Tomorrow's
Life Coach
|
In
This Issue: Transformation in the New Year
How
many times have you already heard (or promised yourself): "I’m
going to lose weight this year!" | Whether
you think you can, or whether you think you can’t,
you’re right. ~ Henry Ford |
Law
and Ethics in Coaching: how to solve and avoid difficult
problems in your practice by Dr. Patrick
Williams & Sharon Anderson
Law and Ethics in Coaching is co-edited by Patrick Williams and Sharon Anderson. With contributions from a dozen academic, legal, and coaching professionals, this book is a must for anyone in the field of coaching or whose organization uses coaching as a service. Sure to be a classic!
Total
Life Coaching: 50+Life Lessons, Skills, and Techniques
to Enhance Your Practice...and Your Life by
Dr. Patrick Williams MCC, Dr. Lloyd J. Thomas
Total Life Coaching is more than just a book. It is an interactive experience in which you will find recipes for living your life more authentically, as well as master time-honored lessons that you can bring to your coaching clients [or can incorporate in your own life]. Regardless of the personal coaching techniques or skills you may have learned, you may still not be the most effective coach you can become. This book will help you move closer to that goal.
Therapist
as Life Coach: Transforming Your Practice
by Dr. Patrick Williams MCC, Deborah C. Davis
At last, a book for mental health professionals considering a transition into the new and dynamic field of life coaching! Therapist as Life Coach explores life coaching as a profession, examines the relationship between life coaching and therapy, and details the variety of options for professionals considering either a transition into coaching or expanding their practices to include coaching.
Research and the Transformation of the Coaching Industry
In an effort to distill some useful marketing-oriented data for her own greedy purposes, a coach interviews a dozen coaching researchers at the 2004 ICF Research Symposium and finds some vital, and unexpected, insights for fellow coaches, which she presented in a paper at the 2005 event.
As a personal and business coach and a non-researcher, I’d attended the 2004 International Coach Federation Research Symposium with curiosity – and for my own selfish reasons! What splendid empirically proven tidbits about coaching effectiveness could I find to use in my web site and marketing materials?
The Research Charette* prompted me to interview researchers, looking for common denominators in findings, and write an article to share with the industry so that many coaches could benefit from the effort. At least, that was my excuse. After all, what researcher would submit to an interview with me if I were only doing something out of self-interest!?
Being inexperienced in research, I’d been looking specifically for the outcome oriented kind, but much of the research conducted had been less about coaching results than about the coaching process itself, or even about research process. Researchers were attempting to develop new theoretical constructs and build client models, accumulating much subjective data rather than the harder quantitative numbers I’d thought I’d find.
Even so, there was a new realization building in the wake of these interviews, a strong sense the winds of rigorous application blowing through the field of coaching: we’re reaching the age of a cottage industry about to turn into a discipline.
Coaching has begun to reach a critical mass in terms of public recognition: media articles and interviews, advertisements and comics in print media, and reality TV shows are evidence of this. The number of universities now offering coaching certifications and courses has mushroomed. Those of us in the personal coaching arena owe much of this new acceptance to the executive coaches and researchers, who have been demanding and meticulous about building a case for coaching effectiveness and return on investment.
Here are some of the recommendations of the researchers I spoke with:
Coach training institutions may want to:
- Develop their own theoretical base, “more honesty and awareness regarding foundations and assumptions about coaching in general” as one researcher suggests.
- Collaborate with an accredited institute of higher learning.
- Incorporate courses and curricula to train coaches in conducting research to explore how the coaching process actually helps
- Cooperate with each other to cultivate the development of a common perspective on coaching, to help develop an academic field in this discipline.
Suggestions for Coaching Researchers
- Coaching researchers may want to compose secondary versions or articles which use fewer technical terms and less research-based languaging.
- Encourage more involvement in and readership of journals and research publications by creating more visibility for them through directly targeting coaches.
- Publishing secondary articles in coaching association web sites and newsletters, and general coaching publications
Coaches may want to:
- Understand that the industry of coaching is about to become more academic in nature and more rigorous as a discipline.
- Engage in experimentation with your own informal research; what coaching techniques do you use, how you use them, why do they work?
- Stay up-to-date on developments in the coaching industry.
- Read books in related disciplines to develop broader knowledge that’s greater than your own individual experience.
- Be coached regularly, from coaches utilizing varying methodologies by coaches who far surpass you developmentally and in expertise. If you want your clients to grow and stretch themselves, you’ve got to be willing to be a model of it.
*A "charette" is sort of an open space process where a meeting breaks down into smaller groups, each separately discussing an area of interest. People then use the information, conclusions, and questions to take those areas of interest further.
Plagued by the temptation to procrastination? Would you like 2006 to be your year for procrastination renunciation? If you think overcoming procrastination is only about will-power and discipline, think again. Procrastination Expert and Certified Coach Kerul Kassel has worked with hundreds of people on their procrastination challenges and created a quiz as a result: www.newleafsystems.com/one.php, or visit www.stopprocrastinatingnow.com.
