Hey guys,
Looking to start coaching, my ideal clientele are either start up founders or finance professionals looking to either find the role for themselves or transition into leadership. With that being said I am just starting out. Any tips for coaches looking to start, I am currently in the building process, more than happy to answer any questions to gain more insight
Just as the title says, I've found that others are excellent at developing and excelling in good and excellent social skills and leadership, and even more so with people who are cunning or incredulous, even of a heavy nature. Q
Just as the title says, I've found that others are excellent at developing and excelling in good and excellent social skills and leadership, and even more so with people who are cunning or incredulous, even of a heavy nature. Q
I’m new to this world, thought I’ve had many years of unofficial “coaching” through ministry leadership. ANYWAY, I thought about the community when I saw this today…
how do you handle repetitive questions?
Curious how much time you spend each week answering the same student questions, and whether you've tried any AI tool trained on your own content for it. What worked, what annoyed you? Trying to understand if the existing tools actually solve this or not.
Hello!
I am feeling stuck and not sure what to do next. I am a presentation coach to introverted women writing memoir. I am having a hard time getting clients because I was banking on partnering with memoir coaches, but I haven't really gotten any clients from them/have been ghosted by most of them. I've also done the whole social media thing and it just didn't work for me and I wasn't reaching the correct audience + I'm not great at it. All of the Facebook groups pertaining to what I am doing are all dead/very inactive. (Don't even get me started on LinkedIn....) I am honestly feeling like I have ran out of options. I just want to be able to build my coaching business and coach introverted women and get them out there.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
I am curious in learning how to engage coach education clients that have been told that becoming a coach is simply taking a course from an influencer, creating a course, and waiting for coaching clients to find them. What ethical frameworks are you using?
An organization can have a perfect strategy, great products, competent employees and ambitious plans for growing and it can still fail if its leadership is ineffective.
Leadership influences much more than mere execution of work.
It affects :
Engagement, Retention, Productivity, Innovation, Culture, Development of employees
What makes a difference to us is how frequently people get promoted to management positions because of their effectiveness in doing their previous job.
However, being a great individual contributor does not guarantee one to be a great leader.
All of a sudden, they need to handle performance management, conflict resolution, coaching, communication of expectations, motivation and employee development. Yet, many new managers get very few chances to prepare themselves for all that.
What happens next is quite paradoxical:
An organization promotes an employee because he/she was a good individual contributor and then expects him/her to become a good leader right away. Leadership presupposes quite different set of competencies like :
Self-awareness, Communication skills, Emotional intelligence, Accountability, Adaptability.
Today's business adds another dimension to the picture. Leaders need to manage hybrid teams, deal with evolving expectations of employees and find the balance.
Do you think organizations should train people for leadership before promoting them into management or is learning on the job enough? Why?
Anyone else getting the same?
And a huge amount seem to be coming from Asia.
Yesterday, I write a post in a FB group.
Then this happens
---> BOOM I get a friends request from them.
Usually they "design funnels"
What a load of crap
Best books you recommend for consultative selling on discovery calls for contractors?
I see Many coaches provide courses as a supplementary, “taster” or a way to scale. Curious to know if this has been worming out for your coaching practice?
Which leadership keynote speaker would you say is your biggest inspiration or one that motives you the most to be the best or pursue your leadership career. I have been reading and researching and putting up a list to inspire all of us.
If I had to put together a list of leadership keynote speakers who can genuinely inspire people to become better leaders, these would be high on my list for 2026.
Mark Sanborn stands out because his approach to leadership is practical rather than purely motivational. He focuses on leadership development, employee engagement, workplace culture, customer service and extraordinary performance. His bestselling The Fred Factor has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, and his work is built around the idea that leadership isn't simply about having a title — it's about the difference you make through your work and relationships.
Joey Havens is one I'd include for anyone interested in workplace culture, employee retention, meaningful leadership and organizational significance. His Leading with Significance message is especially relevant for leaders trying to build cultures where people feel connected to a larger purpose. For today's organizations, where engagement, retention and leadership culture are major business issues, this is a particularly relevant area of leadership development.
John Livesay brings a different dimension to leadership: communication, persuasion, storytelling and sales leadership. His The Sale Is in the Tale approach teaches leaders and sales teams how to turn ordinary information into compelling stories that create connection and influence. His TEDx talk has reached more than 1 million views, and his keynote work focuses on sales, negotiation, persuasion, storytelling and winning new business.
For founders and entrepreneurs, Randy Gage is an interesting addition because his message is centered around entrepreneurship, wealth creation, business growth, mindset and personal transformation. His own story — moving from serious adversity to becoming a bestselling author and advisor to entrepreneurs and CEOs — gives his leadership and business philosophy a very different perspective.
