SUMMER PROMOTION TO SAMPLE COACHINGPLUS IN ENGLISH

Dear friends and colleagues:

Following my return to Chile, I am relaunching CoachingPlus and am keen to spread the word about my unique proposition of using collegial coaching for my clients to obtain outstanding results whilst enhancing their ability to express complex issues in English to global audiences.

BENEFITS

From the Coaching...

• Reflect on your vision, your goals and strategies with a seasoned coach who will challenge your thinking.
• Hold yourself accountable to yourself by commiting to the why, what, when, where and how with your coach.
• Explore resources to achieve better self-awareness and cognizance of the psychology of your audience.
• Understand and adopt collegial coaching to permanently improve personal, team and organizational results.

With the Plus of Interacting in a Foreign Language

• Build your confidence and fluency in discussions with an experienced British entrepreneur.
• Receive feedback and correction on key aspects of the language which might be letting you down.
• Benefit from the cognitive, sensory, neural and social advantages of interacting in your second language.
• Have access to Cross-Cultural Theory and Tools to help you better relate to your foreign counterparts.

CLIENTS AND TESTIMONIALS

“….I have had Philip’s ongoing support in all these matters and it has had an incredible impact on my results. I recommend him 100%”. Gonzalo Torrealba- Serial Entrepreneur. Founder of 4Talent.

3 INDIVIDUAL 1-HOUR SESSIONS PROGRAMMED ACCORDING TO YOUR NEEDS AND CONVENIENCE:

Session One: Explain your short-term business/life vision and define 3 key challenges you need to overcome or goals you need to set to achieve these. Joint evaluation of your current competence in English and aspects you consider need improving to optimize first impressions.

Session Two: Share the project you have chosen to focus on in these sessions with your coach  and be prepared for challenging questions. Understand the premise and application of Collegial Coaching.

Session Three: First Follow Up. Which milestones/goals did you achieve? What still needs to be done? How will you ensure your personal accountability for the next steps. Who will be your collegial coach to continue the process?

INVESTMENT:
Standard Summer* Price (3UF/HR):          $ 248.000 CLP
Discount (40%):                                          $   99.000 CLP
SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL PRICE      $ 149.000 CLP

*Summer price and special promotional price valid from 1^st Jan to 31^st March
* *From April to December Standard Price per Hour of Coaching is 5UF/Hr

If you are interested in this, or any of the other services I offer through www.coachingplus.cl, please do not hestitate to contact me via WhatsApp: +569 58768505), email: philiprayr@gmail.com or www.linkedin.com/in/philipray/             

Sincerely,

Philip Ray

Launching "English and Mining" at Expomin Chile 2016. Come and join us in the British Pub, right next to our stand!!

Meet Bob le Marchant, who I had the good fortune to meet last September thanks to Paul Hawthorne, Principal and General Manager of The Devon School of English on the beautiful British Riviera.

Bob is lead consultant for the English and Mining Programme that was first discussed at the British Embassy in Chile and is being formerly launched at Expomin Chile 2016 next week.

Paul has invited me to join him in the British Pavilion together with our colleagues from Study Tours to understand the learning and development needs of the industry in general and the need of any visitors to our stand who would like our collective advice in improving communication skills.

Check out this video of Bob talking about his mining and tunneling experiences around the world including Canada, Africa and the Welsh Mountains! He even had to learn a special language called Funakalo to communicate with his 11,000 colleagues many of whom only spoke their own local tribal languages.

We shall be offering scholarships to deserving candidates and corporations who are interested in testing the quality of teaching and residential experience at The Devon School of English and its "English and Mining" programme. Do visit our stand 100b in the British Pavilion, Hall 1B or call me on 62297840 to book a meeting during or after Expomin.

Back in Chile with a Fresh Understanding of my Cross Cultural Contradictions

Well, here I am, back in Chile, sad to leave Mum and Dad behind but grateful for the opportunity to have spent 2 months of quality time with them and thrilled to be back with my own family, my own home (overlooking the Andes) and to be able to continue to seek opportunities for contributing, with my training and experience, to the future of this wonderful country.

Happy too, to have taken a week out with my one of my very first bosses, Richard Lewis and his team, at the amazing Riversdown House in the heart of the Hampshire, learning more about Cross Culture and understanding some of my challenges and opportunities in relating with Chileans and how my 35 years out here have affected my interactions with my own countrymen!

Take a look at the attached chart - "Philip Ray Compared with the Typical Chilean Stereotype". As a Brit, you would expect me to be much more Linear Active (blue descriptors) which is where I should be careful in my interactions with the more Multi Active (red descriptor) Chileans. In fact out of a total of 15 potential "clashes" between Linear Active and Multi Active cultures, I have only 7, marked with the yellow asterisk (The 8th shows a more Reactive/Asiatic tendency of mine to hide my feelings (in contrast with the Multi-Active Latins).

