Celebrate!

Last November, when I had the honor of being asked to be one of the guest writers for International Coaching Week on this blog, I got really, really excited, unable to foresee the challenging situation I would find myself in when the time to write this piece came.

You see, for me, International Coaching Week is all about celebration. We celebrate our profession and its value through all kind of activities like workshops, presentations, and pro-bono sessions, educating the general public and giving back to community at the same time.

Yet, in the week when I needed to be in this festive mood the most, my mother was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition.

At the same time the situation in my country was seriously challenging my optimism.

With the deadline for the blog post approaching, I found myself in the corridors of the public hospital with my laptop on my knees, dealing with feelings of fear at the possibility of losing my mother and of despair and uncertainty about the future of my country.

How could I write this article? It just seemed impossible to shift into the mood required. Or was it?

Part of our job as a coach is to challenge our clients to reframe situations, to shift perspectives and find something positive even in the most challenging circumstances. Part of my life has been to challenge myself and overcome what seems impossible.

So here it is - I am challenging myself to be in a festive mood and find the best reasons to celebrate:

• We are members of a community (ICF) in the service of helping humanity flourishing.
• We are 20,159 strong and we are growing! The 20,000th member registered on February 1.
• We have the privilege to be in a profession that focuses on values. We help our clients reconnect with their values and drive a meaningful life.
• We are change agents; we facilitate positive transformation.
• We are witnesses of this positive transformation, we watch our clients flourish and we grow together with them.
• We are in a profession of shifting perspectives!

On a more personal level, I celebrate my commitment to a profession which I love, to a profession that I feel passionate about and is in the service of what I care about most: people.

Yes, there is always something to feel good about, to feel proud of and grateful for. Something to keep us motivated and inspired; something to celebrate!

Katerina Kanelidou, ACC

So, my fellow coaches around the globe: what do we / you have to celebrate this very special week and every other week?

Katerina Kanelidou, ACC, is founder of Creative Empowerment, specializing in leadership coaching and team development. She is a member of the 2012 ICF Global Conference Steering Committee and co-chair of the marketing subcommittee. Katerina loves connecting with people, so feel free to connect with her on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

Getting your act together and taking it on the road

When I joined the newly founded ICF association in 1999, and was awarded the MCC designation, I was part of a small elite group of pioneers who shared a vision of what might be possible if more people had access to coaching.

Over the past twelve years, my vision for what is possible using coaching has deepened. ICF has grown from a few thousand coaches to more than 20,000 members worldwide. To witness such huge growth in a new profession is inspiring. To be part of a community is a natural drive for us (mammals); I am grateful for the many opportunities ICF provides to encourage the expansion of ideas, theories and practices.

A year ago I started a Special Interest Group to focus on the integration of energy work and coaching. By providing a platform for coaches who were also learning to use alternative/complimentary healing with their current coaching modalities I felt that we would benefit from sharing our varied learning approaches, as well as increase our confidence and skill to promote how we can better bridge “current” coaching techniques with energy work to serve our business and life coaching clients.

To celebrate International Coaching Week, we have an opportunity to get our acts together and take it on the road. I’m asking Energy Work & Coaching SIG members to take the risk and offer one business or corporate client the chance to experience your “healing” skills. With your longer-term clients, it is much easier to ask them to try something new or different because you already have the relationship in place. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to ask. Don’t be attached to the outcome. Be curious and joyful as you give yourself permission to bring more of yourself to the coaching session.

I’m offering pro- bono healer coaching sessions next week, in particular working with several “trauma” cases, because that is an area that intrigues me. These clients are cynical about energy work but they are suffering enough from their traumas that they are willing to try anything to stop the pain. I will tread lightly, build their trust and confidence and take them step-by-step so that they can pace themselves with the combined modalities. I know I have the big guns ready, but often people who are new to alternative approaches need baby steps to start. Unless the client is hemorrhaging on the floor in front of you, baby steps work big magic.

Rhona Post, MCC

What we do matters! That’s why we became coaches. Please use the International Coaching Week to take what you know on the road.

For more information on the Energy Work & Coaching SIG please contact Rhona at rhonapost@gmail.com or call +1.941.554.8466 to set up your healer coaching session.

Rhona Post, MA MCC
The Healer Coach, LLC
Sarasota, FL, USA
+1.941.554.8466

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/.

Don't Make This Personal Branding Mistake

The below post first appeared on CBS MoneyWatch:

There are blog posts, articles, and even books dedicated to helping you create a personal brand, but personal branding expert Dan Schawbel warns against making a critical mistake that can decimate your brand overnight. I had the chance to interview Dan Schawbel about personal branding and his book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps for Richer Life. Go to Richer Life to listen to the full Dan Schawbel personal branding interview.

Robert: How specific should someone be when creating their personal brand? Let's say a few years ago my personal brand was "I'm the MySpace expert." And now all of the sudden MySpace is dead. So is there a fear with committing too much to a specific brand?

Dan: You don't want to commit to someone else's brand. By saying you're a LinkedIn Expert or a MySpace Expert, you're committing to someone else's brand, so you're placing a bet that their brand will grow and succeed and therefore your brand will grow and succeed, because there will be more of a demand for your services. But it's a fool's bet. It's not something that I would ever recommend. I've seen some people be successful doing that, but it's too risky and it's building someone else's brand and not as much building your own. So I think it's really important and it's part of the reason why I did personal branding-because it's something that was written about 10 years before social media. It was getting talked about and social networks were being created. So therefore, my belief is that it's something that will survive even if social media becomes something else later.

Robert: That little nugget right there is huge, because I think for a lot of people they do tie their personal brand with maybe another company or with a product. Let's say I've got a book coming out and I want to tie my personal brand to that book. Now, if the book doesn't do well or if I have four or five more books that I have in my head, there could be a problem if I say that's my brand and I've tied it specifically to a particular product.

Dan: Absolutely. You'll be irrelevant if that company or that social media tool does not exist anymore. You'll be completely irrelevant, and then in order to position yourself back in the marketplace and something else it'll be really tough. It'll be really tough because you've become known as the LinkedIn Specialist, but if there's no LinkedIn what are you going to be known as? And to create new brand perception is a lot of work, and it's tough, and it's going to take years, so it's definitely not something that I would recommend. I think you just have to create your own job title, be unique, and be committed to what you're going to do, because it takes a lot of work and you have to build it over time. I didn't, you know, it took me six months and then I was fortunate enough to get written about in Fast Company which expedited my success. But what if that didn't happen? Maybe it would have taken a year, two years. That's why you really have to love what you do and you have to be. When you love what you do and you really enjoy it and you gain confidence in it, you gain a positive attitude and you're committed to it. So the chances that you'll be successful (even if you aren't Donald Trump) are very high, because people are more apt to do business with people who love what they do. If you have hate what you do (as you know 80% of people or companies hate what they do), it's going to be hard for somebody to really, really want to work with you.

Robert Pagliarini

Go to Richer Life to listen to the full Dan Schawbel personal branding interview.

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.