ISSUE 3 August 2012
Coaching World Advancing the Art, Science and
Practice of Professional Coaching
IN THIS ISSUE:
Take your coaching to the
NEXT LEVEL
Build Your Coaching Brand Mega Catalysts
Leadership
Profiles
BENEFITS
MARKETING
RESEARCH
Coaching World is a quarterly digital publication of the International Coach Federation. It is distributed via email and accessible at icfcoachingworld.com for all to enjoy. Coaching World is written and produced by the ICF Marketing Department:
Amanda Stamper
Director of Brand Management
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Q&A: Next Level Coaching
Carol Courcy
Lindsay Bodkin
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Emotional Fitness Coaching
Warren Redman
Ann Jarvis
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Ten Commandments of Coaching
Karl Albrecht
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Become Limitless
Communications Coordinator Marketing Manager
Kristin Kelly
Marketing Specialist
Stephanie Wright Brand Designer
Daniel Rechnitzer
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Global Views: “What is the most effective
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Coach Profile
Advertise with us! Please contact Toby Bishop at toby.bishop@coachfederation.org
In the next issue of Coaching World... Tips and advice for coaches who are just breaking into the business and continued education for experienced coaches. Coming November 2012!
Opinions expressed by contributors are their own and not necessarily endorsed by Coaching World or the International Coach Federation (ICF). Content may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission.
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piece of your marketing strategy?
The Conversational Nature of Reality David Whyte
Leadership that Generates Compassion for Change
Camila Batmanghelidjh
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From a Breakdown to a Breakthrough
BrenĂŠ Brown
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A Pivotal Executive Coaching Experience
Suzanne Weinstein
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How Coaching Empowered Women in a Corporate Culture
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5 Ways to Build Successful Coaching Brand at Little to No Cost
Brenda Bence
Looking Ahead
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The International Coach Federation is looking to up its game. We are continuing to revamp Coaching World with higher quality content to make it a go-to digital magazine with advice, tips and tools for professional coaches. We want to recruit the best in the industry to participate. As we continue to launch an improved Coaching World, will you partner with us to advance the professional coaching industry? Submit an article that meets the requirements to our editor, Lindsay Bodkin, or just send her a note to inform her you’re interested in contributing at lindsay.bodkin@coachfederation.org.
Your Commitment We know you’re busy, that’s why your participation can range from simply responding to a question or two for a quote in an article to writing a full article. This doesn’t mean your inbox will be bombarded with emails from us. It does mean you’re willing to contribute occasionally (about two times a year). The Coaching World editor will keep your name on a list of contributors and will contact you if your area of expertise is a good fit for one of our issues.
The Benefits There are a lot of benefits to contributing to Coaching World, but the most obvious one is building your brand and extending your marketing efforts for free. Let us highlight a few: • Position yourself as a thought-leader on a given topic that advances your brand. • Promote your brand. Every article will have an author’s bio and this is where you can include links to your website, your blog, your Facebook page, your Twitter handle, your latest book, etc. • Build your professional network. You will instantly have recognition among more than 18,500 professionals who receive Coaching World every quarter. It’s win-win! In exchange for contributing high quality content to Coaching World, you have the opportunity to build your brand for free!
The Facts • The purpose of Coaching World is to resource professional coaches in order to advance the art, science and practice of professional coaching • Distribution via email: 18,500 ICF members worldwide • Opportunities for readership growth are good as it’s available to an unlimited number of people on the coachfederation.org website • Intended audience: professional coaches
Full Article Requirements • Between 800 – 1200 words • A four sentence bio must be submitted (with any promotional hyperlinks—i.e. blog, website, Facebook page, etc.) along with a recent headshot • The article must fit into the overall theme and goals of an upcoming issue • The piece must, in some way, further the ICF’s mission to advance the art, science and practice of professional coaching • Writer must be willing to work with the editor to ensure the article reaches its full potential
TIPS: Try writing a “list” article (i.e. “Top 10 Marketing Techniques For Professional Coaches”), producing an informative, highquality video, writing about an industrytrend that your company capitalized on successfully, or create a review of a popular, recently released book in the professional coaching industry (it cannot be your own).
