IAM353- Executive and Team Coach Focuses on the Power of Connection

Alan Cohen is a Professional Certified Executive and Team Coach, public speaker and author, who has built a 30+ year career around the idea that no matter the industry or challenge, breakthroughs come from mastering effective communication.

Spending decades as both a marketing expert and Human Resources consultant, he presided over the successful launch of the Harry Potter series as Scholastic’s Director of Marketing, as well as serving as Director of Communications for the Broadway League, representing the Tony Awards.

Alan has worked with global organizations including, Bloomberg, Tiffanys, NBC / Bravo, American Express, Skadden Arps, Edelman and MetLife, and hundreds of small businesses and solopreneurs, and speaks frequently to groups and at conferences on the power of connection.

• CEO Hack: Headspace- at least 10 min a day to calm my thoughts
• CEO Nugget: Have a plan
• CEO Defined: Chief connection officer

Website: http://alansamuelcohen.com/

Free Book Chapter from The Connection Challenge: https://www.alansamuelcohen.com/sample-chapter
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-samuel-cohen-33a7418/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alansamuelcohen/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alansamuelcohen/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alansamuelcohen

Full Interview

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. Alan Cohen of alansamuelcohen.com. Alan, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Alan Cohen 0:42

Great to be here. Thank you so much.

Gresham Harkless 0:44

No problem super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Alan, so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's been doing.

Alan Cohen is a professional certified executive and team coach, public speaker, and author who has built a 30-plus-year career around the idea that no matter the industry or challenge, breakthroughs come from mastering effective communication, spending decades as both a marketing expert and human resource consultant.

He presided over the successful launch of the Harry Potter series as a scholastic Director of Marketing, as well as serving as the Director of Communications for the Broadway League, representing the Tony Awards, how it has worked with global organizations including Bloomberg Tiffany's NBC Bravo, American Express Skadden, Arps, Eldon, and MetLife, and hundreds of small businesses and solopreneurs. And speaks frequently to groups and conferences on the power of connection.

Alan, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Alan Cohen 1:39

I am ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:41

Awesome. Let's do it. And I was definitely looking forward to this. I know we talked a lot offline about the whole Harry Potter, but I wanted to kick everything off here with a little bit more about your background. And what led you to kind of get started with your business?

Alan Cohen 1:52

Sure, sure. Well, it's a great question. I sometimes laugh, I think it's like, I should run a program called Loops on CEO because I think I became head of a company. And before I knew what it was, I was called to do all those things that you have to do when you're running a company. I don't think I expected the magnitude of what it would be. But I worked in public relations and marketing, a little stint in human resources up until 12 years ago, and we'll talk about the Harry Potter experience. But that really was what was my pivot into coaching.

Because soon after I launched that publicity event, I moved into coaching and running my own business. So that moment, for me was really noticing what an effective team does, and what an ineffective team does and wanting to help organizations run more effective teams. So the Harry Potter experience was a great example of a cohesive team that was able to deliver huge results. And so I sort of began my study there, and then I went into a formal coaching program and started doing that as a business.

Gresham Harkless 3:26

Nice. Well, yeah, I definitely appreciate that. And I think that I always say when you really peel back the opinions of a business or organization like sometimes you forget is made up of people. And those people have to be able to do a lot of those core skills, that you help out organizations with that you forget that there's teams and the teams have to be able to work together, no matter the different personalities, and all those things. So I definitely appreciate you being able to do that.

Alan Cohen 3:49

Sure. And I had also been a part of some pretty dysfunctional team, that embodied all the toxins, so getting to see it from both sides has been really helpful. And especially in the work that I do with my clients. Usually, clients are not hiring me, because their teams are already working so well together. It was good for me to be able to meet them where they acknowledge that teams have an evolutionary process.

