Cleaning your own temple first: a primer for coaches (part two)

Energy Work and Coaching Community of Practice
Led by Rhona Post, MA, MCC
When: April 16, 2012

In March, we began the discussion of what it means to get our acts together so that when we meet with clients, we can meet them where they are, and be confident that we will bear witness to their experience, fully present to what is being shared. 

The funny thing about being present is that it is not a thing, rather it is a way of being, spacious and lucid, a result of our intention to consistently recognize and release stories to which we are attached. This skill is built over time employing various practices, including mindfulness meditation and clutter clearing.

First you have to recognize that you’ve got some cleaning to do; then you have to start the practice. Cleaning our own temples first is not a psychological exercise.  It requires a felt experience, our ability to observe our emotional, physical, spiritual and even intellectual clutter. Clutter can obscure all our sense faculties and reduce our ability to be spacious and whole. 

No matter how much control we exert to contain/avoid/negate the impact of our stories on others, the containment and control create mental agitation/stress. We’re just so impervious to our own stress that we don’t realize how spacious we can be until we eliminate the stressor.

Rhona Post

I’m inviting my coaching colleagues to bring their clutter cleaning practices to the conversation on Monday, April 16th. What are some of your best tools, including energetic modalities you use to keep your temple clean? The more the merrier on these calls.

For more Information on healer coaching,  contact Rhona Post: www.facebook.com/rhonapost or by email at rhonapost@gmail.com.

April - Spring is here!

Spring has certainly arrived.Warmer weather, flowers everywhere and a fresh feeling in the air.

Whether you are celebrating Easter or Passover or any other seasonal festival, the chances are you've been doing some cleaning and sorting, organizing and maybe disposing.

I love that it's the perfect opportunity to think about what we really need; what we don't have space for and what we can let go of.

It seems to me that this is so important when we apply it to running a business.

It's also what happens in a good coaching session.

I want to explore this on a few levels.  Will you join me?

So let's take your physical space.  How do you feel when you go into your office and sit down to work? 
Is the space comfortable and clutter free? 
Do you feel stressed about the filing you need to do or the drawers filled with papers that you haven't yet sorted? 
Does your office become a storage place for toys, bags or junk belonging to other members of the family?  I can really relate to this one!

And let's consider your mental and emotional space.Are you living in stories of stress and overwhelm?
Do you have a scarcity mindset – are you worried about having enough income or the rising costs of your business and life?
Do you work too hard and support your clients, family and friends without considering your own needs?

Well, spring is here.
It's time to clean up your life!

Here are 2 simple ideas – no excuses, do it today!

1. Take a morning to sort out your physical space.  Clean out the drawers, tidy your table and get rid of the items that should not be there.  You've been avoiding this forever, but it'll only take a few hours to sort out. 
2. Acknowledge that we are living in an abundant universe.  We don't have to create abundance, we simply have to recognize and open up to what is already there.  Once you truly accept this, you're life and business will change, promise!!!

Lisa Bloom, PCC

Take a walk, breathe in the beautiful sounds and scents of spring, and create the story of your perfect spring day – rebirth, re-energize and celebrate as your story creates your reality!

Lisa Bloom, PCC is founder of Story Coach Inc. and the Certified Story Coach Program.  Download her ebook ‘Using Stories to Get Great Clients’ at http://www.story-coach.com.

Learn how to listen so that others can do the same

"Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery." Dr. Joyce Brothers

There is a big difference between being heard and being listened to. In any organization, it is fundamental that any decision or plan that is communicated, to be efficiently applied on time. However, my practical experience in business shows that all this can only be achieved with one cost, a cost that fewer and fewer managers are willing to pay for. Working with Alex as a coach, has given me the chance to observe the impact of turning a work environment into a complete “business machine.”

He was a manager whose decisions and actions were exclusively based on lists: of the tasks that must be fulfilled, of deadlines, programs etc. Almost every employee had a stash of papers on the desk with every task that must be finished by the end of the day. Usually, tasks were fulfilled and everyone always had something to do, leaving little time for communication or other explanations. The business was running like a machine. Sometimes, employees had to work twice as much, making them think only about ways of diminishing that stash of papers, without encouraging them to be creative or to bring new ideas…At one point however, this mechanism started to fall apart, as people became used with the work at the office, but with a pointless job as well. Always worrying about the work that they had to do left little time to focus on efficiency or bringing new clients. Nobody was stressed because there was no such thing as a priority; everyone always received an email or a list with all the things that they had to do, but without having a global view of the situation.

