Running Your Practice so it Doesn’t Run YOU

Thursday, September 27, 2012 2 Comments

Remember – links on this site are dark grey to reduce distraction potential
while you’re reading. They turn red on mouseover.

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
Part 1 in the Practice Management Series

FIRST, Get a Mentor Coach –

Flying coachless is doing it the hard way

Coaches who get professionally mentored get up and running faster than those who use the “lone ranger” approach — up to 4 times faster. (According to Thomas Leonard, founder of Coach U – which trains non-ADD coaches).  

They make more money, attract and keep more clients, and have more satisfaction with their practices.

No Kidding!

Even though I refer to Thomas’ statement quite a lot NOW, I wasn’t sure if I believed it when I first read it in the early ’90s

I wasn’t totally convinced when I mentored with him, when I heard the words come out of his very own mouth in his typical “just what’s so” charge-neutral fashion – but I certainly embrace it whole-heartedly now!

It not only turns out to be true with “vanilla” coaches, it seems especially true in the ADD Coaching field.

  • The added accountability certainly helps us follow-through, so days don’t turn into weeks, months or years of “meant to but never did.”
  • The ”externalized pre-frontal cortex” dynamic, to keep rumination at bay is essential.
  • And nobody could fail to appreciate the “Sherpa” component — unless the only way they can learn is through repeated recovery from mistakes that could have been avoided.
  • The primary value of Mentor Coaching, however, seems to be its “Challenging” feature: on our own, we seem to set smaller goals to keep from overwhelming ourselves with “over-the-top” inhumanly unrealistic ones.

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Filed under ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D3a. Groups for Coaches Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Free ADD Coach Training: 5 Short Weeks to a Major Shift


Wednesday, September 19, 2012 6 Comments

Remember – links on this site are dark grey to reduce distraction potential
while you’re reading. They turn red on mouseover.

Avoiding the Holes in the Road, # 2

Drawing of a businessman in a suit, carrying a briefcase, about to fall into a hole because he does not notice that the manhole cover has been left off the manhole (he is reading)

An Oldie but Goodie
Adaptation by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

 originally, Autobiography In Five Short Chapters
by Porsche Nelson (Al-Anon ACOA)
with gratitude to Glen Hogard for the source -
see his comment (below) for still more

This article is an ADD Coaching reframe of a story that has been passed around in productivity circles for years — you may have heard it with “5 Chapters” instead of “5 Weeks.”

With a few tweaks, it’s not only a great training tool, it is a perfect illustration of the dynamic in an effective ADD Coaching relationship.

Free Coach Training:

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Filed under ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style Tagged with , , , , , ,

ADD/ADHD and TIME: will ANYthing work?

Tuesday, August 28, 2012 8 Comments

Remember – links on this site are dark grey to reduce distraction potential
while you’re reading. They turn red on mouseover.

Time Management Tips and Tricks

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
PART ONE of two: In support of The Challenges Inventory™ Series

Like I said in an older article, “Listening for Time Troubles – struggles with time and follow through,” a great many ADDers have trouble with T-I-M-E.

• We run out of it
• We are continually surprised by it, and
• More than a few times we seem to be completely unaware of it.

All ADD Coaches worthy of the term must remain aware that Listening For and Languaging to your clients’ awareness of time, and their relationship to time (oh yes, my friends, they most certainly DO have one) almost always involves some serious sleuthing on the part of the coach!

However . . .

Lest I be accused of keeping all the good stuff for the carriage trade (remaining mindful of the need to avoid joining the “Ten Time Tips that will Pay your Mortgage and put hair on your grandfather’s chest” crowd), I’m going to share five underlying principles that I listen for and try to language to my clients and students.

I’ll even tell YOU what I tell them - 5 System Basics - but few clients ever really hear me the first couple dozen times, so don’t be too surprised when some of these basics float right past you too.

Let ‘em simmer in your brain’s slow-cooker — as long as you don’t actively resist, fighting the ideas or ruminating over the thoughts that yet ANOTHER person simply doesn’t get it, you will be one step closer to getting a handle on this time thing.

