| From the Editor
This weekend, I celebrated a dear friend’s wedding. It was a lovely ceremony with all the traditions I am used to – cake cutting, tossing the bouquet, etc. What made it an even more special event was that the families were from two different parts of the world, Spain and Chile. Witnessing the union of these two cultures was beautiful and awe-inspiring. It so happens that many of our articles this month focus on the diversity of the IAC family, different cultures, and how coaching fits in around the world. We’ve also got the usual monthly line-up: new insight into the Masteries, great views on coaching up-close and as a whole. We are also introducing another new monthly segment, Inside the IAC Licensing Committee, which will keep you up-to-date on important changes and improvements within the IAC. I hope you enjoy the VOICE this month! As always, please contact us at voice@certifiedcoach.org with comments, questions, event notices, or article contributions. We are always looking for unique perspectives. 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 Intercultural Corner: What is Culture? – Jan O’Brien The Masteries E-Book: A quick user’s guide – Natalie Tucker Miller Coaching with all the IAC Masteries – Martha Pasternack Coaching in Italy – David Papini Inside the IAC Licensing Committee – Charlie Boyer Open Chat Calls From the President Greetings, As I write this from my desk in Colorado, the temperature outside is a mere 23 degrees. And it’s much colder in other parts of the world. We are experiencing the kind of weather that interferes with travel plans and daily routines. In the midst of all this, the “weather” here at the IAC is clear and sunny, metaphorically speaking of course. We held our first Board of Governors meeting of the year on January 13th, and we are fully engaged and focused on the path ahead. Our portfolio and committee seats are being filled and our membership is solid and growing. And it is so gratifying to witness our own IAC Masteries being demonstrated throughout our organization. It is stated on our website that “The Masteries are internationally created coaching touchstones, which can be applied to a variety of situations…” One of these touchstones in particular stood out for me this month: “Establishing and maintaining a relationship of trust… ensures a safe space and supportive relationship for personal growth, discovery and transformation.” It has been so powerful to experience this mastery in action as we welcomed our new board members and took on new roles this month. I heard it said once that you cannot change the world but only your relationship with it. A relationship that supports and fosters personal growth, discovery and transformation has the power to impact the world. IAC members and coaches are changing the world, and it’s so easy to engage and connect with one another through our online communities via Linked-in, Facebook and Twitter; each of which can be accessed through our website at www.certifiedcoach.org. We also host monthly Memberchats via teleconference calls. Our lead certifier, Natalie Tucker Miller, will be hosting these every month through March and they are an opportunity to connect with her and other members. Look for details in this month’s VOICE, and bring your questions and observations. Our members are the voice of the IAC and we are eagerly listening. The IAC is poised and ready for the opportunities currently presenting themselves in the world of coaching. We continue to look for ways to expand the path to coaching mastery, and we thank you for sharing this amazing life journey.
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. Intercultural Corner For the purposes of this month’s article I would like to explore what we mean by “culture” in the context of coaching across cultures. So, what is culture? Jean Paul Lederach defines culture as “…the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing and responding to the social realities around them.” Culture is learned, not inherited with one’s genes. It is visible and invisible, explicit and implicit. When observing the visible dimensions of culture we use our five senses – sight, taste, touch, smell and hearing. For example, these five senses allow us to consciously notice the culturally-based aspects of clothing, music, dance, food, architecture and literature, but when it comes to understanding cultural differences, this is just the tip of the iceberg! The larger part of culture, which is invisible, includes our beliefs and values and patterns of behavior; our concept of time; our notions of modesty and personal space; our gender roles and how we raise our children; our work ethic; our role of leadership and how we organize within a group. Just as the larger part of an iceberg is hidden below the surface of the ocean, it is also hidden from our physical senses. We cannot see, taste, touch, smell or hear the deeper dimensions of culture, but when we “bump” into them, the effect can cause confusion, resistance and misunderstanding. These experiences can also enrich and expand our own world view such that we are inspired to explore and discover new and different ways of being and behaving. So, how do you, as coaches, establish and maintain a relationship of trust when working with clients from cultures that are different from your own? What, if any, challenges do you encounter and how do you overcome them? We would love to have your input so do please join us for a discussion on the IAC LinkedIn group!
