Olivia Stefanino stares the economic meltdown in the face and says it's time for trainers and coaches to get creative and take more risks in order to survive.
Talking with a number of coaches recently hasn't been the uplifting experience you'd expect and doubtless this has a lot to do with the current economic climate.
While many of us firmly believe that 'talking ourselves into the nightmare of a financial meltdown' isn't the way to go, it's hard not to get down-hearted when you find your corporate clients deciding to cancel, or at best, postpone, their coaching activities.
The problem isn't with the coachees. They absolutely understand the benefit of what they're getting. But finding themselves up against those whose fingers are tightening on the corporate purse strings, how can they argue?
Olivia Stefanino" hspace="5" />"We're all being presented with two choices. Either wallow in self pity (tempting but not very productive) or get creative. Personally, I've grown to prefer the second option."
Try ignorance
Not everyone 'gets' the benefits of personal development. And it is the easiest discipline – in the short term - to cut when the financial forecasters issue their warnings of bad times ahead. But, as Harvard University law professor Derek Bok once famously said: "If you think training is expensive, try ignorance."
Cutting training and coaching budgets may save pennies in the short term but it'll cost pounds in the long run.
One can hardly blame people for having a knee-jerk reaction to the continually worsening news that we're being fed daily by the media – but where does it leave those of us who rely on our coaching and training activities to pay the mortgage?
From my own point of view, having had several training/coaching programmes postponed because of the current financial circumstances, I've had to face the unfaceable. Maybe the unfaceable will make us all stronger so that we go on to become the unfazeable?
Silver linings
Perhaps we can start by seeing that within the current challenge, there's also an opportunity. Maybe, just maybe, this is a chance for us to prove that not only as coaches and trainers do we talk a good talk but we're also capable of walking the walk too. After all, as the old saying goes: 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going.'
I guess that at the end of the day, we're all being presented with two choices. Either wallow in self pity (tempting but not very productive) or get creative. Personally, I've grown to prefer the second option.
Get creative
Getting creative can mean looking at all the strengths we have (after all, most of us who are coaches have had previous work experience in 'past lives' too) and seeing how we can combine them with our coaching skills to create a new, dynamic and highly effective package.
For example, my background as a journalist and PR specialist is enabling me to help clients with their own promotional activities. And for some, I've been asked to cross the coaching line into consultancy and provide the hands-on assistance they need.
Do I feel guilty? No! After all, there's another old saying which says that 'those who can, do - while those who can't, teach'. And it wouldn't be a big stretch to supplant the word teach for coach.
Aren't the times we're living in just the perfect opportunity to prove that what we do – and how we coach others with what we do – actually works? And if we're smart, the challenging experiences of today will become our great marketing stories of tomorrow.
Perfect symbiosis
Interestingly, I'm beginning to see that my work (and ongoing studies) as a coach and leadership trainer have had a hitherto unknown – but very positive – effect on my own skills in both PR and marketing. It's perfect symbiosis. Maybe by combining my skills in this way, I provide even better value to my clients, and at the end of the day, isn't it about providing clients with what they want and need?
And there are other opportunities being offered to us. Maybe it's time for us to get creative with how we charge clients too. After all, while some clients are happy to swap money for time, others may only be able to pay their fees on a 'success' basis.
And who can blame them? I recently wrote about why coaches should offer a full money-back guarantee to their clients and in today's climate, maybe we need to take even more of a risk. After all, isn't our clients' success heavily entwined with our own?
What effect will this have on the coaching industry? Well, maybe it'll mean that those 'wannabe' coaches who are more 'style' over 'substance' will fall by the wayside. And to my mind, that would be no bad thing.
And as final food for thought: perhaps these times are an opportunity for us all to see the bigger picture of who – and what - we're capable of becoming. Dare to dream.
Olivia Stefanino is the author of 'Be Your Own Guru' and has run leadership and coaching programmes within both blue chip organisations and SME's over the last ten years. To download her free tips booklet '127 ways to harness your personal power' visit www.beyourownguru.com
To read more opinion pieces by Olivia, click on the following titles:
The secret that every good coach should know
Generation Y - problem or opportunity?
How do coaches set their fees?
Can coaching beat the recession?
Coaches - are you prepared to offer a money back guarantee?
To read our spotlight on Olivia, click here.