Even when you’re desperate, change is just flat-out HARD!

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Filed under A5. Tips, Tricks & Techniques, A5c. TimeSteps™, B. Coaching Concerns, B1. ADDCoach Terms & Tools, B2. Working with an ADD Coach, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, G2. Rewrite Your Coaching Manual, G3. ADD Coaching Secrets, G5b. The Challenges Inventory™, G5k. TimePeace™ Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Bunch of Words about FIT – Part 1

Monday, December 26, 2011 Leave a comment

I Don’t Tweet, Don’t Ask Me

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

You can’t Tweet a novel.

Neither can you expand on a concept effectively when you are limited to a handful of characters barely greater than the number of tiles you might draw in the average game of Scrabble!

Since “profound relating” is at the very top of my personal list of Core Values, I find “Twitter expectations” more than a little unsettling — especially when they are shoved down my throat as THE way to reach your clients (or anyone else!)

I have been accused of a lot of things in my life,
but “brief” was never one of them.

As a result, most of MY students and clients are more likely to appreciate something with a little meat on its bones than to extol the virtues of “The Cliff Notes approach to idea dissemination.”

Some of us LIKE words.  Most of us who like words really don’t care much for “brief.”  It’s a matter of perspective and personal preference, not an addendum to Robert’s Rules of Order.  So when I hear apologies for the length of a post on blog after blog, I want to weep.

For those of us in love with language, LESS is simply … well, less!

It’s a matter of FIT.  And whether you are coach, client, or both, the concept of FIT is probably THE single most important coaching concept underlying coaching success.

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Filed under B. Coaching Concerns, B2. Working with an ADD Coach, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D. Coaching with MGH, G2. Rewrite Your Coaching Manual, G3. ADD Coaching Secrets, G4. Mentoring the ADD Coach Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Mentor Coaching

Monday, July 11, 2011

LINKS — See also: Mentor Coaching and Football? for context, and How I Mentor Coaches for specifics —

Why MENTOR Coaching?

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, A.C.T., MCC, SCAC
ADDCoach Trainer & Certified Mentor Coach

An older female helping a younger one put a puzzle together

All coaching
targets your functioning,
wherever the application.

MENTOR Coaching targets
your development as a Coach,
first and foremost.

Hiring a Mentor Coach to coach you through the practice development phase helps you put the practice puzzle together:  it straightens out your learning curve and gives you guidance and encouragement as you define and build your career.

Clients ready for a Mentor Coach:

  • have already done a lot of Foundation work, either through a formalized training or from the school of life
  • feel confident that they are ready to work with others in this regard (and may be practicing coaches who have been “flying solo” for some time)
  • have already acquired a great many coaching skills, and may well feel they have been coaching all their lives while making a living at something else
  • hire a Mentor Coach primarily for practice development coaching. 

They look to their Mentor Coach to help them:

  1. deepen their personal growth
  2. hone and expand their coaching skill set, and
  3. strategize steps toward a professional coaching practice that is personally and financially rewarding.

By definition, coaches are on the fast track with personal growth. Mentor Coaching puts them on the fast track with practice growth.

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Filed under B2. Working with an ADD Coach, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D. Coaching with MGH, D1b. Private Mentor Coaching, G4. Mentoring the ADD Coach Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Ten Reasons WHY Most Successful Coaches Work with Mentor Coaches

Thursday, May 26, 2011 Leave a comment

Updated legacy post -orig. 6/21/95- from Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, A.C.T., MCC, SCAC –
With a tip of the hat to Carson, who always counted DOWN
—————————————————————————————

Top Ten Reason Number TEN:

Illustration of a gray smiley in profile talking to a smaller, bright pink smiley in profile (who has a musical note to suggest her or his mood and the tone of his or her responses.As my first coaching mentor,
the late Thomas J. Leonard,
founder of the personal and professional coaching field,
and both CoachVille and the original CoachU (now CoachInc,)
– often said:

“Coaches who have coaches get up and running up to
4 times faster than those who use “the lone ranger” approach.”