For any questions, concerns or commitments please contact lindsay.bodkin@coachfederation.org
H o w E m o ti o n al A g ility C a n T ake Y o u r C o achi n g t o the
Next Level
A Q&A session with Carol Courcy, MCC
“Anyone can become angry—that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—this is not easy.” —Aristotle 4
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A: When they are stuck our clients are missing Over 20 years ago, this quote inspired the right emotion for the task or relationship Carol Courcy, MCC, to study the ways at hand. Here’s an example. If plagued by in which people think and behave procrastination, a client is likely activating too much openness and flexibility (not optimal for in different emotional states. She completion) and missing “deadline making” wondered if she could make it easier emotions like focus and determination. Being agile means shifting to determination long for her clients and herself to be in enough to complete the project as promised. the “right emotion” more often. She Return to openness when creativity or possibility thinking is the goal. discovered how different emotions Luckily for me in 1994, emotions, as a redirect us to a more productive domain of learning and coaching, were a professional life and a more satisfied key component in my coach training personal life, which is the basis of her with The Newfield Network. I learned two important factors. new book, Save Your Inner Tortoise! We sat 1) Emotions are pre-dispositions to action. down with Courcy to get some insight My studies looked carefully into four on emotional agility in coaching.
basic emotions: resentment, ambition, acceptance and resignation. Every emotion has patterns: What is automatic? What do we often say, do and feel? What is predictable in tone of voice? For example, when immersed in resentment we tend to look for who or what is to blame; not focusing on solutions. However, it’s quite the opposite when in ambition where we eagerly seek opportunities or new answers. When acceptance or satisfaction is activated, more calmness is evident and one is able to leave a situation as is—for now or forever.
Q: Why the focus on emotions? Isn’t our conventional coaching wisdom enough? A: Absolutely… until it isn’t. Let me say more. In coaching, it is logical when a client is emotionally overwhelmed to think all they have to do is simply say ‘no’ more often, improve their time management skills or take a weekend off. However, they may ignore that wisdom, work even harder and complain more. Or perhaps they hear the familiar urging from bosses, colleagues or family to “get over it” when we are grumpy, frustrated or burned out—only to increase their upset. Sometimes we (and our clients) know EXACTLY what we should say or do and yet we do not do it. It is not a character flaw. Q: So how do we fix it? What is missing? A: Emotional agility. Revisiting the Aristotle quote may help you understand what I mean. I define emotional agility as being able to enter and exit emotions with intentionality. In other words, if you think that anger is the wrong approach, can you shift into a “more right” emotion (firmness, calmness, curiosity, acceptance) at the right time, to the right degree, with the right person and for the right purpose?
2) We can learn new emotions. Although we are quite predictable in our old emotional patterns, we are not condemned to repeat them.
Two books fueled my curiosity. A General Theory of Love (Lewis, Amini and Lannon) introduced emotional reverberation—where a dominant emotion influences what is seen and not seen; done and not done; said and not said. The second was Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman. It showed that even if pessimistic, we could learn to be more optimistic. I was fascinated. How can we be pre-disposed to new behaviors? Learn and practice a different emotion. We ARE what we practice! Moving from resentment to acceptance means practicing acceptance daily until it takes hold in you.
Q: How is emotional agility a key component to effective coaching?
Continued on page 6…
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Q: How did those books lead you to writing a book of your own?
Q: How did you develop Steps 3 and 4, and what are they?
A: At the time, something was missing in those and other books. I was left wondering, “How DO I/we do it? Where’s the roadmap?” Thus began the development of my unique methodology for increasing emotional agility. Save Your Inner Tortoise! is a guidebook full of practices, activities, ideas and lessons. My mission in life is to add plenty of refreshing visits to satisfaction, joy and peace for those plagued by doubt, selfcriticism or a nagging sense of insufficiency.
