Tomorrow’s Life Coach:
Volume 3 Issue 5 - May 2004

In This Issue: Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Coaching

Upcoming Classes at ILCT
Pat’s Ponderings ~ Pat Williams
Editor’s Pen ~ Annette Miller
Coaching Across Cultures ~ Philippe Rosinski
Are You 'Fair Dinkum'? An Experience with Cross-Continental Trust ~ Wendy Shumaker
Announcement: Christian Coaches Conference - Seattle, Washington, June 17-19
Free Quiz: Would you Enjoy Life Purpose and Career Coaching? ~ Fern Gorin
The Interculturally Savvy Executive Coach: Who, What, How?  ~ Hannah Wilder
Asian Perspectives in Coaching ~ Foo See Luan
Marketing Focus: Building an International Coaching Business is as Easy as 1-2-3! ~ Jim Vuocolo
The Culturally Aware Coach ~ Marilyn O'Hearne
The Falling Awake Cruise: Creating the Life of Your Dreams

Tomorrow's Life Coach is a professional monthly online journal of the Institute for Life Coach Training that nourishes the intellect, intuition and inspiration of the personal/business coaching community. TLC continues to gain in popularity among diverse coaches and is highly recommended by Peer Resources:

"One of the best free newsletters, Tomorrow's Life Coach consists of well-researched, informative articles on a variety of key topics for coaches. While a publication of the Institute for Life Coach Training, many of the articles are written by other well-known coaches."

Upcoming Classes at ILCT

Foundational Courses

• Foundational Coach Training for Therapists - starts May 18, June 14, June 15       
• Foundational Coach Training for Christian Counselors  - in session; next class starts October 4

Coaching Tools and Skills

• The Foundational Competency Practicum and Assessment - starts July 5
• Overview: Using Assessments in Coaching - starts June 7

Practice Building Courses

• Practice Made Perfect: Marketing Your Coaching Business For Maximum Success - starts July 6

Coaching Applications/Specialties

• Dreams and Coaching - starts June 2
• Relationship Coaching with Couples - starts June 7
• The Theory and Practice of Coaching Women: Part 2 - starts July 20
• *Life Purpose and Career Coach Training - starts June 22

Additional classes, details and online registration at course section. Some schedules may change; check listing or contact Edwina Adams, Administration/Registration, at edwina@lifecoachtraining.com or Diane Menendez, Director of Faculty and Curriculum, at diane@lifecoachtraining.com.  

If you would like to read the class descriptions here in the journal (as in the April issue), please email the editor at amiller@lifesync.com.  

Pat's Ponderings

Dear Fellow Coaches:

I have long had an interest in cross cultural connections and experiences. I have had four Rotary International exchange students live with my family for three months each; I have traveled to parts of Mexico to help with Rotary projects and since I created my career in the coaching profession; I have traveled to all three European Coaching Conferences (Switzerland, Spain, and Italy) and have taken a recent five-city speaking tour in Australia. 

The part of coaching I like best is the fact that geographically borders do not exist in coaching or teaching by phone. And I have made great friends and colleagues in many countries. As you read the articles in this edition of TLC, think where you are drawn. Do you want international clients. Can you think of ways to create cross-cultural experiences for your coaching business?

For those of you attending the ICF conference this November in Quebec City, you can experience the French culture of Quebec. I used to live in Quebec with a French family when I was 21 as a cultural exchange student. It is a great town with friendly people. And next spring (2005) the European Coaching conferences will be in Oslo, Norway.

Enjoy the articles below and become more knowledgeable about the international possibilities in coaching.

Happy Coaching!

Pat
Patrick Williams Ed.D., MCC
Chief Energizing Officer, ILCT
Department Chair, Professional Coaching 
International University of Professional Studies: "Get a PhD in professional coaching from a reputable university without walls. Go to www.iups.edu...the quickest and least expensive way to achieve a PhD in professional coaching."