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Filed under A. Hopefully Helpful
, B. Coaching Concerns, B2. Working with an ADD Coach, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D1b. Private Mentor Coaching Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Mentor Coaching and Football?

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Leave a comment

A Successful Coaching Practice
Blackl & white graphic of a football player running for a touchdown and a
Winning Football Team - not that different

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

Developing a rewarding and lucrative coaching practice is similar to winning a football game: you must score to win!

And touchdowns are only ONE way to score!

Football games are rarely won with a single touchdown, nor are most touchdowns accomplished in a single attempt. The majority of scores happen as a result of a series of first downs. Those hard won ten yards are captured in multiple plays that gain a few yards at a time – and every change in strategy includes a huddle!

But NO points can be won unless the team is in possession of the ball!

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Filed under B. Coaching Concerns, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D. Coaching with MGH, D1b. Private Mentor Coaching, G4. Mentoring the ADD Coach Tagged with , , , , , ,

Key Tasks for ADD Coaching

Friday, May 20, 2011 3 Comments

Old headshot of Madelyn (a.k.a. MGH) long familiar from the webADD-Specific Coaching Skills

© Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
Another article in the ADD Coaching Series

Ten Key Areas That Need Time & Attention

A Therapist or Doctor may or may not have the time to work with any of these areas.

A “vanilla coach”** may not find these skills important, agree that they are useful — or even understand why they might be an appropriate part of a coaching relationship.

An ADD Coach, however, must be prepared to include a certain amount of work in each of the following arenas — understanding how to use EACH of the ten skills below.  It’s a coach’s job to work with clients to remove “what’s in the way” of shining success.

Backfilling basic skills — insufficient, underdeveloped, or missing as the result of kludgy Executive Functioning –is the most likely suspect in the ADD population, rather than lack of motivation, resolve, ambition or many of the other things-in-the-way that are more common among vanilla clients.
———————
**vanilla = unflavored by ADD – a “vanilla coach” means the coach doesn’t work with ADD/ADHD/EFD clients and/or has not been trained in an ADD/ADHD/EFD-specific, brain-based coach training, regardless of whether they fall on the Attentional Spectrum personally or not.

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Filed under ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, B1. ADDCoach Terms & Tools, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D1a. Private ADD Coaching, D1b. Private Mentor Coaching, G2. Rewrite Your Coaching Manual, G3. ADD Coaching Secrets, H. Brain Based Coaching/Training Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How I Mentor Coaches

Thursday, May 19, 2011 Leave a comment

Old headshot of Madelyn (a.k.a. MGH) long familiar from the web

Mentor Coaching with Me

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

I want all of my clients to enjoy their coaching time.

I firmly believe that it is impossible to enjoy
ANYTHING much, unless it happens in
an unconditionally constructive atmosphere. 

As important as that is with any client, it is essential with clients who support clients of their own.

In my experience, coaches need immense support to be able to develop to the point where all of the skills they need are as natural as walking and talking.

(Remembering to deliver charge-neutral communications and stay unconditionally constructive will take a lot more focus than it will once it becomes second nature to do so, for example.)

Coaches often feel a drain on their energies they can’t always identify and can rarely explain as a result.  A huge part of a Mentor coach’s job is to restore those energy balances!

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Filed under B. Coaching Concerns, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D. Coaching with MGH, D1b. Private Mentor Coaching, G2. Rewrite Your Coaching Manual, G4. Mentoring the ADD Coach Tagged with , , , , ,

Listening for Time Troubles

Sunday, May 15, 2011 Leave a comment

 Remember – links on this site are dark grey to reduce distraction potential
while you’re reading. They turn red on mouseover.

Illustration of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland - RUSHINGStruggles with Time
and Follow-Through

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
Part of ADD Coaching Skills Series

Most ADDers have trouble with T-I-M-E.  We run out of it, we are continually surprised by it, and we sometimes seem to be completely unaware of it.

All ADD Coaches worthy of the term must remain aware that Listening For your client’s awareness of time and their relationship to time (yes, they do have one!) almost always involves some serious sleuthing on the part of the coach!.

