Friday, June 17, 2011

We want YOU to be a part of the 2011 Global Coaching Study

Five years ago, nearly 6,000 coaches in over 70 countries took part in the ICF Global Coaching Study. Coaches were surveyed on their coaching practice and client demographic information, as well as revenue.

Commissioned by the ICF (and conducted by independent research firm PricewaterhouseCoopers), the study was a first—its groundbreaking findings provided the world’s first look at the coaching profession from a global perspective.

And now, the time is here to repeat the revolutionary study. And ALL coaches (ICF member or not) are invited to participate. The 2011 study will track key trends that have emerged since 2006 and will serve as a useful and insightful comparison to the original Global Coaching Study.

If you are a coach, please take some time to complete the online survey. Doing so will help bring the global landscape of coaching in 2011 into clear focus. The data collected will lead to the creation of a robust “state of the industry” report that will provide coaches, organizations and the media an opportunity to learn more about the profession.

Like the 2006 study, the 2011 Global Coaching Study will be conducted by PwC. As of June 17, the survey is available in English and Spanish. It will eventually be available in a total of nine languages (also including French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and Portuguese).

Once you complete the survey, invite your coaching peers around the world to participate by forwarding the study link. All survey respondents will receive an advance copy of the Executive Summary that PwC will develop based on study findings.

Participate in the 2011 Global Coaching Study.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

We are ICF

For each member of the International Coach Federation, there is a reason for choosing to be a part of the world’s largest professional coaching association. To illustrate this, nine individual members have been highlighted since the start of the 2011-2012 membership renewal season. 
Sackeena is an executive coach in the United States.
Sackeena Gordon-Jones, PCC, has been a member of the ICF since 2005. Why does she choose to belong to the ICF?

“ICF provides overarching support, structure, nurturing, networking and guidance to the Practice of Coaching. Because of the ICF, Coaching has become a credible and dignified specialty. It is innovative and has embraced a global world-view, which allows Coaching to impact the world, helping people be their best.”

A member of ICF-RAC (Raleigh Area Chapter), Sackeena finds connection with other members to be her most value-added member benefit.

Since the end of February, we have shared the many reasons professional coaches choose to belong to the ICF. To read about these other reasons, be sure to click on the label ICF Members (on the right side of the blog) to be taken to each of these posts.

If you are a coach and you aren’t yet a member of the ICF, what are you waiting for? Learn how you can become a member of the ICF here.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Body domain: the lost continent

What can coaches do when they hit an invisible verbal ceiling with their coachees? How should coaches continue the process when it seems that words aren´t enough?

Usually there is a deficit to use somatic knowledge when in session. When a coach not only has distinctions of non verbal communication, but is able to apply body dynamics (not only focused in techniques); these competencies allow for increasing the effectiveness of the interventions. The body dialectic enriches the process…

On one hand there are coachees who just cannot clear verbalise their real breakdown. Others may feel they can. But when it´s time to show what is happening for them and their desires, the body has its own voice in a different way of getting the message across. That means that very frequent the body´s coachee talks something different than his mind, has a different code, a different time to learn.

To further the coaching process, coaches should use a combination of verbal and non verbal approach. That is to say to know which type of strategy should be used to work the breakdown, to be aware of what the coachee is able to do when doing a body dynamic, what techniques or disciplines.

It doesn´t have the same impact and we have to know when it´s appropriate and timely to use music or elements with symbolic meaning to solve a breakdown and when not, when it´s adequate to draw or to make a collage, etc. I have learned when to move together with my coachee, and when to leave well alone; in so doing I practice being a compassionate and alert witness.

When using this approach, body manisfestation should be brought to the attention of the coachee so he could make a connection with his everyday life.
Andrea Gregoris Kamenszein


It is amazing to use power of movement as a way of growth. Often it supports a faster and deeper coaching process that the coachee clear can appreciate.

How is your experience regarding the body domain in session?

If you are a Spanish Speaking coach you are invited to participate in the SIG Coaching and Corporalidad. Feel free to ask me about this group.

Lic. Andrea Gregoris Kamenszein
www.evolucionmovimiento.com.ar

Friday, June 10, 2011

ICF and ASTD = a fantastic combination

The ICF’s second appearance at the ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) International Conference and Exposition was a fabulous experience!

May 23 booth staff
 At the end of May, more than 8,000 training and development professionals from 70 countries convened at the Orange County Convention Center in sunny Orlando, Florida, USA.

The three-day event included an international Expo hall where the ICF was situated. Attendees from 24 countries visited the ICF booth asking for more information on membership, the ICF Credential, coach training programs.


May 24 booth staff

This setting was the perfect venue for the ICF to promote the value coaching can provide an organization. Attendees were very interested in coaching as several of their conference sessions mentioned it and some speakers even referenced our booth in the Expo hall!

The ICF was well-represented; volunteers from the Tampa Bay Professional Coaches Association and the ICF South Florida Charter Chapter assisted two ICF Global staff members in manning the booth. They fielded questions around coaching—how (and why) it works.

The ICF would like to thank those ICF members who dropped by our booth and those ICF member volunteers who made our experience at ASTD spectacular: Charlene Balleine, ACC; Pegotty Cooper; Lorraine Lane; and Maria Martinez, ACC, and Marcelo Bianchi Montana.

We are looking forward to exhibiting at this show next year in Denver!

Monday, June 6, 2011

The Internal and External Conversations We Have Around Healing

Since February 2011, when I started the Energy Work & Coaching SIG, I’ve been surprised, even amazed with the depth of our conversations as we celebrate the value and benefits combining these two modalities has provided both us and our clients.

Participation in the third Monday of each month call is an invitation to expand our individual skill set in the areas of Coaching Presence, Building Trust and Intimacy and Powerful Questions, to name a few of the ICF Core Competencies, but more important, these calls affirm a commitment to expanding our coaching repertoire so that we better model a whole/ authentic identity. We are not alone, as the recent popular documentary, I AM, asserts. During these calls I lead the group in a centering/ embodiment practice which serves to ground our conversations.

Today’s call (May 2011) focused on the healer label; our personal, even cultural concerns about calling ourselves healers. My partner in this discussion, Sheridan Gates (http://www.purposeatwork.com/) is a seasoned coach and certified energy practitioner, who has over time, shifted her focus from corporate coaching and consulting to finding a more authentic way to present her gifts. She pointed out that this has been a journey; it has taken some time to embody the healer’s mantle as part of her overall coaching persona.

We all acknowledged how the inclusion of energy work has opened up possibilities in our practice; clients often change their lives completely. Clients experience more peace, more joy and more possibilities for how they can live and work in the world.

We discussed the hurdles we encounter to bridge what is often viewed as disparate identities—energy healer on one side, and business or executive coach on the other. We pointed to many examples within our culture where healers are physicians, providing cures-- not coaches. Are these two separate paths, or is there a way we can with confidence and humility incorporate both identities?
Rhona Post, MCC

Sheridan and I talked about surrendering to our passion, giving ourselves permission to publicly state that we are energy workers and coaches.

I’ve observed that the more we accept where we are on this journey, the easier it becomes for others to accept and trust us. The June SIG promises to be another hot topic: “Why Taking on a Spiritual Practice Is a Good Thing.”

For more information on Healer Coaching and The Energy Work & Coaching SIG, contact Rhona Post, +1.941.554.8466, www.thehealercoach.com.