Storytelling is a gift

It was a stiflingly hot day.

The traffic had been terrible.

The air conditioning was a relief….a noisy relief.

The woman gathered.

The elders; they may laugh at the title, but it was clear to me.

They were happy to see each other, in a shy appreciative way - I could see and feel their connection. They were brought together some years ago, so that they could help others by volunteering for Bereavement and Grief counseling. Their own painful stories are often heavy in their hearts. These women have seen life.

We sat in the story circle and began.

They may have been guarded and skeptical but that soon fell away with the charm of the story.

They may have been wary and closed because of the weight of their own experience, but that soon melted.

They may have been apprehensive and a little worried but the safe space of story made it possible.

There was laughter, tears and that knowing glance shared between people who have suffered but feel the presence of truth around them. It was the true magic of story.

Storytelling and story listening is a gift….to the teller and the listener.

I was honored to be in the presence of such pure hearts and minds that allowed space for our stories. And I'm truly thankful for that.

And I walked away reflecting upon how we create powerful connection through story.

Lisa Bloom, PCC

Creating the space for exploring story is what coaching is all about too. That magic story space is the magic coaching space. It is a gift, for your client…and for you!

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.

Use coaching research in your coaching business

Earlier this week, the Final Report of the 2012 ICF Global Coaching Study was released.  An astounding 12,000+ coaches from 117 nations participated in the 2012 study. The findings shed new light on the current state of the coaching profession—highlighting global growth of coaching and uncovering the trends that have since emerged since the benchmark study was released in 2007. Get a taste of this study by watching this video.

The Final Report represents the single most comprehensive study that has ever been released on the global coaching profession! Within the 140+ page report, readers will find detailed analysis and statistics on the following topics:

• Coaching Profession: Size and Key Trends;
• Profile of Coaches;
• Training and Accreditation;
• Profile of Clients;
• Interaction between Coach and Client;
• Key Issues and Future Trends; and
• Technical Appendix.

Purchase your electronic copy of the Final Report here.

This research is an excellent tool to have at your fingertips—weave the findings throughout your business and marketing plans, marketing collateral, website, among other places. You will have such findings as:

• Active coaches make an average of $47,900 USD per year.
• 94 percent of coaches offer at least one or more service in addition to coaching in their professional practices. On average the coaches offer almost 3 additional services.
• More than half (51 percent) hold at least one credential from a professional coaching association. More than 3 in 4 (76 percent) of all coaches agree that "The people and organizations who receive coaching expect their coaches to be certified/credentialed."
• The majority of clients are female (54 percent) and approximately 1 in 3 clients are aged 46 and over. 
• Globally, 66 percent of coaches interact with their clients on a face-to-face basis. However in North America, 50 percent of coaches prefer working with clients over the phone.
• 76 percent of coaches expect to see increase in clients and revenue in the coming year.

How do you plan to use these findings in your business? Tell us about it. 

Working my way down to clues

This post originally appeared at www.coachchristinetalks.blogspot.com.

My relationship to the world around me is primarily visual. Some of you will happily join me and note that you are inclined to see things rather than hear or touch them. We even use language like “I see.” as a response to a request or comment or explanation. That’s a clue or cue to how to best work with me.

We are all born with some sort of way to process the world around us. Small children touch, taste, test everything and watch big people … all of the time. When my grandchildren were very small they crawled and I crawled with them … a revelation regarding the world around me. I saw newly what I didn’t know I was seeing when a tiny little girl.

We all process information in all the usual basic ways: visual, kinesthetic, verbal, and auditory. I’m going to add: linear and non-linear, interpretation, meaning, recognition, empathy. It’s all fascinating and doesn’t begin to include personality, morality (ethics) and character. I learned by watching those I admired …visual learning once again.

What does this have to do with coaching? From my perspective, in coaching we don’t need to be complicated or complex … it’s suffices to know that individuals process information in the basic ways. A question can be asked in different ways if we know just this much about our client: “How might (do) you (see, feel, hear, verbalize) the situation?” “What does that mean to you?”

It’s truly important how we speak to our clients and connect to what works for them … the ICF the competency that recognizes this is called Direct Communication. Think about it. If I don’t pick up the clues as to how my client processes information and just push on with a story or recommend a book or expect a particular response … not much is going to happen except nice agreements and a friendly conversation … which is fine but it’s not powerful coaching.

