IAC VOICE, Volume 4, Issue 15, June 2007, Circulation: 11,438
June 13, 2007
Angela
From the Editor
Like a grinning magician unveiling the rabbit in the hat, I really enjoy revealing to you the progress that is ever-continuing at the IAC every month. This time, we have a major announcement regarding our coach certification process. And next month, well, you'll have to wait and see! For now I can just tell you that there is a lot going on behind the scenes that is continually building the IAC's foundation as a highly relevant, sustainable and progressive coaching organization.
Our President Natalie writes about the huge contributions of Sali Taylor, who is leaving the IAC Certification Board to pursue other interests.
If you're looking for new ways to help your clients build their self-awareness, please take a look at the CORE MAP assessment, a new member benefit, and get your free sample.
We're very pleased to have a longer article this month (for members only) from Julia Stewart who shares her most effective strategies for passing the IAC certification process and becoming a brilliant coach.
In Coaching Moments, Janice reminds us of some of the emotional ups and downs that many of us feel as we try to balance all the important things in our lives.
I hope you enjoy this issue and the beautiful month of June.
"Just because everything is different doesn't mean that everything has changed."
This quote from the often humorous, always pertinent Irene Peter, is fitting for the news we bring our members and subscribers this month.
Sali Taylor, who has served the IAC for many years, wearing many different hats, has made the decision to move on from the certification board to the next exciting phase of her personal and professional life. Sali was one of the first coaches to pass all components of the IAC certified coach exam, then to be invited to join the certification board. I had the honor and pleasure to know and work with Sali in those days, and owe much of my own coaching prowess to her generous gifts of time and sharing of her knowledge and expertise. Her study group which invited participants who had passed part one of the IAC online exam to learn the skills necessary to pass part two, served several coaches who now count themselves among the IAC-CC's.
Her dedication to the IAC has helped with the continuity and stability of the organization which, early on, found itself faced with some paramount challenges. The hours she has contributed in order to fulfill the IAC's mission and advance the coaching profession would be impossible to document. In addition to lending a hand wherever needed in those early days, she was the catalytic energy that advanced the creation of The Coaching Masteries™. Those of you fortunate enough to know Sali personally, understand the incredible integrity and refreshing honesty she brings to all areas of her work and her life. She leaves a legacy of masterful coaching standards from which many will benefit for years to come.
Sali is a huge proponent of study groups, virtual coaching buddies and triads (where three coaches take turn being the coach, client and observer), and in her honor I'd like to invite those coaches interested in independently learning via these means to begin a COG (Community Outreach Group). Contact Tara Rodden Robinson for the details on how you can create and grow a virtual community to advance coaching skills.
Just because things are different at the IAC, doesn't mean that everything has changed.
Natalie
P.S. Keep your eyes opened for information about the IAC's first annual Virtual Symposium, the week February 10th, 2008. Put it on your calendar!
What's New in the IAC's Coach Certification System?
by Barbra Sundquist, IAC-CC
The IAC Certifying Team is excited to announce that as of July 1, 2007 we will be using the IAC Coaching Masteries™ to evaluate certification submissions (and for the balance of 2007 you can still elect to be evaluated using the 15 Proficiencies – more about that below).
To bring you up to date…
When the draft Coaching Masteries™ were released in January 2007, the Certifying Team began doing "dual" scoring. This means that we scored tapes twice – first against the 15 Proficiencies, and then against the Coaching Masteries™. The score that applicants received was the 15 Proficiencies score (because the Coaching Masteries™ were not yet the official scoring system).
Why have we been doing dual scoring?
For the past six months we've been doing dual scoring to compare the scores received under the "old system" (the 15 Proficiencies) with scores received under the "new system" (the Coaching Masteries™ ). We wanted to determine if there were any problems with the application of the Coaching Masteries™ and if the scores obtained under the two systems would differ significantly in any way.
What did we discover while using the Coaching Masteries™?
The certifiers found that they could score quite easily using the draft Coaching Masteries™. Each of the nine Masteries has a full page description that gives specific indicators of the behaviors and results that would occur when the Mastery is used at a masterful level. We used the same 1 – 5 point scale as we have been using with the 15 Proficiencies, with 5 points indicating "highly effective" use of the Mastery.