Editor's Pen

Dear Explorers in Human Potential:

How exciting to have contact with our authors this month from all across the globe! Thanks to Foo See Luan for suggesting our focus this month on "Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Coaching;" you will enjoy his insightful article on "Asian Perspectives in Coaching." Philippe Rosinski, the first European to earn the MCC designation, shares with us from Belgium about his book "Coaching Across Cultures." We welcome back Wendy Shumaker who presents an interview with her Australian client in "Are You 'Fair Dinkum'? An Experience with Cross-Continental Trust." 

Two ILCT faculty join our theme this month: Marilyn O'Hearne broadens our perspective with "The Culturally Aware Coach" and Jim Vuocolo stimulates our marketing courage with "Building an International Coaching Business is as Easy as 1-2-3!" Hannah Wilder shares her expertise in "The Interculturally Savvy Executive Coach: Who, What, How?" An exciting live teleclass is highlighted by ILCT faculty member Fern Gorin in "Free Quiz: Would you Enjoy Life Purpose and Career Coaching?"

Please email me at annette@lifesync.com with your comments on this issue!

As you explore human potential within your clients, may you and your clients enjoy the journey and strengthen human bonds and performance.

Your editor,

Annette

P.S. Our editorial calendar and guidelines for submissions are at http://www.lifecoachtraining.com/resources/newsletter/guidelines.shtml.

Annette A. Miller, MBA, Executive Coach
Editor, Tomorrow's Life Coach
Graduate, ILCT
Member, ICF, CCN, IAC
Founder, LifeSync Coaching®
annette@lifesync.com
http://www.lifesync.com
Authorized Affiliate for Extended DISC assessments - providing assessment services and certification training to coaches and HR trainers. Our most popular report, Personal Analysis, has been recently upgraded to include Worksheets and Reading Instructions to allow you to provide this report to clients without requiring certification. Discover the benefits of Extended DISC - the world's fastest growing assessment system!

Coaching Across Cultures

Cultural differences can cause immense frustrations and represent a real mystery to many of us. When understood and used constructively however, these differences provide a remarkable source of richness for interactions, learning and growth. 

Integrating the cultural dimension into coaching, which is what my recent book “Coaching Across Cultures” is about, is not only necessary to increase coaching’s validity and applicability in today’s intercultural environment. It is also an opportunity to learn from alternative cultural perspectives about crucial areas such as communication, thinking, time, power, identity, purpose, organization, or territory. Bridging coaching and interculturalism leads to a more creative and global form of coaching. 

Instead of ignoring or denigrating cultural differences, or simply minimizing their importance, “Coaching Across Cultures” invites the participants in coaching relationships to embrace cultural diversity as an opportunity and to leverage the differences. 

For example, at Chubb Insurance in the Asia Pacific region, I saw the Australian executives being more outspoken on average, spontaneously sharing their thoughts and feelings to the group. They learned from the Asians the virtues of listening and of keeping silent. Conversely, they showed the Asians how to speak up, risking challenging the group’s harmony when they felt the group was heading in the wrong direction. Mutual respect and eagerness to learn from one another, enabled to cross-fertilize Western and Eastern cultures, in a highly effective and synergistic way. This resulted in the development of a new culture, of high performance and high fulfillment, synthesizing Asian and Western characteristics. 

Different worldviews do not have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, the dialectical “both-and” model in “Coaching Across Cultures” represents an antidote to what C.K. Prahalad and Kenneth Lieberthal have termed an “imperialist mindset.” 

Incidentally, this philosophy of valuing differences rather than imposing your norms, values and beliefs, not only applies to national cultures but to all forms of cultures: professional, corporate, socio-political, etc. 

I consider coaching both as a profession and as an important function of leadership. I define coaching as the “art of facilitating the unleashing of people’s potential to reach meaningful, important objectives”. “Coaching Across Cultures” allows the unleashing of additional human potential by systematically tapping into the richness of cultural diversity, into the wisdom that lies in alternative cultural perspectives. 

