Building Strategic Alliances

Are you building strategic alliances and business alignments? Strategic alliances are formed with others who share the same target audience or clients as you do, but whose company or service doesn’t overlap with yours. Strategic alliances are usually your best referral partners and, in many cases, you’ll have many different ones. For example, if you’re an Accountant you may want to form strategic alliances with an attorney, financial advisor, insurance broker, bookkeeper, small business banker, business coach, etc. Do you take time to form strategic alliances in your business? I recommend taking time out on a regular basis to identify potential strategic alliances. These alliances need to be discussed and agreed upon for mutual benefit. Business alliances are more formal relationships and can be with a direct competition to reduce cost for your customers and revenue share for both companies. Business alliances are usually held by a formal agreement that lays out the terms.

List ten potential strategic partners below. Include their profession and their name. If you don’t have a name for each profession, now you’ll know who to look for at your next networking event. This week at our Summer Business Coaching Institute we will be focusing on developing strategic alliances and business alliances.

To Your Wellness

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Joyce Odidison is a Conflict Analyst, Strategist, Interpersonal Wellness Expert and Executive Coach who works with entrepreneurs, mid-career professionals, executives and organizations to address challenges and conflicts, to maximize time, resources, energy and results, so they maintain life balance and wellness. She is also Director of the only ICF approved training program for Coaches and Wellness Facilitators in Manitoba. You can learn about the IWS Network of Coaches and Facilitators by clicking the link below.

Seeing Opportunities

Are you able to see the opportunities open to you? Often we find ourselves viewing our lives in compartments, through a silo mentality, failing to see the broader connection and the systemic nature of our lives. This makes us blind to opportunities that sometimes are right under our noses. There are many opportunities for us to do more of what we are doing, earn more or connect with others who can support us, however when we see life as a competition and view ourselves as lacking, we fail to see those opportunities. Instead we become bent on self preservation and wrestling with others or even looking at creating obstacles and placing them in other people’s way so we can become better than them. This false mentality of progress limits our growth and keeps us small and makes us less impactful.

I had a client who saw what someone else was doing and followed everything this other person was doing. It came to a point where in her attempt to copy she became too greedy and did something to sabotage the other person. This caused quite a kerfuffle. It turned out that this client felt inadequate and thought the only way she could move ahead is to copy what others had done. There is nothing wrong with copying others to a point. What’s important is to weigh this against your values and personal style. It may be that what the other person is doing is a natural fit for them and though it looks easy and works great for them, it may not be a good idea for you. It is important that you do the things that reflect who you are and work with others in a complementary way. There is strength in numbers.

This week in our summer business coaching institute we are discussing the opportunities that come from strategic alliances and business alignments. This is where you begin looking at what you do and what others are doing and how you may complement or form an alliance. This is a step that needs to be done with care and consideration to not make you vulnerable to the wrong person. It will require some good relationship building skills and some research and inquiry. Not all business owners are open to growing that way and will be open to a strategic alliance. Take yourself and your game to the next level and begin creating strategic alliances and business alignments to grow your business. There are many opportunities out there waiting for you to see and act on.

To Your Wellness

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Joyce Odidison is a Conflict Analyst, Strategist, Interpersonal Wellness Expert and Executive Coach who works with entrepreneurs, mid-career professionals, executives and their organizations to address challenges and conflicts, to maximize time, resources, energy and results, so they maintain life balance and wellness. She is also Director of the only ICF approved training program for Coaches and Wellness Facilitators in Manitoba. You can learn about the IWS Network of Coaches and Facilitators by clicking the link below.

Facing Fears

Are you facing your greatest fear in your business or life right now? What are you scared of? Is it a real fear or a false fear? A coach will help you examine your fears to ensure they are real. Your coach will also support you in address real fears by looking at the possibilities. Too often we waste time holding unto false fears and they limit us and keeps us from growing to our full potential.

Staying in fear keeps us small and stagnant, unable to move forward or take steps towards positive action and growth. Working with a coach allows you to acknowledge the fear if it’s real, by creating a structure to limit potential harm and put contingencies in place to mitigate loss to yourself and your business. If the fear is unreal the coach helps you identify false evidences that support this false fear and works with you to reframe your perspectives to limit false fears.

If you are facing down your worst fears this week, speak to a coach and get support to move beyond this limiting fear. Don’t forget it’s all in the way you see things.

