For an increasing number of companies, business coaching and coach-led tailored educational experiences, including creativity-generating discussion salons, are replacing the standard, generic seminar or conference as the smart choice for educational expenditures.

• Are specifically designed with you and/or your organization in mind. It's not one size fits all. It's all about your agenda and only about your agenda. As such, it shifts, matures and grows as your agenda shifts, matures and grows.
• Are more effective. Because they are designed to exceed your individual needs and expectations, these tools quickly get to the heart of the matter. The return on investment (ROI) is great. In one survey conducted by Manchester, organizational leaders responded that they had received an average return of more that $100,000 or about six times what they had spent on coaching or coach-led tailored education. And this was identified as a conservative estimate of the monetary payoff!!
• Feel very personal to employees. At a time when 51% of American workers report feeling "cheated" in some way in the workplace, these tailored experiences are perceived as refreshing. It says - we are willing to invest in you and your individual needs. For many companies, there is a new sense of the incredible value and fragility of the people who do the work. Making personal investments in people improves morale. It increases job satisfaction. It pumps up productivity and retention.
• Produce laser-like results. Faster and more targeted. How could they not?
• Allow results to be measured more easily. That's because they are focused on your agenda which means that you/your team/your organization needs to have an agenda. You determine where you are today and where you want to go. Success is measured by how quickly and completely you close the gap between the two.
• Reduce travel time and expenses. Many coaching sessions and tailored programs are offered virtually. You can include your entire national sales team on a bridgeline for group coaching or to engage in a discussion salon. Or you can bring me to your site - coaching one to many.
• Sustains awareness and momentum like no other business tool today. Often, someone will attend a business seminar, get a few new ideas and then return to their hectic environment, jump back into the "doing" and the seeds of those new ideas wither. I tailor educational programs as "extensives," conducted over several sessions and followed-up over months to be certain that the positive changes that are made actually remain "Velcro-ed" to the individual, team or organization and even spawn more change.
• Increase accountability. Tailored programs land differently on employees. Because they are personalized and are more readily recognized as investments, they are taken more seriously and internalized at a deeper level. There is a stronger sense of appreciation.
• Equip the participant to take on risk more effectively. Again, because these are tailored to your needs and interests, they offer an enhanced opportunity to surface up stories and ditch beliefs that are standing in your way. They build more confidence.
• Create a wonderful discipline of investing in yourself regularly. Those involved cannot help but put more time, energy and attention into their own professional growth and development.
• Offer a safe space to "look under the bed." We've all got places where we seldom look for solutions. Tailored programs allow us to go there quicker and easier.

Business coaching and tailored educational experiences are powerful organizational tools. They are particularly impactful and, in a time of fiscal prudence, offer great value.