Wrestling with “I Don’t Know”

There you are – you’ve asked what you think is a great, insightful question. You sit back in your coaching chair, looking forward to hearing what your client has to say, and then comes the response: “I don’t know.”

I doubt there is a coach anywhere who hasn’t at some point been faced with a client’s blank stare and the words “I don’t know” in response to a challenging question.  (Of course, if you’re asking powerful questions, you probably should face a few “I don’t knows” once in a while!)

So, what do you say in that kind of situation? Often, the client is just temporarily stuck and unable to get past a self-judgment. Sometimes, it just takes a completely different question or simply phrasing the question in a slightly different way to help your client find a solution or to begin to work through the problem.

Here are a few possible answers and techniques to the “I don’t know” response that have proven helpful over the years.

• “Who does know?”  (Most of the time, the client will smile, laugh, and say “I guess I do.”)
• “How could you find out?”
• “Let me challenge that ... do you really not know?” (said with a smile)
• “Something is telling me you really do know – maybe the answer is just not bubbling up for you right now. How could you get at that answer that lies deep inside?”
• “Maybe you don’t know [that specific point], but what do you know that’s related to that situation?”
• “If you don’t know, who else do you know who might?”
• “If your [father, mother, boss, colleague, daughter, et al] were here, what would they say?”
• “If the wisest person you know were here with us right now, how would that person respond?”
• Repeat the question again.
• Remain silent.

Which ones of these have you tried? What were the outcomes? What other techniques or questions have you used with success? Please share below and help us build each other’s coaching tool chests!

Brenda Bence

Brenda Bence is an experienced senior executive coach, dynamic trainer and speaker, internationally-recognized branding expert, and author of four award-winning corporate and personal branding books.

With an MBA from Harvard Business School, Brenda spent the first 20 years of her career building mega brands for Fortune 100 companies, where she was a senior executive responsible for billion-dollar businesses across four continents and 50 countries.

In 2002, Brenda left the corporate world and founded BDA International. Now, with clients that span the globe and with offices in both the U.S. and Asia, Brenda travels the world speaking, training, and coaching individuals, entrepreneurs, and corporations to greater success through creative yet practical brand development.

How Did We Get Here? A report on the Development of Coaches Study

Introduction

As we continue to learn more about the world of coaches through studies such as the 2012 ICF Global Coaching Study, we still understand little about the processes by which individuals become effective coaches. We all come to this field of practice with decades of professional and personal experiences. How do these experiences influence how we coach?   The answers to this question have implications for the education, training and on-going professional development of practitioners.

The Development of Coaches Study is a long-term, global study that was designed to investigate this question and gather data to help inform coaches, coach educators and policy-makers in the field. The survey instrument was developed by a collaborative group of coaching researchers *, who adapted an instrument that was used in a long-term global study of the development of psychotherapists.

After the 2009 ICF Research Committee reviewed the merits of the study, they decided that it was so important that the organization should continuing offering promotional support in the future. The quantitative items on the survey investigate a number of dimensions of coach preparation, coaching practices, practice conditions, coach attitudes and perspectives, and coach characteristics. The survey also includes one qualitative item, asking coaches to identify life events which have had a significant impact on them as coaches.

While data collection on the global survey is still in the early stages, a pilot study of the survey generated 80 responses to the life events question, allowing an analysis of this qualitative item. A collaborative colleague, Deepa Awal, and I conducted a content analysis of these responses. The resulting article, entitled: Life’s Thumbprint:  The impact of significant life events on coaches and their coaching, has been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. 

Since the submission and acceptance of our article, we have also been combing through the first set of real quantitative data from the study. While the response numbers are still too small to support any statistical analyses, the descriptive data from the 184 responses to date offers a glimpse of many dimensions and characteristics of coaching practitioners and opens doors to further inquiry. An Executive Summary of this research will eventually be posted in the ICF Research Portal. In the meantime, the following is brief overview of our findings in the life events analysis that was recently completed:

Overview of the Life Events Responses

From the initial 80 responses to the life events question, we identified and categorized  174 discrete life events. These fell into three groups: Coaching field specific events (formal coach training, practice coaching, receiving coaching/mentoring and professional affiliation);  Individual non-work experiences (a wide variety of personal experiences such as illness, death of parent or partner, divorce and similar events); and other professional experiences  (professional activities, education and training not specific to the provision of coaching). 

Each category of events was shown to impact a coach’s development in a different way.  Coaching field specific events, for example, had the greatest impact on coaching specific skills and knowledge. The individual non-work experiences, most of which might be considered of a challenging nature, appear to promote self-insight, empathy and a search for deeper meaning in life. The impact of prior professional experiences varied, offering some transferable skills and an understanding of the organizational context. Given the diverse impacts that different categories of life experiences, we suggest that the preparation and on-going development of coaches should address three domains: technical (skills), affective (self-development) and cognitive (theoretical knowledge). 

What’s Next?

We will continue to collect data on the quantitative and qualitative items of the survey. The resulting data set promises to be a very rich resource for a number of additional studies. The Development of Coaches Study is a collaborative research project and any qualified researcher is invited to participate and to mine the data to add multiple dimensions to our understanding of the initial research questions: 

1. What are the personal and professional experiences that influence coaches in their practice as a coach?
2. What are the dimensions of coaching practice that are impacted by personal and professional experiences?
3. What is the impact of specific life experiences on the coach’s values, mental models and coaching behaviors?