For example, if your culture considers time as a scarce resource, that belief might have lead you to learn to manage time quite efficiently …but also to be caught in a permanent juggling act, running from one task to the next. A coach, when stuck in this worldview that “time is money,” could paradoxically exacerbate the problem by helping her clients to succeed at cramming even more into an already bursting schedule. By learning to view time as abundant, an outlook other cultures cherish, coachees are able to slow down and see more clearly what is truly essential. Similarly, believing that you are in control will typically lead you to pro-actively make your dreams happen (self-fulfilling prophecies). Yet taken to an extreme, this belief may incite people to succeed at all cost, including cheating or breaking down. On the other hand, when you respect nature and allow it to be in charge, you have to listen to your body and allow time for recuperation. 

Considering these alternative belief systems, as they are represented in different cultures, broadens your perspective. As a result, both you and your coachees will have a far greater chance of achieving meaningful and sustainable success. 

Philippe Rosinski, Ir., MCC, is an expert in executive coaching, team coaching, and global leadership development, sought after by leading international corporations. His pioneering work in bringing the crucial intercultural dimension into the practice of coaching has won him worldwide acclaim. Philippe is the first European to have been designated Master Certified Coach by the International Coach Federation. Visit www.CoachingAcrossCultures.com; Philippe can be reached at +32 2 358 65 08 in Brussels, Belgium.

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future." 

Eric Hoffer

Are You 'Fair Dinkum'? An Experience with Cross-Continental Trust

*"Fair dinkum", to an Aussie, means "genuine"-- i.e. no masks, no shams, just up front honesty.

In the early months of 2002, Margaret and I began a cross-continental coaching relationship that linked New South Wales, Australia and Pennsylvania, US. We spoke on the phone only twice, and confined the rest of our communicating to email. The interview that follows captures some of the challenges to establishing trust in this rewarding coaching relationship. 

Wendy: What prompted you to choose cross-continental coaching? 

Margaret: I couldn't find the Christian coach I wanted in Australia, so I looked farther afield for a coach who spoke my language...and would work via the Internet. 

Wendy: What factors encouraged you to "take the plunge" and trust me as your coach? 

Margaret: Your photo was the deciding factor. I'd trusted God to find the right coach and I felt 'right' about approaching you. You looked normal, and not threatening. I soon recognized that you were pulling stuff out of me that forced me to see things more clearly and trust was being established.

Wendy: What were some of the characteristics of coaching that were helpful in securing your commitment? 

Margaret: I couldn't articulate my goals, so I wrote reams of information, and you homed in on where I was at and pulled out a list of goals which hit the nail right on the head. I think it was this which convinced me that you were 'fair dinkum' and I was right to trust you. 

Wendy: Were there difficulties? 

Margaret: Writing my story for someone I didn't know, who lived on the other side of a dateline, which meant that I would send an e-mail today and receive a reply which was dated yesterday!!! And phone calls were a time-zone comedy of counting backwards to contact you! This form of collaborative coaching, in which we waited upon each other before getting to the "real meat" of taking any specific steps, turned the coaching experience into a thoroughly delightful working partnership. But when our meanings were misunderstood, it took several e-mails to get things clarified. Therefore, goals had to wait whilst we shared the unfamiliar, like the "chooks" [chickens] and "cuppas" [as in "a cup of tea/coffee"]! And then, there was trying to pay an American price with Australian dollars on an Australian cheque which couldn't be banked in an American bank!!

Wendy: Were the phone conversations fruitful?

Margaret: Absolutely! But I'll never forget the surprise when I first heard your voice. It felt odd, like speaking to a stranger, and I had to remember that I'd already put my trust in you.

Wendy: Finally, could you trust that what an American was recommending was appropriate for an Australian?

Margaret: I could see that your coaching was right for me because I felt accountable for my actions and attitudes. The fruit came when I then could make the resolutions for which I'd been searching. 

[For a script of this entire interview, please make your request to coachwendy@earthlink.net.]