To your wellness

Joyce

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Joyce Odidison is a Conflict Analyst, Strategist, Interpersonal Wellness Expert and Executive Coach who works with entrepreneurs, mid-career professionals, executives and their organizations to address challenges and conflicts, to maximize time, resources, energy and results, so they maintain life balance and wellness. She is also Director of the only ICF approved training program for Coaches and Wellness Facilitators in Manitoba. You can learn about the IWS Network of Coaches and Facilitators by clicking the link below.

Praying for Wellness

Praying is one strategy we can use to align with our clients for success. Some time ago I posted on praying for the workforce on my blog. This topic is curious and comes up again in my work with clients when using the Interpersonal Wellness Quotient (IWQ™). Prayer is a vital energy force that we can tap into to align our energy with our clients’ to do better and bigger things in their lives. Interpersonal Wellness System theory reminds us that we are interconnected by social vibrations and when we pray for our clients (or with our clients should it be appropriate and they are open) it is one way to align our energy to theirs and tap into immense power they would not otherwise have experienced. This came up recently working with a client who was really struggling. He inherited two high need children in a new relationship and he did not want children. This inner conflict is crushing him and impacting his moods, life and work; he really wants the relationship but the children apparently have ADHD and other oppositional disorder issues. He felt caught in a bind and absolutely overwhelmed.

In one of our sessions together, he was very overwhelmed and I asked if I could align with him to tap into the source of power to bring a deeper awareness, insight and wisdom to his situation. Although he claims to hate religion, he was open to a new way, the time was right and the request felt natural to make and he was open and receptive. He later informed me that that he felt better and was appreciative of this exercise. I think sometimes as practitioners, we take on too much of our clients issues, leading to compassion fatigue and our own misalignment. In my work with the Interpersonal wellness coaches and facilitators I mentor, I often remind them to be empathetic and detached. This includes being aware of their limitations and knowing how to set boundaries to support their own wellness. I strongly believe we are better able to serve our clients when we take good care of our own wellness.

How do you remain detached and empathetic? What strategies do you use to maintain yours and your clients’ wellness?

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Joyce Odidison is a Conflict Analyst, Strategist, Interpersonal Wellness Expert and Executive Coach who works with entrepreneurs, mid-career professionals, executives and their organizations to address challenges and conflicts, to maximize time, resources, energy and results, so they maintain life balance and wellness. She is also Director of the only ICF approved training program for Coaches and Wellness Facilitators in Manitoba. You can learn about the IWS Network of Coaches and Facilitators by clicking the link below.

Getting in Sync with your Business

Are you in sync with your business? If you are not having fun and find yourself wondering if this is all there is to running your own business then you probably are not running your business well. Business owners work harder than anyone I know. They face uncertainties, loneliness and anxiety, leading many to suffer burnout and stress resulting in what is referred to as the “Sacrifice Syndrome” (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005). They work too hard, become hardnosed, lose compassion and their joy in life, treat others callously and, damage important relationships; while some lose their vitality and health. This summer we are taking a pause and getting in sync with our business.

The Summer Business Coaching Institute (SBCI) will provide a roadmap to maximize time, resources and energy, so you as a business owner can work, live and play well. It is okay to run your business well but not at the expense of everything that’s precious and important in your life. Running your business well is your responsibility and you need to get the support to do so.

The six week SBCI will take place every Thursday evening at 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Whether you’re just starting your business or in business for a long time you will gain a load of insight and growth on how to run your business well. Begin today! Take a step so you can have as much fun as you see others are having. We kick off tonight with an agenda topic – getting in sync with your business. This is an exploration of who you are in your business and strategies to align your business with your values so you can have as much fun doing what you are called to do, and serve your clients with joy. Attend the entire series, or attend specific sessions that appeal to you. We still have a few spots left. Join us now, if you want to begin running your business well. Join SBCI here or cut and paste this link in your URL: http://www.interpersonalwellness.com/business-coaching-0

To your wellness

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Joyce Odidison is a Conflict Analyst, Strategist, Interpersonal Wellness Expert and Executive Coach who works with entrepreneurs, mid-career professionals, executives and their organizations to address challenges and conflicts, to maximize time, resources, energy and results, so they maintain life balance and wellness. She is also Director of the only ICF approved training program for Coaches and Wellness Facilitators in Manitoba. You can learn about the IWS Network of Coaches and Facilitators by clicking the link below.