Update from Gerard : A Month Of Firsts

I am writing this from my hotel room in Bucharest in Romania. The weather here is absolutely beautiful.  I flew in from Warsaw a couple of days ago because I was there to do two important jobs

One was to deliver a keynote speech for the world HR Congress, which I do believe went down very well, based on the fantastic feedback. This was the second time I’ve delivered a speech at this wonderful international gathering. Such an efficient and well-run organisation, very impressive indeed.

The other main job in Warsaw  was to oversee the first ever Noble Manhattan residential coach program that we have run in Poland and not only that but it was also run in Polish two firsts !!

I am here in Bucharest with  my great lifelong friend Scott Milway to deliver our first-ever “Quantum Goal Achievement Course” in Romania.

We have deliberately kept this first cause very small and exclusive with only 13 people. (http://www.achievemygoals.net) it seems to be going down incredibly well, already we are seeing that it is changing people’s lives.

In the middle of next week I then travel with Vali, our European  development manager to Sofia in Bulgaria where we run our very first ever

“ Introduction to Coaching” event in that country. That is going to be our official launch meeting into Bulgaria.

And, I have to say a huge thank you to our strategic partner team of  Katrin,Lavinia and Brian who have been working so hard over the last four months to make this a reality. All of their hard work will come to fruition within the week. J

I guess it’s only to be expected, May, a month of joy and well-being, a month of new life and growth not only in nature but it would seem also in business.

I shall be at the mind body spirit festival at the end of this month for a couple of days as our company have our usual annual exhibition stand there.

So if any of you are in the area it would be lovely to touch base.

Then it’s back to Poland for two days followed by a week in France. The French bit isn’t work. I’m taking a break with my wife, actually that is another first. Because for the first time ever we are both going away together on my motorbike !!!!!!!!!! she has never agreed to do that in the 10 years that I have owned a bike !

Got to go now, and prepare for day 2 of the goal achievement course.

OH, I almost forgot - my latest book was also published this month. “A Coach’s Story” is quite unique in that it tells the story of 20 different and diverse coaches.

Purchase This Book

We have created a simple website at  http://www.a-coaches-story.com/ which explains more about the book. Although it is not yet possible to purchase the book directly from this site. (That will happen within a few days). If you would in the meantime like to purchase the book simply send an e-mail to  info@noble-manhattan.com and the office will post one to you immediately, price £15

All my love,

Gerard

Recommendation for an Extraordinary Book

I’m going to take the rather unusual step of very deliberately recommending a product. A book in fact.

A colleague and friend of mine called Andy Shaw who has made millions over the years in building and growing businesses has written a most wonderful book called “ A Bug Free Mind” he was kind enough to send me a complimentary copy which I have taken with me on my travels around Europe. I have not been able to put it down.

You know I have been heavily involved in the personal development industry for well over 20 years, I have read so many books and listened to so many audio programs I really have lost track.

This wonderful book that Andy has produced  (actually it’s two books, the main book and a user’s guide) encapsulates all of the teachings of the Masters, and he explains it in such an easy to read and down to earth style that it becomes simple to understand and apply.

Because he has such a strong desire to get this message out to the world he has set up a system of affiliates, and I have been very happy to become one.

To get full information about this special book, just go here http://www.abugfreemind.com/cmd.php?af=1347609

I would be really interested in receiving feedback once you have had a chance to review this book.

Warmest,

Gerard

Words from Gerard

April, for me -  always a special month ,in my mind it always signifies  the beginning, the start, a new opportunity, I guess it’s because it’s the month that I have my birthday, but also I think it’s because Spring is really under way at this point and there’s a whole feeling of rejuvenation and newness and freshness in the air. A special time of new growth, new life, ( all the newborn  lambs in the fields roundabout where I live)

So for me it is the perfect time to look ahead and plan and think about the future. Both on a personal and business front.

On the personal side it is my aim that by the end of this year I will have changed my role completely into that  of a virtual CEO. Now, that does not in any way mean stepping away from my businesses, it does however mean that I will only engage in the parts of my business that truly empower me and give me Joy. It also means that I need to have the business in a shape that does not require any input from me at all. So, how am I doing?