We are seeking a large and diverse respondent population.  So, if you have not already completed the survey, please do so now and also forward the survey link to any of your coaching colleagues. Please click on this link below to take the survey.

 

If you have any questions or comments about the Development of Coaches Study or you are interested in becoming part of the collaborative research project, please contact me at Francine@reinventinglife.net.

Coaching international style : starting a coaching practice while living abroad

Coach training programs have become truly international. I am currently completing a program at CoachU and I am impressed by the number of coaches who are training at locations around the world. In any given class more than half of the students may be in a location outside of the United States. Many of these people, like myself, are expatriates living and working abroad.

I am an American living and working in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before Denmark, I lived in Hamburg, Germany. I have been living and working abroad for about two years. I felt drawn to the field of coaching and decided to do my coach training program while abroad. The coaching field is witnessing a growth of expat coaches – people who live outside of their country of origin due to work or family and who are coaches.

In living abroad and starting my journey to creating a viable coaching practice, I wanted to share some ideas and tips I picked up along the way:

1. Coaching is perceived differently in different countries. Some countries have a very advanced understanding of coaching while others have a very basic understanding - or no knowledge at all. When creating a coaching practice abroad, it’s important to evaluate whether the local culture is receptive and knowledgeable about coaching. If your country is new to coaching, creating a business will require extra effort and extra client education about the benefits of coaching.
2. Don’t focus on coaching expats. Usually expat coaches focus their ‘niche’ on coaching local expats. The problem with this is that the field is usually pretty saturated with coaches in your new country who got the same idea. Unless you have years of expat life and coaching experience, it’s often hard to establish credibility and compete with other coaches doing something similar in your local area.
3. Learn about starting a business in your new country – in some countries it’s prohibitively difficult to start a business. Or creating a business may adversely affect your family’s tax situation. Find out the rules and regulations of creating a business and paying taxes. You may discover that you need to structure your coaching practice a certain way for maximum tax and financial benefit.

Starting a coaching practice is never easy and the added pressures of living abroad can make it seem impossible. However, I meet successful coaches abroad every day. If you are determined to start a coaching practice don’t let living and working abroad be a deterrent.

For international coaches or expats who are coaching abroad, do you have any suggestions you can share with the coaching community?

Robin Patin

Robin Patin is an American living in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before embarking on her international adventure she lived and worked in San Francisco as a Managing Consultant for a healthcare organization for five years. Robin had a passion for all things international, so in March 2010 she took two suitcases and a one way ticket and moved to Hamburg, Germany to teach English abroad.

She has a Bachelor degree in Finance and Psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master degree in Health from New York University. Robin is completing her coach training through CoachU and has a TESOL (Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification.

She writes a blog for those folks who want to sell everything and go abroad called ‘The Choosy Beggar.’ http://thechoosybeggar.wordpress.com/.

The Brave and the Weak

Tears in his eyes: is he a failure?

Tears in her eyes: she has nothing but doubts by now.

Be brave - that’s all they hear. Stop whining. Go and get a job. Whatever job. Just be back to your old self, earn decent money, support your family, buy a bigger house, travel. Come back to our tribe of working-hard fellows.

Hungary’s economy is down, leaving many excellent professionals without a proper job for months. Coaching them (sometimes for free) means a lot to me. A lot more than skill-coaching a well-to-do manager, polishing his nearly perfect carrier. Outplacement and career-change coaching is challenging, full of surprises and insights for both parties in the process. On the one hand, it’s well structured: we talk about goals, strengths, CV, networking, negotiating salary. On the other hand all these “hard stuff” must be aligned to the actual phase of the job-seeker’s state of mind and emotions. How could we possibly work on how to use power words in the CV when the client is struggling with existential crisis?

I believe we have to be able to support our clients to be weak. To not know. To be desperate. Everybody around them expects them to be strong and brave, whatever happens in their life. It’s a man’s world, you have to play hard. Weakness is for losers. Nobody is interested in your real feelings about not having had a job for months. Smile, be confident and positive to be acceptable.

I remember loosing my mother unexpectedly two years ago. It was also a crash course on duties around funeral and stuff, like in a bad dream. After the funeral suddenly I was expected to be back in business as usual. The allowed period of weakness was over, two weeks had been already wasted anyway. Be brave! A year later I realized how much time and energy I had wasted by trying to be brave and finally let myself be weak.

I respect the weak. Being lost requires a lot more bravery than fighting. As Dante put it:

“In the middle of the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost.
Ah how hard to say what a harsh thing was
that wood savage and rough and hard
that to think about it renews the fear!”

