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Linda |
From the Editor
Welcome to the December 2011 issue of the IAC VOICE!
In his column this month, IAC President Bob Tschannen-Moran continues his look at the early days of the IAC, exploring the attraction principles of IAC Founder Thomas Leonard, and examining why the IAC remains such an attractive organization.
Natalie Tucker Miller introduces us to Bonnie Chan, the newest IAC Certifier, as well as to Joyce Kubik, the IAC's first IAC-Practitioner.
IAC member benefit provider Kim Ades of JournalEngine™ shares the background story of how her software came to be, and how she has seen it develop into a powerful agent of social change.
In other member benefit news, a new reciprocal peer coaching round is starting on January 23rd, 2012. Free for IAC members, this round involves giving and receiving eight weekly half-hour coaching sessions. Registration closes on January 21st, so click here for more information on how to join this round.
In our coaching feature, we meet IAC-CC Sandy Tremp and hear about her dramatic journey from a devastating illness to certification and beyond.
In Living the Masteries, Alison Davis and Alberto J. Calderón are back to explore Mastery 7 – Helping the Client Set and Keep Clear Intentions.
Our 2011 submission guidelines for the VOICE are available on the website. Submissions are welcome anytime through the month.
Please contact me with your article ideas and your feedback about this issue. Enjoy!
Warm wishes,
Linda
Linda Dessau, CPCC
Editor, IAC® VOICE
Email: voice@certifiedcoach.org
www.contentmasteryguide.com
P.S. Are you on Twitter? You can follow the IAC at http://twitter.com/IACCoachMastery. There is also a list of VOICE authors, columnists and IAC BOG members at http://twitter.com/lindadessau/iac-voice-contributors.
From the President
by Bob Tschannen-Moran, IAC-CC
president@certifiedcoach.org
The IAC: An Attractive Organization
The coaching industry was an early adopter of the so-called "law of attraction." Founder Thomas J. Leonard, who jumpstarted this industry back in the early 1990s by founding the International Association of Coaching (as well as Coach U, the International Coach Federation and CoachVille), was an articulate spokesperson for what he called the Principles of Attraction or the "Attraction OS," as in operating system. Thomas believed that anyone could become more successful, not by working and pushing harder, but by adopting principles that would unleash our brilliance and make us irresistible in both life and work.
The idea dates back to the early decades of the 20th century, made popular by Napoleon Hill’s 1928 book, The Law of Success in 16 Lessons. What Thomas saw more clearly than others at the time, however, was that coaching could effectively deliver those principles to people over the telephone and Internet. That insight, in the era before Facebook, Skype, Twitter and smartphones, was the insight that launched the modern coaching movement.
And it could not have come along at a better time. Old ways of coaching were breaking down, along with many traditional social structures. Heretofore, coaching was mostly face-to-face in local settings such as families, schools, teams and professions. Older generations would apprentice or coach younger generations using, "show and tell" pedagogy (teaching) techniques that are still with us today. Andragogy, however (the methods or techniques used to teach adults), began to change dramatically as people became more mobile, literate, connected and empowered. Suddenly, older generations were not around in the same way and their expertise didn’t carry as much weight as before. People not only wanted to figure things out for themselves, they also had amazing new capacities for doing so.
Thomas saw the potential for a coaching movement anchored in the Principles of Attraction, which would cross all traditional boundaries: distance, language, culture, position and even training. The bottom-line concern was just-in-time information, in Thomas's words allowing people to "become stronger and better and more successful in a well-rounded, lasting way." Where that information came from didn’t matter. What mattered was whether or not it met people’s needs. Thomas articulated 28 principles designed to do just that. Consider just a few of those principles, taken from his 1998 book The Portable Coach:
- Add value just for the joy of it
- Become irresistibly attractive to yourself
- Promise little, deliver everything
- Tolerate nothing
- Perfect your environment
- See how perfect the present really is
- Orient yourself around your values
- Simplify everything
- Master your craft
That’s not a bad list for more than 13 years ago and it’s not unrelated to what Napoleon Hill came up with in 1928. Apparently the "laws of attraction" don’t vary much from one generation to the next. What does change, however, is the delivery system. And in the past 25 years, that delivery system has been taking the world by storm. It’s now estimated that there are more than 50,000 coaches worldwide, in virtually every developed and developing country. Why do people seek out coaching? A 2010 study conducted by the International Coach Federation, involving more than 15,000 respondents, indicated the following top five concerns:
- Optimize individual and/or team performance,
- Expand professional career opportunities,
- Improve business management strategies,
- Increase self-esteem / self-confidence and
- Manage work/life balance.
