IAC VOICE, Volume 4, Issue 18, September 2007, Circulation: 11,933
September 17, 2007
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.
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.
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!
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.
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:
Test or Rater Group
Characteristics
“Novice” or (Relatively) New Coaches or other Human Service Professionals
• Relatively little actual coaching experience • No to little formal coach training
“Average” Coaches
• Some actual coaching experience • Some formal training • Many of the participants are likely to fall into this category
“Expert” or Masterful Coaches
• Can easily demonstrate masterful coaching in a client situation • Examples can include IAC Certifiers or IAC certified coaches
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:
Focus group discussion to check for item clarity. This will only be a sub-sample, or small group, chosen randomly from the larger team.
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.
Debriefing conference call, if necessary. We may choose to run this as an open call to allow participants to ask questions and provide feedback.
Panel
Activities
Approximate Dates
Panel 1
• Questions for Pre-test
• September 19
Panel 2
• First sub-set of test questions for Step 1 test
• October 18
Panel 3
• Second sub-set of test questions for Step 1 test
• November 1
Panel 4
• Final sub-set of test questions for Step 1 exam
• November 15
Dates are approximate and may vary somewhat.
STEPS TO VOLUNTEERING:
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
Please indicate your level of coaching experience (described above) and which panels you are available to participate in.
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.
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.
Congratulations to Art Gangel from Kansas City, KS, United States who recently passed his Step 2 Exam and became an IAC Certified Coach.
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