Enhancing Business Performance with Alex Har

Dominate, Win and Prosper In today’s business Environments My Coaching Programs maybe useful to you …as you make the required changes, seek new opportunities, reorganize…. reduce risks and gain more revenues and market share. - Alex Har

Contents Pg 26 Conclusion Pg 25 Your Next Steps Pg 24 Unique advantages of Alex Har’s Coaching Program Pg 18 The Coaching Process Pg 16 Comprehensive list of Coaching Services Pg 10 Coaching Case Histories Pg 9 10 Essential Principles of Coaching Pg 7 Some Common Misconception about Coaching Pg 5 Potential Benefits of Business Performance Coaching Pg 4 About Performance Coaching Pg 3 Introduction

Introduction Hi, Do allow me to introduce myself. I have had more than 30 years of experience in Marketing Management…. at a senior corporate level as the regional marketing director of Asia; as a direct marketing profit center manager, as sales channel manager, as a sales trainer , as a commissioned sales person and as a business owner. I graduated in Business Administration from the University of Singapore and is a Fellow of the Life Management Office of the United States with a specialization in Administrative Management. In my role as a corporate regional marketing executive, I spearheaded the implementation of direct marketing strategies in various Asian countries, a task which involved constant coaching of direct marketing executives and country managers to reinforce their confidence in this new strategy, improve their skills and guide them towards success. I left my corporate career in 1997 to become a marketing performance coach and consultant with the mission to assist businesses exploit the power of direct marketing, cope with its inevitable trends and to adapt themselves to harness the rapidly growing mix of new and digital medium resulting from the explosion of the internet. Since 2007, I have been primarily involved in performance coaching rather than consulting. Over the last 5 years, many businesses have responded to the call for change. They have created new products, ventured into new markets, acquired new systems, but are yet to achieve optimal results with them. In fact many are still struggling with the change. In this environment, I believe coaching will creative better and more optimal results than further consulting intervention.

About Performance Coaching

Top golfers and sportsmen in the world always have a coach or a coaching team to assist them with their performance. Coaches help these high performing individuals to constantly bring out the best in themselves, to learn new techniques, skills and habits which are brought about by new understanding about how the human body works, new equipment, new conditions on the playing field, new competitors etc. The game is constantly changing… it is even more dynamic in the business environment

Business performance improvements invariably involves

Identifying and clarifying the need for change

Conceptualizing and creating the new system.

Testing and confirming the new system

Implementation of the new system

Reinforcing Skill, Knowledge and Attitudes that are essential for the new system to operate optimally

Enhancing and fine tuning the system through continuous improvements.

Coaching skills are vital in the phases 1, 2 5 and 6 identified above.

Coaching involves working with key individuals whose performance has significant impact on the attainment of a business objective.

It is always conducted on a confidential. one to one basis with a well defined and agreed upon coachee-client protocol and coachee-client agreement

Potential Benefits of Business Performance Coaching All businesses are under cost pressure to reduce head counts and to have as flat an organization as they possibly can. In doing so, gaps between senior and junior levels and between departments widens, often creating lapses. Performance deficiencies of individual employees are often brushed over and in the extreme circumstances they are replaced . New Hires often create new problems. Trust, understanding and rapport which is essential for meeting the demands for excellence, flexibility and change in the current fast pace environment is often destroyed, and its development hampered. Many organizations have reverted back to a top down autocracy which maims the spirit of effective team work and motivation through aspirations. Training budget may also be reduced and even if it is not, executive are hard pressed to find time to attend courses which may take them away from their work for a day or two. Working life especially in executive positions is stressful and hectic. People rush around to achieve their own objectives without realizing, or only analyzing superficially how they are affecting others or the business itself.

A Coaching and Mentoring programs is a cost effective way to energize the company towards higher performance despite of all these problems

A Coach is an outsider can have a more objective view of the business. Together with his broad business experience and coaching skills, he can :

Be a glue for the organization. Assist busy CEOs and Managing Directors who are constantly flying across the world in facilitating communication dialogue, maintaining and enhancing the organization’s positive climate, learning capacity and its essential soul.

