From the Editor
The start of 2014 brings many changes. We are very excited to welcome Vicki Zanini into her new role as IAC President! We are also excited introduce new regular articles to the VOICE such as Jan O’Brien’s “Intercultural Corner” as well as the Licensing Committee Column that will be explored further next month. I hope you enjoy the articles this month that delve into the Masteries and welcome us into the new year. As always, please contact us at voice@certifiedcoach.org with comments, questions, event notices, or article contributions. We are always looking for unique perspectives and hope to kick-start 2014 with new thoughts and perspectives to share. I wish you a year of happiness and growth! Best,
Beth Ann Miller is currently pursuing an MFA in Writing and is a native New Englander. She has a professional background in editing and higher education, and enjoys working with youths in the arts. Her stories have appeared in online and print journals and she is perpetually at work on new creative projects.
Contents From the President – Vicki Zanini Using Creative Stimulus to Increase Awareness… – Marcy Nelson-Garrison IAC Mastery #7: Helping the client set and keep clear intentions – Martha Pasternack Welcome to 2014 – Natalie Tucker Miller Intercultural Corner – Jan O’Brien Open Chat Calls From the President Happy New Year. After serving for two years on the executive committee as treasurer, I am extremely honored to assume my new role as president. Over the past two years I have been blessed to work with a group of dedicated and talented individuals, and am grateful that many will continue to serve in 2014. Dr. Susan Meyer has served phenomenally as our 2012/2013 president and will remain on the executive committee as immediate past president, and to her I am extremely grateful, for her ongoing support, guidance and leadership. Krishna Kumar will continue in his role as vice president, and we thank him for his continued leadership and service. Tatiana Abend completes her term as secretary but fortunately for us she will remain on the board of governors through April. We thank her for her tireless and generous service over the years. We also welcome two new additions to our executive committee: Pepe del Rio will serve as secretary and Terri Hase will serve as treasurer. We are grateful to our board of governors for their ongoing service: Tatiana Abend, Kristi Arndt, Pepe del Rio, Teo Jin Lee, Peter Rusznak, Shan Shanmugam and Penni Wild. And it is with great pleasure that we welcome David M. Poles, Juan Manuel Alvarez, Anna Ramalho and Terri Hase to the board. Our talented and masterful team of certifiers include: Nina East, Karen Van Cleve, Elizabeth Dyrsmid, Alison Davis, Bonnie Chan, and Natalie Tucker Miller, as well as our certifiers in training, Lorraine Lee and Marie-Laure Lagrange. Natalie Tucker Miller will continue to serve as general manager in addition to her role as lead certifier, and Ed Britton, Diana McFarlane, Becky Fyke, Beth Ann Miller and Wendy Rumrill will continue to staff our organization and keep us up and running. To the above mentioned as well as the many volunteers for all they do, thank you. And for any of our members who would like to volunteer, please contact one of our board members to discuss the many opportunities available. We begin 2014 with an eye on the IAC Vision and Strategic Plan 2010-2015 adopted in 2010. Past presidents Dr. Susan Meyer, Dr. Bob Tschannen-Moran and Angela Spaxman have been instrumental in the creation and implementation of this plan, along with many others. In reviewing the 2015 desired outcomes, it is exciting to see how far we have come and clear that we have more work to do. I am proud to help carry this torch into 2014 and allow it to guide our next steps. We have a strong foundation and an incredibly talented team, and together we will continue to grow our membership, strengthen our infrastructure and expand our reach. I am looking forward to working with each of you in 2014. Wishing you a happy and prosperous year, Vicki Zanini
Vicki Zanini is founder of Vicki Zanini Coaching & Training. As a certified holistic life coach, she works with individuals and groups who are ready to create new possibilities, boost personal effectiveness, and experience a deeper sense of meaning and inner peace. She has been leading coaching groups and workshops for over 15 years in personal development, self-care, creativity, and intuition. Visit her website at www.vickizanini.com.