Only in the state of not knowing, of being lost, of stumbling in the fog, will shift happen, transition be realized. How much easier is to jump from one company to another, to leave a spouse for another - and continue the same mistakes, the same road that has never been really our. And how much dedication and energy is needed to stop for a minute, even for months if necessary and re-evaluate our life, accept all our mistakes without which we wouldn’t be the same valuable person that we are today. It takes courage to stop and face our life, to be able to gaze in the mirror and accept what we see. We might be disintegrated, lose sense of direction - we might lose control. Yet this is the moment of grasping real control over our life. Good news is that after the darkest hour, the hours or weeks spent in our inner cave alone, the road turns upward again. From the time ‘wasted’ in weakness and doubts, a new and stronger-than-ever courage will arise. Tears of despair will be replaced by tears of happiness and pride. And there we are, coaches, to support our clients in the dark wood. We believe in them, we’re proud of them. Because they are braver than anybody we’ve ever met.
 

Dóra Hegedűs, ACC,
past president of ICF Hungary

Dora is an ICF certified business and executive coach, relying on her business expe-rience in corporate finance and PR, and her leadership experience at NGOs. Her clients recommend her as eye-opening and focused professional with un-conditional acceptance, humour and strong presence. She's member of the Hero's Journey Project, and one of the founders and trainers of the Business Coach Acade-my. She's is founder and past president of the Hungarian Chapter of ICF. She's member of the Steering Committee and co-chair of the Marketing Subcommit-tee of the ICF Global 2012 Conference. She's facilitator of the roundtable of the coaching associations in Hungary for self-regulation. To get in contact please vis-it http://hu.linkedin.com/in/dorahegedus or follow  @coachDora.

The Coaching Caravan

International Coaching Week (ICW) is a weeklong global celebration of the coaching profession held annually during the first full week in February.  It is a designated time each year for coaches and clients to educate the general public about the value of working with a professional coach and to acknowledge the results and progress made through the coaching process.  Coaches around the world offer a variety of activities and pro-bono services in their local communities to share what coaching has the ability to do.

We South Africans are known for our innovative approach and triggered by the annual challenge issued to us all by Madiba (Nelson Mandela) to contribute 67 minutes as a way to celebrate his birthday and with ICW 2011 in mind, in June 2010 Anne Heslop – a member of the Board of the Gauteng Chapter of ICF - shared her vision of how these two events could be brought together for maximum impact.  And so the Coaching Caravan was born! – “Making a difference in the lives of others, one coach, one person and one coaching conversation at a time!”

The dream was to mobilise as many coaches as possible in South Africa to give 1 hour of their time during International Coaching week, to coach a person who would not normally have access to coaching.  This was the way that we, as coaches, could spend the 67 minutes doing what we do best.

A Coaching Caravan logo and website was created and we invited both ICF and non ICF members to participate.  Sponsors were asked to register projects on the website and volunteers were asked to register with the project that appealed to them.  The ball was rolling.  And then the Coaching Caravan grew arms, feet and wings and became so much bigger than any of us could have imagined.

International provider of Webinars – WebEx a division of Cisco - made a generous donation of 2 weeks of their very sophisticated and successful webinar services over the period and with that came free calls and training for the facilitator of the service – that was me.  What was a dream for South Africa was within our reach and started to become a reality.

Nine very generous people from our community gave of their time and talent, hosting webinars on a variety of topics.  We were able to reach people not only in South Africa but also extended North beyond our borders to include other African cities as well as Singapore and New Zealand...  I was the recipient of the training as to how to operate the back end of the service and in a short time entered a steep learning curve that was challenging, exciting and stimulating.

To name just a few of the projects that benefited through the coaching offered by our volunteers aboard the  Coaching Caravan:

•  Coaching Matrics to Success;
• The Amy Biehl Foundation;
• Heartworks;
• Diepsloot Youth Projects; and
• Mothers2Mothers.

At one point I read on one of the social networking websites that coaches in the United States were thinking about what they could do for their clients in coaching week. 

I posted Anne’s vision:

International Coaching Week: Boarding the Coaching Caravan in Africa

When Monday dawns, the Coaching Caravan will be ‘pulling out’ for its epic pilgrimage around Sub-Saharan Africa with many, many excited, passionate travellers on board. We do believe in the potential for transformation in the lives of others through coaching and we want to write our collective signature on the potential of this awesome continent. One of the cornerstones of our profession is generosity, so we will give of ourselves and our skill warmly and abundantly, without any expectation, for this week.

A gentleman contacted me to enquire how we did this. I wasn’t sure what he meant and so he further explained that he tried something along those lines in his community but the coaches wanted to know what was in it for them in monetary terms.  This started a discussion among us.  The conclusion was that in countries where there was low unemployment and where things generally go well – people may have lost their compassion for one another.  This was so sad for me and on the other hand made me feel so proud of our country and our people. May we South Africans never lose our compassion for one another.

The Coaching Caravan was a huge success – I am sure the pebble (coaching conversations) that was thrown into the pond will continue to ripple through Africa for a long time to come.

We, ICF Gauteng Chapter, were nominated for an ICF Global award for the work we did during that week.  I had the privilege to travel to Las Vegas in September 2011 to receive this award.  This in itself was such an experience. I had the opportunity to share publicly in a forum of some 140 ICF leaders from over 50 countries, what we had done and to read aloud some of the testimonials from those who had benefitted.  There was such generosity in that room and I lost count of how many people came to me during the 4 days of conference, wanting to know how we did it and to express their admiration for what we had accomplished.