It was quite a surprise to see I had exactly the same number of potential "clashes" when dealing with a true UK stereotype but of course in totally different contexts. I need to be aware of my Multi-Linear tendencies to:

• Plan just the general outline
• Multi-task
• Confront situations emotionally
• Interrupt quite often
• Put truth before diplomacy
• Mix my social and professional lives

It is also interesting to note that I seem to have lost the more Reactive/Asiatic tendencies of the English  to be "Polite and Indirect" and to "Put Diplomacy before Truth".

Of course, stereotypes are nothing more than that, and there is no doubt that the lines are beginning to blur, although some parental, educational, professional, geographical conditioning is more difficult to eradicate than others. And of course Wigan-born Richard is the first to point out that there are not only differences between the Scots, Irish, Welsh and English but also between the North and South,  The West and the Home Counties etc. However, looking at my true blue characteristics, which required no thought at all when answering the questionnaire, I do confess to having a lot of British/UK  programming which, indeed, I am quite proud of:

• Talks Half the Time
• Uses Official Channels
• Dislikes Losing Face
• Is Sometimes Impatient
• Limited Body Language
• Uses Mainly Facts.

Another important consideration is that the essence of the Culture Active Profiles is your self-evaluation. However, I must confess that at times, whilst answering the questionnaire, I found myself in a quandry asking myself  "does what I have just answered really reflect me, or how I think I ought to be". I am therefore looking forward to seeing the 360° profile that I shall be receiving shortly with anonymous input from my 3 British and 4 Scandinavian "classmates" about how they perceived me on the basis of the 3.5 days we spent together.

I could go on, and would be delighted to delve deeper into the subject over a coffee with any of my local friends, colleagues and clients and interested parties, to explore what a great complement awareness of this subject can be to other training and development initiatives. 

Check out my website www.coachingplus.cl

To anyone else who is interested, do check out the official website: www.crossculture.com and make sure you make contact with your local partner trainer

To finish - a photo of my delightful group of colleagues with whom I certified to become a trainer of the Lewis Model and to use the Culture Active Data Base.

Michael Gates and Caroline Lewis (foreground) with (left to right) Daniela, Stephanie, Maria, Peter, Pia, Kristiina and Guy

Richard D. Lewis with future trainer/partners

Off to Build Bridges Between Chile and England! Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays to all family, friends and clients around the world!!

As I prepare for my yearly trip back to England to take care of my amazing parents, I once again face the dilemma of where is home!! Where I was born and my parents and environment formed, to a large extent, who I am today? Or here in Chile, my adopted home since getting married to Carmen in 1976, where I have attempted to pass on some of these same beliefs, attitudes, values and habits to my equally amazing children and grandchildren?

In the past it was simple ... my parents were able to escape the cruel winters in England to join us for our warm summer holidays in Chile... and what a privilege that was!!  2 months of intensive sharing, exploring and learning.

This sketch by my mother is a treasured souvenir of one our holidays up North. What wonderful memories. If you add up the total number hours the average English family manages to spend relaxing with their parents, children and grandchildren every year on their monthly weekend trips cross country. I am sure it is less than 20% of the time we spent with Mum and Dad every summer for at least 15 years. My dear sister, Christine, has reason to be jealous!

So now comes the giving back! My independent profession and lifestyle fortunately gives me the opportunity to make these trips, but it ain't free! I am therefore thrilled to have the opportunity this year of representing my new found Canadian friends, Nicole and Leslie Bendaly from Kinect to explore the opportunity to contribute to healthcare in England with their excellent solutions, If this is successful we shall be translating their product shortly into Spanish, providing the bridge I have been looking to build so long between the two continents.

With this note of optimism to close what has undoubtedly been a challenging year for all of us, I would like to wish you all a peaceful and loving close to 2015, a very joyful festive season and a very positive start to the New Year!

Peace, Health and Happiness!

Philip Ray and family!

Back to Beginnings

"Greet and Meet" Cocktail at Riversdown House to a new cohort of international executives brushing up their English

It was a great pleasure to revisit Riversdown House during the summer and renew contact with an old friend and boss - Richard Lewis, Chairman of  Richard Lewis Communications and meet his daughter Caroline who is now coordinating much of the business for both the Residential Language Training Programmes and the Cross Cultural Activities.

Since 1971 over 35,000 international business executives, global professionals, politicians, academics and private individuals from 67 different countries have achieved a remarkable polish to their English Communication Skills at this unique centre.

Richard (or Don as he is known to friends and family) is as sprightly as ever and continues to lecture on Cross Culture around the world and welcome his international guests to Riversdown at the weekly cocktails.

Good news for those of you who have been looking forward to this spectacular learning experience: During the winter months they are offering a 25% discount on the second week of a two week intensive course. I shall be in England from January through to March and would love to meet up with anyone who takes up this offer. (Visit my website for further information)

Time to Celebrate - Seeds of Trust begin to Blossom Again!