Well, I’m getting there  I think I’m probably about 75% of the way to achieving this. There are one or two little sticking points that I am having difficulty overcoming, such as, the barrage of e-mails that seem to come in every day, and some of our high profile public events like our ” Introduction to Coaching” days that we run in many parts of the world.

I just need to find a clone !!  Any offers  ????

On the Business Side, things are going rather well at the moment. The aim for the next 12 months is to concentrate a lot of energy and resources on our current international offerings and to develop quite a bit more internationally.

We are so pleased with our wonderful new partners in Poland the IRB, ( Instytut Rozwoju Biznesu  – Institute for Business Development ) http://www.irb.pl/

We really could not have wished for a better relationship or nicer people.

We are now casting our eyes in the direction of Bulgaria, USA, Kenya, Nigeria and Italy .

And also the Ukraine and Belarus together with our new Polish partners.

We have already appointed development teams And Strategic Partners  to start to work on developing a launch plan for each of those countries.

If any of you reading this would like to be involved in any of those particular countries then certainly get in touch, we have room for everyone

We have our first public ” Introduction to Coaching” event in Sofia in Bulgaria  on Friday, 20 May.

Full details are here

http://www.introductiontocoaching.com/

We have also created separate Facebook pages for each of those countries. Please feel free to engage with us here as friends

Bulgaria http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507#!/home.php?sk=group_106756122738932

Nigeria   http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507#!/home.php?sk=group_148420891886730

Kenya  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507#!/home.php?sk=group_140767652655332

Italy   http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_199573326741507

For those people who want to develop a lucrative business within the corporate world we are launching a very wonderful opportunity in conjunction with a great company called People  Alchemy.

Full details can be found here.

http://noble-manhattan.com/alchemy2.php

I am also planning my next motorbike adventure. As you may know once every year my wife is kind enough to let me go on my own, on my motorbike for a trip somewhere exotic. I usually do this with one or two friends who like to come along.

Two years ago we went down through Spain into Morocco and back again. In the middle of winter !!!

Last year we went all the way across Europe to the Ukraine and Romania and then back again covering 17 countries and 4000 miles.

Now I’m turning my thoughts to this October and trying to work out where to go exactly.

If anyone would like to come, just let me know it will be from approximately 10 October until about 28th of October, the destination is still a little bit up in the air, the original plan had been to start in Romania and go around the Black Sea.But I’m having some logistical problems working out how to get the motorbikes to Romania and back again  !!  Any ideas?

If that doesn’t work, it doesn’t really matter we will still go for a wonderful adventure somewhere else in Europe.

I am also taking a week off at the beginning of June and going on my motorbike to a beautiful villa in France, and this time my wife is actually coming with me as a pillion  !!! The first time ever !!

We also have some sad news, we are losing our beautiful Stacey. Stacey, as many of you know has been a key part of our company for the last seven years and has taken personal responsibility for a large part of the administration division.

For the last couple of years she has been training to be an accountant and is now ready to follow her passion. She has found a position within a local company in that role.

We are on the one hand so sorry to lose her but on the other hand really happy for her.

So, we are now in the wonderful position of starting on the recruitment path to find someone to fill her position.

We are also now about to start recruiting some more full-time IT people to join our existing and quite large IT team.

So all in all a wonderful time of change and growth and excitement.

Lots of love,

Gerard

PS. I forgot to mention my new book gets launched this week.Read the section below to find out all about it. I am really excited 

Attend a Spring  Introduction to Coaching Event

Do you want to find out all about coaching, find out how it can transform lives and experience coaching techniques from our qualified coaches?

Our Introduction to Life Coaching Events are a great way to find out everything to do with coaching and training to be a Life Coach. Gerard is a really inspirational speaker and we know you’ll enjoy listening to him, so do come along and attend! Why not bring a friend or relative as well?

You will learn:

• What is a Life Coach?
• What is an executive coach? What do they do?
• Learn how Life Coaching can transform people’s lives
• The benefits of applying Life Coaching Skills in the home and work place.
• Learn the four pillars on coaching
• Take part in a highly interactive and informative coaching workshop where you will get hands on real coaching techniques.
• Learn how to build your client base.
• Plus much more

Please click here to find out all about this day + book your place securely online now!