A young man from Japan came to me and said that he wanted to start a project like this working with people affected by the earth quake.  We have stayed in touch and I shared as much detail as I could about how we did this.  Their chapter is working hard to launch their first project this year.

I was also contacted by the Singapore Chapter and they too are starting their project this year.

How wonderful that a dream that started in South Africa, spread into Africa is starting to move into the rest of the world.  What a privilege it has been to be a part of this amazing journey.  It was only possible because more than 100 coaches gave generously of their time and talent during that week – and not just 1 hour.  Some coaches flew around the country at their own expense to touch the lives of fellow South Africans. How proud I am to be South African and to be part of a great nation. We have many problems AND we have people with huge hearts that open each year at the request of our esteemed and special leader – Nelson Mandela – and give in unique and unselfish ways.  As coaches we will again this year – 2012 – be climbing aboard the Coaching Caravan to continue “Making a difference in the lives of others, one coach, one person and one coaching conversation at a time!”

Anne-Marie Sevenster, Member ICF Gauteng Chapter.

Coaching - the wonderful world-changing web

In celebration of International Coaching Week (February 5-11), a different guest blog post was highlighted on the ICF blog each day this week. This is the final in this special series.

How many coaches do you know who have directly helped lift whole families out of deep poverty?  That is Martin Baldwin, an inspiration for ICW, epitomising the best that coaching can achieve.

Martin Baldwin

Martin and his wife Ruth set up the charity Cosecha (‘Harvest’ in Spanish) in Guatemala in 1998. ‘Life education’ is its hub: educating children and ensuring their families have the wherewithal to support them through the programme, be it ensuring they are fed, have somewhere to do their homework, or providing emotional support.

So where does coaching come in? Martin started coaching Estuardo after he ‘failed’ as an administrator at Cosecha where, paradoxically, he behaved arrogantly and stubbornly, yet was unable to take initiative or be proactive – the latter typical of the local culture of deference to the boss.

Martin asked questions unheard of by a man brought up in poverty by a poor single, Mayan mother. Where do you want to be in 10 years? What are your hopes and dreams?  Poor children say they dream of becoming a lawyer, but they know it’s pie in the sky. Martin asked Estuardo about ideas he could turn into reality. Using the ‘Celebration of Life’ model Martin eventually enabled Estuardo to conceive of a fulfilling life in a culture where he had no home of his own, no social security and a limited support network; to develop realistic goals and self-confidence based on his own hitherto unrecognised values, gifts and skills.

Estuardo discovered he is ‘a people person’: good at respecting, teaching them, and building relationships. He understands these ‘Western’ values whilst remaining true to his own culture.

After Martin returned to the UK in 2007, he put his trust in Estuardo, by now his Guatemalan deputy, and appointed him the charity’s local Director.

Estuardo is responsible for:

• A team of six Guatemalans, of disadvantaged Mayan descent;
• The educational programme of 35 students. (Cosecha’s philosophy is to support them through to completion, which could be for as long as 14 years);
• A commitment to their families of the means to sustain the child through their education; and
• A £40,000 annual budget, in a country where a qualified teacher earns £100-£120 per month.

As a result of Cosecha’s work there are already five families who will never be poor again - four running their own businesses, the largest employing eight people. Each month Estuardo impacts the lives of 300 people in impoverished Tecpan.

 

Estuardo and a lot of happy, smiling faces

Martin continues to coach Estuardo – visiting twice a year, talking for two to three hours weekly on Skype, emailing between calls. And I coach Martin…helping him to see where his gifts are best employed in continuing support of Estuardo, Cosecha and the people of Guatemala.

I met Martin in a sleepy English town. Little did I imagine when I offered pro-bono coaching how it fitted into this wonderful world-changing web...

It’s hard to do this story justice in 500 words! Read more, or please donate, at Cosecha's website.

Caroline Talbott

Caroline Talbott coaches and develops leaders, especially those who have had success in a profession (eg lawyers, chartered surveyors, engineers, HR specialists) and then moved into a leadership role. 
Professionals in Leadership blog
Caroline Talbott - catalyst for change
Twitter: @CaroCatalyst

I Care For: People in Conflict

In celebration of International Coaching Week (February 5-11), a different guest blog post will be highlighted on the ICF blog each day this week. This is the first in this special series.

Though it is inevitable to have disagreements in both our personal and professional lives, many of us do not have the skills to effectively engage in conflicts that may emerge. What may start as a difference of opinion for instance, can escalate unnecessarily into a harsh exchange that is full of blame and hurt. Unresolved and poorly-managed disputes can also linger after they are ostensibly over. When this happens, the words and feelings expressed remain as remnants that hang on us and shroud the next dispute and the one after that and on and on.

Conflicts happen for many reasons, including the fact that we have values and needs in our lives that we feel strongly about. It may even be a perceived challenge to how we see ourselves and want to be seen by others. That is, when we become defensive, we are defending something important to us. At these times, when we are offended by something another person says or does, we often react -  in offensive ways  - and perpetuate the cycle of conflict. We lose our perspective about what is important to us and also, what may be important to the other person. Conflict takes a toll in a range of other ways too. The emotional repercussions cause stress for us and those around us and have an impact on our problem-solving skills and abilities, our creativity, decision-making and our way of interacting and being.