Generally speaking, the scores between the Coaching Masteries™ and the 15 Proficiencies were consistent to within a few percentage points. Although we weren't necessarily aiming to have consistency between the two scoring systems, the results do underscore our belief that "great coaching is great coaching", no matter what scoring system is used.
Having said that, we did notice a few places where there is some variability based on scoring of specific masteries vs. specific proficiencies. For example, in the Coaching Masteries™ there is a greater emphasis on appropriate use of silence than in the 15 Proficiencies. So a coach who has a problem with silence may only see that reflected to a minor degree in their 15 Proficiency scoring, whereas it would "score them down" more heavily under the Coaching Masteries™ . On the other hand, under the 15 Proficiencies there is a specific Proficiency that measures "navigating via curiosity". An applicant could blow an entire Proficiency (and many do!) by failing to demonstrate a curious attitude. In contrast, while the Coaching Masteries™ do measure curiosity, it is just part of one Mastery and does not have as great an effect on the applicant's overall results.
We did make some recommendations for changes
During the past six months while the certifiers were doing dual scoring, we noticed some areas of the Masteries that needed tweaking. For instance, there were some behaviors that were duplicated in two or more Masteries. The problem with that is that it tends to "double-credit" or "double-penalize" an applicant. We wanted to avoid that.
The certifiers spent many hours testing and discussing these types of application issues and made recommendations to the IAC Board for changes in wording (most of the recommendations were minor wording changes). We're happy to report that the Board has accepted and endorsed all of our recommendations.
We're now ready to do "real" scoring using the Coaching Masteries™
Yippee! Starting July 1, 2007 the Coaching Masteries™ will be the official IAC scoring instrument. That means that unless you specify otherwise, your tapes will be evaluated using the Coaching Masteries™. You do have the option of being evaluated under the 15 Proficiencies until the end of 2007. If you want us to use the 15 Proficiencies in scoring your tapes, you must specify that in writing at the time of your application.
And since I know someone will ask… no, you can't have your tapes scored under both systems and then pick the highest marks!
All members have access to the same descriptions of the Masteries that the certifiers use. As a result, we feel that it will be easier for applicants to choose which of their tapes to submit for certification.
Best of luck to everyone!
About the author: Barbra Sundquist is an IAC Certifier and Certified Mentor Coach who enjoys demystifying the whole certification process! To pre-register for Barbra's brand new 11-CD IAC Masteries self-study program, please go to www.BecomeACertifiedCoach.com.
Masteries Teleconferences
Please mark you calendars for our upcoming teleconferences. IAC Board Members will be hosting the calls with the IAC Certifiers to answer all your questions on the Masteries development and implementation, and to hear your feedback about everything related to the Masteries and the IAC. Please join us on Thursday, July 19th, 9pm ET and Tuesday, July 24th 1pm ET. We will announce the telephone numbers in the July VOICE.
Announcing a New IAC Member Benefit
Get the Coaches' Edge with CORE MAP – you will build a strong connection with new clients in the first session and keep them coming back as they feel you understand their issues deeply and clearly enough to help them make profound shifts and reach their most important goals. CORE MAP is a unique and powerful assessment that provides deep insights and gives you that all important edge to grow your business fast. Experience the power of CORE MAP FREE by clicking on the logo or learn more about CORE on your IAC membership page.
Open Up New Worlds for People (and Yourself)
by Julia Stewart, IAC-CC
What makes a coaching session absolutely brilliant? That's a question that every great coach plays with throughout their career. The creators of the IAC certified coach process have analyzed it to the nth degree in order to define the standards needed for true coaching mastery.
Great coaching seems ineffable and yet, can trigger profound change in the world. What if this level of coaching was available to everyone? That's what inspired the late Thomas J. Leonard, who many credit with founding this profession, to raise the bar on coaching standards by actually defining them with the 15 Certified Coach Proficiencies and by founding the IAC together with its certified coach process.
The gift in IAC Certification is not in the initials after your name but in the learning, inspiration, mastery and success that all come as byproducts of preparing for the IAC exams. I bet you didn't get all that in Mrs. Smith's Algebra class!