Wendy Shumaker, MS, owns Transitions Coaching, a life skills coaching and counseling business in Carlisle, PA. Her photo can be seen on her website at www.transitionscoaching.ws. Margaret Irwin is mother to 7 children, grandmother to 14, and wife to Ian. They make their home in Daroobalgie, NSW, Australia. 

Free Quiz: Would you Enjoy Life Purpose and Career Coaching?

To find out if this specialty is right for you, rate each statement in this brief quiz on a scale of 1 to 5.
5 – Always or almost always true
4 – Frequently true
3 – Sometimes true
2 – Rarely true
1 – Never true

If your total score is:

55-80 You would greatly enjoy being a life purpose and career coach! You have the skills and attributes that are necessary to do well in this field. It’s highly recommended that you pursue training in Life Purpose and Career Coaching.

40-54 You would enjoy many aspects of being a Life Purpose and Career Coach! You might evaluate some of these questions further to determine if this coaching niche is something you’d like to explore.

16-39 You may wish to consider another profession that would better fit your nature and personality style. 

Hope you found this quiz helpful in evaluating if Life Purpose and Career Coaching is something you would enjoy! If Career Coaching is for you, please see the class description and FREE Intro Class below.

Who needs Career Coaching?

A Life Purpose and career coaching practice is rich and diverse in that no two clients are the same. There are many populations that frequently seek out these services. These include:

• Those who feel unhappy and unfulfilled in their work.
• People wanting to discover their “Life Purpose” to have more meaning and fulfillment in their lives.
• Those who have been laid off and need employment.
• The entrepreneur who wants to grow their business.
• The client in mid-life crisis who is evaluating everything in their life.
• The client who is depressed or anxious as a result of the work environment and lack of job fulfillment.
• The homemaker that wants to re-enter the workforce.
• The Youth needing to decide on their college major.
• Retirees who are looking for new purpose and direction.
• People with goals and dreams that want to turn them into money-making ventures.

"There's nothing more fulfilling than Living your Life Purpose"

Fern Gorin

The Interculturally Savvy Executive Coach: Who, What, How? 

This is an exciting and growth-intensive profession, but a never a dull one! Working with people of responsibility, influence and challenges of cultural diversity, we share their human “ups and downs” and the fast-paced business world in which they function. It’s our job to stand with and behind them, providing a developmental “home base,” coaching them through long range and day-to-day intercultural leadership challenges. They emerge as better executives, human beings, and global citizens enjoying what they do, including an almost perpetual transition state in their lives and work. 

Who do we need to be as coaches?

Like our clients, we require cultural self-awareness, flexibility and adaptability, humility, internal (mindset) and external (behavior and structures) knowledge of other cultures, mastery of culturally appropriate relational and communication skills. We also need the dedication and ability to improve the quality of the workplace, a high commitment to our assignment and to the experience of working with others from different cultures. 

As coaches, we need to go beyond a catalogue of skills and traits, or conventional wisdom about crossing cultures like the common emphasis on avoiding “culture shock.” Surprisingly, some researchers have found that cross-cultural managers with high relational ability experience more culture shock (losing their relational network, feeling so anxious they create a new one in the new culture, and are met by those who see them making the effort¹) and therefore, emerge as the most effective leaders. This is important in the three main areas that count: engendering confidence and trust, knowledge transfer and developing team performance. 

What do we need to do well and how do we do it? 

For credibility and effectiveness, we need to: know the intercultural and global business universe; how it feels to be a leader of geographically dispersed and culturally diverse teams and operations; have personal characteristics conveying enjoyment and success in our clients’ universe; and skills and strengths for supporting them and their colleagues. We have to balance ourselves as culture carriers with adaptive behaviors for other environments, and speak our clients’ language so that they know they can trust our collaboration with them. 

A familiarity with intercultural assessments and their interpretation as a basis for follow up long term coaching supports our clients because this is where the executive’s real development lies. Short term trainings result in the transfer of concepts and ideas about a new culture, addressing the neo-cortex of the brain, but only coaching provides the active learning process of trying on new attitudes and behaviors, practicing them, getting feedback, reflecting, and learning how to maximize fulfillment and success. This process, involving the limbic system of the brain where attitudes and behaviors are changed, is ideal for supporting development across cultures, because coaches are present for our clients (if even by phone) while they are actually experiencing challenges and transitions. 