Notice the mix of skill and confidence building. One involves being better able to meet the challenges of a particular situation. The other involves raising awareness and shifting responsibility to an internal locus of control. Although everyone knows that we can’t have one without the other, the mark of masterful coaching lies in our ability to address both the situation and the inner environment of coachees. That’s what underlies the Principles of Attraction. When we change our way of being in situations we change the situations. Thoughts become things, and great coaches coach to the thoughts more than we coach to the things.
Of all the global coaching associations, the International Association of Coaching has incorporated this consciousness into its standards for masterful coaching. In fact, that has been one of the reasons that people find it so challenging to get certified by the IAC. When someone shows up for coaching, it is tempting to define and dive into the issue at hand. That certainly represents one level of coaching and may, in fact, be the most common understanding of what coaching is all about. When someone asks, "May I give you some coaching about that?" they usually mean, "May I tell you how to do that better?" The focus is the issue and the coach shows up to help with the issue.
But showing up to help with the issue can hamper the learning of the person, since it more often generates resistance rather than openness to change and since it can easily ignore the underlying as well as the environmental factors that may be causing the issue. Masterful coaches avoid falling into the helpfulness trap by making effective use of the nine IAC Coaching Masteries™. Instead of asking diagnostic questions and providing expert advice about the presenting complaint or stated goal, masterful coaches do the following:
- We create an evocative coaching space and relationship.
- We challenge limiting beliefs and expand potential.
- We listen for and explore core dynamics.
- We process information and feelings in the present.
- We communicate effectively and maintain appropriate boundaries.
- We clarify understandings and build confidence
- We perceive and keep conversations focused on what matters most.
- We invite new possibilities and celebrate progress.
- We explore and develop supporting environments
When those nine principles and practices are fully incorporated into a coach’s way of being, they not only make coaches irresistibly attractive, they also spill over into our work with clients and our associations with each other. The "Attraction OS" that Thomas Leonard was talking about back in the 1990s is like a viral meme that spreads dynamically and wildly from one person and one system to the next. Unleashed in the world, there’s no telling how far and how fast it will go.
That truth is what keeps the IAC in business. The IAC is an attractive organization because it is the guardian of distinctive and attractive Masteries. Over and over again, people come to the IAC voicing a common refrain: no other professional association expresses such a clear and appealing commitment to coaching mastery. That is what brings people to the IAC and what they hope to learn from the IAC. It’s not about degrees or training hours or tenure. It’s about coaching beyond the situation to the very being of the people we are working with. When that happens, when we master the art of coaching to the core, then people become more attractive than they perhaps ever thought would be possible.
If you would like to become more attractive, in just this sense, then I invite you to get more involved with the IAC. Join or renew your IAC Membership, complete an IAC Learning Agreement, subscribe to the IAC VOICE, read the IAC Blog and follow the IAC social media outlets such as Twitter and the IAC LinkedIn and Facebook groups. Catch the meme and see where it leads.
May you be filled with goodness, peace and joy,
Bob
Bob Tschannen-Moran, IAC-CC, is CEO and Co-Founder of the Center for School Transformation and President of LifeTrek Coaching International. Bob is the co-author of Evocative Coaching, which incorporates the IAC Coaching Masteries® in a coaching model designed for leaders and coaches in schools.
IAC News – Our First IAC-Practitioner
by Natalie Tucker Miller, IAC-CC
A year ago, the IAC announced the personalized learning agreement process that would demonstrate the IAC 's commitment to its vision of an ongoing learning credential.