Event One
Saturday 7th May – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

Event Two
Saturday 20^th May – 9.30am – 5.00pm – Bulgaria

Event Three
Saturday 4^th June – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

Event Four
Saturday 9th July – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

Event Five
Saturday 3^rd September – 9.30am-5.00pm – London – Columbia Hotel

If you would like to attend an event please visit www.introductiontocoaching.com and we will send you a booking confirmation and a map to you. Places are limited.

Colour Coaching Teleclass

Find out everything that you have ever wanted to know about Colour Coaching!

Have you ever wanted to find out all about Colour Coaching, how it works and how it can dramatically transform people’s lives?

Becoming a colour coach will impact your life and will dramatically transform the lives of others. It is extremely fulfilling to help others build amazing new confidence and self-esteem through the use of colour cosmetics and colour analysis!

Attend our 30 minute live teleclass with top trainer and world-class consultant and coach Mandy Ellesmere.

Colour Coaching Live Teleclass
Date: Monday 11^th April
Time: 4.00pm (UK) time

Please contact the office NOW to reserve your place by e-mailing emmasmith@noble-manhattan.com

If you would like to attend the call there is absolutely no obligation to go on the program.

Build Your Profile by Helping at an Exhibition

Would you like to have the opportunity to build your profile by working with us at a show?

Mind Body Spirit – 25th and 30th May 2011  London, Horticultural Halls

We are looking for people to help out on the stand. This is a great opportunity for you to network and meet new, interesting people. Helping out on the stand is always good fun and would involve handing out brochures, speaking to people who are enquiring about coaching and sharing your own coaching experiences and helping us gain new prospects. You will of course get free entry into the show. You will have plenty of time to look round the event too as we usually work it hour on/hour off so you’ll only be working about 4 hours during the day.

Please visit details of the Mind Body Spirit Show http://www.mindbodyspirit.co.uk

If anyone is interested in helping at this event please send an e-mail to me on emmasmith@noble-manhattan.com stating the day/s you’d like to volunteer.

I only have space available on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday.

Letters to use after your name for NM Qualification

This is really a quick overview and reminder to all of the students and coaches who have trained with noble Manhattan worldwide all 7, 000 +  of you .

As a qualified practitioner coach trained by our organisation you are entitled to put the appropriate letter is after your name on your business cards, websites, literature etc here as a reminder are the details.

If you have done the following courses then you can use these letters.

Certificate courses, to include “Practitioner Coach Certificate”

,”Certificate Foundation Course” Certificate in “Workplace Coaching”

NMP Cert

Practitioner Coach Diploma Course

NMP Dip

Executive and Corporate Certificate Courses

NMC Cert

Executive and Corporate Diploma Courses

NMC Dip

You are also entitled to use the Noble Manhattan logo on your website, literature  etc.

To receive a copy of our logo simply send an e-mail to

info@noble-manhattan.com

Volunteers for IIC

Greetings,

IIC is having a special for April only!

Don’t miss this opportunity to save $1000 in member benefits.

50% discount for fully-paid 1 year, fully-paid 2 year, or fully-paid 3 year memberships, paid in April 2011.

Usually the annual membership price is $95 / €70 –  but for April only, it will be  – $47.50 / €35.

Get unlimited access to all the Webinars and the membership newsletter…

If you paid for all the Webinars that we offer annually, it would cost more than $1000…

and these are free to members.

Click the button above to learn more about joining the IIC!

The International Institute of Coaching will be also updating their homepage soon,as well as offering more Webinars, expanded networking capabilities, and plenty of educational content. Content supplied by you, for the benefit of the international coaching community.

Have you written any short coaching essays?

Do you produce independent business articles?

The IIC E-Zine is always looking for user-submitted content!

Share your expertise at the following URL:

http://iic-e-zine.tumblr.com/ask

Many Thanks,

The International Institute of Coaching

The IIC is an international, non profit organisation which has as it’s mission:

To accredit coach training schools and individual coaches world-wide to elevate the success

of the coaching industry by being role models of values such as respect, compassion, inclusiveness,

and faith in humankind.

