As with many service businesses, new business is secured by referrals or recommendations from previous, satisfied customers.
Same is true for my leadership coaching practice. I rely a lot on referrals from previous clients. Clients have felt satisfied with my coaching and achieved the results they wanted so refer me to friends and colleagues who might want similar support.
Typically my ideal client is someone who is already very successful at work and
1. Feels they could improve in some specific area like strategic thinking or improving team impact.
2. Feels that something is missing, they aren’t feeling satisfied.
3. Feels they could use some external support to navigate a dominant leader or executive board (this includes female leaders is an all-male management team).
The underlying thing we end up coaching around is self-confidence, emotional intelligence and consciousness of bringing their authentic selves to work (like emotions, values and purpose).
Recently I’ve had two surprising referrals, previous male clients have referred me to their wives who work outside the home. They’ve had conversations at home to support their wives through a tricky work situation and wonder “what would Anne say?” So rather than guess, they reached out and asked if I’d work with their wives. One I’ve already started working with and the ‘issue’ is similar to most I encounter, self-confidence and emotional intelligence. The second I’m just starting with and it appears it might be the same.
(Of note, working with a husband and wife or two colleagues in close proximity is not usual and requires clear and agreed boundaries prior to the start of the coaching relationship.)
Who do you know that wants external support to improve in a specific area or wanting to feel more satisfied while still being successful? Please let me know.