Be a friend to individual employees, coaching and mentoring them overcome their personal weaknesses and anxieties.

Lead or help oversee major improvement projects undertaken by the company.

Coaches are not salaried employees. They do not add to the headcount, or occupy office space.

They work effectively for the hours for which they are engaged and towards the objective they were hired for, and may truly be a cost-effective asset for the company that engages them.

Some common misconceptions about Coaching There are some common misconceptions about coaching that often negatively impact the selection of coaches and the ultimate coaching relationship. 1. The Coach is a Expert in the Domain they are Coaching . Coaches are trained or have through experienced acquired the expertise to work with people, understand them and to assist them bring about sustained behavioral change that would benefit themselves, the organization they work for and the people they relate to. They do not need understand what they coachees go through but do not need to be experts themselves, except in coaching. None of the coaches of world class sportsmen like Tiger Woods, Roger Federal can play the game as well as their coachees, but they know how to work with their coachees to develop the requisites , and performance measures to become more successful in their game, to motivate and guide them towards acquiring these requisites. Coaches play a different role from “instructors” that a novice in a game or a skill may engage. A Golf instructor would be able to demonstrate to the learner how to execute a proper golf swing. Few golfers in the world can show Tiger Woods how to do this…but a good coach would have the ability to observe situations when he performs well and otherwise and analyze together with him the probable factors that may affects his game, help him construct and effectively test hypothesis for improvements without damaging his current performance.

2. Coaches Help to Solve Problems . Coaching is not primarily about solving the problems and correcting weaknesses that coachees may have. Coaching emphasizes empowerment, strengths and achievement and how the coachees can use these effectively to grow and develop. In a situation where immediate problems or lack of certain skills may unduly distract a coachee or otherwise waylay him from greater excellence, it is necessary as part of the coaching routine to assist with the removal of these impediments. Where necessary other experts may be brought in to assist with these areas. The overall coaching program cover other aspects of performance improvement than the that are far more powerful than the removal of these impediments. 3. Coaches have all kinds of Degrees and Training . Coaches do not need qualifications any more than other business managers. In fact there are no officially recognized international bodies for accrediting coaches. Coaching does often involved the use of personality, behavioral and organizational assessment Tools developed by psychologists and organization experts that have gained wide acceptance, e.g. the Myers Brigg Type Inventory (MBTI) , The Enneagram or the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Organization-Behavior.(FIRO-B) Some coaches are accredited assessors of these instruments. Coaches may have also undergone training to become qualified practitioners in areas such as neurolinguistic (NLP)programming that may enhance their people and interaction skills. These skills are certainly useful for coaches but the accreditation in these areas does not suggest that the coach is an Accredited Coach.

My 10 Essential Principles Of Coaching

Clarity – giving and receiving accurate communications

Supportiveness – a commitment to stand with and behind the coachees

Confidence Building – a personal commitment to build and sustain the self image of coachees

Mutuality – a partnership orientation where all stakeholders win.

Perspective – A total focus on the entire business enterprise and the coachee as a whole person

Risk – the encouragement of innovation and effort that reduces punishment for mistakes and fosters learning by doing

Patience – going beyond the short term business focus to a view of time and performance that balances long tem gains and business and personal imperatives

Involvement – a genuine interest in learning about the coachees in order to know what drives and inspires them

Confidentiality – an ability to protect the information of all coaching interactions and to create with coachees a sense of trust and confidence.

Respect – an ability and dedication to show respect to coachees and to win the respect of all stakeholders.

