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6 Surefire Ways to Achieve Your Goals for 2005
Hope you had a good rest and are all fired up for the year ahead. Whilst you were sitting on the beach or lazing around during your time off, which of the following changes to your life did you decide to make this year? To have the body of Elle...

Coaching Leaders for Change - 5 Ground Rules
How do you convince leaders to change? Executive coaching offers a tremendous opportunity to leverage the talent and resources of leaders. Coaching is no longer reserved for problem leaders. It is frequently sought by top...

ENTREPRENEURS: Achieve more! 12 examples of Coaching and Consulting that lead to SUCCESS.
Consulting Consulting taps into the expertise of the consultant's experience. The client gains valuable insight that would normally take years and thousands sometimes millions of dollars if they were to go down the same path. Consultants...

Managers Don't Know Any Better!
Managers Don’t Know Any Better! 90% of managers today haven’t the slightest clue about how to perform their jobs. If they did we wouldn’t have the astonishingly high business failure rate, or job movement. But our managers have never been properly...

Your Ideal Client
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."--Bill Cosby Have you ever had a client/customer that was more trouble than they were worth? Maybe they were always late to pay, or didn't do what they...

 
Ten Business Reasons Why Asking for Help Works

When you are in charge of a team, or a business, it is easy to fall into the trap of being invincible. Asking for help is something that's easy to do - yet, to the uninitiated, it feels like a weakening position. But there are a number of reasons that is not so.

In fact, bringing your people - any of them - into your confidence and asking for help, is a very powerful tool indeed. The form of words' "I need your help", works best. Here are Ten Reasons why this is:-

  1. You Appeal to Emotions

    By asking an 'emotional' question you become very open and honest, which makes your people want to help you - this is a positive and not a 'feeling sorry' thing. It's a very natural reaction from them.

  2. You Value Others

    Then they feel that you find at least something worthwhile in them - it makes them feels hugely valuable - inside. This helps bond your relationship and that of the team you are working with as a whole.

  3. You Share the Load - and the Experience

    By having someone help you it makes for much lighter work - 'a problem shared...' etc. And by helping them work through a tricky experience with you, they will develop and grow for the future.

  4. Other People are Much Better than You!

    It's true! You are not the best at everything - nor do you need to be. In fact the very best managers and leaders surround themselves with people who are much better, in their own field, than they themselves are. That's the sign of a great manager or leader.

  5. You are a Model

    By asking for help yourself, you will show others that this is an OK thing to do. Thus they will start to do the same. Needing help is a challenge, yet it is all the better if it opens up ways of working better, more supportively; more creatively together. Lead the way!

  6. It Shows You are Human

    Yes, it's OK too to have shortcomings. In fact that old model of the boss who knows everything and is just perfect was never true. By showing that you too have your ups and


    downs; have weaknesses, fears and doubts, makes you much closer to your people. (Hint - it's how they are feeling)

  7. Vulnerability is Attractive

    Ever stopped to help an injured animal; or sooth a crying baby? How compelling was that vulnerability? When you need and ask for help, you are a much more interesting proposition. Your people will love you for it!

  8. Their Confidence Builds

    As you take on board the support and help others give you, their ideas translate into brilliant solutions to the problems. By acknowledging the help you have been given and the real, better solutions they have shared, they will become much more confident - and a lack of confidence holds the whole world back.

  9. Two Heads are Better than One

    Better solutions to issues comes from collaboration. the "I need your help" may well not be confined to a one to one relationship. By requesting help from your whole team, you can leverage that whole relationship. But take care not to dilute the effect by blandly using this excellent tool - churning it out without real meaning. One to one works best - because intimate, close and appealing requests work best.

  10. You Stimulate Dialogue

    As you have done the asking, you encourage others to 'coach' you! How cool is that - the coach being coached! Yet, this dialogue is full of incredible richness. In fact someone once wrote, "Business is just a series of conversations" - what a wonderful start to yours!


Try it next time you need some help. Start small, with little challenges you have and build your and their confidence. Watch out for the massive changes you see in your relationships with others.

About the Author
© 2005 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com.

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