We are now down to clues (the kinds discussed above, for starters). Clues (or cues) are the keys to exploration, discovery, forward progress, the euphemistic “going deeper,” awareness and creativity. Ignore the clues and stay painfully on the surface seeking information, agreement, and a nice experience, maybe even fun. Mostly, the focus of a coaching conversation where clues are missed will generally result in a client not being challenged or engaged in exploration and discovery. From whence might come an important action to take when nothing has been discovered?

The purpose of coaching is to partner with a client in exploring the heart of his/her agenda, to allow that client to discover something new and important, and then to work with that client in designing steps forward in order to act on that discovery and new learning. The client then does the “heavy lifting” while coach is there for support and appreciation.

Christine Martin

A high performance business and executive coach since 1992, Christine Martin, MA, MBA, BCC, MCC, is the Founder of Innovation Coaching, LLC and Innovation Coaching Canada, Inc. With over 8,000 hours of professional coaching as her background, she coaches high performance executives, outcome driven project managers, and professional coaches. From 2003-2010 she coached 300+ NASA leaders. Christine's contributions to the coaching profession include chairing the ICF global credentialing initiative and serving as an ICF Vice President. She has been an active ICF credentialing assessor since 2003. A graduate of the University of Southern California and Pepperdine University. Christine was a grad school professor from 1994 to 2005 when she moved from California to North Carolina and subsequently to Canada.

Learn more:
www.innovationcoaching.com
Christine@innovationcoaching.com

Make a mission yours

Last month, we asked our Facebook fans, “What is your mission?” Take a look below to see how our Facebook fans responded:

“Shortly: to saw grains of acceptance and peace in teams and coachees: being a ‘peace instigator’.” (Martin Jessen)

“Changing lives through Opening minds.” (Joe Cross)

“Manasa Vaacha Karmana – synergy of vision, word and the feed to make things better, by rising above myself and prevailing situations.” (Anil Santhapuri)

“A-ha moments that bring about positive changes.” (Jennifer Bridge)

“Helping people become better communicators in business and in life.” (Effective Connecting)

What about you? What is your mission? We’d love to know—leave a response below or join the conversation at Facebook.com/ICFHQ. If you don’t have a mission…now is the perfect time to do some brainstorming!

ICF Hungary provides free outplacement coaching for the employees of the bankrupt national airlines

Almost fifty coaches are contributing to a joint project run by the Hungarian Chartered Chapter International Coach Federation (ICF) and MALÉV F.A. (the Hungarian national airline company, under liquidation). The massive CSR project involves providing pro bono outplacement coaching to former MALÉV employees in order to help them overcome the loss of their jobs and to ensure them a better chance for a career change.

MALÉV went bankrupt in February 2012, leaving a thousand people unemployed and the whole country in shock. The grounding of the company brought an end to 66 years of almost continuous service and to many life-long careers.

The pro-bono outplacement coaching project of the Hungarian Chartered Chapter of ICF involves 50 percent of our members. We provide coaching on a voluntary basis in our spare time. The coaches are supported by ten mentor coaches and supervisors. Former MALÉV staff members were offered a 3-months outplacement coaching process and 90 employees grabbed the opportunity. As a result of the coaching, some of them have already been hired by new employers; many others are attending job interviews with higher awareness, equipped with an updated CV, strengthened self-confidence and refined interviewing techniques. Some of them decided to start their own business.

The real challenge lies in the fact that some of the careers cut short by the liquidation of the company had been specifically connected to the airline industry. Competencies, skills and strengths have been identified during coaching, beside their special knowledge and experience connected to the airline industry. All ICF volunteers are working on supporting these valuable people to find their places in the world again and are using the power of coaching to identify and learn the strengths that will serve as a solid base for their future.

Dismissed employees found themselves in an emotionally difficult situation, a real grief, since many of them had been working at the airline almost as family member since their high school graduation or the completion of their college degrees. They were forced to enter the labour market, in many cases for the very first time in their life. Most of them were disappointed, depressed. The coaching focused on dealing with the shock of accepting a final change and overcoming the fear of a new job.

The most frequent results of the coaching are growing self-awareness and self-esteem, and the ability to deal with the grief consciously. 

The project involving 140 people is managed by Dóra Hegedűs, past president and member of board and Beáta Schäffer, CSR responsible of ICF Hungary. This project is an excellent professional challenge for the chapter that builds a strong cohesion among its members and increases the sense of belonging – resulting in a renewal ratio of 91 percent.

Read the full story.