s say has experience), can identify with your challenges, is your closest business partner, works with ethics and applies the International Coach Federation core competencies and ethical guidelines.”Look, that’s the whole point of starting this blog today. We, as coaches, are coming across fascinating and unique situations every hour of the day. Through the eyes of our clients, we can see the entire world, feel the challenges, and tremble when it comes to sensitive situations or genuine breakthroughs.Let’s start today with an incredible story. (We are using aliases and are slightly changing the context of each situation to keep the client’s confidentiality).My client “Rob” is the founder and chairman of a 500 employees high-tech multinational public company. At 9:00 am, Rob announced to the media that last night he was about to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge but at the last minute thought about his ten kids and dear wife, whom he cherishes, and had to step back, not even sweating or shaking. The radio interview took place first thing in the morning and without hesitation, he revealed this information live on the air.
Now he is talking to me and sets the agenda for his session; how can he continue to be himself when interviewed and not create a new character or fake anything! After reiterating the boundaries between Coaching and Therapy, I reframed this objective by suggesting that he look for the best disposition he can find for himself when he is exposed, and represents others than himself when he speaks as a chairman of a public company versus talking to anyone privately.
Basic concept? Naivety? Total lack of sensibility about remaining discreet as a public figure? Before we could focus on Rob the Chairman, we had to address the tremendous amount of adrenaline invested the day before. I listened attentively but did not respond as Rob questioned the meaning of his life, his contribution to his kid’s education, as well as other intimate aspects of his life. We were then able to explore the impact his declaration would have on his business life and speculate on the number of articles we’d be reading in the press and the value of stock for the next few days…What is the problem here? Should we look into his direct reports? Who is affected most by Rob’s depressive inclination? What is lifting his morale? What triggers to his falling pattern? Did it already happen but luckily not in sequence with a public appearance so that this can go away from his mind and remove him from the vulnerability of reacting or be impulsive?Far from setting any standard remedy to this situation, I feel the incident is somewhat revealing. I cannot pride myself that this is happening everyday and that I injected the most powerful vaccine to protect my client from this incident to happen again. Little by little, Rob gained some awareness about his surroundings, his responsibility, and the minimum tolerance benchmarks.We, in fact concluded on a set of three benchmarks for him to keep in mind at any price, so that his exhibitionist tendency do not revisit at critical times. Family remained at the top. He is spiritually and materially responsible for nourishing his loved ones. The purpose of him working after he made his money in 1993, when the company went public, is definitely to create jobs and be a productive philanthropist. Finally yet importantly, the appreciation of life through his religious values as the unavoidable outcome of completing the suicide that night would have caused him to become a murderer… This extreme provocative image connected him to true deep values and made him feel very satisfied and complete. He had the tools and could use them at anytime. Rob asked that we develop a communication strategy and an action plan to deal with the inevitable interviews he would encounter. He wanted to be prepared and to keep a strong profile.By the way, my dear first readers do not think for an instant that the above story is reflecting any kind of expertise on my part. Each situation has its magnitude and intensity. With the discipline of using competencies and reflection with research, when it’s needed, I simply try to remain professional in any given situation.Coaching is a process. There are many approaches to it. What makes a coach a good coach is probably his/her ability to cope with a specific situation and apply the appropriate strategy.