Affirmation for a Client Worrying
is a choice. I choose instead to act on my
beliefs, to pray Written by Annette Miller (Please send an affirmation written by you or a client for publication in our next issue, to the Editor at amiller@lifesync.com.) |
Transformed at the ICF Conference: My Powerful Encounter
The day after I left home for the ICF conference, I received a phone call saying that my 14-year-old son had been expelled from the private school he had been attending for the last two years. This was not good news but what could I do from 2500 miles away? Still, this knowledge and the accompanying feelings traveled with me throughout the conference.
The breakout sessions were hard to choose among – they all sounded excellent and relevant to my life as a coach. One breakout session in particular attracted my attention: “Assessment: Learning Techniques for Success.” The description indicated that we would learn the difference between coaching at the ACC, PCC and MCC levels.
A coach, who had received his PCC two weeks before, had been chosen to conduct a coaching demonstration, then, two MCC coaches would do an oral assessment of the coach, rating him on all the Core Competencies, just like they would do for an accreditation exam. In the exam, however, no one gets to witness the process. The session moderator asked for a volunteer from the audience to be coached. I was the only person who raised a hand – the universe knew I had a burning issue. My son had just gotten expelled! What should I do? How should I react? I was distraught, blaming myself. Should I be angry? I knew I was sad. I definitely had an issue.
My coach was a young-ish male whose specialty was corporate/executive coaching. “Great match”, I thought, cynically wondering what he would know about such a personal, mother-type issue. I got up on the stage with the coach, 200+ pairs of eyes on us. I felt like I was on Oprah.
My coach stayed right with me through my tears, my fears and my confusion. He asked powerful questions that led to more tears and fears and confusion. He then led me into the light to clarity. I actually felt like I was being coached by a very wise 14-year boy who knew exactly what he needed from his mother. I was also aware, although peripherally, of the energy, power and support that I was receiving from all of those people watching very intently. We all know how powerful the coaching presence can be. Multiply that by 200! The intensity of this coaching experience will stay with me forever. And my insights into parenting a 14-year-old boy have increased exponentially. This experience alone was worth the price of the conference.
But the breakout continued with the assessment of the coaching session. The two MCC assessors analyzed the session, Core Competency by Core Competency. What struck me the most about their interaction was the lack of judgment in their comments. Rather, they were totally loving and supportive in their assessments. Their focus was on the positive in the coaching that had taken place with comments on what could have kicked it up a notch to the MCC level. No negative comments, no harsh criticisms; just love, support and an honest desire to see the coach succeed.
I now understand on a whole new level the power of coaching as well as the difference in coaching levels. Here is it in a nutshell: ACC level – good Core Competency skills with some insight. PCC – better skills, more knowledge, smooth transitions, more insight. MCC – all of the before mentioned plus lots of intuition. And it takes time and practice to achieve each level. I came away with a first hand understanding of the differences in coaching level and burning desire to get ICF accredited.
I also came away with a free coaching session that was priceless.
By Catherine Graham, almost CLC; DreamAloha, dreamaloha@hawaii.rr.com.
Cheryl Richardson hit the relevancy target with her Friday keynote address at the 10th ICF conference. She presented nine hot opportunities for coaches in the future, highlighting issues relating to transitions and life balance, which coincides with our ILCT training. Her list included: coaching persons over 50 about aging parents, health, and third life issues; coaching those technologically impaired or phobic; getting a bank to sponsor coaching for people who need to focus on their finances; coaching “baby boomers” who are facing tight money to plan retirement; and group coaching for people struggling with debt.
Ms. Richardson also echoed the ILCT wisdom about being practical when beginning a practice. She advised to keep a steady job as you build a coaching business. She suggested this removes the financial desperation that leads new coaches to make errors in client selection, marketing, or ethics.
Tony Alexis and Bernice Ross presented a worthwhile MCC breakout session on Friday called "The Sacred Tool for Coaching--Being Heard". This experiential session focused on Sioux Indian medicine circle ideas about birthdates and personality, as well as deep listening. Mr. Alexis presented profiles by season, and then led attendees in the experience of a listening stick circle. In that exercise, groups of coaches passed a feather and could not speak unless the feather was in hand. For about an hour, we slowed down, stopped thinking, and listened to one another from the heart. The holder of the feather spoke for about five minutes whatever was on their heart or mind. The power of having equality of voice and forced patience was liberating as members shared very personal insights. It was a simple but eloquent reinforcement that the best tool of a coach is not to have flashy responses, but to listen.
Submitted by Jeanne Erikson, Ph.D., Certified Life Coach, GrowthCoachJE@aol.com.
| There
is a great deal of difference between the eager
man who wants to read a book, and the tired man who wants a book to read. ~ G.K. Chesterton |
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the guy who'll decide where to go.
Dr. Seuss
Editor’s Note: Please send your "lighter thoughts" for this new column to the editor at amiller@lifesync.com, with "light heart" in the subject line.
Tomorrow's Life Coach™
Patrick Williams, Ed.D., Publisher
Annette Miller, Editor, amiller@lifesync.com
© 2005 Institute for Life Coach Training
www.lifecoachtraining.com
Phone: 888-267-1206
info@lifecoachtraining.com
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