Eric Sohn
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Hi, members -
I have a dilemma and, rather than trying to inch my way towards it, I'm going to illustrate it by coaching myself. Yes, you can't coach yourself, but this will both illuminate the issues, the motivations behind them, and also show you the coaching process. I invite your reaction to this conversation (no wise remarks about talking to myself, please!)
So, Eric, what do you want to talk about today?
The message traffic on my Ryze board.
What result do you want from today's session?
Strategies for having a more regular, substantial message flow that
benefits the members and demonstrates how coaching illuminates
the issues businesses face.
What is it like now?
Now it feels forced. Early on, I let the traffic drive itself, and there
was silence, so I asked questions to start conversation. Later on, I
got messages, but wanted to follow up with questions.
What happened?
I had to make a decision between responding to the particular
person, where I ran the risk of people tuning out, because it was not
their thread to respond to, or creating a new topic off the learning
from the point the member made.
What happened next?
I was too present. I made up a large percentage of the posts, and
I felt people were getting whipsawed.
So, you mentioned that traffic seems forced. How do you rephrase your goal in those terms?
I want the message traffic to flow naturally and require minimal
priming. I also want my responses to fit in naturally and not feel like
butting in.
OK. Do you feel like you're butting in?
In some respects. Coaching is, in large part, responding to issues in
a different way, through questioning assumptions and seeking
alternatives. Most posts on most networks are the opposite of that -
they're advising or, worse yet, telling people what will work for them.
What's the worst that can happen if you let that go on?
People might associate the discussion with the coaching process
(they might think it's only about starting from a place of inquiry)
and possibly my practice. And that's bad, because often advice is
given in situations where insufficient information is provided to
give a fool-proof solution. Also, the person working through the
issue has to own the solution - ones they come up with in coaching
are more likely to be committed to than ones they're given.
What else might happen?
People might talk themselves out, then I could provide a different
perspective through coaching. One of the problems is that there
doesn't seem to be enough organic discussion to make the network
worthwhile for members.
How do you know that?
Actually, I don't - I will ask.
You expressed another concern - about missing an important learning from a member's post. What's the worst that can happen if you did that?
The member might feel neglected, that his issue is not being
addressed.
What else might happen?
The member might get feedback from others - although it would be
advice, not coaching.
What else might happen?
The member might start their own thread, which is something I
actually want.
Anything else?
Not right now, but I will think about it. I want to volunteer something.
Yes?
When I sense an important learning, I can PM the member about it
and save it for a lull in the conversation.
But I'm still afraid of not having enough traffic.
So, what's the worst that could happen?
I could be right, and people would leave because it wouldn't provide
value to them.
So?
Well, there are lots of networks out there with little traffic. But this is
an important part of my marketing - there's a lot of my ego in this.
So, what might happen?
Well, even if I lost all my members, there are a lot more out there -
I've reached less than 0.1% of Ryze members. By contrast,
Entrepreneurs has 50 times as many members and less weekly traffic.
I guess I'd just have to start over.
What else could you do to build message traffic?
I could actively solicit more members by visiting new member home
pages, and pages of people whose posts I find interesting. So, as a
pure
What else?
From time to time, I could send a question to the group via mail or GB
post. I don't want to do that more than once a month, though - they
get a lot of mail (we all do).
So, what actions will you take?
I will ask people if, prior to my answering a lot of posts, there was
enough traffic here to make visiting here worth their while.
I will let people post for a while before responding to all the posts.
I will more actively solicit new members from the new members list
and other networks.
I will also archive key learnings for "breaks in the action" and PM the
poster to let him know I saw the post and am not neglecting it.
So, what did you think of the coaching session - as unnatural as it was? Also, what do you think of the proposed changes? Will they make this a better place to read and post?
Thanks for your patience - this is an inherently different kind of network and therefore is taking a little longer to get right. But, we're all learning, aren't we?
Coach EricPrivate Reply to Eric Sohn (new win) |