Over the years, the authors of this column have talked about, reframed, drawn diagrams, or otherwise expanded the meaning of the Masteries via members’ questions. And yet, there is a treasure trove of information to be found within the pages of the most obvious tool the IAC provides: The Masteries E-Book. This month, we’re taking a look at that important and robust resource available to coaches who aspire to mastery in this profession. There are several ways information is presented per Mastery. Here are the principles of the components imbedded in each Mastery as outlined in the E-Book: 1.) The Mastery name and definition 2.) Effects 3.) Key Elements 4.) Distinctions 5.) Sample Effective Behaviors 6.) Sample Ineffective Behaviors 7.) Measures 8.) Common Mistakes Coaches Make 9.) Indicators the Coach Understands the Mastery 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. Coaching with all the IAC Masteries
Imagine you have just been hired to coach a new client. They are ready to bust out of the feeling of being stuck. They are nervous and excited. They are chomping at the bit, as the saying goes. “I got this one. I’m here and I want to go there. I want a vision, goals, and a strategic plan. I’ve got persistence. I am impatient. I have the willingness and the stamina to put 1 foot in front of the other. But I am scared. I just want you to help me.” You catch yourself feeling excited too. There is nothing like a motivated client. You find yourself remembering that the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line. High School Geometry, Mrs. Smith’s class. I don’t know if this is true for you, but when I coach using the foundation of the IAC Masteries, my experience has been more like walking a labyrinth from outside to inside and back out again, rather than walking a straight line from point A to point B. In fact, there is rarely a straight coaching line in sight. It’s true that in either case one foot is put in front of the other, but if our client is looking ahead or looking back, they will be missing out on the enchantment of the present moment. Each of the the IAC Masteries coach us as we coach others because “Coaching is a transformative process for personal and professional awareness and growth.” We walk the labyrinth with our clients. We get to grow and transform alongside them.
The labyrinth is often found in or near sacred sites. Walking the labyrinth is meant to be a meditative process. When we include the IAC Masteries in our coaching we create a sacred space for clients to explore. The first few steps on the pathway are simple and one can actually see where one wants to go. However, soon enough the path leads elsewhere. Surprise! Confusion! Resistance! Delight! You name it, it has probably appeared. Sometimes we pass the pathway we were on just a minute ago. As our client continues to walk the labyrinth, you know as a coach, they really are getting closer to the center. Our client really is getting clearer and closer to the desired destination. When your client walks the labyrinth of self-growth, self-discovery, and self-exploration, with you as their coach, they will inevitably confront the fear, self-doubt, and the unfamiliarity that so often is part of growth. Now of course your new client can get in a hurry and step over onto the next part of the path. But then they will miss out on the magic of not knowing and ultimate self-discovery. You now use your coaching skills to help them remain focused. It’s pretty much a sure thing that if they keep going along the pathway, they will reach the center destination. Once they are in the center they get to rest, reflect, and find renewed energy and visions of dreams, goals, and desires. And then they turn on her their and begins the journey out of the labyrinth. They will gain even more insight and knowledge. They may recognize where they have been on the pathway and be affirmed. They may see it all as new. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that they have new skills and tools to use. They are renewed, revitalized, refreshed and ready to continue on getting herself from point A to point B. They will return to the beginning and, as the poet T.S Eliot said, “know it for the first time.” Have you had the pleasure of walking a labyrinth?
Coaching in Italy For sure, I am Italian, 100% Italian. My paternal genealogy shows my ancestors established in a village near Florence, Tuscany since the end of the sixteenth century, and my maternal one comes from Certaldo, the same village that gave birth in 1313 to Giovanni Boccaccio, a famous poet and writer born eight years after the death of Dante Alighieri. However, when it comes to perceiving myself as a coach, the proud Italian identity tends to fade. Here is why: since I joined IAC five years ago, I have been working mainly with coaches outside my mother country. I attended Julia Stewart’s School of Coaching Mastery and began working with clients and buddy coaches over Skype. Later on, I discovered Reciprocoach International and I was a coach and coachee with Australian, Spanish, North American, and British clients and coaches. Until earlier this year, I was translating the Reciprocoach website in Italian, aiming to offer Italian coaches the same opportunity English speaking coaches have been enjoying the last ten years. At that point, I realized I did not know much about my own country coaching status. What I knew was that in Italy, it was very difficult to do sessions over the phone or Skype because clients have difficulties perceiving them as valuable as the ones in person (luckily this is slowly evolving). As one of the two (at the time) IAC members in Italy (and the only one who spoke in the Italian mother tongue) I felt, naively I admit, like a pioneer… Last year, when