Well, here we are, early March and the daffodils are coming out and there is a real feeling of spring in the air, well at least there is where we live in Weymouth that subtropical home of coaching on the Jurassic Coast

I thought I would start by bringing people up to date on where I am with my major goal. The one I shared with you one or two newsletters ago.

That is my goal of becoming a virtual CEO.

Well, I’m not quite there yet, but almost. I reckon I’m 80% of the way to achieving my goal. Over the last couple of months we have taken on a number of new people within the organisation and at head office Emma and Stacey have increased their responsibility and their roles and are now actively managing the whole of our operations and marketing ( Emma)  administration ( Stacey).

There is a short video, down below all of me having a chat in my office to Stacey. It is part of a new series of videos we are doing called “getting to know the team” there will be many more coming out over the weeks to come.

Personally I have managed to step away from almost every part of the day-to-day running of the business with one major exception, and that is e-mails !!!

I haven’t quite figured out a way how to outsource all of my day-to-day e-mails, so if anyone has any really good effective ideas, please share, I am all ears 

Re: what’s going on in the company. Well as you can expect a huge amount.

We are continuing to build very successfully throughout Romania, and Poland and have got plans in force for our official launch into Bulgaria in May.

We also have plans to launch into Ukraine and Belarus later this year in conjunction with our new licensed distributor partners from Poland.

Our latest colour coaching training programme took place a few weeks ago in London and was a roaring success. We now have a wonderful new ladies who are qualified as professional, coaches.

The next course will be in May.

These courses are run by our director of colour coaching Mandy Ellesmere.

And Mandy has laid down very strict rules regarding training, she will not run a course with more than six people, so the quality and the personal tuition is extraordinary.

We are now running regular support webinars every single month for our existing coaches and students. So should you have any questions, or challenges or issues then you can speak to one of our senior  faculty. This takes place on the first Thursday of every month.

As I write this newsletter, our latest NLP practitioner programme is taking place in London. Again we deliberately keep the numbers frighteningly low. Unlike some NLP courses where there will be over 400 students we never have more than 10. It is a deliberate policy of Noble Manhattan to keep the quality at an astonishingly high level.

I’m also planning our next adventure for October this year. As you possibly know I personally lead the Motorcycle Quest http://www.noble-quest.com/motorbike_quest.php

This year we are hoping to take our motorcycles around the Black Sea. Although we’re having one or two logistic challenges right now trying to organise how to get the bike’s from the UK over to Romania and back again !!

A few weeks ago we tried something quite new for us with regards to marketing our practitioner coach diploma program. I had looked at how successful the organisation Groupon has been and  we took a leaf from their book and did a very small but Ltd offer for the first 10 people only. It turned out to be very successful indeed and heavily oversubscribed, so we are considering doing something similar Ish in the not too distant future.

Our support group division is going from strength to strength, and we have decided to do another training course in the summer for people who wish to be a Noble Manhattan Support Group President.

This is a very special and prestigious opportunity for selected individuals.

Where we will teach you everything you need to know about how to build, organise, manage and grow a successful coaching support group in your town.

If you would like to be considered for one of these limited places then please contact Stacey at our head office.

We are also opening up the opportunity for selected individuals to join our faculty and be a Webinar Presenter. Details are further below in our newsletter.

In May of this year my great friend Scott Millway and I will be running our two day

“Quantum Goal Achievement Course” in Bucharest.

Full details can be found at http://www.achievemygoals.net/

You will see that we have done the most incredible price reduction for our Romanian students, and coaches and friends

And finally we are about to launch a most incredible opportunity called Noble Alchemy in the next three weeks.

This is a unique service that we are going to make available first of all in Romania ( to a limited number of only 50 coaches)

It is designed to help coaches develop a very successful executive coaching practice within organisations and to earn a wonderful income as they do so.

Watch this space. 

Meet the team video with Stacey Melvin –  Head of Administration

Wishing you an absolutely wonderful March and spring

Lots of love,

Gerard

I came across this on the website of David Icke.

