ICF staff makes ripples

For the second year in a row, International Coach Federation staff members commemorated International Coaching Week by volunteering at locally-based International Book Project (IBP). 

IBP is a Lexington, Kentucky based nonprofit whose mission is to promote education and literacy while broadening Americans’ understanding of their neighbors by sending quality used books overseas. IBP sends more than 150,000 books to schools, libraries, churches, nonprofits, and Peace Corps volunteers in over 40 developing countries. Learn more about IBP.

ICF staffers at International Book Project

People from across the city, state, and nation donate books to IBP for their cause. Those books that are not able to be used overseas are stocked in the IBP bookstore that is open to the public. All proceeds from these books are put toward shipping costs of those books that do go overseas. ICF staffers sorted through boxes of books and worked to stock the shelves of the bookstore.

This was a most fitting end to International Coaching Week—and so fulfilling for staff members to get out of the office to help the community, and the world. Check out the IBP blog to see the kind of impact their organization has on the world.

Your Coaching Business Can Thrive In Any Economy

“Have you ever had down times in your business?”

“During downtimes, what kind of mindset did you need to have in order to not be distracted or derailed by the negatives?”

“What do you think is the most important thing a coach needs to do to sustain himself or herself in the coaching business?”

These are all questions I asked 11 established coaches, nine of whom are ICF-Master Certified Coaches, for Inspired and Prosperous: 11 World-renowned Coaches Reveal Their Success and Sustainability Secrets – my book that launched during International Coaching Week.

In honor of International Coaching Week, through Feb. 19, 30% of all Amazon Kindle and paperback proceeds will be donated to Coaching The Global Village, a nonprofit that teaches coaching and leadership skills to grassroots leaders in under-developed communities around the globe, in order that these leaders might ignite significant and lasting possibilities in their worlds.

So, what made me write this book? It was the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. I watched in silent horror as I lost a five-figure corporate contract. As an ICF Chapter President, I found that many of my fellow coaches experienced the same fate. That led me to query: how do coaches who have been in business for more than 10 years make it through this volatile economy and other tough times in the past? What kind of marketing activities bring them consistent results? How do they decide on which business-building strategies to adopt when there are so many to choose from?

My inquiry led me to these 11 coaches who very generously shared with me intimate details of their business journeys – the ups and downs, the good, the bad and the ugly. What I learned from them is priceless, and I wanted to share these insights with my fellow coaches and as many out there as possible. This wish gave birth to the Inspired and Prosperous book.

Whether you are a Life, Business or Executive Coach who wants been-there insights on how to succeed in a volatile economy like this, or an established coach who is thinking of taking on credentialing and wondering if you need it to succeed, this book is for you. To learn more, visit http://www.inspiredandprosperousbook.com.

Like the other blog writers here, I am deeply honored to be part of this profession. It is one of those vocations that can positively revolutionalize the world. My wish for you, dear coach, is that you will access the wisdom, knowledge and priceless insights that these master-level coaches reveal so that you can have a business that outlasts any tough times. Because our world needs you to serve the best of what is possible – right now.

Duanna Pang-Dokland is a Certified Coach who started her coaching business without knowing a single soul when she moved to America from Singapore. An ICF Chapter Past President, she works with coaches, entrepreneurs and corporate executives to design inspired and prosperous businesses they love. Connect with her at http://ignitingpossibility.com. 

Energy Work & Coaching SIG call on Monday

SIG: Energy Work & Coaching
Presenter: Rhona Post, MA, MCC, Certified Energy Practitioner (CI)
When: Third Monday of every month; Monday, February 20 2012
Telephone:  +1712.451.6000 (www.freeconferencecall.com)
Pin:   427724#
What would our lives be like if we could roll with greater joy during our ups and downs steady as we go, yet firm in our commitment to serving others?

I hold this intention both for myself as a master coach and as the leader/participant in the Energy Work and Coaching SIG. Life is impermanent, constantly changing, and we cannot control anything outside of ourselves, outside of our own minds. As I hone my beliefs to better serve myself and others, I experience more ease incorporating energy work in my coaching practice because I hold energy work as a bridge to wholeness, not something antithetical to what is already being said or done.

Building on our January SIG call where we explored how our beliefs shape our emotions, reactions and outcomes, on February 20th we’re going to discuss how we can better incorporate energy work and coaching in our practice. What beliefs do we hold about alternative or complimentary approaches to wellness, wholeness, and coaching? How can we invite our clients to reframe their expectations of coaching to include the many alternatives available?

Rhona Post

Great News! You can now invite your friends and colleagues to join us on these calls as ICF is reshaping the special interest groups to become community of practitioners. We’ll be using freeconferencecall.com, and recording our talks, so please invite others to participate. The more the merrier!

I hope you can join our growing band of energy workers/coaches February 20 2012.

For more information or to request a healer coaching appointment, call: Rhona Post, 941.554.8466 or email rpost@thehealercoach.com.

Welcome, EcoSoma

The trajectory of environmental, social, and economic change is inseparable from our own development as humans.

There is plenty of evidence that the recently dawned year will present extraordinary opportunities for choices that matter. On the menu this year? Presidential elections in a polarized US. Unresolved debt crisis in Europe. An extraordinary array of grassroots initiatives for social justice and global economic development. Accelerating species extinctions. Deteriorating relations with Pakistan and Iran. More extreme weather events. Women coming into more power. Melting Arctic ice.

The media grabs our attention on some of these. Others we won't see unless we look. All are indicative of the tremendous spasms of change sweeping our earth. All provide opportunities for discernment and choices.

These dramatic events are the inevitable product of human habits. We interpret the world in particular ways, and take actions rooted in our interpretations. Our actions intersect with natural laws, and produce consequences. Since each of us is the perfect reflection of our history, we make the best choices we can see and act on, given our unique constrictions in how we see and interpret our world.

In a Buddhist sense, the collective mess that we have created is literally the only thing that could have happened. It is the only possible result of the uncountable "best possible choices" made by myopic and mostly well-intentioned humans, over generations and millennia.

We have all engaged in a certain detached observation of these phenomena. In so doing, we sometimes make new choices or respond differently.

We suggest it is more accurate, and more galvanizing, to experience ourselves directly AS the earth, and to invite the dramatic felt realization that we are both characters in this tremendous unfolding drama, and authors of it.

We call this way of being the EcoSoma: at home in ourselves, at home in the world. The EcoSoma directly experiences our connectedness and our aliveness in an astoundingly creative corner of the universe at a poignant time in the 13.7 billion year story of evolution, when that very creativity is in serious jeopardy. EcoSomas are authors of this story; our actions and commitments collectively create the story precisely as we live it. We don't know how it all comes out. We do know we are authors.

Thus oriented, our actions, our commitments take on a different meaning. Awake to our context, destructive choices become impossible, and life-affirming choices become the only thing we can do. As developing EcoSomas, our actions increasingly align with these possibilities. We become generative authors of an emerging story.

The work of our generations is to embody this awareness in our commitments, and to catalyze it in others.

************

Doug Silsbee, PCC

Doug Silsbee, PCC is an author and coach who teaches and writes from Asheville, NC. He is the creator of an ICF-approved training program in Presence-Based Coaching,  a frequent presenter at ICF conferences, and author of two influential books The Mindful Coach, and Presence-Based Coaching. In partnership with CTI Co-Founder Henry Kimsey-House, Doug is offering a September intensive on EcoSomatic Leadership. Visit the EcoSomatic Leadership page for more information, recorded audio exchanges and Henry, and access to a free Feb. 21 conference to explore this more.

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