I’m planning to use my blog to consolidate news about all sorts of things: books, business development, leadership, leading coaches, influence, coaching, and the various communities and business ventures I’m involved in.  I’m trying to cut down on sending out newsletters that nobody has time to read!  And, I’d feel like a hypocrite if I were to keep unsubscribing from all the newsletters I get in my attempts to control my inbox and then continue to send out newsletters to you.

So, if you’d like to continue to keep abreast of all that’s going on, it’s simple to sign up for the Innovative Influence blog feed.
Just click the link (THIS ONE) and in the upper right hand corner you’ll see your options for how you’d like to receive the news: with web-based readers, with other readers, or as an email.  If you don’t check your readers regularly, I recommend choosing the option that looks like this:

Good heavens, no wonder I’m tired!  Here’s what we’ve been up to:

• New store opened:  The Coaches’ Store
• New e-book is out: Seal the Deal Networking: How Coaches Connect with Leaders in the Age of Social Media
• Launch of the Leading Coaches’ Center! (193 members and counting!)
• Build-out of The Clubhouse (the doors are now open for charter members while we continue our buildout)
• The Library of Professional Coaching officially launched!
• We got 2 new awards!  #1 on Twitter and Best of Business
• A few speaking engagements
• New published articles (IAC Voice)
• The Big Question Seminar was a success.  Access the results here.
• Welcome to our newest coaching client organizations:  NIH and Turner Construction.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information by signing up to get my blog in your inbox or favorite reader:

Yes, email me the Innovative Influence blog (click icon below):

Yes, send Suzi’s blog to my favorite RSS reader:

I want to share with you this amazing and inspiring video of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist (brain scientist) who studied her own brain during a stroke and tells an amazing story of what she learned about life. This is a 17-minute video.  Her new-found awareness of the meaning of life is an incredible leadership insight that can make the difference between a good leader and a great leader.

If you haven’t seen it already, it is really powerful!  If you have seen it already, watch it again and see something new!  Enjoy…

Greetings!

Welcome back to the Innovative Leadership International, LLC newsletter, and welcome to our new subscribers. We are writing to you with great excitement about our latest big game! Of course, we would like you to play. You are receiving this e-mail due to your relationship with one or more of us (so you may get this more than once), and we’re delighted to invite you to participate with us as we prepare to launch the Library of Professional Coaching (www.TheLibraryIsComing.com).

Consider the following: Where do you get wide-ranging, but thoughtfully culled information about the field of executive, leadership,business, or organizational coaching?

Where do you go for data, research, publications, books, newsletters, articles, best practices, trends, breakthroughs, strategies, dissertations, conference proceedings and stories about coaching in an organizational context?

Are you looking for a way to get involved in a cutting-edge new venture to unify coaching resources and expand the footprint of professional coaching in the marketplace?

Introducing the Library of Professional Coaching to Open Summer 2008!

We are pleased to announce that the Library of Professional Coaching (LPC) will establish an Internet based center that provides access to a carefully selected set of resources associated with the field and discipline of professional coaching.

In partnership and collaboration with the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations and choice magazine, we are building an online library of professional coaching materials, which will serve as the ultimate Internet-based source of information about professional coaching. It will be an easily searchable database of trusted, high-caliber content about professional coaching. The first “wing” of the library will be devoted to those professional coaching services that are utilized in organizations. Future wings of the library may focus on personal and life coaching services that embrace both personal and organizational domains. Learn more at www.TheLibraryIsComing.com.

Who Are We?

Glad you asked! As you will see below, we have each launched successful enterprises of our own, whether books, magazines, coaching businesses, or other sustained ventures, and you may know us from various volunteer roles we all play in the coaching world:

William Bergquist is co-founder and Co-Executive Editor of the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (www.ijco.info), as well as being co-founder and Symposium Dean for the International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations (www.coachingconsortium.org). He has authored or co-authored 44 books and is owner and president of The Professional School of Psychology (www.physchology.edu).

Suzi Pomerantz is the author of Seal the Deal (www.sealthedealbook.com) , CEO of Innovative Leadership International LLC (www.innovative leader.com), a founding board member of the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (www.ijco.info), as well as founding board member and Vice President of International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations(www.coachingconsortium.org). She has had her Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential from the International Coach Federation (ICF) for 10 years and has been coaching executives for 15 years in over 125 organizations worldwide.

Matthew Rochte (www.MatthewRochte.com) brings to the table seven years of effective triple-bottom-line manufacturing practices, 20+ years of business ownership and entrepreneurial expertise (manufacturing, coaching and training businesses, a national alliance of coaches), and 15 years of executive leadership coaching. Matthew also works with seasoned coaches on going deeper with their work and studying the art of coaching and an integrated approach. Matthew serves on the board of the Minnesota Coaches Association (www.minnesotacoaches.org) and on the International Coach Federation’s Ethics and Standards Committee and code revision team.