A: Steps 3 and 4 help you design a wider variety of emotions for your emotional wardrobe. More choices = more agility. Undoing my decades old resenting habit for more lightness took practicing a variety of emotions. I wasn’t used to my being lighthearted nor were my family and coworkers. I had to learn playfulness, patience, dignity, determination and trust as well as healthy anger, distrust and sadness. From resenting’s muteness those new emotions helped me say yes when I meant yes, no when I meant no and speak up for myself. (It wasn’t always smooth sailing. Sometimes I wanted to be right instead of happy.) I practiced each one of these emotions for as long as I needed to sustain my growing habit of happiness and satisfaction.
Along the way I discovered my own pattern of resentment. While mostly pretending to be OK, I silently blamed the economy, my employer or my clients for my unhappiness and discontent. Although it was an uncomfortable realization at the time, going from resentment to lightness was my first emotional agility “learning project”!
Q: How did you personally change from resentment to lightness, and how is that expressed in your book? A: In my book I feature four steps to more emotional agility. Step 1 is awareness. I noticed the pattern to my resenting. I was always complaining but not to the person who could resolve anything. I never offered ideas or solutions. At executive team meetings, our agenda always included identifying mistakes and who was at fault—BEFORE solving them. With people defending their positions, we often went over time without solutions and scheduled more meetings. And then came my “aha moment.” No wonder I was a skilled resenter! I spent most of my day there! If I wanted more lightness, I needed a lightness habit, and that’s Step 2. I began to log my resentful ways and over the next few months I began doing the opposite. At my own team meetings I proposed we find solutions to mistakes BEFORE discussing blame. I skipped break room complaining by taking “centering” breaks or walks to avoid the temptation to whine and blame. Q: That’s the trick? Doing the opposite? A: Yes—one of many tricks. To build confidence and self-trust, my client’s first task is finding simple ways to do the opposite of what they are pre-disposed to do and know is off target.
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Q: This topic is an appetizer to a great meal! What will you leave us with? A: I’ll leave you with this from Gabriel Garcia Marquez “Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them; life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”
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Emotional Fitness Coaching “I’m a really good listener,” said Andrea. She is, too. Andrea is an independent coach and consultant for some large companies, including governmental ones. She’s successful, and very experienced at what she does. And then she added something. “The trouble is I often didn’t know what to do with what I heard. The tools of Emotional Fitness made the world of difference.” In a way, that summed up what I’d been aiming at for years. Of course, her comment also added to my thinly veiled desire for constant positive feedback and sense of self-gratification. Perhaps after thirty years of seeking and developing a coaching process that brings practical, simple and highly empowering tools to thousands of people, I can be forgiven for wanting moments of glory like that. As one of those coaches whose background began in the UK in the counseling profession of the 1970s, merging into something that we called “individual consulting” in the early eighties, I brought with me the understanding that everyone wanted to be listened to, and everyone had the wisdom within to come up with their own answers, as long as I kept out of the way. When the term “coaching” began to be bandied about, tentatively at first, in the mid-eighties, and after it lurched into becoming a profession in the nineties, it appeared that what my colleagues and I had been doing might fit into that category. The catch was that we didn’t offer coaching; we offered Emotional Fitness. Even now, notwithstanding the number of coaches who use Emotional Intelligence in their work, there is a significant gap in what can be offered to our clients in terms of their abilities to enhance their communication skills, overcome the blockages that prevent them from becoming truly successful, and gain the tools that will ensure their continuing learning and development, as individuals, in their teams and for their organizations. My hope is that my new book is the one that will fill that gap. Emotional Fitness Coaching describes the tools taught at
the Emotional Fitness Institute for fifteen years, and it is aimed at the leader/coach, or the coach working with organizations. Five of the key Emotional Fitness tools are described.