The business continued with this working system until Alex asked his key employees, as always, to finish a set of documents for the next day. But the deadline was not respected because everyone still had to finish the work that was left from the previous days when they couldn’t finish every task. But Alex became aware of the situation the next day, when he was supposed to use the required documents for an important press release. It was then when Alex realized that he was not being listened by his people.

There is, indeed, a big difference between being heard and being listened, but most people are too busy to notice it. In any successful business, every decision, action or even minute counts. Many managers believe that there is not enough time to reflect on what should be improved and waste important resources on making other people act on time. It’s easier to be heard, to teach people how to react mechanically, without showing them the big picture, but on a long term, this system will undoubtedly fail, making people lose their potential or the possibility to build performance. An easy, but inefficient way to run a business, is also the one in which you witness peoples’ regress, who prove that they don’t listen, and do nothing about it because you think “that’s just the way they are”. But without action, they will be like that for a long time.

In short, how can you put your soul into logic? How can you afford to invest in feedback or in follow-up sessions where you check what has been done and what not? How can you show your employees what the company objectives are?

The biggest difference between being heard and being listened to is that in the former situation, people act from a mechanical reflex and  are not responsible for the results -  in the latter, they act because they understand certain processes and are able to make connections.

Rodica Obancea, ACC

Listening is an active process which creates the environment for development and new ideas.

So before you invest in convincing your clients to listen and buy, make sure that you convinced your team to listen and act, and in order to achieve this, you must face the situation, and see if you are being heard or…listened to!

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.

Three key mistakes to avoid in setting goals

The below post first appeared on CBS MoneyWatch:

If you set goals for yourself or for others as part of your job, it is imperative you don't make the goal-crushing mistakes discussed below. You already learned how positive fantasies hurt real-world success -- namely, that when you imagine the positive result too vividly, you experience some of the joy and become less energized to actually do the work. But that's just the beginning. Not all goals are created equally. According to research from Harvard Business School, you need to avoid these common errors in setting goals:

1. Goals that are too specific. One benefit of goal is that is focuses your attention. It forces you to focus all of your attention, resources, and energy on a single objective, rather than a range of disparate and even conflicting goal. That can be incredibly powerful. People without goals diffuse their energy across multiple objectives. But have them train their sights on something specific and you will begin to see results. That's the good news.

The bad news? Goals can be too specific. The biggest problem is when you set the wrong goal. You decide to lose 15 pounds. Seems reasonable, but it may be too focused on a specific number and distract from what you really want -- better health. Remember Enron? Their goal was laser-focused on hitting revenue targets -- so much so that bonuses and other incentives were pegged to sales, when a much better goal would have been to target profits.

Another side-effect of excessively targeted goals is that you can become blind to important, but seemingly unrelated, issues. A tragic example of this is the Ford Pinto, which had a tendency to explode in rear-end collisions. The automaker's goal was to bring the car to market, overriding safety concerns.

2. Too many goals. According to the Harvard report, "Individuals with multiple goals are prone to concentrate on only one goal." But which one? Research shows that when we have both quantity and quality goals, we will focus on meeting the quantity goals because they are easier to achieve and measure. The lesson here is to strip away as many of your goals as possible and focus more intensively on a smaller number of objectives.

3. Inappropriate time horizon. We see this play out every quarter in the stock market. For many companies, it's all about hitting this quarter's earnings, even if if that harms long-term growth. It's the kick-the-can approach to goal achievement. And if your time frame is off, your goals may act as a ceiling to performance.

Take an enduring question that the Harvard report addresses -- why it is so hard to get a taxi on a rainy day. Too much people looking for a cab, right? Yes, but there is more to it than that. Cab drivers typically set daily fare goals -- usually double the amount it costs them to rent their cabs for their shift.

With rain comes more customers, so they hit their daily goal early and then go home early. In short, for cabbies the daily goal time-frame is not the most effective. If they set weekly or monthly targets, they could work longer hours when it rains and get off early on days when it is dryer (and slower).