Over the years as an in-house and external coach and mentor to countless number of executive in both middle and senior positions, I have through my experiences, those shared by other coaches, and through attending of coaching skill programs acquired the necessary professional skills required to attain coaching objectives. While professional skills are important, I believe that my dedication to these 10 basic principles have contributed significantly to my success in coaching:

Some Examples from Past Coaching Assignments Case1 – Family Business save cost, develop daughter to become financial controller A used car dealer in order to save money and to create a meaningful career for his daughter in his company thought of replacing her for the existing financial controller who has been showing a rather laggard performance. He had apprehensions that the daughter was too young to manage the car salesmen, and may not have the necessary accounting knowledge . I was asked to assist him in evaluating the situation. A quick assessment of the accounting tasks revealed that they were mostly simple repetitive functions which should not be a problem for the daughter to handle. In case of queries, they had access to the auditors for assistance. A 360 degree survey on the daughter who was then working as an administrative assistant showed that other staff were fairly supportive of her despite some identified weaknesses. The recommendation was to proceed with the replacement of the existing financial controller, and to have I coached the daughter over a period of 6 months to reinforce her understanding of basic accounting principles and practices and to improve her skill in interpersonal relations and in problem solving. Today the car dealer himself is a semi-retirement showing up at the office only once or twice a week. The daughter has matured from the role of being the financial controller to take over the leadership role from the dad.

Case 2 – Reducing overhead cost through implementing Flexible Wage Plans An industrial supply company whose main customers were in the IT and electronic industry constantly experienced demand fluctuations and desired to lower its fixed overheads through implementing a flexible wage plan. They sought my guidance on this matter. A review of current employee and compensation practices revealed that the business owner’s had several his family members working in the organization; they did not have any formal performance appraisal system; other than the appointment letters which describe the job briefly there were no job descriptions; while there was a fair of amount of acrimony and blame whenever problems or failures occurred, the employees worked in a rather family-like climate , gripping but compensating each other for their failures. Recommendations…. An organization coaching program, following the concepts of the balanced scorecard, was initiated to assist every employee understand how their role in the company affect their other colleagues and the overall company performance.

2 . Group sessions and one to one to one meeting were organized for employees to discuss their expectations of each other role and to agree on the work performance measures for each task. 3. A formal performance appraisal system embedding these measures was introduced for the acceptance by the group. There was unanimous agreement over both the content and procedure of the system. 4. Reducing fixed wage cost was more challenging. A formula was developed whereby employees could accept a pay reduction and the reduced amount is treated as a investment into a “common bonus pool” …with payout schemes based on company performance and based on personal performance. The business owner and his direct assistant who was relative earned the largest salaries in the company . They agreed to reduce their salaries by 20% and to start up into a “common bonus pool”. Others were encouraged to reduce their pay but only by 10%. It was not compulsory for employees to offer to reduce their salaries. Those that do will receive a leverage payout of year end bonuses. 90% of the employee opted to reduce their salaries. The years following the scheme introduction were tough years in which the company made little or profits. However the savings in overheads assisted it to become more competitive and to stay afloat. Since then business have improved. An accumulation of employees earning over the past six years since the scheme was introduced show that increments they received were higher than in the preceding 6 years in spite of the more challenging business conditions.

Case 3 - Building Direct Marketing and Bancassurance capability in an Insurance Company. XYZ Insurance company is a late mover in direct marketing and bancassurance strategies. They have a well established Group Insurance Department that has been providing various types of group products to banks, such as credit life insurance, group term life to bank customers, or bank employee benefits etc. They have stalled when it comes to direct marketing, as they have always perceived direct marketing as requiring a heavy and risky upfront investment in marketing expenses. In view of the growing bancassurance market and the changing patterns of competition, the company has asked me to review their current stance which appears to be limiting their growth in this sector. A survey among the stakeholders revealed that marketing department employees that were responsible for promoting this line of business were not enthusiastic about pushing it as they were not sure what was preferred by management. There were many cases in the past where they worked with contacts at banks to interest them a partnership only to have the initiative stymied due to one or other senior manager’s disapproval. This has led to some embarrassment for them when facing their customers. My reviews suggested that due to senior management and shareholder conservative attitudes toward marketing risks, it was not possible for the company to become a leader in this field , but it could still increase its share of this business substantially and quite comfortably.