Power Listening What Andrea said can be true of many coaches. We are, or believe we are, good listeners. The question is; can we learn to be completely masterful at listening, so that the coachee is able to fully hear, understand, accept and take accountability for him/ herself? My background in counseling provided me with more questions than answers, and it took me seven years, observing a master listener at work, to figure out what he was actually doing that made him so effective. In the end I developed a framework that provides what I had been seeking and that caused Andrea to make the comment she made to me.
Learning from Experience We are all familiar with the coachee who tends to create the same strategy that seldom works and wonders why. No amount of pointing this out actually changes their perception, and even if it does, it might not change their behavior. What Learning from Experience does is to take the coachee through a spiral of learning that leads from a past experience (whether positive or negative in their eyes) to what was learned, to what still needs to be learned, to the action that will make the desired change. Andrea held herself back from making presentations because of a humiliating experience she’d had twenty years earlier. Going through her story and the rest of the process, she is now an accomplished, and sought after speaker.
Group Dialogue This is a process that elevates coaching in a group, or indeed any team meeting, to a higher and more effective plane. The seven stages of the Group Dialogue provides a protocol in which, through an individual being listened to and coached by a group, everyone gains immeasurably. The coach becomes the facilitator, while all the other team members learn to practice the art of coaching. An enormous bonus is the recognition by each person present of the talent that exists in the team and the creative ideas and action that result. Just a note of warning, any coach who uses this within an organization is going to be in high demand.
Workscale Here is a self-assessment tool designed specifically for use by coaches with their clients. Each question, and its answer, is the trigger for the kind of coaching exploration that may seldom be Continued on page 8…
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Ten Commandments of Coaching 1. Coach from a place and position of mindfulness. 2. Coaching is not therapy— don’t bite off more than you can chew. 3. Manage expectations—get agreement early about the coaching process and the relationship. 4. Keep the focus on the client—respect his or her personhood, autonomy, and resources. 5. Let the client “fly the plane”— the client is the pilot, and the coach serves as the copilot. 6. Ask powerful questions. 7. Activate the client’s resources first—only then, judiciously offer your own. 8. Give advice very sparingly, if at all. 9. Balance the use of narrative with a focus on results. 10. Use the power and elegance of language to best effect. Karl Albrecht, 2012 KarlAlbrecht.com
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entered without such a tool. There are ten questions; five of them looking at satisfactions at work; five of them at frustrations at work. Examples are; “How much pleasure do I get from my work?” and “How much pain do I have at work?” Respondents give a score based on how they feel. The job of the coach is to ask what those scores mean to the coachee. When Andrea tried out the Workscale in her training as an Emotional Fitness Coach, she saw immediately that her balance was not as healthy as she wanted. As she worked to increase the level of satisfaction and reduce the frustrations, she became clear what she needed to do. When she uses it now in her work with executives and managers, she is aware of the distinct difference in the level of satisfaction and productivity, not only with those individuals, but within the department or organization as a whole.
Storytelling The practice and art of telling stories has recently become increasingly common within organizations of all kinds. What Emotional Fitness Storytelling does is to bring home two vital truths. The first is that the perception each of us has is exactly that; our perception; and that others have a different perception of the world. That makes for a difference in understanding and how we relate to each other. The second big lesson that E-Fitness Storytelling offers is that everyone has an extraordinary talent for creative imagination, given the permission to use it. Once that imagination is applied to the work environment, through the coaching that a gifted coach can offer, anything can happen.
A positive and productive workplace We know that the contribution of coaching is already significant and can be immense in its ability to make the world a better place. My interpretation of that is that people gain and use the tools of Emotional Fitness. Used in the work environment, coaches who add E-Fitness to their repertoire have a set of value-driven, practical and highly effective processes to effect real culture change where this is desired. “My practice has really taken off,” says Andrea. “I don’t have to market myself anymore. The changes that people have already seen in the department are so positive that everyone is asking me to go work with them.”
