Introductory Video
If you have thought about getting a coach, I suggest you start by clicking here to watch my eight-minute video. I cover the most common questions of potential clients. The video is available in HD, so don’t hesitate to click the button for full screen.
For those who prefer reading to watching, here is a transcript of the video.
1. Years ago, I was in my car after signing my third or fourth Chief Executive as a client. It was one of those moments I think we have all experienced. You suddenly realize that a threshold has been crossed toward a life changing opportunity. Immediately, you have two opposing sensations in almost the same instant. You’re going to get the chance you’ve been hoping for and you’ve got to deliver! I call it the “Oh, Boy! / Oh, No!” moment.
2. Oh, Boy! With these clients I am truly in the CEO Coaching business! I’ll be doing the work I’ve trained, planned, and prepared for. What a thrill! What an affirmation of my skills!
3. Oh, No! These are the most successful, effective people I’ve ever met! How am I going to help them? Who am I to presume to train and coach these executives?
4. In this short video, I will give you my answer to that and other common questions I hear when people ask about my work as an executive coach to top executives, CEOs, and elite salespeople.
5. Why would such a successful executive use a coach? What results are they getting? And what is the process, that is, what does “working with a coach” look like?
6. I’ll tell you a few stories about my experiences as a coach and as an executive coaching client when I was a CEO. You’ll hear some of the results my clients have reported, what they say is better or different about their businesses and their lives. I’ll also describe the logistics of working with me and refer you to other sources of information.
7. This will take less than ten minutes. Or, if you prefer your information in written form, you can read a transcript of this video at www.TonyMayo.com
8. Ready?
9. In the car that day, I reviewed my experience with the CEOs I had begun coaching. I noticed a pattern that has held for every client for all the years since. Everyone I work with has one maybe two outstanding skills that primarily account for their success. By the time he or she comes to me for coaching, they have ridden that horse as far as it is going to take them. The charismatic salesman can’t be charismatic any more hours in a day. The scientific genius can only solve so many of the company’s technical problems. The incredibly productive and persistent worker needs to let other people contribute or the enterprise will stagnate and fail. Whatever the skill, it eventually gets used up, taken to the limit, exhausted-even becomes a liability.
10. That leaves them with considerable external success–and a frustrating gap. These executives can sense that another level of results or personal satisfaction is possible, they have tried to reach it, but they haven’t achieved it-and that leaves them at best surprised or puzzled, but more often frustrated, tired, or even a little embarrassed. Imagine this: you’ve succeeded at so many things, people treat you like you’ve “arrived” but you know there is something missing-or you hide the gap by working more, pushing yourself and others too hard, or the opposite, playing too much, chasing novelty and excitement while creating conflict, drama and diversions in the office or at home. And yet, there remains this gap between where you are and what you sense is available-if only…
11. One of the most common complaints I hear is some form of, “I just need more time.” Or “I gotta get organized.” “I should be a better manager, delegate more.” “If only I had a few more reliable people.”
12. Time pressure is the most common reason I hear for not working with a coach. I hear it so often I gave it a name. I call it, “Too sick to see go to see the doctor.” This is supremely ironic, because one of the most common outcomes of my coaching is more time freedom. My clients talk about doing more in less time and being able to get away from the office without catastrophe.
13. Coaching doesn’t take time-it makes time.
14. In addition to time freedom, my clients tell me that coaching helps them gain clarity around their goals and plans, that by working with me they understand themselves better, as though I brought out their own best thinking. So often I hear, “That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to say” or “Now, I know just what to do.”
15. Before getting coached, I expected to resolve important problems in my head, by myself. Now, I realize there is not enough room in there and it is way too dark. By talking with me, clients are able to take complex issues and distill the situation down into easily understood terms, so that they can focus and execute.
16. I support execution by bringing a level of accountability often lost when managers reach the top. The problem is, promises we make to ourselves we can also re-negotiate with ourselves, so delays are almost inevitable. As I found with my own goals, all of my excuses make perfect sense to me. The same reasons don’t sound so good when I use them with my coach. I help my clients make clearer, stronger commitments, to follow through on them, and learn how to get better commitment and follow-through from others.
17. Most executive coaching is done by telephone, so scheduling is easy. I also use free video conferencing with some clients, so we can see each other. If you were considering engaging me as your executive coach, we would start by scheduling a free, no obligation conversation of ninety minutes to two hours. We’ll have a specific, confidential conversation about you, your business, and your goals. By the end of this meeting, we will both have a clear idea about whether my executive coaching is appropriate for you at this stage in your career.
18. Should we agree to work together, we will schedule telephone conversations as often as twice per week or as seldom as once per month-it varies depending on what’s happening in your life.
19. In each coaching session, you will share your concerns, complaints, and goals. I will ask a LOT of questions, show you new ways of looking at the circumstances, and share tools and methods that you may want to try. Most calls will end with us designing together some “Field Practice;” new things for you to try in your life. I will often send brief articles and reminders to you.
20. On our next call, you will report back on how your Field Practice went. You may also share emails or other documents with me. This is how your coach sees you on the playing field, so I know what we need to work on.
21. If you have read my blog, you know that being coached by me is a safe and nurturing experience. We may confront some uncomfortable topics but we always come through okay. My job is to reduce the stress of your life, so you can make strong choices and feel satisfied while getting better results.
22. Dozens of my clients have detailed their results on my blog, you can read them by clicking on “Client Comments,” you can also see posts on my background, coaching methods, and some of the tools my clients use.
23. Call me at this number or send an email to schedule your first coaching call.
24. It’s time to get going.
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