It was a voice-over at the beginning of the video which I have transcribed here.

As a life and business coach,and someone who devotes his life to training others to be coaches, I really couldn’t have said this better myself.

we could do a lot worse than take this as a set of guidelines to live by.

I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible. Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others’ happiness, not by each others’ misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another.

In this world, there’s room for everyone, and the good Earth is rich, and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities life will be violent, and all will be lost.

The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! Only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world, that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Ideas in Action :
The following was taken from an article written by Uday Arur
Barriers to Success – Strategy or Execution?

Recent studies have shown that organizations that have gone through the effort of developing a written strategy fail miserably at execution. According to Paul Niven in his book “The Balanced Scorecard”:

Only 10% of organizations execute their strategy

Only 25% of managers and executives have incentives linked to strategy

85% of executive teams spend less than 1 hour per month on strategy

60% of organizations don’t link budgets to strategy

Who will our customers be? How many will we have?

Those are pretty dismal facts about commitment and results as they pertain to strategy execution.

However, Roger Martin (The Execution Trap, HBR July-August 2010), believes that the idea that a strategy can be brilliant and execution poor is flawed.

To Martin, the flaw stems from the common metaphor used to illustrate the opposing views regarding strategy execution – the one where the organizations “thinkers” come up with the strategy and doers “execute”.

Instead, Martin proposes an alternative metaphor, which he believes can correct the flaw in the thinking. He compares the organization with a white-water river, where choices cascade down from upstream to downstream in the organizational hierarchy. This approach would enable more freedom to adapt decisions to the specifics of the environment in which each organizational level operates, all within a larger framework and direction given by the strategy (the river). Unlike the strategy-execution approach, in which leaders dictate and set strategies and expect subordinates to mechanically follow, the choice-cascade model has senior managers empower workers by allowing them to use their best judgement in the scenarios they encounter. But, says Martin, to effectively enable those individual choices, a choice maker “upstream” must set the context for the downstream.

Martin suggests four ways the choice maker can help his employees make better choices:

Explain the choice that has been made and the rationale for it

Explicitly identify the next downstream choice

Assist in making the downstream choice as needed

Commit to revisiting and modifying the choice based on downstream feedback

Because downstream choices are valued and feedback is encouraged, the framework enables employees to send information back upstream, improving the knowledge base of decision makers higher up and enabling everyone in the organization to make better choices. And when workers are made to feel empowered, the whole organization wins!

The first metaphor, which treats strategy separate from execution, can be associated with a mechanistic, command and control thinking, whereas, what Martin seems to suggest is an organic, systems thinking with an interrelated, integrated view of strategy.

Which side are you on?
Uday Arur CMC, CEQM, CBA
Business Coach
www.arurbizcoach.com

Went for a beautiful scenic walk yesterday with Jurassic Jaunts. The weather was absolutely beautiful and my wife and I and Michael ( age 11) met Andy Petherick who runs the walks, at the Smugglers Haunt and we set off at 11 AM. It was only for two hours along the coast by Osmington. Arrived back at the smugglers in time for lunch at 1:30 PM.
The views were absolutely beautiful.
Here are some random photographs of the group during the walk.

The walks are run by Andy who has a business called ” Jurassic Jaunts” http://www.jurassicjaunts.co.uk/
I’ve known Andy for many years and he is an exceptional guy. A wonderful leader, he gives up his time to lead groups on walks every weekend along the Jurassic Coast.
Walks like this I find really beneficial, it gives me a chance to think very clearly about many things..
It helped me to plan the launch of “Colour Coaching” our new Division to help Women Coaches to build lots of New Clients.
Here is an idea of what the site will look like when it’s finished. This is only the front page right now

http://most-important.com/

Although, one of the things that is bothering me right now is the numbers. We are very deliberately limiting the amount of people that we will allow to train to only 10 per course.and we only plan on running two or possibly three courses this year. So, I know a lot of people are going to be disappointed.
But, I don’t know what else to do, it is so important to me that we keep the quality of the training to a huge standard.
As indeed is everything we do at Noble Manhattan.
Next week the walk is around Corfe Castle. Looking forward to that
Bye for now
Gerard