Robert Pagliarini

What are your goals? Are they too focused? Do you have too many? Or do you have time limits that aren't realistic? Review each of your goals so you don't commit the mistakes above and to ensure your goals are designed for maximum success.

Robert Pagliarini is a CBS MoneyWatch columnist, bestselling author, professional life coach, and founder of Richer Life—a community for people who want to achieve more at work and in life. He has appeared as an expert on 20/20, Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew's Lifechangers and many others. Sign-up for Richer Life Tips at RicherLife.com to get a daily email that provides inspiration and insight each morning.

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.

Cleaning Your Own Temple: A Primer for Coaches

Energy Work and Coaching SIG
March 19 2012 11:00AM ET
Call In: 712-451-6000
427724# Pin
Facilitator:  Rhona Post MCC

During the February Energy Work and Coaching SIG call, we explored how we can more effectively communicate the value and benefits of offering clients an integrated approach to coaching that would honor both the energy or alternative healing modalities we’ve studied while still preserving the dignity of the coaching models we utilize.

One of the recurring themes during these calls is the idea that we serve our clients better when we have done the work on ourselves, first.

That has been my experience. Several group members have asked me to lead a conversation about how we can better clean our own temples first prior to trying to coach clients in those areas with which we are not familiar.

So what does it mean to clean our own temple first? Some of us have spent years learning about ourselves, studying the mind (our minds) to become better acquainted with our mental formations, our viewpoints that direct how we interpret and interact with others. We’ve dissected our emotions and our narratives to better understand and accept our frailties and our gifts. Awareness, we have learned, is the first step to changing ourselves. You cannot change what you don’t know.

This commitment to learn more about the self, not from a strictly analytic or psychological approach has helped many of us become more discerning in our coaching. Because we have cultivated the wisdom to realize that one size does not fit all, we keep learning new modalities so that we have a toolkit from which we can work. Our wisdom is rooted in experience, knowledge and compassion. 

Rhona Post

On our March call we’ll explore the types of practices we can engage in that will support us to clean our own temples and to keep them clean. What are those rooms in your house (mind) that you keep closed? What is it about those areas that scare or frustrate you? What are some practices you do on a regular basis that support you to be fully present and engaged? How do you keep your energetic distance while still maintaining a compassionate presence? How do you know when you are in your head and not fully in your body? We will address these and other questions during the call. A community is a place where our gifts are received. Please take the time to share your gifts with us.

For more information contact, www.facebook.com/rhonapost or call +1.941.554.8466.

The ICF ADHD Community of Practice: What’s It All About?

The ICF ADHD Community of Practice thanks the ICF for hosting us and for validating us.

What is the ICF ADHD Community of Practice?
ADHD coaching is General Coaching amplified.
ADHD Coaches work with life issues that are often of a greater intensity, more challenging, and often filled with greater humor, as we help clients to see themselves. 

The ICF ADHD Community of Practice calls are about the many aspects of ADHD coaching and the topics apply also to General Coaching. 

If you would like to join the ICF ADHD CP or be on the email notice list please email: Chana@KleinCoaching.com. 

THE ICF ADHD CP Experience
The best way I can share what the ICF ADHD Community of Practice experience is like is to tell you about the calls we have had this season.

The information that the speakers have brought us can be applied to our everyday coaching practice, which is likely one of the reasons that the people who join the call are coaches with many different specialties.

The 2011-2012 season began with David Giwerc, MCC, the founder of ADD Coach Academy (ADDCA) and author of Permission to Proceed. David’s topic at the CP call was “How to Prosper By Getting Into Your Heart and Out of Your Head.” 

David shared with us the source of real success, success from the inside and how to achieve it. He spoke about how to choose so that we are in integrity with who we really are, with our inner spirit.

He told us how to rediscover the small voice within for ourselves and how to help our clients hear theirs. He spoke on the value of being vulnerable rather than in isolation, and how to choose that He inspired us about how to grow our business from a place of spirit, from the inside-out, rather than from the outside-in. 

