IAC VOICE, Volume 4, Issue 18, September 2007, Circulation: 11,933

Angela

From the Editor

We want to involve you and we are continuing to create more opportunities for
you to immerse yourself in the IAC. Here are some of the ways.

By learning about masterful coaching!

As our President Natalie explains, we are
rolling out the IAC Coaching Masteries
E-book, the primary tool for you to learn what exactly masterful is
coaching and how it is achieved and measured.

We’re also including a round-up of some of the
resources for getting
certified that are included in your membership.

By volunteering!

In this issue of the VOICE, we’re looking for volunteers to
help evaluate
our new Step One (written) Exam. We are updating the exam to reflect our use
of the IAC Coaching Masteries instead of the Proficiencies, and we would like
your help to check the quality of the test questions.

As we complete our transition to the IAC Coaching Masteries this year, we will
also be looking for new people to become IAC Certifiers. If this path interests
you, now is the time to complete your certification!

Also, if you are interested in the deeper workings of this organization and
feel a pull to get more involved with the amazing group of coaches in the IAC
Board, we invite you to contact Parker Anderson, the head of our nominations
committee, to discuss what we do and what kind of support we are looking for.
Being part of the IAC Board is a pleasure and a challenge. It is a chance to
interact with a diverse group of passionate, wise and generous individuals
who freely and constructively debate the policies and directions we set in order
to fulfill our mission: to inspire the on-going evolution and application of
universal coaching standards.

By simply reading and enjoying!

We’ve got a
fascinating glimpse into the world of Shadow Coach™,
Donna Karlin who works in high-paced political environments.

And
Coaching Moments this month is a celebration of cleaning up and starting
anew.

With your feedback!

One more way to get involved is to send us your
feedback. A few quick words
will do, or even better, tell us what you most want from the IAC.

Cheers,

Angela Spaxman
Editor, IAC VOICE
Email: voice@certifiedcoach.org
Web: www.spaxman.com.hk 

Natalie

Answers
from the President

by Natalie
Tucker Miller


president@certifiedcoach.org

Coach certification: it’s what we do; it’s why we’re here.

IAC certification is based on an
understanding and demonstration of coaching
mastery through a written, online exam and recorded coaching sessions.

The IAC recognizes that many professionals from various industries transition
into coaching or use a coaching approach in their businesses or practices.
Many uses of coaching may not necessitate that coaches attend specific training
institutes or log certain numbers of coaching hours. It does not mean to imply,
however, that specific and distinct skills are not required. In whatever profession
you might be incorporating coaching approaches, an understanding of how coaching
is unique in its application is crucial.

This month, we announce the roll-out of the IAC Coaching Masteries E-Book
which is part of your IAC membership. A global team of coaches spent over two
years defining and refining these universal standards on which the IAC’s
certification will be based. Print these out and get to know them intimately!

For Members:
THE IAC COACHING MASTERIES E-BOOK
(Log-in to your member page to receive your free copy)

For Non-Members:
THE IAC COACHING MASTERIES E-BOOK ($27.00)

The certifying examiners are also creating a document called the Observer’s
Guide. For those coaches in training who record and listen to their coaching
sessions, or are studying with other coaches, this guide will help determine
if you are masterfully integrating coaching skills. Look for the link to this
“hot off the presses” document in next month’s Voice.

Speaking of the IAC Coaching Masteries, the online exam is slated to be complete
by late October. By January 1, 2008, we will be certifying exclusively under
the Masteries. If you would like to be scored using the Proficiencies, you have
only until Dec. 31 2007.

Some resources for getting certified

• 
  Hear the certifier’s POV’s here:
  
  www.certifiedcoach.org/certify/certifier_interviews.html
• 
  Start a
  COG to study the Masteries with others, or consider
  starting an IAC
  local chapter
• We have added a new directory
  feature this month! Members can now check a box indicating they would be
  interested in being a buddy coach or join a triad.
  Log-in
  to the members area and update your profile if you are interested in having
  other coaches contact you for study purposes. 
  Find a coach in our directory
  who might be interested in joining you in a study group or triad (where three
  coaches alternate as coach, client, observer. The Observer’s Guide will come
  in handy.)

As we take cues from the members, more and more resources are being made
available. If you're interested in being involved with this mission, please
consider

volunteering. 

Note: Be on the lookout for a special
mailing this month announcing the details of our upcoming Virtual Symposium!

Call for Volunteers to Help Evaluate the IAC Step One Exam

As we move forward toward writing, editing and testing the Exam on the IAC
Masteries (Step 1), we are looking for volunteers to participate in one or more
of our Evaluation Teams.