We are excited to announce that one of the first coaches to submit her Learning Agreement Proposal last November has completed her Learning Agreement and met for her final discussion with a reviewer. She is now the first coach to have earned the IAC-Practitioner designation!
Please join me in celebrating with Joyce Kubik. You can learn more about Joyce and the important work she does with her ADHD coaching practice at http://www.bridgetosuccess.net/.
Like many of us, Joyce was not sure what to expect, or how the learning agreement would support her professional growth when she began this journey a year ago. Here's what she had to say:
"Keeping in touch with the Masteries keeps me ever present in my mission to coach people. The Learning Agreement process is a very informative way to help me with my coaching practice. It allows me to keep focused on my top level potential. The IAC Learning Agreement provides me more security in my coaching, even though I've been coaching for 13 years! It solidifies and validates my work."
Joyce also shared with me her goal of achieving the IAC-CC (IAC-Certified Coach) designation, and has no doubt her annual learning agreement submissions will be an integral part of her journey!
Congratulations, Joyce.
(To review the Learning Agreement process for practicing and certified coaches, click here: http://www.certifiedcoach.org/index.php/get_certified/learning_agreement_process/ )
Do you have a question that you’d like to ask the certifiers? Submit your questions here: http://certifiedcoachblog.typepad.com/blog/ask-the-certifiers.html.
Natalie Tucker Miller, IAC-CC, is the Lead Certifier and a certifying examiner at the IAC, as well as Past-President. Natalie is founder of Ageless-Sages.com Publishing (www.ageless-sages.com), and creator of the literary genre, Picture Books for Elders™.
Please send your questions on the IAC Coaching Masteries® and the certification process to certification@certifiedcoach.org.
Journaling: An Agent for Social Change
by Kim Ades
When I started Frame of Mind Coaching, the idea was to help people build their emotional resilience so that when a negative event happened in their lives, they would be able to bounce back from the impact with greater speed, agility and success.
Right off the bat, I decided that I would ask my coaching clients to journal every day for the duration of our 10-week coaching period. I would send them coaching questions to work with and they would journal in response to those questions in an online journal that I could read and comment on. The effect was dramatic. Within weeks people were transforming. By writing their stories they began to see their own limiting beliefs and make new choices that would impact every aspect of their lives. The results were shocking. Even I was astounded.
I ended up building my own journaling platform, which we then opened up to the public. As more and more people began journaling, I quickly began to notice a different, deeper, more expressive type of journaling. Some people wrote about being estranged from close family members. Others wrote about being abused as children. Parents wrote about the challenges of raising their children and children wrote about the challenges of seeing their aging parents deteriorate. Some used the journaling community to grieve the loss of an important family member; others used it as a place to gain support while battling a life threatening disease like cancer.
I realized that I built far more than a piece of software. I built a safe haven where people could authentically express themselves and sort through the pain that their lives had dealt them. I built a place where they could reveal their deepest secrets and still be supported and loved.
We now license the software to hundreds of coaches, speakers, trainers, schools, churches and businesses around the world. I am proud to say that JournalEngine™ has become a healing device that enables people to climb out of their deepest despair and into a place of hope and optimism. Is this an agent for social change? I believe it is.
Kim Ades, MBA, is the President and Founder of Frame of Mind Coaching and JournalEngine™ Software. As an expert on performance through thought management, she uses her unique process of coaching through journaling to switch thought patterns and ignite life transformation. Visit www.journalengine.com to start your free trial.
IAC Member Benefit: IAC members save 50% on customization and 20% on membership (use the coupon code on the IAC Members page).
IAC Certified Coaches
Congratulations to Aileen Gibb from Canmore, AB, Canada and Janice Lavore-Fletcher from Charlotte, NC, USA who recently passed their Step 2 Exams and became IAC Certified Coaches!
New IAC Coaching Masteries® licensed schools and mentors
| Name | City | State | Country | IAC-CC | |
| iCoach University | Destin | FL | United States | No | View Details |
Your Feedback
We'd love to get your feedback on any issue related to the IAC. Do you have any questions, concerns, encouragement or ideas for improvement regarding 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.