Using Creative Stimulus to Increase Awareness, Shift Perspectives and Play with Possibilities If you do not have at least a few "right-brain" processes in your tool kit, your clients may be missing out on essential non-verbal wisdom. Right-brain processes access information and understanding through a variety of non-linear methods including: the body, movement, visual imagery, metaphor, play, humor, music, stillness, prayer, and meditation. I’ve rarely experienced a deep internal shift or transformation without the body, creativity and non-verbal knowing engaged in some way. Verbal language and linear thinking play a part but are not always sufficient on their own. There are two important things to know about engaging the right-brain or non-verbal ways of knowing: creativity requires stimulus and right-brain processes often bypass the left brain censor. Creativity requires stimulus. If you have a client who is stuck, the tendency is to try to “think harder,” which sends them circling over the same territory. This rarely yields anything new. New ideas show up when you put two things together that you haven’t put together before. Try introducing an alternative to the normal way a challenge is perceived. Open-ended questions are a form of stimulus. If the goal is to generate new ideas, the open-ended question needs to draw something in that’s not part of the current thinking. Right-brain processes introduce stimuli such as metaphors, images, random words, movement, music etc. This generates new associations that can lead to new solutions or perspectives. Right-brain processes often bypass the left-brain censor. Most of us are very fluent in cognitive language and have very skilled censors. One of the reasons I like using visual imagery in particular is that we are just not as adept at censoring visual data. This is also true with movement and body wisdom. Right-brain processes access our knowing differently — it’s like a different language. Imagery leverages the mind’s ability to make associations. An image can invite new meaning and new insights by putting things together that were previously unrelated. In general, more information gets surfaced than using verbal, left-brain processes alone. Favorite tools. I have my favorite tools: a card deck of ‘hat’ metaphors, several card decks with photographic images, a tin of tiny objects, powerful words or quotes, and a fun deck of cards that invites humor and shift energy. If I don’t have a “tool” handy, there is always the old standby: simply ask your client to look around the room and find a symbol for whatever topic you are coaching. The fun thing about these tools is that you can use them in combination with just about any type of open-ended question or topic and you will get new, fresh and often surprising information. Use them to explore a concept, access inner guidance, shift energy, create a pause, and to create ritual. If you are new to using these types of approaches, experiment with creative stimulus to initiate a ritual at the beginning or the end of each session. Here are a few suggestions: have your client draw a card (from a deck they have or one you have given them), ask then to find a symbol in their environment that reflects a take-away, invite them to take on a body posture, choose a color or a type of music that reflects how they are feeling in the moment. It's a great opportunity for you to get creative. Once they have a symbol or image or color, spend some time with it. As coach, invite your client to get really curious about it. The trick is to keep the focus on the client’s associations rather than interjecting your own. These approaches are effective on the phone or in person and are very powerful in group work. Be prepared to be surprised at the amazing insights that show up.
Marcy Nelson-Garrison, MA, LP, CPCC: Marcy is a creative catalyst, coach, product mentor and Choice Magazine feature writer. Marcy founded the Coaching Toys online store to provide a venue for products created by coaches. The store carries a wide selection of innovative tools and products for workshops, retreats, team building, client work and personal development. Visit www.coachingtoysstore.com
IAC Mastery #7 Remember when you were around 2 years old and you picked up a piece of delicate glass (AKA breakable) or something sharp (AKA scissors) or something critical to your mom or dad’s wellbeing (AKA their eyeglasses) and you refused to give whatever it was up? In fact, you said “NO! Mine!” Remember that? And remember that, rather than struggle with you, which would make you angry and maybe even make you cry, they offered you your favorite toy? Then you released your tenacious grasp on the kidnapped object and took your toy instead? Remember how excited you felt when you discovered a new way of being powerful by making a choice of what to hold in your tiny hand? Remember that you had to decide what mattered most to you: the thing you were holding or the thing you potentially could be holding? You made a choice. In that moment, long ago, there was an intention set, there was a choice made about what is most important to you and a pathway cleared to honor the intention. No? I do remember, however, doing that plenty of times with my own kids. It worked 99.9% of the time. It was a dilemna to be sure. (Rest assured that I did exercise emergency parental veto power a few times when the “mommy tip of the day” said “Take that thing away NOW and soothe baby later!” but that was rare.) What was my intention with my kids? I was committed to creating a safe environment in which:
Fast-forward to today and your coaching practice and welcome IAC Mastery #7: Helping the client set and keep clear intentions. When we engage Mastery # 7, we come together with our clients to support them to create a safe space for transformation. Only, in this case, we don’t hand them anything. Instead, we brainstorm ideas with them. Our role as coach is to support our clients in clarifying intentions and the goals to meet them. What does intention mean? As I understand intention, it is a plan or guide for action that one does with the purpose of following the plan. Intentions are meant to inspire, support and empower an individual. Intentions are meant to guide us to meet the goals set out by the plan. Intention supports us to create a safe space for transformation and change. We support our clients to explore and discover themselves and what they might prefer to hold on to in the form of values, possibilities, dreams, goals and desires. We take nothing away. We celebrate with them when they choose to let go. For example, if the stories of past experiences are still the basis of all decisions, perhaps there is something in the present moment that will better serve our client. When our client can remain focused on goals and intentions in the present moment there is spaciousness for release, personal empowerment, excitement and taking responsibility for infinite possibilities based on intention. The client can focus on their intention and make decisions that will support the intention. It is guided by their readiness to let go. They may experience this as a second wind. May your second wind be a gentle breeze.