I am excited to announce that 19 years after my first meeting with Tom Morell and Walter Santaliz, who had the courage to trust me with the responsibility of taking on  the representation of Covey Leadership Center in Chile, the wheel has turned full circle!

When I first discovered the transformational power of "The Seven Habits", I was almost down on my knees begging for the opportunity to bring the programme to Chile at a time when the country desperately needed to restore trust. Our success in achieving significant cultural change in such diverse organizations as BCI Bank, Minera Disputada de Las Condes, the Hospital Católica de la PUC and Drillco gave me the enormous retribution of having made a significant contribution, not just to the companies but to the 6,000 or more people who did all the work!

Two decades later, with low trust once again back on the agenda as a big "Achilles' heel", Walter and his partner Carlos have just renegotiated the license and it was a great honor to be offered the role of "Ambassador" to Franklin Covey Chile.

Due to my on-going commitments with Coaching Plus, VitalSmarts and HemsleyFraser, I am unable to accept a full time position, but was delighted that my suggestion to take on the role of Chief Brand Officer, responsible for the company's "image, experience and promise" has been accepted.

I am looking forward to meeting up again with so many old and new clients, workshop participants, friends and colleagues with whom we have shared the principles of "Greatness", catching up and sharing "The Ultimate Competitive Advantage".

What's Behind the Logo?

In the process of updating the website for Coaching Plus for Peak Performance, I have suddenly realized how I have come to take the logo for granted. 

Hopefully, most people get the metaphor of mountains having peaks that are not easy to reach and can easily imagine that a good coach, or perhaps better still, a magnificent sherpa might be useful.

Nothing wrong with that I suppose! But it does miss out a whole lot of background thinking, research and experience which explain the blue and gold lines in the logo and the main concept I was trying to drive home. Let's look at the research first.

In 1979, (when I was still a young man!) Jack Rackham wrote an article called "The Coaching Controversy" in which he stated: 

"Knowledge can be taught effectively in the classroom, but skills can best be learned by on-the-job coaching. Coaching is a cost-effective way to reinforce new behaviors and skills until the skill feels more natural and begins to result in better performance".

He used the graph above to demonstrate this. People attend training (or nowadays resort to social media) to pick up new ideas, spark their own creativity and discover quicker and more effective ways to get better results. 

Once they have discovered the "magic pill", they feel inspired to put it all into practice the very next day and discover, to their dismay and frustration, that whilst their behavior apparently improved,  their results went down. Makes sense doesn't it - change takes time and persistence and needs to be systemic. 

However, how many of us have the personal discipline to resist the pressure of work and multiple distractions, and keep up the right behaviors which should produce the wonderful results we are looking for? Rackham's research (verified by Cavanaugh and Leahy in 2000) showed that average productivity from "serious" training programs with no follow-up increased by 22%. Not bad and many companies today would probably be delighted!

But look what they discovered when the training was followed up with the support of a coach with the specific mission of keeping the learner's eye on the ball (to use a golfing metaphor!) and continue putting the new knowledge into practice and developing new skills until they became habits. Productivity increases of 88% and more.

I witnessed this in my first experience as an entrepreneur, offering language training to some of the leading multinationals (English to Chilean executives and Spanish to expatriates), shortly after arriving in Santiago. Those students who had no option but to practice the language on the job with a foreign boss or during an extended trip abroad, readily assimilated the new knowledge, and through trial and error quickly improved their understanding, confidence and fluency with a huge impact on their effectiveness. Many of the others came to classes year after year for the standard 90-hour programme and just stagnated at intermediate level, convinced they were just not gifted for languages.

Likewise, when I took on the representation of Stephen Covey in Chile. Virtually everyone loved the content of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", and many participants claimed it had changed their lives at home, especially when they shared the content with their families and friends and committed to support each other during the follow-up period. 

However, there was an undoubted difference between the ROI of those companies that just contracted the 3-day workshop and went back to the "real world" on Monday against those that contracted a follow-up process. The best results of course, and thinking specifically of BCI, Disputada and Hospital Clínica de la PUC, were those that trained internal facilitators and coaches (including senior managers) to roll-out the program and co-designed a formal process which aligned systems and processes with the new culture.

Many from the first group have confessed to me that they used to hang up the 7H with their coats when they arrived at the office every morning as it was a complete waste of time trying to practice the habits!! (Yes, I know - a complete lack of proactivity - but I'm sure you get the message!). In the second group they didn't only "wear the tee-shirt" but 20 years later tell tales of how the programmed transformed their organization's culture...

Well, that's the story behind the blue and gold lines! I should just like to thank Tom Morell, Walter Santalíz, Marta Sánchez, Barbara Hauser and so many other colleagues at Franklin Covey and Vital Smarts for the opportunity to learn with them, Thomas Crane for sharing his methodology with me on his "Heart of Coaching" certification program, and, most important, the hundreds of executives and professionals I have had the privilege of working with over the past 2 decades.