Gresham Harkless 4:21

Yeah, it's great to hear that just as individuals, wherever you are, it doesn't mean that's where you have to end. A lot of times you can develop better but it's funny you said that because I thought you alluded before, just how sometimes I believe some of the greatest teachers are sometimes dysfunctional or the things that you yet you don't want to do. So sometimes you can learn just from that.

Alan Cohen 4:42

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 4:43

Absolutely. And so I wanted to hear a little bit more about what you're doing with these teams. Could you break down what you're doing as a coach and how you're serving your clients?

Alan Cohen 4:50

Sure, sure. So the foundation of everything that I do is emotional intelligence and which is a tool that I use. So I'm certified in and I help teams really align around what the core emotional intelligence elements are that are important to them, whether it's empathy, trust, problem-solving, or any number of different aspects of emotional intelligence. I work a lot with EQ and a lot around helping teams build trust. Without trust falls, we don't do trust falls, but we really get into that into the core of why teams are working well together and where the breakdowns are. And understanding also human behavior, where do our defenses kick in? When we're under stress? What are some of those ineffective behaviors that show up and what to do about them?

So really helping teams build their kind of resiliency, muscle, build the real important strengths to get them through, but the good times, as well as the difficult times, is so important, I feel like, in a lot of ways, if you think about teams, like use the analogy of a sports team, those sports teams, that they spend a lot of time practicing, and they don't spend a whole lot of time in play, they spend 80% of their time practicing being a team and 20% out on the field, I think teams and business need to follow that same principle.

And we haven't reversed, where we're just always like, it was just always sort of moving the shit around but we're not spending any real quality time learning, shared language, developing ground rules for how we want to engage with each other and conflict out of conflict. So I help teams really, really practice being a team. So that they build that muscle.

Gresham Harkless 4:50

Yeah, and that's why I'm glad I'm a big sports junkie, so I appreciate you for breaking that down, just remembering the time to watch a game or see an athlete or whoever in action, they have done so many hours outside of that to develop that skill for the actual show. So they've been working at that. But it's funny that you mentioned that because a lot of times as business owners, we don't necessarily adopt that mindset of ourselves as leaders developing our teams and our organizations in that.

Alan Cohen 7:32

Exactly. And I think that's even more significant. Now, when you've got so many virtual teams and organizations going through such change at such a rapid speed. I think that it's really important that teams learn how to engage both virtually as well as live in person. And it's an art. All right, teams that really play together and work well together. They spend a lot of time developing that discipline.

Gresham Harkless 8:08

Right, exactly, exactly. And it definitely takes practice in order to do that. So you might have already touched on this, but would you consider that to be like your secret sauce? What do you feel kind of distinguishes you and sets you apart?

Alan Cohen 8:19

I think that, well, there are a couple of things I think there are a tonne of coaches out there, right a tonne of coaches a tonne of consultants and you can't take five steps without stepping up over one. But, I've helped people connect and communicate for 25 years and I really have worked at the intersection of communication and connection. I think that having worked with big brands working on building, helping to be a part of building up a movement with Harry Potter, I think I've seen the power of connections. So everything that I do is rooted in how people connect in a meaningful way.

So I think that's I think my model for helping people connect also spans all businesses because I'm industry agnostic even though I've worked a lot in media and entertainment I've worked now I've worked with law firms and lots of financial services firms suit doesn't really matter the industry, for me, everything is about how we connect in real-time how we build trust. So I've got a lot of experience in communication and human resources and marketing, but the narrative, the storyline is all about how we connect.

Gresham Harkless 9:54

Yeah, and I think that's so big, especially in this day and age with so many tools to connect, I think I read something that where it almost seems that we're lonelier than we were before, with all these opportunities to connect. So it's great that you're actually helping people to understand that it sounds like connection is not just, Oh, we're friends on Facebook, or, we work in the same office, but it's something a lot deeper than that, and how to do that and cultivate that.

