IAC VOICE, Volume 2, Number 3, February 15, 2005

Volume
2, Number 3, February 15, 2005
Sent
to our 7,804 members

In
This Issue:

  

Sharing
What is There – A Message from the IAC President

  Recognizing
Perfection – Corrections, Errata, Etc.

  Designing
Supportive Environments – A Gift for Members from a Member

  Championing our Members
– Ruth Ann Harnisch Recognized

  

Revealing
People to Themselves – Coach Spotlight on Donna Karlin

 

Honing
in on What's Most Important – True Confessions of a Certified Coach



 

 

Editorial Board


Michael "Coop" Cooper

Acting Editor
BetterMe
Paragon Strategies


Ruth Ann Harnisch
Contributing Editor
Thrillionaires.org


Barbara
Mark PhD

Contributing Editor
BarbaraMark.com

 

 Sharing
What is There

A
Message from
Barbara
Mark PhD

President, International Association of Coaching

BarbaraMark.com

I
was recently “coached” by a very wise person. I was asked what it was
like to be me. I was asked to describe what it means to be me in the
world and what is important to me. I was asked what fun is for me and
what did I do when I played. It was an interesting challenge to
respond. I was invited to describe these things in the simplest of
terms with no excuses. The questions came from my 4-year old niece in
the process of her trying to identify for herself what “self” means.
The depth of the experience has stayed with me as I live my life from
day to day. I ask myself – what does it mean to be me? It brought me
into a simple relationship with my sense of identity and my feeling of
integrity. My 4-year old niece can see if I am saying something that
simply isn’t true and can ask from that place innocence that little
kids naturally can – “What does it mean to be you” and can see if I am
walking my talk or not. I learned something as a coach that day. It
underscored the possible simplicity of being in the moment and being
curious. My niece’s heart was open and she wanted an answer that made
sense to her. It brought me into a different kind of relationship with
her, but more importantly, a different kind of relationship with
myself. I felt very alive in that moment with her. This is what it is
all about!

Warmly,

 
Recognizing
Perfection

Corrections, errata,
etc.

The
IAC Voice recently published a Letter to the Editor, which contained
information that was ethically inappropriate. The letter gave enough
information about a client to potentially compromise the client’s
confidentiality. It also contained comments that were not respectful of
the dignity of the client/coach. We offer our apology for this
oversight and embrace it as a learning experience about the importance
of modeling high ethical standards for the coaching profession. I also
wish to express my appreciation to the member who brought it to our
attention.

 
Designing
Supportive Environments

A
gift for our members from a member

Nina East has generously offered a CD to IAC members addressing the key
ingredients
for coaching success in 2005. The CD is an interview of Nina by Andrea Lee, intended for leader-coaches,
interested in thinking and being big, who want to impact as many
clients as possible with their important work, and who want to
consistently and reliably maximize their internal power, as well as
their influence, in the coaching industry. Pick up your gift here.

The IAC Voice plans to feature a no-cost resource for our members in every issue.
There is no relationship between offering a no-cost resource and being feautred in this publication. If you would like
to submit a no-cost resource for consideration in future issues, please email voice@certifiedcoach.org.

 

 Championing our Members

Dalton Pen 2005 is honoring Ruth Ann Harnisch
as an extraordinary leader in the communications industry who has made
an impact on their community in their field with a special achievement
award known as the IMPACTING OUR WORLD award. Recipients are chosen
solely based on nominations.

She
shares the Dalton Pen 2005 award with luminaries such as billionaire
investor Warren Buffet, Reverend Al Green and actress Catherine O'Hara,
among others.

Ruth Ann received this award for creating the Dignitarian Dialogues, which promoted the book Somebodies and Nobodies
by Robert W. Fuller. Ruth Ann also purchased copies of the book and
made them available as part of the IAC paid membership fee.

There are a few copies of the book still remaining with your paid membership.Pay your membership dues here to receive your copy of the book.

Also see Ruth Ann's article "True Confessions of a Certified Coach" below.

 Revealing People to Themselves

Coach Spotlight on…

Donna
Karlin

A Better Perspective

DonnaKarlin@abetterperspective.com

How did you discover coaching?
My son’s surgeon told me (not asked) 20 + years ago that I was going to
coach all her future long term care patients. We worked with health
care providers, surgeons, therapists and specialists in their various
fields to create a coaching model for long term care patients and I
haven’t looked back since.

What personal growth work did you do to help you become successful
as a coach?

I took courses in leadership, training, organizational and industrial
psychology, however with a focus in Executive Coaching. I worked with
Thomas Leonard on his R & D team and basically took ideas and
concepts from everything I read from the most obvious to magazine
articles. And I asked many of my clients to work with me on creating
models and techniques that they would use in the future.

What coach training have you had?
Since I’ve been coaching for a such a long time, the training I had was
in creating models from the ground up and, through trial and error,
perfecting them over time. As well I did my post graduate in
organizational psychology with a focus in executive coaching so I could
marry individual excellence with organizational excellence.