A typical scenario that I encounter in my coaching work recently occurred for a former colleague who is aware of my speciality – conflict management coaching. She shared her deep concerns about the conflict-saturated dynamics among members of a Board - of which she is one. The group have apparently been at an impasse regarding some major decisions over the past six months, and their individual and collective well-meaning intentions are suffering due to the in-fighting.  My colleague said that the constant internal and interpersonal disputes among the members are apparently causing some stakeholders to question the Board’s effectiveness. She added that the members have built walls around them - and we are ‘up against a wall.’ 

What does this have to do with Coaching Week? To celebrate, I have volunteered to help out the Board by using my conflict management coaching skills and also, the coach-approach to mediation that I developed. Together we have just framed the objectives. They are to help the Board members break down the walls, to better understand the dynamics that lead to their conflicts (as to proactively consider how to handle future challenges that may occur), to establish a process for making decisions in collaborative ways and to get on with the important work of fulfilling their mandate. We start at the beginning of Coaching Week - on February 6, 2012.

Cinnie Noble ACC, LL.B, LL.M (ADR),  is a lawyer-mediator and certified coach, specializing in conflict management coaching. She hosts ICF’s Conflict Management Coaching Special Interest Group and is a former Board Member of ICF-Greater Toronto Area. Cinnie is the author of “Conflict Management Caoching:The CINERGY Model” (September, 2011) http://www.tinyurl.com/conflictcoaching/ and co-author with Ed Modell and Diane Brennan, of the chapter entitled Conflict Management in the book “The Handbook of Knowledge-Based  Coaching:From Theory to Practice” (John Wiley and Sons, 2011),  by Leni Wildflower and Diane Brennan. Cinnie’s website is www.cinergycoaching.com.

Sharing the value of coaching

ICF members Terence Pritchard, ACC, and Yvette Elcock, ACC, joined ICF staff member Kristin Kelly at the HR Directors Business Summit in Birmingham, United Kingdom where the ICF sponsored a booth in the exhibit hall. This year's Summit marked the 10th anniversary of the event and it was the ICF's first appearance.

Attendees represented organizations across Europe and many were interested in learning more about how coaching could work within their businesses.

Learn more about this event at http://www.hrevent.com/.

Content free coaching

Sounds puzzling? Impossible? Not impossible but definitely a challenge!

This is one of the best ways I know for honing your coaching skills, whether you’re experienced or new to coaching.  Content free coaching:

• Improves your ability to tune in to what is going on for your coachee beneath the words they are actually saying;  to pay more attention to the ‘music’ and ‘dance’ (their tone and body language) which really indicate what they are feeling and thinking.
• Develop and practice powerful questions that don’t rely on content, such as “what’s happening now? ”, “what else ?” “and what else?” “and what else?”!!
• Remove any temptation to ‘solutionise’  - when you don’t know what their topic is you can’t possibly start thinking  about your solutions.

The quality of your attention is exquisite.  Where will your question take them?  How will it land?

I’ve used this to hone my own skills and also when training other coaches.  It was particularly striking with a group of managers whose career success so far was largely based on coming up with answers – it made an immediate step change in their ability to be curious about the coachee’s ideas rather than their own and stopped them solutionising, one of the biggest challenges for manager-coaches.

So how do you practice coaching content free?

• Find a friendly fellow coach.
• Ask them to think of a topic they want to be coached on.
• Ask them coaching questions and reflect back – after each question they should think through their answer and indicate when their thinking is finished and they are ready for the next question or observation from you.  Your next question or reflection is based on what you have detected and what your intuition suggests will help next.
• Get feedback from your coachee on what you did that helped …or didn’t.

Caroline Talbott

What are your key tips for honing your skills? Or your powerful ‘content free’ questions?   Share them with us at Facebook.com/ICFHQ.

Caroline Talbott coaches and develops leaders, especially those who have had success in a profession (eg lawyers, chartered surveyors, engineers, HR specialists) and then moved into a leadership role.  She is also a coach trainer and passionate about her own professional and personal development. Professionals in Leadership blog. Caroline Talbott - catalyst for change. Twitter: @CaroCatalyst.

Coaching’s time to shine

International Coaching Week (ICW) is the coaching profession’s time to shine. Held the first full week each February, the premise of ICW is to allow coaches everywhere the opportunity to share the value professional coaching brings.

Coaches across the globe celebrate ICW in different ways—some offer pro bono coaching, others (in conjunction with the ICF Chapter they belong to or with other local peers) provide workshops, and still others reach out to local media channels to share coaching with the public. The sky’s the limit when it comes to promoting the value coaching offers! (Use this page as a starting point.)

ICW will be here February 5-11, 2012. That leaves just about two weeks to get those final plans in place!

How are you planning to commemorate ICW? We’d love to hear about it—let us know what you are doing.

Haven’t planned anything yet? There is still time! Take a look at how others have celebrated in the past. 

Don’t have a lot of time to plan anything? Take a look at these five simple ways to get involved during ICW without a lot of effort or pre-planning.

And don’t forget: findings from the greatly anticipated ICF Global Coaching Study will be released during ICW. This is the perfect way to promote coaching at the local level. Find out more.

