I love coaching because…

Last month, we asked our Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/icfhq) fans, “Fill in the blank: I love coaching because _______.” Take a look below to see how our Facebook fans responded:

• “It transforms the world one person at a time.” (Alison Emory Guinasso)
• “I feel I make a difference in how people interact with others and understand what is important in all that they do.” (Barbara Perino)
• “You can energize the client and help them develop skills to achieve their personal and professional best.” (SunnierSideOfLife)
• “I love people!” (Vasso-Anna Demenega)
• “Every person that gets ignited will ignite those around them!” (Rafael A. Martinez)
• “It is empowering!” (Andrea Dean)
• “It’s an opportunity for growth.” (Maria Elena Casti)
• “You enable people to create (for) tomorrow.” (POSITIVEENERGIZERS.com)
• “It’s so fulfilling to see the transformations occurring in people’s lives!” (Ayca Gencoglu)
• “My clients are super creative!” (Bart Tkaczyk)
• “It is my passion.” (Neal Houston, PhD)
• “It always gives me awareness.” (Takeyasu Iwai)
• “Every coaching session inspires me. I work with some amazing women!” (Michelle Robindell)
• “It provides people with the ability to go from Can’t to Can, from Can to Will, and from Will to Did!” (Joshua Torres)
• “It works.” (François Altwies)
• “Different people inspire me and it’s wonderful to see how dreams begin to fly.” (Teija Björkskog)
• “Because it’s my destiny!” (Cheryl Roshak)
• “It is fascinating and powerful.” (Yuri Cardozo)
• “It’s my passion. Bringing more optimism about our ability to change in this world.”  (Martin Jessen)
• “It transforms potential into action and has a natural ‘pay it forward’ element.” (6Elements Consulting & Coaching)
• “Coaching helps people create a better tomorrow.” (Kathleen A. Day)
• “We co-created a better world!” (Veronique Pigeon)
• “It is portable and personal; I can make a difference in the moment anywhere.” (Beth Herman)
• “It helps me discover more about myself.” (Jaya Bhateja)
• “It makes me alive.” (Jungmo Kim)
• “It’s a way to contribute and a way to learn.” (SharonTOGETHER)
• “It allows me to be happy within my career instead of just doing what pays the bills.” (AThomasPhD)
• “As a business trainer, I love it. I am not a training machine anymore; I am there, totally there to let them choose what they want and how they want it.” (Andrée Ulrich Élan)
• “As a Certified Professional Life Coach, I love helping my clients live an abundant life! Thank you for asking the question.” (Janicetime)
• “You facilitate discovery and connect the dots.” (Rhesa Riley)
• “It changes lives, in the smallest and largest of ways.” (Whole Life Strategies Coaching)
• “I love coaching because it has made my life easier and it has made it possible for me to help other people change their lives too.” (Åsa Frederiksen)
• “It makes me happy and it gives me a sense of fulfillment to have made a difference in someone’s life.” (8LEAPS)
• “It’s transformational. I love seeing people grow, develop, and achieve their goals. It makes me happy, it inspires me, and I’m making a difference.” (Explora, Coaching and Consulting)
• “It changes lives!” (BT Benskin)

What about you? I love coaching because ___________. What is it for you? We’d love to know—leave a response below or join the conversation at Facebook.com/ICFHQ.

Show that you Care

Have you ever had the feeling you are not being listened to while you’re speaking?

In my experience, I have to admit this is a rather common feeling, especially when I work with clients that expect an immediate solution to their problem or certain answers which they want to hear and when they don’t, they impatiently want to finish the coaching session.
But if we don’t have patience to deal with our own problems, then how can we expect to deal with other people’s problems?

When I worked with Radu, a manager working for an important retail company, the first thing he asked me during the first meeting was for me to “solve” his problems at work. He said that even though he was a professional in his business and knew how to handle tough clients, he wasn’t able to communicate with his employees. As a person, Radu was always preoccupied, mainly because he had a lot of responsibilities and was always in a hurry.

During our meetings, he had this bad habit of constantly checking the time or his phone and always asked me what he should do exactly. But as I talked to Radu, I discovered that he did not actually listen to what I was saying and only reacted to certain key words and mechanically used the phrase “so what should I do now?”