I've been lucky enough to have a ringside seat as hundreds of coaches have tried out for the IAC certification process. Since 2002, I've been neck-deep in the Proficiencies as a student, coach, and mentor; also, as a trainer and certifier for Coachville, the largest coach-training company in the world. I've come to know what works and what doesn't while watching coaches muster their own greatness and step up to a higher quality of coaching.
If learning, inspiration, mastery and success matter to you (as I suspect they do), then I want to share with you some of the most effective strategies for passing the IAC certification process. These are not shallow "fix-its," but steps in the process of becoming a brilliant coach. My hat is off to you for taking the challenge!
What will it take for you to become a Certified Coach?
Julia Stewart, IAC-CC, is President of the School of Coaching Mastery, a "boutique" training program that puts coaches on track for IAC certification. She is also co-founder of the Association for Coaching Excellence, dedicated to the premise that great coaching has the power to create solutions worldwide. www.yourlifepart2.com Email: coach@yourlifepart2.com Tel: 718-408-9188.
"Coaching Moments" takes a thoughtful, and sometimes lighthearted, look at how coaching can be interwoven into our daily lives.
Missing the Boat by Janice Hunter
The power of words never fails to thrill and stun me. I started reading a paperback last night and finished it off this morning as a break from working on half a dozen coaching projects; by the end, I was sobbing into balls of sodden tissues, my throat aching, my eyes stinging as I sniffed back and swallowed tears.
If I'd read the blurb more carefully, I would have got to the bit where it was described as a 'tearjerker'. I usually avoid anything labelled 'heart-rending', 'harrowing' or a 'tearjerker'. Because of my age, I'm already at the mercy of the mood swings my young son calls 'horrormoans' – weeping one minute at anything that involves bereft parents then snapping murderously at my kids the next.
Tiredness doesn't help, but it's my own fault I ended up in bed today, an exhausted, frazzled, biscuit-eating mess – like a small child who's had too much excitement all at once and can't cope.
I committed a real coaching sin after I passed Step 2 of IAC certification; I didn't give myself time to bask in the glow of passing before I moved on to a flurry of activity and exciting new projects that answered the question "So what next?". I'd hooked up so many of my Big Picture dreams to becoming certified that suddenly I found myself working from morning till midnight, desperate not to see the energy and momentum dissipate.
The coaching world often leaves me with a sense of anxiety, feeling like I'm about to miss the boat without even knowing what the boat is. But now I have the feeling that if I don't act soon to create multiple income streams based on what I can offer as a certified coach then somehow my training and IAC-CC designation will simply evaporate.
I love coaching one-to-one as well as coachwriting, but I often feel like I'm treading water, trying to keep up with business trends, networking, marketing strategies, web building techniques, blogging and multiple streams of income simply to stay afloat. Hard work doesn't scare me and I truly believe that marketing can be approached as a form of coaching; I also believe that we attract what we need if we believe in ourselves and in our products but sometimes the ratio of coaching related work to actual coaching just feels overwhelming.
So too are the paradoxes – passions pulling me apart like dogs yanking on a choke leash till I can barely breathe: wanting to contribute to the family income but spending less time with my family and being less present than ever before; working at home to follow the principles of 'right livelihood' yet becoming more of a mediocre marketer than a masterful coach; loving my homelife coaching yet shelving my own creative projects and clutter-clearing to find clients I can help with theirs.
Getting the balance back and dovetailing my goals would be smart, I know, but another symptom of being out of whack with myself and permanently attached to a computer is the dialogue my ego has with my Wise Best Self: "I hear you, WBS, but I'll get back to loving the details just as soon as I finish reading this email about reducing the time I spend reading emails."
The main character in the book I read worked so hard at building a business to provide for her children, using innate skills discovered through tragedy, that she missed sharing the wonder of their childhood with them and never fully appreciated her husband till it was too late to tell him.
Maybe it's OK to miss the boat if it's the wrong boat.
Janice Hunter is a writer, teacher and IAC certified coach who currently specialises in homelife coaching – helping people create authentic, spirit filled lives and homes they love – and in supporting coaches on their certification journeys. She lives in Scotland with her husband and two children.
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