Welcome to 2014! There is much to report from the Certification Board at this time, so I’d like to use this time and space to bring you up to date. In addition to expanding the certification team to include two new certifiers, our recent focus has been on expanding Part 2 of the certification process into other languages. As you can imagine, this is a rigorous and painstaking process. IAC certifiers must go through an extensive training period, and the addition of languages adds several steps and challenges that we have been addressing. When you consider the precision the certifiers must adhere to in the certification process, you can imagine how transferring this process to other languages is no small task! Let’s send loving and abundant appreciation to Bonnie Chan, who has taken charge to include Chinese as the first non-English language certification option. We are still some time away from accepting recordings, but I assure you we are getting close. Once we have mastered the process in Chinese languages, we intent to move forward with French and Spanish. This is such an exciting time for the IAC, I invite you to celebrate along with us! Another update I’d like to discuss is the Learning Agreements (LA). We have been reviewing individual LAs since November 2011, and the results and responses have been remarkable. I am continually delighted with the personalized plans people create, in an effort to address their learning style and personal growth plans. In 2014 we intend to share some of those plans with you, in an effort to help spark some ideas. But don’t worry if you aren’t totally clear on what you want to accomplish. An hour with one of the masterful coach reviewers and you’ll gain all the clarity and support you need! I’ve included a couple of articles from coaches who have submitted their LAs. What they have to say is extremely helpful! http://certifiedcoachblog.typepad.com/blog/2012/06/learning-about-learning-agreements.html Please keep your questions for the certifiers coming! We love being able to address your most important issues! 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.
Please send your questions on the IAC Coaching Masteries® and the certification process to certification@certifiedcoach.org. Intercultural Corner Welcome to the Intercultural Corner! My vision for this short monthly article is to provide a supportive and thought-provoking platform for us to discuss coaching and cultural competence. Navigating cultural “difference”, be it international or domestic, is an ever-important aspect of the coaching profession. As coaching expands around the world and as our domestic environments become more diverse, so do the opportunities and challenges for forming trusting and compatible relationships with our clients. One of the key components of coaching effectively across cultures is the development of our cultural self-awareness. For example, our awareness of our own world views, values, perceptions, communication styles, patterns of behavior and even our humor! In addition, it is important to gain an understanding of our clients’ cultural perspective so that we can communicate in a respectful and culturally appropriate manner. Our intentional development in the area of cultural competence helps us to avoid misunderstandings and stereotyping and allows us to shift our perspective and behavior accordingly. Thus, with our intercultural coaching skills enhanced and with the guidance of the Masteries, we are better equipped to create an environment in which our clients can explore, discover and grow. Every month in this newsletter, the Intercultural Corner will serve as a starting point for exploring topics on cultural competence and coaching. We will also post the article, along with a question, on the IAC LinkedIn group for continued discussion and sharing. I very much look forward to our intercultural conversations!
Jan O’Brien IAC-MCC www.culture-conscious.com
This is a way to connect with YOUR professional coaching organization and be part of the ongoing evolution. Share your ideas, ask your questions, connect with others. This call will be recorded and is open to everyone and anyone interested in expanding the path to coaching mastery. Date: January 14th, 2013 New IAC Coaching Masteries® licensed schools and mentors
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 voice@certifiedcoach.org. Please help us improve. |
Welcome to 2014! What a wild year 2013 was, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future. 
Martha Pasternack, MMC 