We need to think in complex and systemic ways with our clients, maintaining and supporting a tolerance for ambiguity and growth in nine key areas: internal, relational, spiritual, managerial, political, security, cross-cultural, ecological, and global. When coaching executives or other coaches, we are developing human beings at many levels. Most of them want to: be fulfilled and personally successful, with a maximum of eustress (the good kind that motivates us), and a minimum of distress (that confuses and takes a toll on us); function well on many levels of stewardship (manager, ambassador, leader of geographically dispersed and culturally diverse teams, “sturdy oak” in times of natural disaster, human tragedy, terror, empathic and supportive mentor, role model for rising leadership). 

Approaching clients or cultures with a “beginner’s mind,” an open heart, and a “big picture” view are also key, for inviting possibility and leveraging differences. With the current worldwide reality, we are all a team whose members must work together using what we have before us: the richness of our diverse experiences. The stakes are high. 

¹ Daniel J. Kealey, Cross-Cultural Effectiveness, Centre for Intercultural Learning, 2001.

© Copyright May 2004 Hannah S. Wilder 

Hannah S. Wilder, MA, PhD, MCC, and Master Certified High Impact Teaming© coach, mentors and trains global executive coaches at Academia Global Executive Coach Training Institute, and trains executives in Coaching as a Leadership Function©, a licensable program. She is an internationally known speaker on global leadership and coaching. Her book, Becoming a Global Executive: Coaching Leaders for an Interdependent World, will be released in 2004. Her bio and contact information are at www.Advantara.com.

Asian Perspectives in Coaching

Globalization as a social and economic phenomenon is here to stay, notwithstanding the ubiquitous protests of social activists. As a result of the globalization process, our world has become a “global village.” This is especially true for Singapore, strategically situated in the vibrant Asia-Pacific Region and home to some 6000 multi-national corporations. A veritable mini United Nations is found here.

The coaching profession has grown in the past four years, reflecting the increasing diversity and maturity of the work force, both local and expatriate. For coaches to thrive and prosper in an increasingly complex, competitive and multi-cultural environment such as Singapore’s, they can help to tilt the odds in their favor by paying special attention to the following:

• Know that Chinese names are characterized by the last name or the surname appearing first, in sharp contrast to the American way of having the surname/family name last.
  
• Understand time orientation in terms of a loop rather than a straight line, and in terms of the past, present and the future.
  
• Distinguish power structure: equal vs. hierarchical.
  
• Appreciate life orientation differences: performance and success (doing) vs. relationship and quality (being).
  
• Appreciate personal relationship orientation differences: co-operative and interdependent vs. dependent or independent.
  
• Recognize communications as being channeled or open, and top down or multidirectional.
  
• Value sense of physical space and personal boundaries: distant/variable/close.
  
• Understand gender roles: male dominant/female dominant/equal.

Another perspective to keep in mind is that Asian and American values are different and it will behoove coaches to keep them in mind: 

ASIANS---AMERICANS
More collective, less individual orientation---More individual, less collective orientation

Roundabout, and less direct way---Direct, demanding and assertive

Trust-focused---Goals and results-focused

Reflective---Action-oriented

Tends not to show displeasure---Can be confrontational 

Benefits derived from adopting cross-cultural perspectives in coaching include:

• Instead of becoming ethnocentric and closed in our world outlook, we become ethnorelational and open.
  
• In our working relationships with people, we help to build bridges that unite people, rather than erect walls which separate people. 
  
• We attract global executives who seek guidance in working and living in an increasingly complex, competitive and cross-cultural world.
  
• We can help to build a new world order based on mutual understanding, collaboration, respect and shared values.