Then, in October we heard “Listening to Linda – Confessions of an ADDiva.” with Linda Roggli, PCC, author of Confessions of an ADDiva, Midlife in the Non-Linear Lane. 

This was a one-hour entertaining and informative journey into the inner workings of the ADHD Brain, and even more, into the ADHD Spirit. We heard how they come together in a hysterically funny expression, as portrayed in one woman’s life. Linda’s words helped us to better understand ourselves and our clients.

We traveled with Linda through missed plane flights, robbed offices, checks with decimals in the wrong place, struggles with miscalculation of time, the need to control. There was not a boring utterance and no way that anyone could have stayed in a bad mood listening to Linda.  

Next, we heard Andrew Lewis share “The Benefit of Having an ADHD Brain - How to Get Your Clients to Love their ADHD.”

Andrew gave us information on how to become a more effective coach by understanding the thought mechanism underlying the things we are coaching.

We learned from Andrew a way to explain for ourselves and to our clients why they behave the way that they do. He taught us about finding the inner strength of a client and building on those strengths in our coaching. 

Then, on another call, Andy Bounds, author of The Jelly Effect: How to Make Your Communication Stick, dazzled us with his techniques of how to enlist clients and network. His topic was “How to Communicate Persuasively So That Your Communication Works Every Time.”

Andy taught us a new way to use the skills of good manners and the ability to chat in an unfamiliar context.

He shared with us ways to quickly create persuasive, inspiring messages and how to deliver these messages so they – and we – impress the people we are speaking with. He shared with us how to ensure that people buy into – and act – on all that we say.

It is difficult to put into words how valuable some of these calls have been, for me and for the people who call in. Andy Bounds was an absolute winner.

The February call featured the speakers who will be presenting at the ADD Coaches Organization in February. The speakers shared a lot of information with us and were informative, whether or not a coach planned on attending the conference.

Our Next Call
Coming up, on Wed, March 14th at 3 p.m. (New York), we will hear Kelly Dorfman MS, LND, author of What’s Eating Your Child? Kelly will speak on  “The Hidden Connection Between Our Coaching Issues and Nutrition.”

Join this call to learn some powerful “out of the box” information from a true expert who cares.  Email me (Chana@KleinCoaching.com) to get the call information.

Kelly Dorfman is a nutritionist who often focuses on the issues that we focus on in our coaching.

Perhaps in working with clients daily we don’t think of, or we overlook, a very important part of optimal functioning, one that may make a world of difference. Some of what will be covered:

• How can we as coaches help our clients and ourselves to improve cognitive functioning?
• What clues can a coach look for that will guide him further about what may alleviate many of the client’s issues?
• How can the knowledge of nutrition and environment make my coaching more effective?
• What are clues that a nutrition change would help a client to get more from the coaching and from life?
• Is there a way of eating that helps alleviate some of the issues of ADHD that our clients bring to the coaching?
• How does a coach help her client to “master the meandering mind?”
• How do our food choices affect us?
• Is it different for an adult that a child?
• How is our brain connected to our gut?
• How can I improve my cognitive functioning through nutrition?
• How do I know if my coaching issues have an environmental component?
• How can I help myself, and my client, to improve word retrieval?
• How can we improve our concentration?
• What should I know about medication? How as a coach can I share information about medication within the framework of the ICF competencies?

Kelly Dorfman will blow your mind with new avenues and ways of thinking about our clients and ourselves.

 

CCEU’s

Each of the calls has qualified for a CCEU and each participant who sends the code words within 24 hours receives a personalized certificate of the earned CCEU.

 

How to Join Us

I hope that gives you some idea of what the ICF Community of Practice is about.

 

It has been a joy to connect with each of you who has reached out to join the ICF ADHD Community of Practice.

Chana Klein

If you have any questions please email me at Chana@KleinCoaching.com. I look forward to connecting.

Chana Klein, MSEd, PCC, EEM-CLP, MACC, ACG, PACG, CCUG, EFT, NET, AGI, SSS®

 

ICF ADHD Community of Practice Leader

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.

What story are you noticing today?

The storm began in the late afternoon with strong winds and heavy rain.  
This morning it’s still raging.  The kids were bundled up with coats and umbrellas and instructions to keep warm and dry. 

