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Executive Coaching Tips and Techniques No. 39

Employee beware

The Warning Signs of a Potentially Disastrous Career Move

I sometimes wish the people who recruit you, the agents who help you get that job and perhaps even the employers concerned would be honest with you and tell you exactly what it is you are getting yourself into. Is that new job you've just won all it's cracked up to be?

Of course the recruitment agents won't tell you how bad your new job is. The earn their daily bread by placing permanent and contract people, you're just a body that is being placed. Your feelings are immaterial. They will not tell you the truth. Even if they were legally bound to do so, they would not.

In my opinion, they have an ethical duty to tell you how bad where you're going is especially if they have written evidence of it from previous people who they have placed in that particular organisation.

It makes common sense that they would because after your contract's up you will probably not renew but it's done and they got three or six month's commission out of you, at your expense at the expenditure of your blood sweat and tears.

There is no legal compunction (as far as I know at least in the Australian jurisdiction) for the recruiters, the agents or the employer for that matter to tell you honestly what this job is like, what your co-workers are like and what your potential new boss is like.

If the job has punishing hours or difficult to erratic and hostile customers/clients, they won't tell you. If your co-workers are leaving in droves or going off on stress leave or simply a bunch of stressed out mediocrities they won't tell you.

Why is this latter point important, because they can't help you in their state, they can't even help themselves. Stress creates and entrenches mediocrity. If your potential new boss is a budding Hitler or drill sergeant-major who rules autocratically and orders people about (meaning you) for no good reason, then they are not bound to tell you.

As usually your potential boss will be the one recruiting, interviewing and hiring you, you can't expect them to be honest about their own shortcomings and inefficiencies.

There is no legal compulsion on an employer to tell a potential employee if the workplace is subject to high stress claims or stress leave or there is a high turnover of employees or they are having difficulty recruiting staff or generally keeping staff.

I presume this is confidential business information but in my view if it affects the health of potential employees it should be made known to them before they take up an appointment so they can make an informed choice.

As far as I know this is the not case in Australian jurisdictions but there are Occupational and Health and Safety (OH&S) regulations that deal with safe workplaces that may provide some guidance but this is outside the scope of this article.

Today's workplaces (I specifically mean corporate workplaces and the placement of professionals) are tough especially for those professionals that earn a heap of money (in excess of 150k per annum). So I shed no tears for someone who earns that much but this article is guidance for anyone about to make a big mistake.

Classic warning signs you may be going into a punishing workplace

A word of warning. The recruiter, recruitment agent and prospective interviewee will not tell you the workplace you are about to go has a problem or a health or stress issue. This will be for you to find you, hopefully not after it has broken you. As I have alluded to on this web site, the personal cost of recovering after the break is immense and takes years to get over.

Ask yourself why is there a vacancy in this position you're going for. What has been the recent turnover in these positions in this particular area? If three people suddenly quit in a section (under the one boss) and you're about to replace one of them, that is a warning sign that there is something definitely unhealthy about that environment.

I find it very curious that the city of Sydney has gone all health conscious with its pseudo healthy sandwich bars and wholemeal risotto bars yet its workplaces are places of sickness, stress and death. This is the workplaces that the people come from to eat the health giving risotto. My view is fix the work place and you don't need the risotto bars and yoga establishments as much.

Be especially careful where this is a position you applied for six months ago and you suddenly hear from them they want to interview you. What has probably happened is that they recruited someone six months and that person suddenly quit in disgust and your name was on file and you're next can off the rank. So beware of the call after 3 or 6 months.

You after all are probably leaving your current position because you're fed up, stressed, overworked and in danger of burning out. The question is why should you think the person you are potentially replacing is not feeling exactly the same way about the position you're about to fall into. It may not be the case but are you certain?

If the recruitment agent tells you good luck and it's certainly a demanding workplace where you're going (after you've signed up) then that is a warning but too late to help you really. As I have said above, they will not be telling that information before you signed up.

