Lessons from the Certifiers

 
Celebrating Love and Humanity
by
Natalie Tucker Miller, MMC

One
of my favorite stories is this account of love and humanity from Alice
Walker.

“It
is said that in the Baemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts
irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village,
alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman and child
in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual.
Then each person in the tribe …

…
speaks to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the
person has done in his lifetime. All his positive attributes, good
deeds, strengths, and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length.
The tribal ceremony often lasts several days. At the end, the tribal
circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person
is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe.”

It’s
hard to describe the feelings I experienced when I first read this
many years ago. The story captured my heart and spoke directly to
my coaching sensibilities. There is such essence of coaching mastery
in, and between, the spaces of these words. “All work ceases…”
shows up in Mastery 5, where the people maintain focus on and attention
to the villager, and Mastery 4, where there is full focus of attention.
When the person is placed in the center of the village, alone and
unfettered, Mastery 8 includes trust, openness, curiosity, courage
and recognition of potential, which is necessary for a loving system
such as this to blossom.

Each
person in the tribe “speaks to the accused, one at a time, about
all the good things the person has done in his lifetime. All his positive
attributes, good deeds, strengths, and kindnesses are recited carefully
and at length.” In this, we see an illustration of Mastery 2,
where there is recognition, acknowledgement and appreciation for the
person’s strengths and potential. Mastery 7 brings the person
back to what is most important: in this case, themselves.

As
the celebration ensues, there is the further evidence of the power
of the Masteries. The story, in its elegant simplicity, easily incorporates
the elements of coaching mastery such as acceptance with expansion,
comfort with discovery, transformation with safety, risk with confidence,
and so on. These qualities are evident in so much of what we learn
and experience every day, in and out of our coaching sessions. <<<<<Members
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Natalie Tucker Miller, MMC, 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.