Showing posts with label business coaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business coaching. Show all posts

Monday, February 8, 2010

Culture of Denver Dog Works: Service Availability and Belief

Culture of Denver Dog Works: Service Availability and Belief
By Robert Forto, PhD


This is the fourth installment in a series on the Culture of Denver Dog Works. I am only only doing this to give our readers an idea of what we are about at Denver Dog Works but also as an exercise for us here at the training center to make sure we are all on the same page and delivering exceptional customer service and training a client's dog to be one of the best trained dogs in the world.

The 10 Elements of Culture as defined by Denver Dog Works are:

Integrity
Professionalism
Development
Service Availability and Belief
Character
Self Development
A Event Culture
Structured Activity
Leadership
Fun

Service Availability and Belief at Denver Dog Works and our Culture:

Along with a strong belief in your own inner voice, you also need laser-like focus combined with unwavering determination. -- Larry Flynt

Yes, I know who Larry Flynt is. That is not up for debate. What I interpret from his quote is that in business you have to belief in yourself in business and if you second guess you will not accomplish your goals.

A lot can be said about the way one business approaches it’s day to day operation over another but you know what? That is what separates the businesses that will succeed and those that will fail.

Service Availability

At Denver Dog Works we designed our business on 40 years of collaborated dog training experience. We pride ourselves on our ability to build you a customized training package with the ability to adjust the program as needed if necessary. Learn how to train your dog with Denver Dog Works and experience the best pet relationship you could ever imagine.  At Denver Dog Works you won't feel like your walking through a revolving door. You will feel like your taking your dog to the gym! Our trainers will keep you motivated and wanting to come back. Training is for life! For you and your dog.

Core Beliefs

At Denver Dog Works we truly are a mom and pop business. My wife, Michele, and I work every day to make our business a success and something that we can be proud of. We include our family in our business and if you have stopped in on a Saturday you will see our 12-year old daughter Nicole working right along with us. This is important to us and is what we believe in.

I say that at Denver Dog Works we don’t just train dogs, we change lives. In our work with our service dog training program and our constant reminder of the need for a quick and educated response to canine aggression, we strive to make that our business model. As we have covered in previous articles about our culture; our core beliefs are important to us and they should be important to you.


1.) Integrity: At Denver Dog Works we strive to provide each client with the most up to date thorough training available. We design your training program to fit your needs.

2.) Professionalism: At Denver Dog Works we believe that each client is an individual with individual needs for their dog and their lifestyle. There is no cookie cutter packaging available at Denver Dog Works. Our professional staff takes the time to listen to your goals and concerns during our initial evaluation.

3.) Education: At Denver Dog Works all trainers are certified in canine behavior. All staff members are certified in canine CPR and first aid. We have the best and train the rest! We pride ourselves on continuing our educations and experiences by learning new methods as well as updating old methods. We can teach you how to train your dog for any goal. We specialize in sport training and understand the various methods and tools utilized in sport training.

4.) Quality: At Denver Dog Works we believe in the quality of our training rather than the quantity. There are times when an hour long session isn't going to be enough. In those cases we schedule longer class times to adjust the needs of our clients. We also will address minor behavior issues if they arise in our private lessons and our camp works programs. If it is determined that a larger behavior problem exists we refer you to our canine behaviorist.

Denver Dog Works cares about you and your dog. Our attention to service and customer care gives us the opportunity to expand our availability to you.


I encourage any feedback you may have and of course share the culture of your business as well. I can be reached anytime by email at train@denverdogworks.com

Next Week: Character

__________________
Dr. Robert Forto is the training director of Dog Works Training Centers and the host of a weekly radio program, The Dog Doctor Radio Show which can be heard every Saturday at 9:30 am in the Rocky Mountain West or download it anytime. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.denverdogworks.com

Monday, February 1, 2010

Culture of Denver Dog Works: Development

Culture of Denver Dog Works: Development
By Robert Forto, PhD


This is the third installment in a series on the Culture of Denver Dog Works. I am only only doing this to give our readers an idea of what we are about at Denver Dog Works but also as an exercise for us here at the training center to make sure we are all on the same page and delivering exceptional customer service and training a client's dog to be one of the best trained dogs in the world.