the ICF Global Study 2012 came out I decided to look at the Italian numbers, to have a less subjective idea of what was going on in Italy about coaches. According to those numbers, the ratio between world population and number of coaches worldwide is 0,0021% (that is, a coach for every 147,973 inhabitants), 0,0056% (one coach for 23,190 inhabitants) in western Europe and 0,3145% in Italy (a coach for every 187,748 citizens). Doing the proportion between Italy and North America or the whole Western Europe and weighing it against their population over the one worldwide, the number of coaches in Italy should be between 800 and 1300. This was the “should be” number. Now I needed to know how many coaches actually were in Italy: the 214 respondents to the ICF study or the 294 who responded in 2011 to an ICF Italy chapter’s survey or the 320 who were surveyed for the ninth Italian Coaching Conference in March 2012 were not the concrete numbers I was looking for. Another statistic I found (and settled with for now) was the number of coaches associated with the three professional associations in Italy: ICF (328), IAC (6) and AICP (a local association, with 74 members). In the end, my best guess is that in Italy we have between 400 and 500 coaches, well below the rest of the world trend. Moreover, among these, when I did the research there were only 7 MCC, 79 ACC and 36 PCC, meaning that certification and credentialing has also a long way to go! The Italian ICF Chapter is doing a lot of work (check out the upcoming Coaching Expo 2013 this month) to support the growth of the profession, which, apart from the numbers, has also other challenges. One is about geography: 35% of coaches are a single Italian region, Lombardy and mainly in the Milan area (meaning that the number I gave before are much better in the north and worst in the rest of the country). Another one is about the profession itself: most of the Italian coaches work as consultants to companies so their clients are mainly businesses (I guess because that’s where money is supposed to be☺), while coaching to individuals or different niches outside the corporate world are way less developed. Three other challenges relate more directly to myself:
My learning agreement for this year reflects these (well, not the Dante and Boccaccio thing, for now ☺) so hope I’ll be able to write about good news for coaching in Italy in the near future.
David Papini, coach, counselor, trainer, public speaker and executive, is the founder of Alzaia (http://alzaia.net), a system he use to helps clients to explore their life experience, getting what they really want, witnessing how tough and creative a relationship can be, growing and learning, co-creating experience on the fly.
Inside the IAC Licensing Committee The IAC Licensing Committee is truly international. Chaired by Pepe Del Rio of Mexico City, committee members are Deb Chisholm from Vermont and Charlie Boyer from Colorado. We meet monthly via conference call. Coordinating calls among three time zones is a challenge, but our calls are spirited and packed with great discussions. Our main responsibilities are to monitor licensure standards, and to review and approve applications from individuals and coaching schools for IAC licensure to use the IAC Coaching Masteries™. Currently, there are 37 active Licensees from 18 different countries. To ensure that all Licensees demonstrate an appropriate level of proficiency with the IAC Coaching Masteries™, the IAC Board of Governors has approved the following change in licensure requirements: By January 1, 2015, every individual, school or organization licensed to use the IAC Coaching Masteries™ in its curriculum must have on its staff at least one coach who is certified in the IAC Coaching Masteries™. In order to fulfill this requirement, the coach (or coaches) who teach the IAC Coaching Masteries™ must, as a minimum, have earned the IAC Masteries Practitioner (MP) designation. This signifies that the holder of the MP designation is a current IAC member, has passed the IAC written exam, and has a Learning Agreement approved by an IAC Certifier. New applicants for IAC Licensure may be allowed a grace period to complete this Masteries Practitioner requirement. However, ALL Licensees must fulfill the MP requirement by January 1, 2015. For further information about IAC licensure, contact the Licensing Committee at licensing@certifiedcoach.org.
Charles Boyer, Ed.D., (Charlie), BCC, Certified Masteries Coach, is the founder of C-Star Coaching, a values-based practice helping newer leaders gain Clarity, Confidence, Creativity, Credibility, and Courage. In addition to creating the Team 412 Project, a web-based leadership development program, he has also served as a Faculty Leadership Coach and Regional Director at BetterYOUniversity.net. A highly experienced executive, educator, conductor and consultant, Charlie brings his exceptional people skills, organizational abilities, and a wealth of successful leadership experiences and insights to each of his coaching sessions. Join the IAC Open Chat in February to find out what volunteer opportunities await your incredible talents! If you’ve been wanting to contribute to the IAC in a more involved role, join this call to have your questions answered and ideas heard! This call will be recorded and is open to everyone and anyone interested in expanding the path to coaching mastery. Date: February 11th, 2014 Congratulations to Kevin McDaniel from Winder, GA, United States and Ellen Piper from Blue Bell, PA, United States who recently earned the Masteries Practitioner Designation! New IAC Coaching Masteries® licensed schools and mentors
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Greetings!
Jan O’Brien IAC-MCC 
Martha Pasternack, MMC 
