As Lynn so eloquently put in her post on the Black Tusk experience the process of applying for a PRISM award has its own benefits. Busy leaders rarely sit down to assess the overall impact of a specific leadership intervention. The first benefit of PRISM is the application process. It helps solidify already known benefits and identifies new previously unidentified benefits that didn't appear immediately after or during the coaching initiative.
It was really fascinating to watch my client shift from a strong advocate to a flat out cheerleader of coaching as they pulled together the information for their presentation at the awards ceremony. External recognition is a rarity in most organizations and getting a nomination or an award like PRISM that focuses on development of people and their capabilities carries a special meaning to people oriented leaders.
In so far as benefits of being a nominating coach...first and foremost it was personally gratifying to see my client get so clear about what worked. That wasn't something I could have done without the nomination and award presentation process. Secondly...there was no mad rush to my door of clients I had never met. There was however literally a rush of clients I already knew who wanted to do more. Many of whom I didn't actually have an answer at the time as to what more would look like.
The last four PRISM awards have been very well attended and our clients have left with their heads full of great coaching stories. At some point I should sit down and see what the ROI on taking clients to a PRISM Awards has been for us. In our case we have closed deals the afternoon of PRISM Awards on two occasions and the next day on the other...ya just can't beat having other high profile successful companies telling how effective coaching is to help seal a deal.
NB: Contrary to popular scarcity mythology none of our clients ran off to be coached by the PRISM Award winning coaches nor did anyone run from someone else's table to do business with us when we won. Our expreince has been that clients turn to the coaches they know and ask for proposals.
The following are two of my favorite testimonials to the power of the PRISM awards:
- As the Executive Director of our client organization and her Board Chair were leaving a PRISM awards ceremony two years ago she said to me "I think it is time to get serious about coaching". We had already been coaching them for 2 years at that point with both individual and team coaching. It took me a month or so before I could come up with a program that met her need "to get serious"...I was pretty sure we had already been serious...but the client was right, we took it to another level which led to the Surrey Food Bank being nominated and winning a PRISM award.
- The second quote was equally challenging from a business perspective. We had invited this client (a large restaurant group) to the PRISM awards three years ago and their parting question was "Ok what will it take for us to win a PRISM award". We have been working intensely with their leadership teams ever since. Hopefully sometime in the next couple of years we will have another PRISM story to share here.
Winning isn't the primary benefit of PRISM...great coaching stories are. It is hands down the best marketing dollar you can spend as a coach. When we first heard about PRISM we thought it would be a good way to support coaching so we bought one table and took a couple of clients and quite a few friends. We quickly realized the business value of PRISM stories. Last year we took over 50 clients to this event and made our money back several times over by the next day.
If you think you have a good coaching story to tell, take a stab at it. You will be very pleasantly surprised by what your clients will tell you. Our clients have been honored just at the idea of being nominated.
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