Alan Cohen 10:19

Yeah. So my new book is called The Connection Challenge, how executives create power and Possibility in the Age of Distraction which really addresses that very thing. And I talked about something called connection alchemy, which is really what explosive results that can happen when all of these touch points are addressed. So first and foremost, it's connecting with ourselves, who we are at our core, what's important to us why that matters, what our talents are, what our strengths are, that's first, then it's really connecting to a team and looking at those points of alignment.

And then the third is that the team and the individual need to be connected to a strong purpose, a strong why, and then all of those permutations and combinations need to happen to the team, to the individual, team and individual to purpose, and so forth. And when all those things are aligned, and that's a lot of the work is alignment, because we get so into the weeds of who did what and, pointing fingers and blame and all that. But when we can elevate the conversation, get that helicopter view of what's important to each person and the team, and then something larger, then great things happen. So that's, I don't know if I answered your question. I just went on a tangent, but that's what I'm about.

Gresham Harkless 11:59

Yeah, I think that's absolutely huge. Because I think that especially, touched on the idea of making sure that everybody has that helicopter view. Because I think a lot of times, and I've read before that as a leader, you're trying to get people, the right people in the right seats. And a lot of times understanding that this is what this person's mission or goal is. So you understand and can have a deeper relationship connection, and engagement with that person. It's like you said definitely an art, but it's something that a leader should be aware of. And we should try to execute as much as possible. I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack, you might have wanted to touch on this, but this is an app or a book, or can even be something big you wanted to touch on with your book, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Alan Cohen 12:47

Well, there are two things there. One is on the mindfulness side, and then the other is a little more tactical. So I believe in meditation as a means to access creativity. And, so I love Headspace, the app Headspace is one of my favorites. So, I tried to do at least 10 minutes a day with the app or was just focused. Just focusing my mind and calming my thoughts.

Gresham Harkless 13:17

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. You haven't really begun to use the project management systems. And, I too, have tried to write on napkins. And if you find any that have my handwriting, then please return back because I can't find half the ones I used to pull also now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business?

Alan Cohen 13:39

I would say have a plan. I know that sounds so basic, but I had no plan. I am just a manifester of opportunity. But that doesn't necessarily get you where you want to go as quickly as you want to get there. So I would say yes to this and say yes to that, and partner up with this person or that person. And it wasn't interesting. And then I learned a lot but it wasn't necessarily lead me on an ineffective path.

Gresham Harkless 14:14

Right. And that helps out a lot of tapping into somebody else's experiences even better. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on the show. So Alan, what does being a CEO means?

Alan Cohen 14:28

I would say it's more about being the CCO or and I'm the Chief Connection Officer. Some people l use that term to refer to their HR person or their marketing person. But I actually think the best CEOs are connectors, in every sense of the word there. They're actively connecting to their clients, to their employees to themselves. They're doing the mindset work to make sure that they are sharp.

Gresham Harkless 14:58

And I think that's a great perspective. Great definition just because a lot of times, as I talked about I think life in general, definitely business and organizations are all about relationships and building connections and having meaningful connections. So, Alan, I truly appreciate your time, what I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get a hold of you.

Alan Cohen 15:18

Great, great. Well, first of all, I want to invite everybody to visit my website, I'm offering a free excerpt, free chapter, and intro of my book, that Connection Challenge. So visit Alan Samuel cohen.com/sample/chapter.

And really, I would say just you know, for everyone who is running a team for executives, or responsible for the team for all team leaders, just know that you've got this great opportunity to really excel by bringing out the best of your team.

Sometimes we're not able to see what the best is because we're in it. But I'm happy to chat with anyone about what those possibilities might be and how I might be able to support them in developing their teams.

Gresham Harkless 16:07

Nice. Wow, I definitely appreciate you for doing that. Appreciate you for making that your life's work as well too. So we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes so that everybody can get a hold of you and of course, get a copy of your book. And I appreciate your time and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Alan Cohen 16:21

Thank you.

Outro 16:23

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

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This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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