Learn more about International Coaching Week.

A coach’s toolkit

Last month, in an effort to see what kinds of assessment tools coaches are using, we asked our Facebook fans to share their “must-use” coaching assessment tools and why they like to use them.

Here’s what we heard:

"1. Innermetrix DISC - behavioural and communication styles. This is where we can uncover and work with the cause of interpersonal conflicts, workplace stress etc. This relates to the environment mostly.
2. Innermetrix Values - motivators and drivers. This is where we uncover passions - and how we need to be recognised and rewarded. This relates mostly to culture, vision etc.
3. Innermetrix Attribute Index - natural talents based on how you think and make decisions. This is where we uncover a person's deep value structure - not their specific values, but 'how' they value. This area is the key to fulfillment and high performance.

The first two are psychometric, and rely on self-reporting. The last is valuemetric (based on the Hartman Value Profile) and is does not rely on self-reporting. Number 3 enables us to measure soft-skills such as emotional intelligence, empathy, strategic thinking - which translates into being able to reliably measure and predict performance in particular roles such as leadership, management etc.

Most importantly, it enables us to uncover a person’s natural talents, which is their key to fulfillment, higher levels of performance, and the often elusive 'meaning and purpose' that the right kind of role and can provide.

When coaching - the combination of all three shows us a person's areas of innate strength (rather than skill) - which is the place to focus on and use when creating change. Self-awareness is key - and I believe these assessments are the best 'self-awareness' tools on the market.” (Paul Coughlin)

“StrengthsFinder 2.0 provides great insight to clients. Every time I have used it, the impact was impressive and very empowering.” (Katerina Kanelidou)

“I would have to second Katerina’s vote. StrengthsFinder is a great way to give clients clarity into strengths they weren’t aware of because our talents to us are nature. It can also help build the foundation for future coaching sessions.” (Jasmine Goris)

“I like to keep the life balance wheel handy because it’s simple and yet highly effective in uncovering where we are at present, just as quickly as we can uncover where we want to focus or move forward in our lives.” (Shontay Dumas)

“Two—I have a cultural diagnostic by Human Synergistics I use with teams that is fantastic! And it doesn’t label people!! And I have an eight question new client diagnostic that finds where people currently are with their goals/wants/needs/dreams. Why do I used them? It takes the temperature where people are for the moment and helps them to open the dialogue for where they want to go (and more but no room to fill in).” (Tammy Redmon)

“1. I use the life wheel—very true, as Shontay says very handy. 2. I use a fantastic tool called “Inner Engineering”—unique as very few coaches use this tool! But very powerful!” (Sonia Sant)

“I use Angeles Arien’s ‘Preferential Shape Test’…meets the diversity of all with multi-cultural perspectives. It brings out full areas for reflection, focus, discussion, decision, and change.” (Janet Ver)

Would you agree or disagree? What would you add to this list…and why? We’d love to know—leave a response below or join the conversation at Facebook.com/ICFHQ.

Pricing a blended coaching offering

I have just about begun to familiarize myself with the world of coaching and the possibilities it has to offer are exceptional and so very energizing!
What has been playing on my mind of late, is the possibility of providing blended coaching.

I have been in the field of learning and development for over 13 years now and I can see that blended learning has never been taken as seriously as it is today. We talk about a learning continuum and various ways in which the same skill or topic gets reinforced in the life of an individual, through various media.

Applying that construct to coaching, I have been thinking what it would be like if we were to offer our clients, a blended coaching model and have a differentiated pricing for that.

I know many of us might argue that well, that is what we have been doing all this while though the question I have to ask, really, is how does your blended coaching model then impact your pricing model?

From what I understand, most coaches still charge per hour of coaching, or per set of classes. Some even offer free trial classes, which makes a lot of sense. How about we become purposeful about the way we coach? We all know the implications of varied learning styles – the fact that different people respond better to different forms of learning. Maybe we have data to prove that tele-coaching is the most effective – maybe we don’t. I am still learning so would love to hear from the people out there who are much more aware about this field.

What would I want to offer to my clients? A varied experience which is predictable and does not make me question the amount of time I spend on a client.

Let’s say, we start with a tele-coaching session, which is usually a free or optimally charged trial session. If the next class is a week later, we could consider offering to our client, depending on their openness to this, of course, a daily or twice / thrice a week text or a daily ping on chat or a daily email (I would avoid a daily call) – whichever works most for them.

This would reinforce some things that have been discussed, keep the discussion alive in the mind of the coachee and also remind them that needed to do some work which will help them achieve their goal. Elliott Masie refers to this part of coaching as Nano-Coaching. I think it is a powerful way of providing the client a window to reach out, a window to think and a moment to follow through.

I would perhaps add a fraction of my cost on top of the amount I would charge for the tele-coaching in case a client would like to go for this kind of a blended coaching model.

Some options might look as follows:

1. Weekly teleclass costs ‘x’ per week (for an hour long class or whatever duration is agreed upon)
2. Weekly teleclass + contact twice a week via one chosen mode of communication costs ‘x’ + ‘y’ a week
3. Weekly teleclass + daily contact via a blend of options costs ‘x’ + ‘z’ a week

What other pricing models do we have in prevalence? Any best practices / learning from practioners?