The Following Exercise is designed to help ADD Coaches sharpen their Listening FROM Skills

Not a coach?  That’s OK – answer the questions below for yourself.  The information will be useful to you in a Peer Coaching relationship [click HERE if you don't have one of those].  Your functioning insights will be valuable even without an outside observer, but it might be difficult to sherlock in real time or to actuate changes.  Do it anyway.

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Filed under A5. Tips, Tricks & Techniques, A5c. TimeSteps™, B. Coaching Concerns, B1. ADDCoach Terms & Tools, B2. Working with an ADD Coach, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, G2. Rewrite Your Coaching Manual, G3. ADD Coaching Secrets, G5b. The Challenges Inventory™ Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

The ADD MasterCoach Profile™

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 Leave a comment

– Updated legacy post -orig. 04/29/98- from Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, A.C.T., MCC, SCAC –

drawing of graph paper with a jagged line representing up and down values plotted on a graphMeasurements of Mastery

The ADD MasterCoach Profile™  is rigorous - daunting, even - but you won’t believe the impact on your practice. 

When you score above 85 on The MasterCoach Profile™, not only will your practice be sustainably full, you will be one of the leaders in the ADD Coaching field and a model for every single coach in the industry.

While there are no real guarantees in this business, working The ADD MasterCoach Profile™ is the closest thing to a guarantee you will find in the coaching field.

There is simply no way you can score well on this program and not be at the top of the field by any standard you would care to measure.

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Filed under B. Coaching Concerns, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D1b. Private Mentor Coaching, D3a. Groups for Coaches Tagged with , , , , , ,

The ADDCoach JumpStart™ Program

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Leave a comment

– Updated legacy post -orig. 04/25/98- from Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, A.C.T., MCC, SCAC –

The ADDCoach JumpStart™ Program –

silhouette of a man jumping

ADDCoach JumpStart™  identifies and tracks 100 key factors that combine to promote rapid practice building in a manner that is consistent with developing and maintaining a full, rewarding and profitable ADD Coaching practice.

It  gives you a way to quantify your efforts.

The initial program of the two practice building programs I developed to support the OFI Associates, the ADD coaches trained in the flagship ADD-specific coach training through The Optimal Functioning Institute™.

I also make both programs available to my private mentor clients and use them to help  structure  and motivate my mentor groups.

Modeled after the brilliant programs developed for CoachU (now Coach Inc.) by my first coaching mentor, coaching field founder Thomas J. Leonard, they are designed to take you from your current coaching level, whatever that is, to ADD Coaching mastery.

Everyone begins with Jumpstart, moving up to The ADD MasterCoach Profile™ only when your Jumpstart score lets us both know you are ready for it.

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Filed under B. Coaching Concerns, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D. Coaching with MGH, D1b. Private Mentor Coaching, D3a. Groups for Coaches Tagged with , , , , , ,

Ten Basic Coaching Skills used most often with ADDers

Friday, April 15, 2011 Leave a comment

– Updated legacy post -orig. 11/15/95- by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, A.C.T., MCC, SCAC — LINKS within post are dark gray to reduce distraction potential; they turn red on mouseover

ADDers have had people trying to “fix” them all their lives: 

Graphic of roadside-like sign: yellow triangle enclosing a ball peen hammer as metaphor for comment on "fixing"

If you’d listen to your father . . .“
“If you’d just get organized . . .”
“If you’d only try . . .”

While those suggestions usually come from a loving intention, they are actually UNloving in execution, most frequently because they collapse won’t with can’t.

At the heart of those ever-so-well-meaning “should-s” is the assumption that all ADDers have to do is make a commitment to willingness and their worlds will shift.

In other words, the underlying belief is that the ADDer could
 “if they really wanted to,” and that “all” that is missing is
a high enough degree of “wanting to.”

BALDERDASH!

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Filed under ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, B1. ADDCoach Terms & Tools, B2. Working with an ADD Coach, B2a. Mentor Coaching, ADD Style, D. Coaching with MGH, D1a. Private ADD Coaching, D1b. Private Mentor Coaching, F1. ADD Top Tens, G2. Rewrite Your Coaching Manual, G3. ADD Coaching Secrets Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

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