Ask the person who is handing over to you to tell you honestly why they're leaving and how they truly feel about this job, this environment and this boss. They are not legally bound to tell you anything or if they tell you anything to tell you the truth. They may be ethically bound not to tell you the truth.

As far as I know they are not legally barred from telling you how they truly and really feel about this workplace and why they are leaving. Get this information from them before they leave. This is your benchmark. If something goes wrong in the future in that workplace, you will be able to make a decision about whether the problem is you or the workplace. This will help you in the future.

If I was leaving a particular place I had been working for 10 years to move to a new company, I would engage an executive coach (with at least 30 years experience in the workplace with many employers) to cast an eye over your new job opportunity, over your new contract, over your new company before you sign up. It may be the best $200 you ever spent if it stops you from making a catastrophic error.

Note not all employers are the same, not all bosses are the same, not all workplaces are the same. Some are definitely better than others. After all I know you would accept that implicitly because after all why would you contemplate moving if you didn't anticipate an improvement over what you had now?

This is the way forward 1) Discuss your new role with an executive coach 2) Evaluate the opportunity and discuss the employer and the industry 3) Then you can make an informed choice 4) You can decide to go or stay 5) If you decide to go you are better informed and you can then sign with your new employer and resign from your old employment (in that order). if you are really smart, take 4 weeks leave from your old employer and try the new place if you don't like it, come back. You have gained valuable experience and an extra 4 weeks pay and no one the wiser. In fact I have known people to take six months long service leave from one employer and work with another for six months (not just to earn double pay) but to try another employer, another industry.

If you're about to jump ship into the unknown, let me as an executive coach with 30 years experience in the Australian workplace cast my critical eye over your new job opportunity or contract. It may be the best $200 you have ever spent.

About Gilbert Labour

Mr Labour is a writer, consultant, adviser, speaker and presenter on the following topics: life coaching, executive/corporate coaching, psychopathy and sociopathy in the workplace, project and program management, IT infra-structure management, Six Sigma, Lean techniques, process improvement and people management. He combines all these skills in a brilliant combination to provide modern enlightened companies with truly world class advice that will set them apart from the rest and create for them a sustainable competitive advantage.

He specialises in the following industries: legal and accountancy, telecommunications, transportation and aviation, banking and finance, insurance, government, IT and outsourcing but believes that his experience in these verticals is applicable across industries, countries and businesses generally.

When consumers are watching every dollar spend, when they are finally heeding the warning of the danger of easy credit, when they are beginning to save more than they spend, when they finally become aware of the purchasing power of their disposal dollar, what will companies do that have been used to the easy and free spend of their dollar? What happens when this suddenly dries up?

For example Mr Labour is an expert in the aviation industry in the process improvement area. He confidently predicts that aviation will be revolutionised when the airfare to the UK return is A$1000. At that time (May 2007) if aviation companies have not spent the previous two years (now to May 2007) leaning their processes, they will be in a perilous situation especially if the price of oil is also at US $100 a barrel or more.

Every single industry he specialises in (telcos, retail banking, insurance) faces similar challenges and Mr Labour is well placed to provide similar insights for competitive advantage.

He has been extensively involved in process improvement initiatives within project organisations and in production and maintenance environments within a number of industries. He has delivered process improvement programs that provide bottom line improvement.

He owns and runs one of the world's most comprehensive web resources on the topic of life and executive coaching containing approximately 140 articles on life and executive coaching. He has been quoted in learned papers, newspaper and magazine articles. He has written a book on life coaching, Life Coaching for DODOs, which provides an introduction to life coaching for the general public.

He is an IBM accredited Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and provides software and support for coaches and coaching applications.

He is also a pioneer in the field of coaching and project management having presented a world's first on this topic in South Africa in May, 04. His paper entitled Sane Project Management, a Life and Executive Coaching Approach has created both a new field in project management and a new area of interest for coaching and coaches and one they may benefit from in the future.

For PMISA 2006 he is preparing a paper entitled Project Management and Executive Coaching - A Synergy? which will be continuing an exploration of the connection between coaching and project management that he first developed and presented in PMISA 2004. The purpose of the paper will be to take from project management principles that are applicable in coaching situations and to take from executive coaching, principles that are equally applicable in project management situations especially those that deal with project manager performance.