As part of the consulting intervention program, a steering committee was established with several senior managers with the objectives to setting up a ROI profit to assess different types of probable bank assurance projects which involved different direct marketing components. Marketing people key in the system program parameters of the campaigns they wish to propose to get an idea of the projected ROIs that may be achieved. Benchmarks were developed for acceptable ROIs under different situations. This provided marketing staff with more clarity when pursuing opportunities. As the model is not deterministic, I coached marketing staff and senior managers for a period of 12 months to ensure that the system obtained stakeholder confidence and trust. Over the next two years insurance premiums from direct marketing and Bancassurance triple despite the fairly conservative criteria embedded in the model .

Case 4 - Mentoring a one man trading operation. AZ has recently established his trading business having just left a company environment . Business prospect looked good as several of his previous clients had committed to support him in his new venture. However away from a company environment, AZ felt uncomfortable wherever he became uncertain of any issues…he did not have people to talk to clarify his own thoughts and to provide him a second opinion. He found in me a support to replace what he had lost in his company environment. The critical recommendation for him was to harness the power of internet facilities for banking, marketing promotions and customer service support. Routine functions like accounting and invoicing were outsourced. We meet regularly to discuss business and growth issues, sales and customer support issues…and of late more tactical issues for meeting the challenges to credit management and foreign exchange in the current economic crisis.

Comprehensive List of Coaching Services

For Individuals….

Coaching for skills

Coaching for performance

Coaching for development

Coaching for the executive’s agenda… individual goals vs organization change, etc.

For Business Enterprises

Organizational restructuring

Establishing coaching culture, e.g. managing a pilot coaching program

Strategic planning

Performance management systems and appraisals

Developing change initiatives

Establishing approaches to deal with resistance to change

Business rejuvenation and growth

Succession planning

Identifying critical issues

Improving the work climate and morale of groups

Working with individual and groups in transition

For Small Business/ Entrepreneur

Establishing business and marketing plans

Sales coaching

Clarifying the future direction of the business

Prioritizing goals and developing strategies to achieve these within a nominated time frame

Working with difficult employees

Encouraging, developing and retaining top employees

Dealing with conflicts – with staff and with customers

Enhance customer satisfaction

Networking

Identifying new target markets

Negotiating skills – with internal staff, external clients and customers

Streamlining business processes and systems

Time management

Balancing work, life issues

Working with the dynamics of family owned business

For Personal Life Skills

Clarifying vision and life purpose

Establishing life goals –both short- and long term

Enhancing health

Developing self-awareness and insight which can be fostered through creativity, journaling, reading and cultural pursuits

Clarifying career choices

Working with the coachee to foster curiosity, insight and self regulation techniques that contribute to emotional growth and more satisfying intrapersonal and interpersonal experience

Clarifying the coaches spiritual belief and values

Increasing the amount and quality of leisure activities

Enjoying a fulfilling and meaningful retirement

The Coaching Process The key objective in this process is to gain “Rapport, Trust and Collaboration” with the coachee and the other key stakeholders of coaching assignments, Alex Har has developed a effective coaching process, which facilitates coaching effectiveness while recognizing that each individual coaching assignment is different and unique. Phase One Establishing the Partnership Meeting with Management Proposal and Contract First Contact with Coachee First Coaching Session Second Coaching Session Report to Management

Phase Two

Action Planning

Establish values, vision and goals

Develop Action Strategies

Rapport Trust Collaboration

Phase 4

Evaluation and Perpetuation

Evaluation

Final Session –Closure

Preventing Slippage

Followup- Plans

Phase 3

The Coaching Cycle

Review

Reassess

Feedback

The Proposal for Service

Background . Circumstances that led to the proposal, e.g who made the initial contact, Who was present?

Identified Needs. If the proposal is for coaching program that will involve large section of the organization, we will briefly outline the coaching needs of the entire organization as established through the coaching needs analysis and discussion with management. If involves teams and individuals , we will identify them focus on their needs.