Garry Schleifer is the Publisher of choice, the magazine of professional coaching (www.choice-online.com) A serial entrepreneur for over 20 years creating and running several multi-million dollar private and public corporations, he combines his business experience and coach training to apply a signature approach of “ruthless compassion” when helping senior executives boost personal and organizational performance to higher levels. A coach (www.conceptsynoptic.com) for over six years, he holds his PCC certification with the International Coach Federation (ICF). He also serves as Vice President on the ICF Board of Directors.

How Can You Help?

Thanks for asking! In the near future there will be multiple ways for you to contribute during the early stages of the library as we open the doors to membership. For now, however, we are inviting you to participate as a founding donor. Please let us know your interest level and commitment. You can visit us at www.TheLibraryIsComing.com.

Subscribe as founding donor: Donate $25 to $1000 or more to help the library get started and get in on the ground floor of the first wing of what promises to be THE online location for resources pertaining to coaching in organizations.

Donor Levels: Choose your level of participation:

Bronze ($25) – your name and your company name will be listed on a virtual plaque at the LPC website location with other founding donors and you will receive special use of our logo as a link on your website.
Silver ($100) – Bronze plus we will add a link to your website.
Gold ($250) – Silver plus unlimited access to the materials on the website for the first years as we grow our collection.
Platinum ($1000+) – Gold plus unlimited VIP membership access to all materials on the site for the first three years and your logo on our site.

Consider this your invitation to play!

We look forward to your support and we thank you in advance for helping to bring this library to life and make it a reality in 2008. Subscribe now ! Could you also send this e-mail to anyone or any organization you know that is a stakeholder in the profession of coaching as it relates to organizations, business and leadership?

Thanks.
The LPC Librarians:
Bill Bergquist
Suzi Pomerantz
Matthew Rochte
Garry Schleifer

Tell us how you would like to play! VISIT www.TheLibraryIsComing.com NOW to learn more, sign up for our mailing list, or donate.

Facebook is a resourceful tool that allows you to:

1.  Manage your online reputation by creating your profile and business pages on Facebook to put out there exactly what you want in terms of your business image and by getting faster top Google placements.  On Facebook, Pages for businesses and Profiles for individuals are optimized for search engine positioning.  

2.  Use Facebook to complement your real life networking activity…build relationships, increase your visibility, and develop your brand!

I invite you to look at my two Facebook Pages Facebook-Innovative Leadership International and Facebook-Seal The Deal.  On these pages you will find a feature that allows visitors to become a Fan. This interactive feature allows Fans to write comments and interact with other Fans.  It is a great vehicle for feedback on your business.  

For more information on the benefits of using Facebook for your business take a look at

Mari Smith’s free course on facebook strategies for business: http://facebookfortunes.com/ and also Travis Greenlee’s video lessons:  Top Social Media Strategies | Facebook Made Easyhttp://FacebookMadeEasy.com

Ah, the changing landscape of networking…I wanted to connect with you about the social media networking vehicles like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Naymz and Facebook to name just a few.  It’s amazing how many of these have popped onto the scene and  it seems everyone is racing to create a professional profile and build a professional network using the latest technology.  I, too, have fallen prey to the novelty of it all, and I’ve been finding the etiquette and ethics of what is and is not appropriate in each one of these tools to vary.  So, how are we to navigate these waters?

Recently, I posted a question on Linked In to my network about the appropriateness of using Linked In to promote a new product I wanted to announce, as well as a new product of a colleague that I wanted to announce.  Interestingly enough, the responses I got back were all across the map!  Apparently nobody knows the answer to what is appropriate and/or ethical with regards to using these networks for online marketing, but everybody had a personal preference or opinion about what it should be or not be.  

So, if you’ve read Seal the Deal, you know I’m an advocate of integrating your marketing, networking and sales activities, and doesn’t it seem like these new social media formats are the perfect vehicle for just that?  Well, beware, dear readers!  Right now the internet world of social networking is a wild, wild west and we’d be wise to exercise caution in the following ways:

1.     Beware of brand impact.  Do not create for yourself an accidental brand by posting photos of you engaged in various stages of debauchery on your Facebook page and then being shocked when your prospective employer (or current employer) or prospective or current clients use that data in their decision-making.  Your credibility is as important on the internet as it is when you’re wearing a suit and trying to be professional!

2.     Beware of the name-gamers.  There are a lot of folks who are just out to get as many names as they can in their networks, but these are the equivalent of empty calories.

3.     Your online networks, like your real-life network, should be filled with people you know, trust, have an actual relationship with or experience with, and with whom you have some genuine human connection. 

Remember the Nine Mindsets of Networking! Social networking  works best when you follow the same principles of regular, real-life networking. Social networking online is no substitute for the actual activity of real-life networking.  It can complement your actual networking activities, but should not replace them! If you don’t know the Nine Mindsets of Networking, you can find them in my book in chapter 8 or when you purchase the Seal the Deal Audio Success Kit, now available at http://www.innovativeleader.com/successkit/index.htm anytime.  

Also, available is an audio page onhttp://www.innovativeleader.com/audio.htm that allows you to listen to up to 12 FREE podcasts that you have full permission to share with others!