Mr Labour acknowledges that in today's highly competitive and rapidly changing business environment, a busy consultant, life coach or executive coach must evince a compelling value proposition, as much for himself as for his product and/or service.

He is able to bring a brilliant mix of both quantitative and qualitative approaches, embracing Six Sigma, Lean, project management, executive coaching, operational and line management, to bear on difficult even intractable business problems in any areas where they may exist.

He is an executive coach with 30 years corporate experience and is still a relatively young 47 having commenced his first junior role in government at age 17 but it is only in the last three to five years that he has begun to make large strides in the executive coaching field.

He has a refreshing perspective on life and business in the corporate world. He is able to engage with any company in the world, within his industry expertise and beyond, and provide an assessment of the issues and problems that management suspects exists. He can do this on a pro-active basis and confidentially.

On a more reactive basis, he can come in to manage any number of previously identified issues and problems that are now running hot within the company.

In either case, he is able to conduct an absolutely confidential review and make recommendations based only on selected documentation and telephone interviews with key people, if the highest degree of confidentiality and secrecy is required.

He is also able to execute or be involved in the execution of these recommendations should that be required. He has previously managed large programs of work involving major restructuring, outsourcing and retrenchments.

He forecasts a greater demand for people with his combined skills in the future especially where established, staid inefficient industries and companies face head-on competition from the full blown tiger economies of China and India with their vast unlimited supply of cheap, educated and trained manpower.

Mr Labour will be holding a world's first life coaching retreat in Mauritius in November, 06. This will be a gathering of coaches and their clients from around the world in the first gathering of its type. Its purpose will be for coaches to network with other coaches and for clients to share their general coaching experience with other clients and coaches. All in the world's most beautiful holiday destination. Further details will be made available as they are finalised. This conference as yet untitled will be hosted by the Life Coaching Association of Australia (LCAA).

Executive Coaching Tips and Techniques No. 9

Process Improvement (PI)

The management consultants can show the way but it is the people on the ground who relish and welcome change who have to create the change it and there are too few of these already

An organisation with say 20-25 brilliant middle managers who are exceptional change agents can do well in the new world of 2010

Nothing causes more argument and angst in an organisation than this subject. It is perceived (perhaps rightly) as a distraction from the day to day business of the business and beside the purpose for the existence of the business. Wrong. PI is the business or one day soon there will be no business. People don't want to do it and those that do hate it mostly.

In an organisation there are the EXECs (and senior managers) who champion and sponsor the change they want change but won't do the bottom up changes required to make it happen but they will take the credit and the reward when (if) it does. There are the middle managers where the ranks of the change agents need to come from but there are vast vested interests at work putting a brake on change at that level, the people who are middle managers and making change happen are too few. Finally there are your day workers, your drones they have absolutely no interest in making any change happen so there is no point in looking in their ranks for the change agents. Working in these constipated spaces are the management consultants, the laxative of the corporate world. They work at the EXEC level putting in place the program and the governance for change but they cannot make the change happen which must come from the too few middle managers who are the only ones who can make change happen by changing things on the shop floor. An organisation with say 20-25 brilliant middle managers who are change agents can do well in the new world of 2010.

Executive Coaching contributes to and makes possible PI and PI improves the P&L, cost centre bottom line and operational KPIs. That's it sweet and simple. There is no other truer connection in the corporate world. But the problem is that the real world needs to change (operationally) for the numbers to work. For example if you reduce your household spending budget by 10% you need to cut your consumption and costs by 10% meaning less soft drink or restaurant meals.

Process improvement must connect with and be directed by (and directs) the P&L. There is no other way to ensure PI sticks. It is not enough to improve processes and systems in a vacuum. This vacuum must be filled by the financial aspects of each process improvement effort. Having said that, a PI effort cannot be directed by a management or cost accountant at heart. They have no imagination, no vision, no innovation in their bones. They are as dry as dessicated coconuts. For PI you need creative and innovative geniuses in the work context. These are few and far between.