Important note: We will be evaluating the quality of the test questions, and
NOT the individual participants. Volunteers will not be graded on their efforts.
(Did I just hear a collective sigh?!)

We want to recruit individuals whose range of experience is as wide as those
who might be inclined to take the Exam. More specifically, volunteers could
fall into the following three ranges of experience:

We are looking for 8-10 individuals, for each of the 4 panels (see below).
Experience levels will be accepted as reported by each coach. Volunteers do
not have to be members of the IAC.

Commitment of Team Participants:
Each panel will involve about 1 ½ hour’s commitment, mostly within
the same 7-day period, for each participant chosen. Different panels will get
different parts of the test; no single participant will receive all items, and
no answers will be shared. However, those who willingly participate will be
more informed about the format and languaging of the future test. (Something
to think about!)

Team members may be asked to participate in some or all of the following activities:

1. Focus group discussion to check for item clarity. This will only be a sub-sample,
   or small group, chosen randomly from the larger team.
2. Objective test and re-test. To be taken on their own, preferably in a situation
   which would simulate the actual test-taking experience. The same test will
   be give 3 days later, to see if team members’ scores remain about the
   same.
3. Debriefing conference call, if necessary. We may choose to run this as an open
   call to allow participants to ask questions and provide feedback.

Dates are approximate and may vary somewhat.

STEPS TO VOLUNTEERING:

1. If you are willing to volunteer, which will be very much appreciated, please
   contact Lucia Murphy at the following e-mail address:
   testvolunteers@certifiedcoach.org 
   
2. Please indicate your level of coaching experience (described above) and
   which panels you are available to participate in.
3. Don’t hesitate to contact Lucia if you have any questions.

Thanks so much for your time and service to the IAC!

Finally, if you know anyone else who might be interested, please send us their
contact information or have them get in touch with us directly at
testvolunteers@certifiedcoach.org. 

An online confidentiality agreement and questionnaire will be made available
shortly for volunteers to complete.

Shadow Coaching™ at the Speed of Laser

by Donna Karlin,
CEC

Have you ever worked on an elevator speech, a two minute or less blurb about
what you do, how you do it and why you’re so amazing at it? (AKA your
sales pitch). Picture having that same amount of time to do an entire session
with a client. I’m not kidding. Oftentimes that’s about all the
time I have with a client in a secure elevator waiting for a car to whisk us
to the Hill, or another department or meeting. Sometimes we’re lucky enough
to be in the car without other staff and can actually expand a session to 15
minutes! But even then, we’re usually focused on the meeting that will
happen so all conversation is around that, not the client’s world. I, on
the other hand, from a Shadow Coach’s perspective, have to absorb everything
from time lines, dynamics, conversations, energy levels, engagement, level of
responsibility, global or financial implications, mandate, hierarchy, volume
of memos, reading material, emails and correspondence, processing time, and
staff support to name a few areas of focus. This is my clients’ world.
It defines the term "intensely complex".

Welcome to my world as a Shadow Coach™ to high level political, government
and corporate leaders. Picture the TV show West Wing in all its wonderful chaos.
Press releases are flying, TV’s are going in every office, communications
specialists, political advisors, high level government officials, world leaders,
corporate leaders are running in and out of offices and meetings and BlackBerrys
are buzzing constantly. That is the norm on a good day when all isn’t
going to hell in a hand basket. Add a crisis like a war, tsunami, quake, bombing,
plunge in value of the dollar, a recall, and then it actually gets really busy.
Truthfully, that’s become the norm. I can’t remember a day in the
not so recent past when there wasn’t a natural disaster, threat of a terrorist
activity, war-related or even ‘bottom-line challenge. Let’s face
it, to some people a fluctuation in the value of the dollar can be as devastating
in their world and that of their shareholders as an earthquake is to others.
Ramifications are different, definitely, but a client’s world is their
reality and it’s not for me to rate crises on a scale of 1 – 10.
It’s for me to help them get to wherever they want to and have to get
to by their definitions.

Take this chaotic environment and toss a Shadow Coach™ into the equation
and now you have a good picture of what my life looks like. Sessions are fast
and I mean laser fast. I have to get to a key dynamic of a situation in seconds,
articulate what I need to get across in as clear a manner possible so my client
gets it instantly; processes a quick clarifying conversation and integrates
whatever changes are necessary now, not later. Later for most of my clients
isn’t an option.

Click
here to read more (for members only)

Donna Karlin CEC, founder
of A Better Perspective™ (www.abetterperspective.com)
has pioneered the specialized practice of Shadow
Coaching™ with over 130 senior organizational leaders in the public and
private sectors and in national and global political realms. Donna is an author,
lectures internationally and in response to widely expressed interest to her
highly successful and innovative approach to coaching, she established the School of Shadow
Coaching™ to enable others to learn the practice.