Foo See Luan, ACC, is a Singapore-based, regional Executive Coach who coaches senior executives, young professionals and high potential employees. He is President of the Singapore Chapter of the International Coach Federation, and Regional Host, International Coach Federation, East Asia. He is a graduate of Corporate Coach U and Coach U, US, and a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources Management. He can be reached at seeluan@singnet.com.sg. 

Accelerate your coaching skills and business growth
through ILCT's courses for professional coaches

Marketing Focus: Building an International Coaching Business is as Easy as
1-2-3! 

It isn't very difficult to develop an International coaching business--and it's fun! Like other worthwhile ventures, it does require some intentional focus and a bit of networking effort; and the rewards are definitely worth it!

1. Begin by Networking in Other Nations. You may not think you have any contacts in other nations, but you do! As a coach, you have opportunity to reach out to people in other nations using a variety of networking techniques. You can use the contacts you have made in your coach training program via buddy coaches and faculty who may have contacts in other nations. You may have people within your own circle of influence and acquaintances who know people in other nations. Inquire about using their connections in order to offer something of value to people in other lands. Last, but not least, use your network as a member of the ICF (remember - the "I" in ICF stands for "International" <G>) in your local chapter, or conduct a "Find A Member" search at the ICF web site at www.coachfederation.org.

2. Identify and Become Active in Existing Networks--or Start Your Own! Once you have identified a few key people with whom you may wish to associate, contact them via email and request a time to speak with them by telephone (for inexpensive International calling rates, check out www.pennytalk.com). Explain you are seeking to establish international contacts and that you remain open to exploring various business, training and coaching opportunities that may arise. Ask about any existing networks that you may be able to learn about and join. These may include news groups, on line chats, tele-forums, etc. In time, you may wish to begin a group of your own whose members support one another with business leads, new opportunities, etc. You'll definitely need to learn about the rhythms and pace of life in other places, as well as the best times and dates for conducting business. (For example, it frequently seems to Americans as if the entire continent of Europe is vacationing during August! <G>) Become familiar with real times and dates anywhere in the world by visiting http://www.timeanddate.com.

3. When the Time is Right, Be Prepared to Offer Something of Value. Once you have made contacts with people in other nations and have become known to a small group of people, you may want to offer something of value that does not cost you a great deal. This will enable you to become known as a coach, and position yourself in the marketplace of ideas. A teleclass, a report, an open forum on a tele-bridge, a SIG (Special Interest Group), a Blog (web log), etc. are all good ways of becoming known to others. Offer your own email newsletters or articles in areas of your own expertise or passion. Before long, you will be learning about other cultures and have people asking for your personal contributions and input to their business endeavors. Before accepting clients, be certain to familiarize yourself with currency exchange rates in real time by going to http://www.xe.com/ucc and using their free service.

Dr. James S. Vuocolo, MCC, is an ILCT faculty member and the director of practice development. He has built an international coaching practice primarily by means of leading teleclasses, and has had coaching clients in Canada, the UK, Italy, Sweden, Venezuela, Mexico, Denmark, Hong Kong and Australia, as well as throughout the United States. You can visit his web site at: www.soulbusiness.com or email him at jim@lifecoachtraining.com.

"Spiritual living is a fulfillment from moment to moment, in which the outer person  is in a state of living rapport with the inner being and becomes an extension thereof."

N. Sri Ram

The Culturally Aware Coach

Our world is shrinking! Thanks to long distance learning, ILCT has had 81 international students participate in training. That is about 8% of our total student population. And the International Coach Federation has 140 chapters in 30 countries, and growing!* What can a coach do to make sure that their words, behavior, and coaching approach are appropriate for and respectful of their clients' and colleagues' cultures?

As I review the ILCT manual and books prior to co-leading the Foundational classes, I am struck by how the coaching concepts parallel the Intercultural model I have studied at the Intercultural Communication Institute. I use those models in my ILCT advanced training, my Intercultural Communication training for organizations, and the International Business class I will be teaching in Malaysia and Hong Kong next fall (SARS permitting.) We can take most of the concepts and move them from the macro (culture, collective) to the micro (individual, or coaching client) and vice versa.