It must be directed by a PI professional trained in the Six Sigma methodology. Why? Because at the heart of process improvement is the reduction of defects to an infinitesimal figure and removing waste within the process which is underlying to and underneath the financials associated with the process. The process is fuelled by finance but it is the people involved at the technical, operational and project management level of the process that can change it.

Can it rightly be said that after PI the same business exists as it did before? No I would say, what now exists is probably a more efficient organisation needing new management and senior staff. The former managers and senior staff simply won't cut it in the new organisation. That much is crystal clear. They will oversee the carnage but will not be there to pick up the 'pieces'. A new management team needs to be brought in, fresh and without the scars of the cuts made to the former organisation and the associated residual pain and ill feeling that lingers after any major re-structure.

PI will cause fear (of the unknown) and pain (when the unknown becomes known) and it affects someone deeply on a personal level.

About Gilbert Labour. Mr Labour is founding President of the Life Coaching Association of Australia (LCAA). In pursuit of his worldwide life and executive coaching activities he is hosting an Executive Coaching Retreat (ECR) and Workshop in Mauritius in June, 05. This has not been affected by the recent events in South-East Asia.

Life Coaching Tips and Techniques No. 10

Obesity and the roller coaster ride from nadir to zenith and back

There are five journeys in obesity, which one are you on now?

Why are there obese people when there are people starving in the world? Is obesity a medical problem rather than one of lack of self-control or perhaps even one using food for sexual/sensual gratification for masking (?) the real problems? How successful is someone who is 250 kilos at 'masking' or hiding the problem?

The five journeys is obesity are -
Getting there becoming obese, this is the easiest journey of all and happens almost without you knowing. This journey is on the road to death.

Staying there at a steady weight, this is a hard journey because the tendency is to put on more weight not less. This journey is a slow death.

The next journey is one into hell and that is on the road to putting on more and more weight. This is the last journey these people even embark on. This journey ends in death.

The penultimate journey and the one with the most difficulty starting is the road back away from obesity. The enormous journey back is not the problem but the first step back, the first gram lost. This journey is not a journey of weight loss but a journey to lose the fears and problems that the weight gain had temporarily put on the back burner. This second last journey is the life coaching journey and has much less to do with weight loss, exercise and fitness and more to do with facing problems in their real intensity and fury perhaps for the first time since the decision taken to embark on the first journey.

The last journey and that is to keep the weight at the target weight after the massive task of weight loss because again the tendency is to put the weight back on even faster than before and much much faster than it was lost. For every gram lost a kilo is put on.

Work with a life coach who understands your weight problem is not a weight problem but a personal problem posing, impersonating a weight problem. Someone who knows which journey you are on and can make sure you either move to the next healthy journey or stay at the healthy journey you're on.

New Life Coaching Service Model - All Inclusive Platinum Service

Product Features

One new low totally all inclusive monthly fee ($400 AUS) - currently this is $500 AUS. Saving $100 AUS per month.

No contracts whatsoever, pay as you go month by month. Start when you want, stop when you want. No questions asked.

No need to furnish more than your first name. No notes taken during any sessions and no personal identifying details asked for, required or noted down.

Coaching can take place exclusively by phone and/or internet but it is preferred that an initial one on one session take place but this is not essential.

All inclusive, no exclusions, all services available (as per below).

Paid once a month at the beginning of the month (non refundable if cancelled during month).

Entitled to the full range of services (one on one, SMS, Mobile, Phone, ICQ, MSN Messenger, MS Netmeeting) on an as required basis. But does not include CD and video conferencing products.

Use as much of the service as you require but please note as coaching is a relationship which requires and places responsibility on you to complete agreed upon tasks, there will be regular scheduled feedback and catchup sessions. These are usually by phone or ICQ.

Clearly articulated and set goals such as embarking on a new career, changing careers, developing new small business, creating small business growth, preparation for retirement, developing additional income in/for retirement.