Do you have a coaching specialty/niche?
I’m a Shadow Coach, Observational Coach. As I’m observing clients
throughout their day, I am able to give them ‘in real time’ personal
performance feedback. Essentially I help clients become aware of
important parts of their days, their behavior and habits that they
weren't aware of, or were making incorrect assumptions about and with
this new information and resulting insights, clients identify choices
between what they want and what they are currently doing. From that
they create tangible change by choice. I’m there to help them implement
these changes and as a result continue to grow as effective leaders.

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 Honing In on What's Most Important

True
Confessions of a Certified Coach
by Ruth Ann Harnisch
thrillionaires.org

I
am another "genius" who has never been on Jeopardy. In other words, I
have all the answers in the comfort of my living room. But I have never
submitted myself to the rigorous process of getting on the show. Why
should I risk my reputation as the person who “should” be on Jeopardy?

The
fact is, I’m a college dropout who has not submitted to a formal
testing process for any kind of credentialing for over 30 years. I
passed the FCC test for the 3rd Class Radiotelephone Operator’s License
with Endorsement for Broadcast in 1966. I got my New York State Regents
High School Diploma shortly thereafter. I aced the test for a Tennessee
driver’s license in 1973, and since then, nothing. Oh, I was evaluated
aplenty. You can’t be a television news anchor, newspaper columnist,
and radio talk show host without being judged by just about everyone
you encounter in the course of a day – viewers, listeners, ratings
books, focus groups, an ever-changing cast of management.

But actual t-t-t-tests of any kind? I’d rather sit on the sofa and beat Ken Jennings.

I didn’t recognize my procrastination for what it was – reluctance to fail.

Why should I submit myself for evaluation when my clients think I’m a terrific coach whether or not I have a credential?

That
fear of failure stalled me in getting my IAC Certification, and if I
hadn’t promised to get it, I bet I wouldn’t have put myself through the
process. Promised? Yes, when I accepted a position on the IAC Board of
Governors, the invitation was conditional upon my becoming IAC
Certified as soon as possible.

I
went to two Coachville Intensives led by Thomas Leonard (and former IAC
Board chair Susan Austin and IAC Board member Dave Buck) and I felt
prepared. I studied my IAC study guide. I practiced in triads and with
my coaches. And still I put off taking the written test many times.
Finally, I booked a full day on my calendar, studied the day before,
and spent several hours completing the written test. I passed.
(Frankly, I don’t like the test and am actively campaigning for
changes.)

If you’re
putting off taking the test because you think you need to study more –
and you’re pretty familiar with the material – just take the test. I
don’t think studying more or harder gives you a leg up on this test.
You’ll see what I mean when you take it. You can start, and IF YOU
FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY, you can stop and come back to it
another day. I did not trust myself not to click something and lose
hours of work, so I kept written track of my answers and did the whole
test in one sitting. If you learn something from taking it, God bless
you. I didn’t. Anyway, you’ll either pass or you won’t, and if you do,
as we say in Noo Yawk, fuggedaboudit. If you flunk, wait the time limit
and try, try again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Don’t worry about how long
it takes you to jump through this hoop. It’s like your driving test. In
New York, my friends routinely flunked their first, and often their
second and sometimes their fifth road test. No big. Once they passed,
they were on the same level as everyone who passed the first time. It
simply does not matter how many times you take the test, so get started!

My
fear of failure went into overdrive for Step Two and Three. I put off
taping practice Step Two sessions for my coaches to evaluate. I did get
a handful of clients to sign and return the release forms. And then
Coachville announced Certification Weekends at the end of 2004. That’s
it, I thought. Register for Boston, but try to get certified before
then so you don’t have to go! I missed my deadline, and showed up in
Boston in “frantic” mode. In one of the coaching sessions, someone
talked about her fear of failing to pass the test. I recognized my own
frazzled, fearful self. I realized suddenly that if I couldn’t be calm,
do my best, and enjoy the process, I didn’t deserve to be certified! A
masterful coach is not seeking external validation but is learning from
the process. We don’t want IAC Certification to be a cheap credential –
if the certifiers don’t think a coach is demonstrating everything
necessary for certification, then the masterful candidate accepts the
notes graciously and gratefully, recognizes the perfection, and tries
again.

Even
the people who did not pass Step Two and Three felt the learning
process of that weekend was valuable beyond measure. Each candidate had
two opportunities to coach live and to be a client. Eight people in a
group, certifiers’ comments on every session. Do the math – you can
imagine how much we learned about masterful coaching from each other
and from our certifiers. It was some of the finest coaching education
I’ve ever received. If I didn’t come away with my certification, I
thought, I would at least come away with a renewed passion for
excellence and some deepened and new relationships.

I
passed. And in my final evaluation, Dave Buck pointed out that the
proficiency I demonstrated the least in my coaching sessions was
“Designing Supportive Environments.” Dave observed that my own life is
a monument to Do It Yourself Without Enough Support. His revelation
changed the way I organized my life from that day forward. It was a
crossroads moment that is helping to define my future. In all, I got my
IAC Certification, I received some world-class coaching that emboldened
me, got some thoughtful feedback that changed me, made some
acquaintances who inspire me. What was I so afraid of?

If
you’ve thought about your IAC Certification, there will never be a
better time to set a deadline for yourself and try. You have nothing to
lose but your imaginary Jeopardy championship.

©2005
International Association of Coaching
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