The 10 Elements of Culture as defined by Denver Dog Works are:

Integrity
Professionalism
Development
Service Availability and Belief
Character
Self Development
A Event Culture
Structured Activity
Leadership
Fun

Development at Denver Dog Works and our Culture:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover." - Mark Twain

We are on the cutting edge of the dog training world at Denver Dog Works. Everything that we do, whether it be new technology, development of individualized training plans, our customer service team, and our attention to detail, all says our tag-line loud and clear: We Have the Best and Train the Rest.

Sure many companies proport to be the best in their industry. I am sure many of them have won awards from their peers and comrades in their respective businesses, but do you really know what it means to be the best? In my humble opinion it means that you take a moment each day to look at what you are doing right and more importantly what you are doing wrong and you tweak your system to address your challenges.

Sure, this media-biased economic downturn has hurt us all small business owners but we have held steadfast to our belief that we are the best and we continue to evolve every day. We took advantage of the downturn in the economy and the abundance of extra hours in our work weeks and got as much training as we possibly could. We attended a great program that changed the way we do business forever by working with David Sandusky and his Your Brand Plan, I attended training to become a neuro-linguistics practitioner and what a difference that has made in being able to work with my clients and help them be the best they can be and reach their full potential. We hold weekly sales meetings and innovative presentations on how we can work together as a team and work together to be the best.

As I said, the opportunity to take David’s Your Brand Plan program has changed the face of Denver Dog Works. The first way this happened is we found David and hired him as a professional facilitator and allowed him to make the tough decisions that build upon the perceived strengths and weaknesses of our leadership team. This team, mainly me, had trouble seeing the forest for the trees and the work with David allowed me to take a look at it from a different perspective. After doing that, he then helped contain a message that we transmitted and transferred down the rank and file of all that are involved in our business. This has taken us from a mediocre canine training school to one that is sought out all over the world based on the way that we conduct our daily business affairs.

In our course development we truly are cutting edge. I will admit that I have always been a bit of a technology geek and I had a cell-phone when it cost three dollars a minute and I was the first on my block on the Internet in the early 1980’s studying the Dow Jones wires and amassing a $700.00 phone bill that got me in hot water with my parents. In the coming months we are re-working our canine career training course and implementing the new iPad technology to support it. We will be including an iPad in every new student’s package and our course will be fully interactive with video, lecture, webinars, video chat, exams and business development tools. Sure you can do this the old way by writing it all down on paper, but who has time for that? A person told me a long time ago, in order to be a good dog trainer you need to train a lot of dogs. True, but if you don’t have something innovative to offer then you will just be another dog trainer and they are a dime a dozen. It is funny because the person who told me that proports he is an “old school” style trainer and the same three clients and their dogs are still on the trainers homepage as “success stories.”

Some other key areas that we strive to continue to develop and stay abreast of are:

Financial literacy. At Denver Dog Works we must understand budgets, cash flow, bookkeeping and working with other business partners and vendors is a must for any entrepreneur.

We continue to work on our leadership. We recognize that we are the only one in charge of our business. We are not looking for a “bail out” or a promise of a loan. We also recognize that pressures abound since a single decision can grow a business or cripple it.

We at Denver Dog Works strive to stay focussed and committed to the financial success of our company and that spells the difference between success and failure. Yes, we love to train dogs. It is our passion but we also recognize that we are in this to make a living. While we will not ever drive luxury cars or fly on private jets, we love what we do and are proud we chose this as a career.

As we stated in a previous article, integrity is a hallmark of our business. we handle, care for and train other peoples dogs and they are looked upon as a member of their family. We also handle a client’s money and they have contracted us for our services.

We continue to develop our sales techniques, our marketing plans and how to brand ourselves in a very competitive industry. We continue to exercise sound business judgment and allocating our resources with great care. We also know that we must re-charge our own batteries so we can maintain an edge by offering company training and retreats such as white-water rafting as a team building exercises and attending sporting events as a group to build camaraderie.

As I say all the time, all you need to be a dog trainer is a business card, a leash and a smile. But it takes a savoy businessperson to live through the highs and learn from the lows to be one of the greatest dog trainers in the world. We at Denver Dog Works, truly believe we are and that is what sets us apart.