These services include small business development coaching, product development and promotion, and press release preparation.

Payment and services commences in the calendar month of first payment and lasts till the end of the next month, then regular monthy payments commence on the 1st of each month thereafter (for example) ---

Paid 1 month on 15th of July - $400
Payment due on 1st August - Nil
Payment due on 1st September - $400
Payment and services terminates at the end of the calendar month of the last payment as follows (for example) ---

Payment made on 1st October - $400
Decision to cancel made 4th October and notice to do so received on that day or any day within the month
No refund policy but services available until 31st October if required
No further payments then required due to cancellation
The Platinum Life Coaching Product is now the only life coaching product available aside from tailored programs and the featured programs.

50% Discount for bona fide students. The fee for students is $200 per month.

You will receive an exceptional level of service and care from one of the best life coaches practicing today.

Coaching Programs

555 Program

The 555 Program is complementary to the 333 Program and is part of a family of programs called The Numbered Series, a simplification of a plethora of products, services and programs into a number of specifically targeted set of programs that target a very specific audience with a limited amount of time and resources to devote to a life and executive coaching program. The programs covers a set of goals over a set period for a specific (one time only) fee.

The key goals of the 555 Program is to be able to run 5k in 5 months, to solve 5 life coaching issues or problems in 5 months and to investigate and resolve 5 executive coaching problems in 5 months.

Life Coaching Portal Programs

Beyond the existing Diamond program being run on the portal, a series of additional programs are being developed to be run for specific audiences and which have very clear targets and goals. These include the following.
The 555 Program

Gilbert Labour, will personally run this program. It will probably take in the region of 10 suitable people and run for 5 months. The program is multi-faceted and covers three main streams a fitness stream, a life coaching stream dealing with personal issues and an executive stream to supercharge your work, business and corporate environment.

The first stream is a fitness element. The goal is to be able to run 5k (non stop) in five months and be able to lose 5 kilos in the process. This is a modest achievement and is considered a healthy approach to fitness generally. I am a former fitness instructor and dance teacher and can provide guidance in this area. You will need a clearance from your doctor if you're over 45.

The second stream is a life coaching element. The goal of the life coaching is to investigate a number of current personal issues and focus on 5 for resolution in 5 months. One to be resolved or at least worked on each month.

The third stream is an executive coaching element. The goal of this element is to come up with five goals or issues to be dealt with in the 5 months of the program. These could involve working towards a promotion, changing jobs, changing careers, leaving the corporate environment and developing a small business. For the hard core executives and other corporate thrivers and survivors there will be a number of areas that include executive interview training and executive decision making that can be covered. There are many others and these can be chosen based on your current goals. The aim of this stream is canvass all the possibilities and focus on only 5 and work through each one.

The cost of the program varies. To take part on a one-on-one basis with Gilbert Labour will cost $5000. To take part in a group setting will cost $2000. Individual programs can start at anytime considered suitable.

To provide this program on a company wide basis (more than 10 people), please call Gilbert Labour for a quote.

Please call Gilbert Labour on 0409 223 436 if you would like to take part. Further information on the 555 Program is available from the portal.

General Information

I also do a small amount of pro-bono work in the area of life coaching. I belong to the Life Coaching Pro Bono Group (LCPBG), a group of life coaches I am putting together to do this type of work for people in need but who may not be able to afford the services of a full fee life coach. We make allowances for your circumstances and also on the understanding that once you're back on your feet, your capacity to contribute to your life coaching will also improve.

Generally speaking, we will set clear goals, we will put in place plans to attain those goals, we will execute the plan effectively. We will monitor and survey the results and ensure our goals are met. In most cases, we will envelope what we are trying to achieve into a coaching programme.

I operate flexibly taking into account the needs of the client as we progress with the programme.

Please call me on my mobile (0409 223 436) for a confidential discussion to begin the journey of self discovery.
You may prefer to email me your situation and your desired goals. Your details will be kept strictly confidential.

If you would like to quickly let us know your Life Coaching needs, you can use this form.

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