Namrata Arora

Namrata Arora is a learning and development professional and has been working with MNCs for over 13 years in India. She has been involved in various aspects of learning and development from learning design, development and evaluation to learning organization design, learning strategy and innovation. Namrata is passionate about issues related to women and is an active member of women related forums in her organization and in her city. She is currently pursuing a coaching certification course from ICA and intends to specialize in coaching working women who go through choosing to take up alternate careers or give up their careers owing to their personal circumstances. You can follow Namrata at http://whatiamiswhatichoose.wordpress.com or reach her at namrata.arora.singh@gmail.com.

The Neuroscience of Coaching and Stress

Stress is, if not one of the main reasons people come to coaching, certainly is something that comes up with almost every client. I once heard the amazing (and now deceased) Dr. Paul Pearsall speak at an ICF Conference about having a balanced, healthy unstressed heart. His conclusion--it is perhaps impossible in today's world unless you live on a remote South Sea island.

In neuroscience, we use the term "emotional regulation" for what is basically the ability to deal with stress. And as I read through the literature, it dawned on me that this is a huge amount of what we do with our clients. We help them not only "emotionally regulate" in the moment of our conversation, but we also help them build skills for more competency in this area. In order words, we help them become more resilient and capable in the face of day to day life.

So let me walk you through what current neuroscience research has found are the effective tools for dealing with stress, and how we most typically do this through coaching. In order of effectiveness (from lowest to highest), we have:

1. Controlling the environment so as not to encounter stressor. Interestingly, this may sound bad at first, but it is actually quite effective if you can do it. And we help our clients do this all the time. For example, we might explore options with them to get rid of a 60-minute commute. Or help them see they can make boundaries with an in-law. As coaches, many of us (myself included) have designed our lives for a more peaceful experience. I dislike office environments with fluorescent lights and people asking me for things all day long. So I am a coach and trainer, I often work at home in my pajamas while hanging out with my cats, voila, stressor controlled.
   The reason I have this near the bottom of the list when it actually works so well (and some scientists argue is actually the most effective strategy) is that relying on control is probably a losing proposition. We simply can't (and shouldn't try) to control everything and everyone so as not to bug us. And the feeling of needing to be in control when you can't be actually causes more stress. Still, it works great when you can do it.
   
2. Naming the emotion. As coaches, this is often how we start when someone is dealing with an emotional challenge--we ask, "What's going on?" We reflect what we are hearing, often teasing out deeper understanding for the client. The challenge of this strategy (as anyone who has worked with human beings for any length of time knows) is that people often don't know what they are feeling. As coaches, we help them understand and name through metaphor, by using our own intuition, through body sensations, and basically, any tool we have. Over time, we help people develop competence in this area so that they have more words and understanding of the vague sensations within.
   
3. Reframing–finding an empowering way to look at the issue. The act of reframing (also known as taking a new perspective) invites our powerful thinking brain to the party, which calms down our limbic system (aka "stress") responses. In other words, reframing enables our clients to actually think and not react. Being asked to try on a new perspective is like stopping a runaway train. It gets us out of the limbic system, which got activated by stress, and into the pre-frontal cortex. And when we can think about things using our higher, more developed mind, we do pretty well.
   
4. Mindfulness–meditation, being present to body sensations, focusing on gratitude/love. The number one, hands down, most effective solution to any neuroscience challenge. Stress, creativity, improving memory, being more emotionally intelligent -- being mindful has been proven again and again to make a huge difference in all these areas.
   As coaches, I believe we absolutely help our clients become more "mindful." Even just a good coaching conversation brings people present into the moment and makes them pay attention to what is going on, rather than putting their attention on regrets from the past or worries about the future. In many schools they call this "process coaching," where we take our clients deep into what they are experiencing, right here, right now. It can be almost like a guided meditation in dialogue, as we walk with them through a metaphor, or help them put their body sensations into words. It's powerful, and can release old patterns and issues that have been stuck for years, simply by helping people be present.

Trust me on this one: If you do ONE THING for your client's brains--and your own--help them find a way to spend time being present. This calms and strengthens and develops the parts of the brain we need the most. Fun brain fact: Einstein's brain? Not bigger than yours or mine, but bigger in areas that are shown to increase through meditation.

Om.

Ann Betz, CPCC is the co-founder of BEabove Leadership and is on the faculty of the Coaches Training Institute, where she also serves as a consultant on the neuroscience of coaching. A long-time student of consciousness, she is currently pursuing a graduate degree in neuroscience. In addition to her more academic studies, Ann uses poetry to help people understand and integrate new awareness, and is the co-author of the new book "Coaching the Spirit, poems of transformation," available in December 2011. Ann coaches and trains internationally, and writes blogs on consciousness (http://www.beaboveleadership.com/), coaching and neuroscience (http://www.yourcoachingbrain.wordpress.com/) and poetry (http://www.eccentricspirit.com/). Ann can be reached at ann@beaboveleadership.com or at 651-253-5798.

How can you give back?

This time of year is often synonymous with feelings of gratitude and thankfulness. While you count your blessings this year, consider those ways in which you might be able to serve others this holiday season…and beyond.