I encourage any feedback you may have and of course share the culture of your business as well. I can be reached anytime by email at train@denverdogworks.com

__________________
Dr. Robert Forto is the training director of Dog Works Training Centers and the host of a weekly radio program, The Dog Doctor Radio Show which can be heard every Saturday at 9:30 am in the Rocky Mountain West or download it anytime. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.denverdogworks.com

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Knowing What You Want

Knowing What You Want
By Robert Forto, PhD


As a practitioner of Neuro-Linguistics (NLP) I am constantly asked, “Dr. Forto, how do I know what I want?” I tell my clients when you set an outcome you are programing your mind to achieve that goal. Consciously or unconsciously, you that to notice opportunities and possibilities around you that can help you reach your goal. So getting the program absolutely right from the very beginning is an important step. Otherwise you do not achieve your outcome--and you may actually get something you don't want.

The starting point for any outcome is to make sure that you express it positively--what do you want to have. Consider the difference between these two outcomes

I do not want to feel trapped in my boring job any longer,

I want to face new challenges in my job every day.

Although the first example does not include any overtly negative words such as no or not, the statement expresses what you don’t want. Even more importantly the first statement does not give any indication of what you need to replace the current situation.

The difficulty with focusing on what you don’t want is that in order to think about not having something, you need to think about that very thing. This puts your attention on what you don’t want rather than what you do want.

Some examples of focus on what they don’t want are below:

I want to stop smoking.
I want to stop being short tempered at work
I want to cut out sweet and fatty foods to lose weight.

To change these desires into positive outcomes you must concentrate on what you want rather than what you need to stop doing and give up. To make the shift ask yourself this instead: What do I want instead?

When you honestly answer this question your outcomes shift to things like this:

I want to live a healthy lifestyle.
I want to be more patient at work.
I want to be slim.

Look over your outcomes and look for words like should, must, and try.

If you would like to be the best at what you do or your want to reach your peak in performance, give me a call and we can talk about it.

_______________
Dr. Robert Forto is a public speaker, business coach and radio show host. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.robertforto.com

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Coaching for Peak Performance

Coaching for Peak Performance
By Robert Forto, PhD

If you are a small business owner and you want to have a leading edge in your industry consider coaching for peak performance. If you want any of the following give Dr. Robert Forto, a call at 303-522-1727 or contact him anytime through this website.

Would you like to:

Recruit the best
Make effective change
Achieve goals
Enhance performance
Enhance creativity and innovation
Motivate and energize people
Decrease response times
Keep your talented people
Communicate effectively
Improve teamwork

Dr. Robert Forto is a practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, commonly called NLP and he can show you quick results in a minimal amount of time.

A common theme we always hear when consulting with a business or organization is that people are always trying to do more with less. Expectations of employees are rising, while resources are limited. The fight to stay competitive drives this need to innovate continually, to improve products, services and processes.

In some businesses or organizations this pressure leads to tightly managed. Process-led approaches that focus on minimizing errors and maintaining control. These management models have their roots in the days of heavy industry and manufacturing and the drive to control quality. Nowadays, however, these approaches tend to create workforces that lack motivation, intuitive and drive-and are often very stressed.

More and more forward thinking businesses and organizations realize that supporting and developing people is as important as getting the job done, and in fact the job can't get done unless people develop and grown their skills. These businesses and organizations are on the forefront of their industry and put in place performance reviews, feedback tools and training, and increasingly offer individual coaching between manager and employee on an ongoing basis.

Through a consultation with Dr. Robert Forto, you can discover how you can use NLP knowledge and techniques through individual coaching sessions to improve your employee's effectiveness.
The most progressive employers in the nation are using Dr. Forto and his techniques of NLP by integrating coaching into their every day company culture. Rather than formal training sessions where you may have to send one or two employees to an out of state conference, Dr. Forto's coaching program and techniques of NLP can create solutions to problems and attain goals very quickly.

Coaching can be a really worthwhile investment and does not always need to take a huge amount of time. In fact just after a few sessions you can use these techniques anywhere, anytime and in any type of business and as a result improve other peoples thinking and results.

So if you would like to find out more about Dr. Robert Forto's Coaching for Peak Performance program give him a call anytime at 303-752-2818 or contact him through this website.
_________________________
Dr. Robert Forto is a business coach, author, radio show host, professional musher, public speaker and canine behaviorist. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.robertforto.com