From the President

by Susan R. Meyer,
MMC
president@certifiedcoach.org

We’re in the final months of our tenth anniversary and there’s
still some celebrating left to do. We’ve created new awards to recognize
significant achievements in the field of coaching and in service to the IAC.
Two of these awards were given out earlier this year during the conference in
India, hosted by Vice President Krishna Kumar. Sir John Whitmore, who was the
keynote speaker at the event, was presented with an IAC Lifetime Achievement
Award, acknowledging his many contributions to coaching. A President’s
Award was presented to Bonnie Chan, who has done so much to represent the IAC
in China.

I am delighted to announce that two additional awards were presented in September.
Shirley Anderson was presented with an IAC Lifetime Achievement Award and Natalie
Tucker Miller was presented with a President’s Award. You can find interviews
with Natalie and Bonnie on our website and I will be interviewing Shirley within
the next few weeks.

The IAC has represented the best in coaching over the past decade and this
month, I’m devoting this space to telling you a bit more about our honorees,
three of whom are long-time IAC members and IAC Master Mastery Coaches.

Sir John Whitmore

This first award was the only one presented to a coach who is not a member
of the IAC. Sir John Whitmore is Chairman of Performance Consultants International.
Whitmore, who was deeply influenced by The Inner Game of Tennis, has
written five books on leadership, coaching and sports. Coaching for Performance
is the best known, having sold 500,000 copies in 17 languages.

Whitmore
was a motor racing champion in his 20’s before retiring to run a large agribusiness,
a product design company and a Ford Main Dealership. In 1968 he gave up business
to study psychology in the USA, before returning to England to set up a tennis
school and a ski school in the Alps licensed by Timothy Gallwey of the Inner
Game. The GROW (Goal, Reality, Options/Opportunity, Will/What Next) model of
coaching has been developed and popularized by Whitmore.

Shirley Anderson

Shirley Anderson was active on the Board in the earliest days of IAC. Anyone
who has ever heard her present or has been on a Coach Salon call will appreciate
this self-description from Shirley’s website:

“My colleagues have dubbed me “Coach Yoda.”
This makes me laugh. I trust it describes my relating and mentoring skills,
rather than how I look. I’m known as the truth teller and someone who brings
intelligence, compassion, education, and maturity to my work with clients.”

The article below from the IAC VOICE, Vol 1, Num 4, May 27, 2004,
announces Shirley’s appointment as the first Chair of the Certification
Committee and the Board of Governors:

Shirley Anderson, IAC’s newly elected Chair of the Board of Governors
(BOG), has been coaching since 1989. She has worked with more than 1,000 clients,
helping them to achieve their goals and leverage their skills. She works with
executives, authors and other professionals.

Shirley holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree
in criminal justice. Her coaching certifications include Certified Masteries Coach,                                        Master Certified Coach (MCC), and IAC Certified Coach (IAC CC).

As a member of the IAC Certifier/Examiner Committee, she was one of the three original
coaches to earn IAC’s Certified Coach designation. Shirley has been active
in IAC since it was founded, originally focusing on Advanced Coaching Models
and Systems. In addition to her role on the BOG, Shirley serves as Chair of
the Certifier/Examiner Committee and is working with the certifying team to
bring Step Two of the IAC Certified Coach exam to the full membership.

Looking back to the inception of coaching, Shirley recalls that “twenty
years ago coaching was an executive perk, available only to corporate executives
and leaders.” As a pioneer in the field, she says coaching emerged as
a discipline with distinct models, principles, concepts and techniques “thanks
to the brilliance and leadership of the late Thomas Leonard.” She believes
that the “diverse business and professional backgrounds of new coaches
enriches the profession and makes coaching available to the ordinary person.”
She views coaching research as the most exciting current industry activity and
says it “is helping to distinguish the work we do as a true profession.”

Bonnie Chan

Bonnie Chan has been a member of the Board of Governors and is currently a
Certifier. She has worked tirelessly on behalf of the IAC throughout Asia and
is currently working closely with Natalie Tucker Miller towards completing certifications
in Chinese.

After Bonnie graduated from the Keio University of Japan with a major in Human
Science in 1985, she worked in Hong Kong, Japan, Canada and China.

Bonnie is the first IAC Master Masteries Coach from Hong Kong. She is the founding
member of the Hong Kong International Coaching Community (HKICC) and was elected
President in 2005/6. She is actively involved as the Honorary Advisor to the
community. She is currently a part-time lecturer in the HKU Space teaching Corporate
Coaching. Bonnie has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Japan, Canada and China
and speaks English, Putonghua, Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese.

Natalie Tucker Miller

Natalie Tucker Miller is an internationally recognized speaker, certified coach,
instructor and coach certifier. She was one of a handful of members to invest
in a lifetime membership in the IAC and has been active on the Board of Governors.
As a Certifier, she was part of the two-year process to create the IAC Masteries.
From 2006-2008 she served as president for the IAC. She currently serves as
Lead Certifier for the IAC and was instrumental in the development of the Learning
Agreement process.

Natalie works with leaders in the elder care industry and provides training
and coaching for executives and staff. She is the founder of Ageless-Sages.com,
a publishing company specializing in illustrated picture books for elders, as
well as producing books on historic events of interest to elders and personal
development.

These are four amazing coaches, and we can all be proud that three of them
are among our membership. There are many other incredible, distinguished coaches
in our midst, and I am grateful every day to have been granted the privilege
of being in such distinguished company.

Oh
– A little something extra – Choice magazine subscribers
can read “Building on a Solid Foundation” in the September
issue. Natalie Tucker Miller and I wrote this for Choice’s Tenth
Anniversary issue. You can also read
it here (the IAC article starts on the second page). Don’t
miss a feature article by our own Kim Ades as well.

Warmly,
Susan

Dr. Susan R. Meyer, MMC is President of Susan R. Meyer, Coaching and
Consulting. As a Life Architect, she helps wise and wild women construct
a joyful life, provides executive coaching and instills a coaching
approach to leadership for organizational success. www.susanrmeyer.com.