Encouragement is a wonderful thing.  Spontaneous and unsolicited encouragement is beyond wonderful.  It’s fantastic!   Here’s my story of such a gift. Charles G.Read (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Charles+G./Read)   read an article I’d written on reaching women clients published recently in a financial journal and promptly bought The $14 Trillion Woman.  Upon reading the book,  he sent out an

This week I was on the east coast with colleagues teaching Coaching Skills to leaders of a major wire-house, an initiative that has been going on for several months.   This has been a challenge for the group.  Like many in the industry they’re overwhelmed with daily urgency’s.   They need business results and they need

Do you remember as a small child being scared at night?   Your room became a night time horror chamber with a Boogie Man ready to jump out and get you!  That fear was completely imaginary but also totally real!   As a nation we’ve been running from the Boogie Man.  Everyone I meet has

Half of my job is coaching the other half is training.   Recently, I’ve been training a group of leaders in a national firm on Coaching Skills.  Most people think that learning how to coach is going to be easy.  What’s so hard,  the “Coach” is just having a conversation?  Then they try it.  Suddenly,

Eureka!  I finally found it!  What am I talking about?  Ideal client service.  Advisors work hard to achieve ideal client service model.  I’ve talked with with many financial advisors about this and I’m always impressed by their high commitment to clients.  Frequently, I coach them around increasing client satisfaction.  Usually during this discussion I ask the

This week I was talking to a female financial advisor who has been in the business for many years.  We’ve been talking about how she gets referrals.   I asked her to “notice” what she does that helps her get referrals.  Suddenly, she remembered a series of events that were a great source of referrals before

The Pew Research Center released a study on January 19, 2010 that reinforces the data on the advance of women economically.   Men reading this blog might be tempted to click out about now thinking: “Here she goes again, harping on the power of women”.  Wait, there’s an interesting twist for the guys in this

I just read an article by Bridget Brennan (author of Why She Buys a book on the woman consumer) where she talks about Apple being the most discreetly and successfully feminized company.    The article comments on the overwhelming influence women have on the purchase of electronics.  Here is the link in case you’re interested:

Women and men just don’t talk the same!  That goes for investors and for financial advisors.  Last blog entry I talked a bit about the difference between a Coach and a Consultant.  A Coach empowers you to succeed.   A Consultant tells you what to do.  There are places for both skills.  When you are

For many advisor clients my style of coaching is completely different than every other “Coach” they’ve encountered in the financial-services arena.  Many practice-management and productivity coaches do more consulting than coaching.  These consultants frequently roll-out a defined method for achieving  success and clients follow essentially the same program.   This can be very effective, especially for novice advisors who need the basics