Regardless of how crowded your schedule is, volunteer opportunities abound everywhere. Consider the organizations in your community that run on volunteer manpower…how can you help them? For you, it may be offering your services via pro bono coaching. For others, it could mean volunteering your time to serve (be it a soup kitchen, a nursing home, an orphanage, or animal shelter).

What is it for you…how can you give back? If you already regularly volunteer your services or your time (or both), what do you do? Do you have any advice for someone trying to find a way to get involved? Share your feedback in the comments section below or over on our Facebook page.

Time is ticking…we still want to hear from you!

Your last chance to be a part of coaching research history is coming! The 2011 Global Coaching Study will officially close on November 15, after being open nearly six months collecting the viewpoints of coaching professionals from across the world.

As the greatly anticipated follow-up to the 2006 ICF Global Coaching Study, the 2011 study will bring the current global landscape of coaching into clearer focus. Independent research firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is conducting the survey.

The study is open to all coaching professionals. To reach an even wider audience, the study has been offered in nine languages (English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish) and was compatible across several modes of mobile technology, including smart phones and tablet computers.

Once the study closes in mid-November, the data collected will lead to the creation of a robust “state of the industry” report that will provide coaches, organizations, and the media with an opportunity to learn more about today’s coaching industry. Final reports are expected to be available in early 2012.

PwC has advised that any country which delivers more than 100 survey respondents will be entitled to receive nation-specific data tables drawn from the study. To date, several countries have already surpassed this threshold! Do your part and participate so you too can benefit from more detailed findings about coaching in your country.

These findings will be beneficial when it comes to marketing your coaching practice in 2012 and beyond! You too can take advantage of these statistical findings by participating in this research.

If you haven’t already lent your voice to this research initiative—take a few minutes this weekend to do so! Participate in the study. Learn more about the study.

Energy Work and Coaching SIG Starts Back

Hello coaching colleagues and members of the Energy Work and Coaching SIG. I missed everyone this summer but am glad I took the time to buy a house, move, and begin remodeling. Opening up the living space to expand my practice, and clearing my energetic structure so that I can heal my physical concerns are two areas where I focused my attention. What about you? Did you take any classes that invigorated your spirit? Have you continued deepening your coaching by adding meditation to your daily practice? Please jot me a note at rpost@thehealercoach.com or tweet me (Rhona Post) to share your summer adventures.

This fall we are going to delve into the conversation about energy, and what it means to set our intention to use our sensing skills, bringing our awareness to what’s in front of us, as we use our attention to heal. I am inviting my colleagues, both coaches and healers to co-lead some of our discussions this fall so stay tuned.

The reliance on intuition and sensing skills helps us get underneath a client’s narrative to see the emotional triggers pulling or pushing the person. It is the difference between treating the symptoms and getting to the root cause of an issue. This kind of work is deeper, and the results are transformative, as what is revealed is resolved.

Rhona Post, MCC

We will continue to discuss the value of having a strong spiritual practice as we work with others, and we will spend time discussing how we position ourselves in the marketplace.

I invite my coaching colleagues who are interested or who already incorporate an energy modality in their coaching to join our call on September 19th, 11:00am EST.

For more information on Energy Work and Coaching please contact Rhona Post, MCC, 941.554.8466 or www.thehealercoach.com.

What do you need to be in business?

I regularly work with people who want to become self employed. These days, I am often told that before they can start trading, my clients need: a company name, website, business cards (complete with logo); perhaps even brochures or branded materials. One client insisted she needed printed, letterhead stationery before she could consider marketing her business!

Sometimes I wonder if they really believe this, or it’s a way of working on their business that is less scary than selling.

In my experience nothing says you are successfully in business better then generating your first sale.

Most often, your first sale will come from someone you know. The potential customer already trusts you and has a good idea of what you can give them. So, is it really likely that they will refuse to buy from you because you don’t have a website or a professional brochure?

You might think, “This is obvious, why is she telling us?”

Because.... business start up activities can be great forms of procrastination. You can genuinely say you are busy developing your business whilst not getting out selling your services. It’s clear which activity is more likely to earn you money and build your confidence but we are all capable of avoiding those tasks we feel least comfortable with.

So, in my opinion what do you really need to start your business as a consultant or coach?

• A phone
• A company name or trading name ( check out what options you have in your country)
• An email address – ideally not a free gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc account as these tend to look less professional
• A business card – doesn’t have to be perfect – use one of the online cheap printers to get 250 cards.
• A bank account – it’s better to keep your business earnings completely separate from personal money
• Professional insurance

These shouldn’t take you long.

Then, put your time and energy into marketing and business development and get CLIENTS!

I still have a photocopy of the first cheque I earned as a self employed Coach. It felt fantastic to get a sale. I was in business.

Beverley Grant, PCC

So, be honest with yourself – what activities do you have planned to get your business started?



More importantly, what actions will you take today, tomorrow, next week, next month to get your first paying clients? Then you can truly say you are in business.

Beverley Grant, PCC, is a very experienced career coach who has helped many people find the right role and excel at work they enjoy. Learn more at www.realmsofpossibility. Follow Beverley on Twitter.