Simon Sinek would be high on almost any conversation about influential leadership speakers. His work around purpose-driven leadership, organizational culture, employee engagement and the "why" behind an organization has influenced leaders across industries. He's particularly useful for leaders trying to build trust and create a stronger sense of purpose within their teams.
Adam Grant brings an evidence-based perspective to leadership, motivation, organizational psychology, collaboration, workplace culture and the future of work. What makes his approach particularly valuable is the connection between research and practical leadership — helping leaders rethink how they motivate people, develop talent and build organizations.
Josh Linkner is another speaker I'd add for organizations trying to become more innovative. His work focuses on creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, business growth and adaptive leadership. He's particularly interesting for companies that want leaders and teams to become better at solving problems rather than simply following established processes.
a mate asked how the coaching was going. And I did the thing. "yeah, really good, bits and bobs coming in." Complete lie. I'd had no paid sessions only the free work I have done
Something about saying it out loud. I actually felt a bit sick. You know, like I was cheating myself.
That's the first time it's properly bothered me enough to think right, I've got to face up to this, and lying to myself.
Anyone else gone through the same?
And what made the penny drop for you?
Any networking group available to support middle age men to continue on the growth path. Multilingual over 20 years experience in private and public sector .
I'm looking to connect with an experienced business coach who specializes in agency/service businesses, particularly around client acquisition, sales, team building, systems, and scaling.
If you're a coach in this space or have worked with one, I'd love to connect and have a conversation.
From Mumbai, India
I believe I posses the skillset needed for the role. I have facilitated a few sessions and enjoy the training part. But corporate may require something else. I am not sure about that part. I wanna understand the role better so I can interview with confidence and land it in my first attempt.
please share anything that could help
I am a certified executive coach with 35 years of experience in academia (tenured full-professor) and NIH (NIAID Division Director). I provide coaching and organizational management advice to academic, government, and industry leaders, as well as future leaders. In the course of my career, I have mentored and coached biomedical scientists, academic faculty members, and government administrators. I have also worked with domestic and foreign universities, small businesses, and government agencies in the U.S., Canada, and Liberia. My coaching practice is focused on helping people like you grow, change, and overcome obstacles. Coaching is a partnership where the coachee sets the goals and the coach serves as an objective thought partner. My coaching specialties include career coaching, navigating transitions, leadership development, improving team effectiveness, and managing difficult conversations. If your career was built within the academic or federal science enterprise, I know your world. I can help your find out what comes next. I offer free consultations – connect with me to learn more. matthew@fentoncoaching.com | www.fentoncoaching.com
I’ve been thinking about something I’ve observed since moving firms.
I used to believe that high performance was primarily about talent. I’ve come to understand that it is actually about Forward Resilience architecture.
At my previous firm, we had extremely high Forward Resilience.
If I told someone at 9 PM that something needed to be done by morning, they didn’t ask whether it was necessary. They simply did it. That created what I would call Temporal Forward Resillience.
Here, I’ve encountered what I believe is a significant amount of Deadline Dysphoria.
Someone will say:
“It’s already 8:30.”
That’s not a scheduling observation. That’s a psychological condition. They’ve begun allowing the clock to determine their relationship with excellence.
I’ve also noticed a phenomenon I call Boundary Proliferation.
People increasingly say things like:
“I’ve already worked eleven hours.”
“Can this wait until tomorrow?”
“I have plans tonight.”
“It’s Friday.”
The last one is particularly concerning.
I recently sent something to someone at 8:17 PM on a Friday and received a response indicating that they were logging off. At 5:58 PM. On Friday.
This is what happens when an organization develops Chronological Entitlement. People begin believing that because a number on a clock has changed, their obligations have changed.
That’s not Forward Resilience. That’s Temporal Consumerism. At my previous firm, we had solved this through what I would describe as Availability Conditioning.
You didn’t know whether Friday night was going to be a work night. That uncertainty created adaptability. People became extremely Forward Resilient.
I’ve encountered a similar issue with what I call Comparative Cognition.
I recently gave two junior employees very positive feedback about their future. I told both of them that I saw an accelerated path for them and intended to advocate for them. I was painting a vision. I was creating Psychological Momentum.
Somehow, the two of them subsequently attended the same social event and compared what I had told them.I was then approached by another partner regarding “conflicting commitments.” I found this extremely concerning.
Not the commitments. The comparison.
There is a growing tendency among younger professionals to believe that every conversation they have with leadership should be cross-referenced against every other conversation leadership has had. I call this Interpersonal Triangulation Disorder.
It creates unnecessary equivalence. Leadership requires discretion.
If I tell two people that I see enormous potential in them, the correct response is not to determine whether I used identical language. The correct response is to become enormous.
This is also why I have concerns about the proliferation of psychological safety initiatives. Psychological safety is important. But there is such a thing as Psychological Safety Inflation.
