Every once in a while, I get this drive to boldly go where no coach has gone before in helping people put their best foot forward in communication.

I’m officially launching a project through which I intend to kill two birds with one stone: coach some cool people and help increase awareness about the importance of good people skills.

In short: I’m giving away free coaching worth over $1000 to the 3 bloggers that impress me the most with a people skills article on their blog. Now for the long story…

The Prize

Three smarter-than-the-average-bear bloggers will win an individual communication coaching program with me. Every program includes 5 coaching sessions of 60 min. each, and it will take place via Skype. Together, the 3 coaching programs are worth over $1000.

You will definitely be interested in such a coaching program if any of the following changes are relevant to you:

• Improving your confidence or self-esteem;
• Crushing limiting beliefs like a bug;
• Learning how to better communicate in the workplace;
• Advancing in your career;
• Promoting you, your services or your business in a powerful way;
• Developing your conversation skills and your social life;
• Building healthy relationships with other people;
• Improving your blog, social media use and online brand.

I can tell you from many previous experiences that if you commit to the program, in 5 coaching sessions (5 hours of coaching), you can create a significant shift in one key area of your life.

Why Bloggers?

In order to be eligible for winning the prize, you need to an active blogger. When I say ‘active blogger’ I mean that:

• You own a blog and you write on it periodically (al least two times each month);
• You have written at least 20 posts on your blog.

I’ve decided to make this prize available for bloggers only for two reasons:

Bloggers are influencers. They express themselves in writing, they build tribes and they spread the word online on various topics. This is particularly relevant for me as I also aim through this project to encourage spreading the word on communication and people skills.

Blogger are givers. They share their experiences, their know-how and themselves, they help people learn and they often put a smile on their face. I always believe that if I give something, it’s better I give it to others who give themselves rather than to those who simply need.

How to Enter the Competition

There are 3 essential steps to entering the competition for the free coaching.

Step 1: The article. Write and publish on your blog a post (article) in which you share with your readers one or more personal experiences and one or more key lessons on people skills that you’ve learned from them.

Note: The article must be written in fluent English. I will automatically disqualify any article that isn’t. Also, only one article is allowed from each blogger.

Step 2: The footer. At the end of the post, add the following line, with the two links to this blog included:

I wrote this article as part of a collaborative project for increasing awareness about the importance of people skills. This project is initiated by People Skills Decoded.

Step 3: The email. After you’ve published the post, contact me by email and let me know about it. I’ll reply to your email and confirm that you’re in the competition.

The Rating System

I will rate each article based on four criteria:

1. The personal story/ stories is/ are inspirational and convey the messages well;
2. The lesson/ lessons drawn from them is/ are well explained, practical and insightful;
3. The article is written in a clear, easy to read and high-impact style;
4. The article gives me a tingling feeling.

The point is this:

Show me that you’ve learned something valuable related to people skills on your own, eloquently share it on your blog to teach others, and I’ll help you take your people skills to the next level.

If you want to increase your chances of rating well, I advise you to read some of the articles I wrote on this blog, to get a better idea of the kind of content I find valuable.

Based on the 4 criteria above, I will pick 3 articles as the best and I’ll declare the bloggers who wrote them the winners of the free coaching programs.

Deadline: December 22, 2010.

Then, on December 25 (Christmas Day), 3 bloggers will receive a special present from me: an email announcing them as the winners of the competition. I will also post the news on People Skills Decoded on the same day, and link to the winning articles.

If you want to keep updated with this project, I encourage you to subscribe to this blog, follow me on Twitter or add me on Facebook.

Put your life experience and your writing skills to good use and you’ll start the New Year working one-on-one with me in an awesome communication coaching program.

I’m look forward to reading your article.

Image courtesy of Zephyrance