"Coaching Moments" takes a
thoughtful, and sometimes lighthearted, look at how coaching
can be interwoven into our daily lives. 

Life Laundry
by Janice Hunter

Pegging out laundry
Damp and fragrant in the sun
She lifts up her face
Listens to the sheets flapping
In the breeze, surrendering
Ready to set sail
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What’s September like where you are? Is it spring? Or has the frazzling
heat of August started to fade, leaving you fresher and less floppy? Do you
take on new clients, begin new ventures?

September feels like the start of a new year for me, with its promise of exciting
new beginnings, classes and semesters. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent
most of my life as a student or a teacher or because my birthday falls at the
end of August and both my children were born in the autumn. Whatever the reason,
this is a time for freshly sharpened pencils, for blank pages and tempting piles
of books, something to look forward to on darkening days as the nip of autumn
turns into the unexpected bite of winter.

I have a cupboard in the dining room where I store all the Christmas candles,
scented oils and festive season bargains bought in the January sales. Wedged
at the back are some wooden Shaker hearts, hand-painted a warm, folk art red.
They were a free gift with a magazine and I always planned to do something creative
with them. Waiting in there, patiently for years, they’ve soaked up the
fragrance of cinnamon, apple and spice. If I’m ever saddened by the fading
brightness of autumn, or tempted to see it as a season of loss rather than a
time of fruitful abundance, I furtively open those doors and inhale the excitement
of another season nestled within, like Russian dolls.

As evolving souls in human bodies, we’re meant to grow, to feel the seasons,
to surrender to the beauty of each one – but like many people, I’m not
very good at letting go. My daughter started high school a few weeks ago and
I spent an anxious, distressed day pacing like a caged animal, unable to relax
until she burst through the door beaming. My dad is eighty three this month
and has started to prepare for a different kind of letting go, sorting through
his treasures, putting his life and house in order.

One thing that calms me when the months and years seem to be spinning out of
control is to anchor myself in the everyday details of creating a life I love.
I try to cultivate gratitude and focus on the people I love, on the things that
inspire me and on the thoughts, emotions and details that are within my power
to change; then I just do my best to trust the rest to the universe.

Every autumn, I get a craving, an almost visceral nesting instinct to clear
out all the debris of an old year. Out go old passions and paradigms, making
room for abundance, new experiences, new people and new lessons to flow into
my life. Clutter clearing – my own and other people’s – brings me
so much pleasure, it should be X-rated. Deciding what to do with every sheet
of paper, every object, every garment or piece of fabric is a living, breathing
meditation, a tangible way to strengthen my choice muscles and ask some important
questions:

• If I had ten minutes to rescue
  my belongings, would I take this?
• Do I really, really love
  and need this or am I keeping it ‘just in case it comes in useful’?
  
• Could someone else get more
  benefit from this or love it more?
• Am I keeping this just to
  please someone else? Or because it came from someone I care about?
• Is this anchoring me in the
  past when I need to be moving on?
• Is this heartstoppingly beautiful?
  
• Will the kids be glad I saved
  this in the attic for them or roll their eyes in years to come and wonder
  what on earth I was thinking about?
• Does this object exude positive,
  empowering energy?
• What does it say about me?
  And do I like what it says about me?
• Does it symbolise a value,
  something good, something precious?
• Do I spend more time dusting
  souvenirs than I do making memories?

Every time I shred paper and clear out my clutter, my coaching and poetry get
better, the house becomes more spacious and easier to clean, we all have more
energy… and I lose weight! As well as space and energy, a cathartic clean-out
also frees up time and money. A few weeks ago, we had a family holiday in a
small, white cottage by a sea loch; it was funded entirely by what we’d
earned from family car-boot sales and by what we’d saved by recycling
and re-organising.

What could you let go of this autumn to prepare the ground for the
seeds of a new season?

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.

contact
lovingthedetails@aol.com

IAC Certified Coach

Congratulations to
Art Gangel from Kansas City, KS, United States who
recently passed his Step 2 Exam and became an IAC Certified Coach.

Your
Feedback

We'd love to get your feedback on any issue related to the
IAC. Do have any questions, concerns, encouragement or ideas
for improvement regarding anything we do including
membership benefits, certification, the VOICE, the direction
of the organization, or anything else at all? Please send an
email to
feedback@certifiedcoach.org. Please help us improve.

© 2007. All
rights reserved. International Association of Coaching