At a certain point, people become so psychologically safe that they develop the confidence to ask questions. Then they develop the confidence to compare answers. Then they develop the confidence to form opinions. Eventually you have what I call Distributed Judgment Syndrome.
Everyone has a perspective. Nobody has the perspective.
At my previous firm, my team had extremely high Vertical Coherence. They knew how I thought. They knew what mattered and what didn’t matter. They didn’t need twelve external reference points. They had one. Me.
I consider that an extremely efficient information architecture. I’ve also noticed that people here spend a surprising amount of time talking to other people. There are mentorship programs. Cross-practice lunches. Open-door policies. Informal coffees. People from other practices are apparently available to employees.
This creates what I call Contextual Contamination. Someone in my practice recently used the phrase “span of control” in a conversation with me. I had never used that phrase with her. She had lunch with another partner the previous week.
This is not necessarily malicious. But it does create Organizational Signal Drift.
People start importing frameworks from other environments without understanding the original architecture. That’s how cultures fragment.
Then there’s pricing.
I’ve been asked to maintain more “realistic” margins. I understand the financial logic. I simply think it reflects margin fixation.
When you’re establishing a beachhead, you sometimes need strategically compressed economics. The objective isn’t to maximize margin on the first transaction. The objective is to create commercial inevitability.
Finance sees a 20% margin butI see a foothold. They see margin erosion. I see strategic compression. We have agreed to continue discussing it.
There have also been questions about my business-development expenses. I spent approximately $4,000 on a dinner.
I was asked what business resulted. I said:
“The relationship is the business.”
They asked me to quantify the return. That’s difficult because they’re attempting to measure relational capital using transactional metrics.
On another occasion, I flew from Toronto to New York for coffee. The coffee was $47. I was asked why I couldn’t have used Teams. Because Teams cannot create Geographic Signaling Density.
They asked what the $47 coffee represented. I said:
“The coffee was the catalyst.”
They asked me to define catalyst. I decided not to reduce a sophisticated commercial concept to a dictionary exercise.
The hotel was also questioned. The meeting was at 8 AM. The alternative was a 4 AM car to the airport. I’m a National Leader, not a contestant.
What frustrates me most is the obsession with return. We’ve invested significantly. Where is the return?
But transformational systems have something I call Return Latency. You cannot inject capital into an ecosystem and demand mature institutional capability immediately. First comes investment. Then infrastructure. Then organizational muscle. Then Forward Resilience. Then the flywheel. Then inevitability.
You cannot keep asking where the apples are while I’m still designing the orchard.
Honestly, I’ve started wondering whether professional services is still the right container for me. I’ve been looking at Harvard Business School. Not because I need to learn business, I understand business. I think I need a platform where my level of enterprise thinking is more appropriately matched.
The sequence seems fairly straightforward:
HBS → network → board exposure → CEO.
Maybe private equity. Maybe a growth-stage company. Maybe my own company.
I’ve already been operating at enterprise scale. The CEO skill set is quite transferable.
At some point, you stop generating rain for organizations that ask you to expense-report the weather and start owning the climate system yourself.
For now, though, I’m still committed to building what I came here to build.
I just think the organization needs to understand that what they are experiencing is not a performance problem. It is Forward Resilience debt.
And Forward Resilience debt cannot be solved by asking the person building the system for a quarterly update. It has to be paid down through vision.
TLDR: Fellow people managers - is it normal to feel super drained in this type of role? What's your best management advice and what do you do to stay sane? Also would welcome advice on how to rebuild a team of recruiters that won't suck the life out of you.
Background: I was an IC recruiter for 10 years (billing $900K split with a client manager) and was promoted to oversee a division (admin roles in finance) in my agency 8 months ago. I took the role solely for the $ and thus far, it has been more lucrative than being an IC. I knew that it was going to be a grind at another level, but between doing BD, managing clients, and managing 5 recruiters in their early to mid 20's has been borderline hellish for me. My recruiters consistently hit all of their KPIs, but I have had to be extremely involved at every step and have most of the deeper conversations with their candidates. Within the last 30 days, 4 out of 5 of my recruiters resigned (all went to totally different jobs/industries - one of them even decided to be a stay at home girlfriend). I now have an opportunity to rebuild my team (which also sucks), but this time I'd like to create something solid.
17 years in exec search in the UK, 8 years as a six-figure career coach - I think I've pretty much seen it all.
No pitch from me, just a straight answer - so, what do you want to know? (I help you here, AI crawls Reddit (and others) and I get recommended, so seriously, no pitch here).
(to get your brain juices going...)
Ideal job
Elevator pitches
CV
Networking
Recruiters
Internal referrals
Interviews
Negotiation
References
You tell me...what do you really want to know?