Let us start with a Definition of culture: The unique shared beliefs, values, communication and behavior that differentiate one group from another. 

The Culturally Aware Coach... 

1. Is aware of their culture and how that shapes their mindset and practices, including their approach to coaching. A coach is self-aware and takes their beliefs into account in their approach to coaching clients. 
2. Looks for and celebrates the unique contributions of other cultures, and makes productive use of these aspects. A coach uses a strengths based approach by acknowledging and mirroring a client's strengths. 
3. Is curious, seeks to learn about other cultures; just as coaches, in discovery, seek to learn about our clients. 
4. Is humble, not afraid to not know, asks questions, seeks understanding. (This is #2 of the ILCT 22 Essential Elements of the Coaching Alliance) Although be aware that in some cultures those with status are expected to have the answers (see #5.) 
5. Is respectful of the hierarchy of the culture: some cultures have clear teacher/student roles rather than partnerships and the coach and client will refer to each other by title and last name rather than first name. (Do not assume!) 
   Examples: Some Asians do not believe it is appropriate to ask questions of a person in authority. I know of an American who was corrected for calling a German by their first name. I understand that in Europe a coach's credentials and degrees may have more weight in the hiring process than in the U.S.
6. Realizes that accepting differences does not mean agreement, but rather not judging. Recognizing there are differences is the first step out of ethnocentrism, which, like Level I listening (Co-Active Coaching), filters everything through our own lens or that of our culture. 
7. Is knowledgeable of resources: telephone rates, different time zones, currency exchanges, etc. 
8. Is empathic (compassionate): able to consciously shift perspective, adding other cultural views, and respond appropriately without fear of losing their own (cultural) identity. 
9. Evaluates and interprets situations from those multicultural frames of reference, for example, different approaches to time. This corresponds to Level II listening. 
   Example: The Latin cultures I have lived in and the Bahamas, where I have traveled, have a different sense of time. Your coaching client from another culture says they will complete their fieldwork, action plan, or goal by a certain date and do not. You may want to check to see if that has more to do with their cultural orientation to time or if something else is getting in the way.
10. Is watchful of their language! When in doubt, go more formal and simple (short sentences). Know that slang and double meanings may not translate well to different cultures. 
11. Is a Level III listener: listening with intuition can transcend cultures. 

*Figures updated for this publication. Originally published in the May 2003 issue of Tomorrow's Life Coach.

Marilyn O'Hearne, MSW, PCC, has lived in Spain, Brazil, and Texas and is back in Kansas City, Kansas, USA. A '99 graduate and a current faculty member of ILCT, Marilyn co-led one of the sessions at the ICF Vancouver Conference on Coaching Across Borders. Most of her clients are in transition (including into coaching, and cultural) or are leaders. At her website, www.connectionscoaching.com, you will find related newsletter articles. You can contact her at marilyn@lifecoachtraining.com. © 2003 Marilyn O'Hearne All rights reserved.

The Falling Awake Cruise: Creating the Life of Your Dreams
December 4-11, 2004
Cruise itinerary and online registration at www.lifecoachtraining.com
15 hours credit of coach training from ILCT 
This very special seminar at sea will be presented by Dr. Patrick Williams, Master Certified Coach, speaker, author, and psychologist. Patrick has been a life coach since 1990 and for the past 6 years has worked very closely with his friend and mentor Dave Ellis. Dave has published several books--his most recent, Falling Awake, is a powerful system to recreate your life and wake up to purposeful living. This seminar will leave you motivated, on course and with scheduled “Wake up calls” to make your goals sustainable over time. Come, enjoy this cruise to authentic and purposeful living and WAKE UP to the life you really want

Tomorrow's Life Coach™
Patrick Williams, Ed.D., Publisher
Annette Miller, Editor, annette@lifesync.com
© 2004 Institute for Life Coach Training
www.lifecoachtraining.com
Phone: 888-267-1206
info@lifecoachtraining.com