And I take refuge in the local café with the comings and goings of people sheltering and the coffee machine noise gently soothing the words from my thoughts on to the screen.

One whole wall of the local coffee shop is mirrored so though I'm sitting facing the wall, I can watch the people with a glance up from my screen.  It's fascinating.

We're all living out our stories!  It's clear that the woman clutching the cup to her breast and scanning her mobile phone has had a stressful morning.  She's anxious and concerned.  I wonder what's her story?

The couple sitting across from me are negotiating a home rental contract, they're smiling in that superficial 'let's pretend we're friends' way so that they can get the business done. 

The young woman at the table is reviewing a presentation with her quirky ear muffs and constant texting.

The two women beside the window are telling a familiar story.  The older woman has a laptop half closed while she leans forward and talks animatedly.  The younger woman is holding a tiny baby, smiling and nodding in automatic response while sneaking glances out of the window to the pouring rain.

We are all storytellers.  Our stories define our reality.  What we tell ourselves about our experience creates our experience.  Sometimes our stories serves us well, often they sabotage us. 

Powerful coaching allows us create and hold the space for storytelling and story listening – so that we can transform our reality and live to our greatest potential. 

I notice the stories all around me…and realize that these are indeed my stories.

What story are you noticing today?

What story creates your reality?

Lisa Bloom, PCC

Today, as you start noticing your stories, make them great!

Lisa Bloom, PCC is founder of Story Coach Inc. and the Certified Story Coach Program.  Download her ebook ‘Using Stories to Get Great Clients’ at http://www.story-coach.com.

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.

Do not save time...you already have it

"Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." H. Jackson Brown.

The most valuable resource a manager or employee can have is none other than time. As a famous English writer once said, better three hours early than one minute late, more and more business people with important leadership roles in organizations tend to compromise their relationship with other employees around them just for the sake of saving time. I believe it is a situation you are familiar with: unanswered e-mails, inefficient communication, confused employees etc. Basically, while trying to save more time, we alter our relationships with people around us, by forgetting to approve certain meetings, answer questions or finish a certain task. But how can we earn our business partners’ respect if we are constantly blinded by this “I need to save more time” hypnosis?

- Or how can you earn your own respect by finishing everything you have to do on time?

Radu is one of the key employees in the construction business he works. He was responsible for organizing the entire sales process and the business connection with the clients. He knew how to handle his job and many could’ve learned from his work experience. However, Radu had one major flaw: he was easily influenced by his lack of time – meaning he was always in a hurry. If he wanted to delegate a task for another employee, then everything had to be well understood from the very beginning, because he never had or thought he could find the time to give further explanations. His priority were always his clients, which sometimes, made him forget that he was part of a team and that they all worked for the same goal. If a colleague wanted to ask him something or require his assistance for a particular task, he would have had to wait for a long time because Radu was not willing to waste his time on things that “could wait.” However, things got worse in time, because while trying to save more time, he spent too little with his colleagues, sometimes even speaking too directly to them, using harsh words like “ You must finish this right now” or “Bring me the latest chart on our monthly profit.”

Nobody could properly talk to Radu because he was always on the go. He thought that he needed to do things faster so that he could make sure he would finish everything on time. Because if he didn’t finish the job, another company would, thus making him loses his clients.

The department was run in this manner for a while, until one evening, when everyone left the office, Radu overheard a conversation between two of his colleagues. They complained that they didn’t understand a thing from the past few months in this company and that they couldn’t find a solution because Radu was never there to help them. This conversation wouldn’t have been a problem for Radu if the ones who took part to it were simple employees in the company; however, these two individuals were Radu’s key partners. This was the first feedback that made him realize that there are far more important things than time. After this, he started to work with a coach.

Sometimes, when we feel we don’t have enough time, we tend to become irresponsible with the people around us. But the problem is not our lack of time, but our impression that we don’t have enough time. I have met numerous business people who were always needed at the office, but despite their busy schedule they were the ones who answered to e-mails or who maintained a direct communication with their clients, without complaining they don’t have enough time.

Because there is no such thing as “lack of time,” but a lack of collaboration and delegation with the people around you; a lack of trust in yourself and your ability to finish things on time and a lack of trust in others, because you don’t believe they could finish the job properly.