Eventually, he discovered that his problem was not that his employees did not pay attention to him, but that he did not know how to listen to them, because he didn’t even know how to listen to himself. In his team’s eyes, he did not just seem a busy and preoccupied person, but a person who didn’t care about anyone. This obviously discouraged his team’s performance, because he had only a few answers he wanted to hear, which nobody seemed to give him.

It’s not easy to listen to everybody around you, but this one extreme. The other would be not listening to anybody. The challenge however, is to keep a certain balance between the two – meaning that we listen to other people’s ideas while also contributing with our own. It’s amazing how some people can sometimes surprise you with their ideas and it would be a shame to skip that just because our ideas are not the same as theirs.

Rodica Obancea, ACC

Patience is a key competence for any manager’s success and whoever doesn’t know how to apply it for himself, will most probably fail to apply it with others.

Only through patience we can listen to the people we work with and even though it may seem like a minor detail, sometimes it is very important to learn how to…show that you care.

Rodica Obancea, ACC, is passionate about change, emergence, living systems. She works within business environment, with managers, teams for achieving ambitious results. For more information, visit www.successcoaching.ro.

Coaches aren’t just for sports teams!

Have you ever wished that you had a coach on the sideline of your office?  Someone who could help you form a career game plan, develop your skills, correct your deficiencies, build your leadership strengths, and cheer you on?  You are not alone. Men and women alike are increasingly seeking the services of executive coaches for a variety of reasons.

Before you determine whether executive coaching is right for you, it’s important to understand the proces.  Executive coaching is a formal engagement in which a qualified coach works with an organizational leader in a series of dynamic, confidential sessions designed to establish and achieve clear goals that will result in improved managerial performance.  The relationship between a manager and a coach is different from other types of professional relationships. For example, a coaching relationship focuses on enhancing performance while a mentoring relationship usually has broader objectives. 

A coach is not an authority figure, but will be engaged with you on all levels to provide assessment, challenge, and support. Above all, a coach is someone who is there for you for collaboration and to offer the type of counsel and support that you may not otherwise receive. A great coach will work with you to assess individual circumstances, strengths, weaknesses, and developmental opportunities.

In some circles, having a coach is something to brag about.  In other situations, a coach may be brought in as a reaction to a certain set of circumstances that indicate a performance deficit.  In today’s business climate, coaches are seeing an increased demand across the board at the ‘c suite’ level. An executive coach is a perk to which some top executives feel entitled and that some leaders negotiate as part of their total compensation and benefits package.  Some companies provide coaching initiatives for new, transferring and high-potential employees, while other individuals seek out coaches and pay for them on their own.  In my practice at Orbacz Strategy Group, I see a variety of circumstances that prompt individuals and organizations to engage me in the role of advisor and coach. 

If you are considering an executive coach, keep in mind that your perception of coaching greatly affects the benefits you will glean. If you have a positive perception of coaching and think that it could help you, you’ve taken the first step toward realizing the full benefits. You should assess your own readiness for what will be a serious commitment and an occasionally uncomfortable experience.  There are coaching readiness questionnaires that I use with my own clients to help them fully understand and assess where they are before the coaching process starts, as well as sophisticated behavioral and competency based assessment instruments.

When you work with a coach, you can expect to change your skills, behaviors and to develop better leadership abilities. Resistance to any kind of personal change is normal, realistic, and to be expected.  It’s not a light decision to engage an executive coach. Only you can accurately assess your thoughts, feelings, and needs. 

If you decide that you’re ready to benefit from coaching, take time to find a well-qualified coach with whom you can relate on a personal level. Selecting the right coach has a dramatic impact on how successful your results will be.  Engaging a well-qualified coach that is a good fit for you will positively affect your individual growth and your future career path. 

Debra Orbacz

Much like an athletic coach, the right executive coach can be the difference maker that helps you reach your full potential.  Having one on your team might be the winning advantage you need.