The Coaching Program – Objectives and Outcomes

Costs . Estimate the costs of the coaching program. Nominate the terms of payment

Commencement date and period of service

The Coach-Client Protocol

About the Coach

List of the major benefits of coaching in general and the specific benefits of your particular coaching services

What the initial meetings will involve ( discussion of the coaching agreement, and explanation of how the coaching sessions will work)

What subsequent coaching session will involve (e.g an assessments/structured interviews and profiling designed to highlight those features of the individual’s personal and operational mastery skills

Logistics of the coaching session. How long each session How many session Are there assignments/homework

Rule of confidentiality

Reports that will be submitted about coached

The Coaching Agreement

Between …………………………………………………………………………

(Coachee)

and ……………………………………………………………………………….

(Coach)

In understanding to meet with you I am committing myself to meeting at the time(s) we have agreed upon and providing a safe setting within which we can explore issues and difficulties and move towards change. I will endeavor to facilitate you in this process.

In undertaking to see me for coaching you are committing yourself to

Seeing me regularly at the agreed time and optimizing the use of the time we have together.

Being honest and objective as best as you can and

Grow in excellence and make increasingly worthwhile contributions by providing value added work to your team.

To be coachable, you understand you must ensure that:

Your intent to change and desire to change are serious

You are ready to work and receive feedbacks

You are willing to try new ways of learning and be truthful, keep to your commitments and inform your coach immediately when things are not working for you.

You are willing to explore, challenge and change thoughts, feelings and actions that you recognize are self-defeating.

You understand that your coach will be focused on you and your best interests, not just your goals

You understand that your coach will educate, support and encourage you while you do the work and reap the benefits of you efforts.

You are willing to give the coach the benefit of the doubt and try new concepts or different ways of doing things

You recognize the value and worth the organization is placing on you by investing in your personal development.

Confidentiality

The coaching service is confidential except in the following circumstances:

The progress of these sessions may be discussed with senior management

If you give me the information for the purpose of discussion with others

Cancellations

If you wish to change the time of a session please let us know well in advance. If you do not arrive on time and have not cancelled by the beginning of the session, I will assume that you are coming. If you miss the session without notification, you or your organization will still be charged for the session.

Duration and termination

Once I have agree to see you my commitment is open-ended. I will see you for as long as we agree coaching is useful. You may of course finish seeing me at any time, I ask that you give me a minimum of two week’s notice of your decision to stop. This will allow us to achieve a proper closure.

Records

Any written notes are securely kept and are confidential

Signatures: Date:

Coaching Tools and Techniques “ Dialoguing” is the main tool used in Alex Har’s Coaching intervention. Dialoging comes from the Greek word “Dialogos” which means the effective flow of meaning between two people. Other Assessment Tools…. diagnostic interviews; problem analysis and brainstorming ; awareness quizzes, puzzles and games will be used to augment the basic dialogue Through Dialoguing, the coaching program will in Perpetuate new behavior Prevent slippage and relapse Establish mechanism for continuous improvement Stage 5 Create Action Plans Establishing performance benchmarks Develop feedback and monitoring procedures Stage 4 Facilitates Goal setting Review obstacles Seek Solutions Stage 3 Explore coaching needs Surface values and visions Reveal Feeling and Emotions Creating understanding and appreciation of beliefs Challenge and reframe beliefs Explore possibilities and opportunities Stage 2 Stimulate discussion, Establish Relaxation and Trust, Build Rapport Stage 1

Unique Advantages of Alex Har’s Coaching Program

I stand by my commitment to create results by charging a small upfront fixed fee (30% of agreed Time Costs) and periodic performance based fee (70% of time cost)

Coaching contracts may be terminated anytime by the client without obligation with 14 days notice

In addition to the agreed upon periodic face to face coaching interaction, every coaching program will be augmented with an online interactive learning program .

I have successfully coached and mentored a large number of successful sales people, entrepreneurs and business executives throughout my 30 year working career

Your Next Steps