Rodica Obancea, ACC

Every manager values his time and it is ok not to waste your time with irrelevant activities. The challenge, however, is to trust yourself and believe you can finish on time, while collaborating with others. This is what a team really is.

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.

Vitality, positivity and grace are now available in pill form...

Wouldn’t that be great?  No, it wouldn’t!  But I bet it would sell!

I think that is what many of us are striving for... vitality, positivity and grace. Sounds good.  And it feels good when we can land there. Unfortunately, we often seem to be looking in all the wrong places. We Americans have never been more medicated, in debt, overweight or addicted. Yikes! Sorry to remind you of that reality.

These times are full of uncertainty and turmoil, and they are full of potential for positive change. Chaos often precedes change. This can be a time for transformation for us. I know at times, I feel very vulnerable as many of my friends, family and colleagues do. We can’t stop what’s going on in the world but we can learn to do things differently if we choose. We can learn to be more resilient. Resiliency leads to resourcefulness. That is a skill set we really need today.

"Vulnerable?  Not in This Dog's Dictionary!"

And it has to start right here inside each of us... It all depends on us making different choices.  The big challenge is,

“How do we access our best during these challenging times?” 

Though the circumstances are certainly different, the question is the same one that each of my parents were faced with in their lives.  They faced even tougher times.

Top Two Strategies
There are two strategies that most resilient people in the world use. 

1. The first is to remain calm during adversity. If unable to do that, then they are able to return to calm quickly following and recenter themselves in order to re-focus. This can be learned. 
2. The second step is to engage in the practice of positive inquiry. Just asking questions and being curious is an admission that you don’t have all the answers. Whew! What a relief that is! Direct your energies by asking questions that point to the positives or strengths in a situation, like:

• What is going right?
• What is in my control?
• What is the lesson here?
• What do I desire?

When I am able to do that, I land in a place closer to vitality, positivity and grace. 

Questions bring us beyond what we already know...beyond what we currently feeling. They help us to find the answers so we can start living them.

Feeling vulnerable feels like the new normal.

That’s not so bad as long as we don’t assume we know what the future holds.  Getting comfortable with this discomfort can help us to stay right there instead of searching for the many ways we do to alleviate the feeling.

Finding new ways of coping and moving in the direction of resourcefulness, are not just important but I will go as far as to say your life depends on it!

So, let’s gather all our strategies and tools for bringing our best to just this moment... Because that is all we really have.  And let’s gather our resolve to make the most of our precious time on earth.

Anne Jolles is offering a 5 week webinar, “Rise and Shine Anytime” 5 Steps for Bringing Your Best To The Next Moment.  You will learn strategies and tools to increase positivity, resilience and grace while earning 5 CCEU’s from ICF. Watch this video: Rise and Shine Anytime 2012.  Learn more at www.riseandshineanytime.com

The best award: Learning, serving and recognition.

“The south also exists”

Receiving the Chapter Award in Las Vegas was a great honor and recognition. Though the best part of it is the support of the Uruguay Chapter members, who believe that a promise of professional coaching and ethics support by a global organization could be the future for a better living.

This is a story of vision, persistence and a great deal of time devoted to members, actually 80, may be one the secrets to create something bigger. You also need an organization offering leadership opportunities and ICF was that chance.

During the 2nd Congress of Coaching in Argentina, August 2007, I made a public statement: Uruguay will have a formal Coaching organization that will begin joining the few professionals in the market and develop a community of Coaching working towards a change. The vision of creating the ICF Uruguay Chapter is the blog of the Coaching Community of Uruguay where all this started: www.coachinguruguay.com.

"América invertida" ("Inverted America"), by the Uruguayan painter Joaquín Torres García

Uruguay is a country with 3,5 millions of inhabitants. Coaching appears about 7 years ago with very few coaches who have almost no relation between each other.  Within South America, Uruguay is one of the latest countries where the Coaching practice has been developed.  Despite being considered a traditional country due to its conservative beliefs, it has a great potential. We face the challenge of creating something new, going through local resistance to this kind of disciplines. 

People were invited to join the idea of leadership, coaching and thinking different with the view of developing a profession that was pretty unknown. More than 250 people join this community, but not more than 10 professional coaches could be identified at that moment.