Debra Orbacz is Founder and President of Orbacz Strategy Group, LLC; a dynamic business transformation, executive coaching, and management consulting firm supporting clients in the private and public sectors. Ms. Orbacz’s combination of experiential leadership knowledge from a world class organization and the latest research and theory on leadership development provides Orbacz Strategy clients with measurable results. Learn more at http://www.orbaczgroup.com and http://orbaczgroup.blogspot.com.

Global Executive Coaching Community of Practice: Are Coaches ready for new age executives?

ICF has invited me to facilitate this CP, earlier called a Special Interest Group. I have great pleasure in inviting you for the next session of this GEC CP.

This community is about its members, not the facilitator; it’s also about what the members want to talk about and learn in terms of practice. ICF objective for the CP is resource development, based on which attendees gain CCEU.

I have been part of this community when Hannah facilitated the interactions and also made a presentation of cross-cultural influences on executives. The interactivity and contribution from members will continue and as possible, enhance. With an Asian executive coach with a spiritual leaning facilitating the community, its direction may perhaps be more international and more transformational.

I have over 40 years of corporate experience, more than 20 as CEO and at least in one case of building a billion dollar plus group with a dozen multinational joint ventures. I now coach executives, train coaches for ICF credentials, teach at Business Schools, write books and work with start up operations and disadvantaged, when I am not spending time with my wife of nearly 40 years and the stray dogs that have adopted us at Bangalore.

If you want to know a bit more, do look up my profile, blog and tweets at http://in.linkedin.com/in/ramsramanathanceocoach
http://zentocoach.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/#!/zentocoach.

I look forward to hearing from you about what you would like to discuss in this community and also what you can present or talk about. With globalization of economies, executives across the world have similar concerns on work life balance, corporate social values and environment, as much as the traditional concerns of how to advance one’s career and create wealth. Differences in age, gender, ethnicity and locale add elements of diversity and complexity.

As coaches, how can we contribute to an executive’s awareness in his or her journey of self-discovery? At what point does the transaction of outcomes transcend into the transformation of mind-set?

I tend to combine Western Science and Psychology with Eastern Spirituality and Mysticism, in both of which I have a background of intense learning.

I look forward to our first session together on 1 August at 12 PM US Eastern Time, as always Noon on First Wednesdays. Call and recording access details too are the same as before:

Access Number: 1-212-457-9879
Participant PIN: 622186#

Ram Ramanathan

Playback Access Number: 212-457-9846
Playback Reference: 333726#


CCEU for sessions attended will as before be based on submission of passwords to facilitator. My mail id is ramsram@gmail.com.

The subject for the first 1 August CP session can be viewed here, relating to Maslow's Need Hierarchy as related to Coaching.

Use more video in your marketing initiatives

The use of video in marketing and promotional purposes continues to grow at substantial rates. Even the ICF has its own YouTube channel dedicated to promoting the coaching profession and the ICF. Have you come across it?
With 137 videos across 13 playlists, there is an ample selection of video footage to view on the ICF YouTube channel. Not only can you watch them…you can use these videos on your website, link to them in newsletters and email messages, and share them via social media channels. They are an excellent way to stay connected to the ICF and to the coaching profession. Subscribe to the ICF YouTube channel here.

Want to teach potential clients on how they can select a professional coach? There is an entire playlist dedicated to the topic.

Are you or someone you know interested in becoming a professional coach? There is also a playlist dedicated to this topic.

If you are an ICF member and want to stay on top of ICF related news, events, and topics, there are several playlists you can pay attention to. These include: ICF Member Video Messages (videos are filmed monthly by 2012 ICF President Janet Harvey, MCC), Wednesdays with Whittle (every other week, ICF Director of Membership Don Whittle shares a bit of news or highlights an ICF member benefit in these short videos); ICF Credentialing – Distinctions Matter (these videos feature updates pertinent to current and future ICF Credential holders); among others.

One of the most popular playlists on the ICF YouTube channel right now is 2012 ICF Global Coaching Study. This playlist features videos that explain and explore this most current piece of coaching research and offers tips on how you can use it within your personal coaching practice. Take a look.

You can browse these and all ICF playlists and videos here.

Is video a part of your marketing plan? How do you use it? How would you like to use it?