In 2010 Coaching bloomed as the bamboo analogy. We carried out the 1st International Coaching Workshop with about 120 participants, created the first local Association (AUCOP), and launched the idea of the ICF Uruguay Chapter. Only four ICF Members where identified.

Being invited to the ICF Leaders’ meeting in Peru at the 1st LATAM Conference in July 2010 was the first step to see a wonderful work of existing chapters.

Founders of ICF Uruguay, Dec 2010

Then attending the Dallas Conference was the opportunity to see a global view and reinforce the challenge to go for it.

We founded the Chapter with almost 30 ICF members December 9th, 2010.  Since then, we have been growing not only as a Chapter but also as coaches.

In 2011 Coaching has been developed faster than ever.

• More than 7 different learning offers of coaching are offered in the Uruguayan market.  Most of them opened this year.
• Local business associations and government are being visited establishing cooperative work.
• Initial contacts have been established in order that ICF LATAM Chapters may work together with the LATAM Network of Human Resources Associations.
• Three Mentor Coaching Groups were held to align 30 local coaches into the credential process.
• We have met with local Coaching institutes and are working with them in order to help them to accredit their programs.
• Media interviews were carried out announcing ICF Uruguay Chapter.
• On March we launched our website http://www.icfuruguay.org with a look-and-feel as the new ICF Global Website.  It was offered as a model to other chapters in the search of creating a regional voice and image for ICF. 
• We also launched our Newsletter Coaching Uy in March.  At the present moment we are in the process of preparing the next issue.
• An initial blog was added to the web.
• Our ICF Uruguay Facebook Page with almost weekly news and pictures is on almost 100 members.
• Near 20 meetings with an average of 28-32 members and invited coaches were held by the Chapter during this year.  President of ICF Colombia; Vice President of ICF Argentina; Director on Ethics of Argentina; former liaison with LATAM from ICF Spain (via video-conference call); and VP Damian Goldvarg MCC were some of our invited speakers for our meetings. 
• During August we sponsored an International Human Resources Congress (300 participants) bringing Ivonne Hidalgo as speaker expert and president of ICF Venezuela.
• We also sponsored the visit of Tim Gallwey, with near 300 participants, as a way to locally position ICF.
       o We had a private breakfast conversation between Tim and our members, the next day of Tim’s Conference.
• During May, 100% of our members renew their membership.
• A radio program about Change and Possibility was co conducted during the last three months of the year.  Coaching and ICF were the main messages to creating awareness within the community.
• Creative ideas are in process for the growth and renewal of memberships as of 2012. 
• Our goal for 2011 was100 members before the end of the year, we reach almost 80.
• Uruguay was the first LATAM Chapter launching the “I Care For…” campaign in Spanish.
• ICF Uruguay Chapter has the biggest percentage of penetration per capita by far (members / coaches / future coaches).
• Uruguay is now in the Coaching world and we will deliver global coaches to serve worldwide.

During this year we learned a great deal of experience about ICF not only in its committed global view from Ed´s initiative but also as being part of the Marketing Global Committee helping in the development of the new Coaching World and the Brand Plan which I think is a great step that goes much further than the use of a logo.  Leadership means Coaching… not to be listened but listening and giving time one person at a time.

Closing 2011 I would say it was one of the best years of my coaching career.  Not from a business point of view, but the experience itself of coaching and developing a Coaching community was remarkable rewarding.

It was unthinkable to live this experience more than a year ago. I strongly motivate all ICF Members to get committed to their chapters and develop themselves as leaders. There is no limit to reach whatever you want.

Thanks to all the new ICF friends, Global Committee, ICF staff and colleagues and Damian’s coaching, who helped to go through!

2012 will be a great year for Coaching discipline and for LATAM development.  That is the next Challenge.

http://www.silbert.com.uy

Gerardo Silbert is coach trainer, founder of Silbert Coaching /Comunicación. With focus con Life Coaching, he is applying for his PCC. With 30 years of experience in advertising and marketing in Argentina, due to coaching he choose to change his live into service and help and he moved to Uruguay and began his Coaching carrier 8 years ago. Actually he is president of ICF Uruguay and part of the Coordination development Team for Latam.