Warren Redman
is the President of the Emotional Fitness Institute. He lives in New Brunswick, Canada, overlooking the Bay of Shediac. He has written seventeen books, has coached thousands of people and trained hundreds in the processes of Emotional Fitness Coaching. His newest book, Emotional Fitness Coaching: How to Develop a Positive and Productive Workplace for Leaders, Managers and Coaches, is available from Kogan Page, July 2012. Order your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. For trade orders, contact Ingram Publisher Services at 800-9612026. He also wrote, The 9 Steps to Emotional Fitness: A Tool-Kit for Life in the 21st Century, which is available through the Emotional Fitness Institute. EFitInstitute.com Redman now also writes fiction, although he occasionally returns to the real world to speak about E-Fitness. He is past President of the Calgary Association for Professional Coaches and currently Vice President of the ICF Atlantic Chapter.
August 2012
As Daniel Rechnitzer considers the concept of Whole Brain Intelligence, he explains how becoming all-knowing can help us in our role as coaches. It is January 1, 2017, New Year’s day. I sit and reflect on the year gone by. I am in awe of what has transpired around the world—industries have gone through major flux, having to reach new levels of accountability. But one industry stands tall—the coaching industry. It too has undergone massive transformation, like an adult becoming wiser and learning who they really are, learning what is true. A grin stretches across my face as I am reminded of my own journey, when I began to discover all that I am … It was the time I first saw Whole Brain Intelligence in action, when I learned what is truly possible for us. It was June 1997, I had just sat down to relax when I was startled by the phone ringing. It was a dear friend of mine with an invitation not to be missed. he had been telling me about a couple who had “abilities”—they could see things about a person, know who they were at their core, they were “amazing,” he said, and they were in town tonight. I decided to embark on this adventure and head out to meet them, to see what was behind these stories. I am so glad I did. It was 7 p.m.—we had arrived on time. The room was filled with people. Electricity was in the air; everyone was smiling. It was so contagious that I couldn’t help smiling, too. I was invited by an older woman to experience a treatment—she was the one my friend had told me about. How could I refuse a first-hand glimpse of what these people were capable of? I lay down on the massage table, ready and open. She needed to calm me, because I was top-heavy with adrenalin and fear. She spoke softly and calmly, making me feel safe and finally at ease. She placed her hands gently upon my head, sitting behind me. She began talking, remarking about things that were incredibly familiar to me. We had only met for a few seconds and she
began recounting my entire life story, revealing to me the reasons why I was feeling stuck in my life, why my back was aching and why I was avoiding a deeper commitment in my relationships. Incredibly, it was all true—every word she spoke. We had barely met, uttered only a few words to one another, but she spoke about me as though she had participated in every moment of my life—as though she had been watching me since birth. How was she doing this? Was this even possible? It was as though she had tapped into the truth about my life: who I was, how I was living, what my struggles were, all my key frustrations and—best of all—the answers to resolving them.
Home truths She told me more about how I was feeling about my parents, about university and how I was being particularly self-destructive in my life. She gave me radical insights, answers to questions that had bothered me for months. It all came so easily to her. I was amazed, to say the least, It felt as though she knew more about me than I did. But what was particularly startling for me was how she spoke. She wasn’t using her own words, they were my words, my very thoughts—the precise sentence structure, word for word, the exact phrasing of my own thoughts. Needless to say, a paradigm was collapsing. Could it be that my thoughts were no longer under lock and key? How was she accessing my mind? All this time I had thought my thoughts were private, hidden from view. Clearly, I was mistaken. What I had just experienced was extraordinary. My father had often told me about a phenomenon called Universal Intelligence (UI), but to be faced with it like this, out of the blue… What a Continued on page 10…
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mind-blowing experience! My neck was healed, I had clarity and certainty about my life. I had received answers to all my questions, but most importantly something more expansive had occurred. I was shown the truth, a new paradigm where answers on any topic could be accessed. Everything changed from this point on—how could it not? Like many life-expanding experiences, I resisted this transformation at first. It was too simple and so extraordinary all at the same time. Well, what you resist persists, so despite my best efforts to conform to societal norms and practices, life had other plans for me, and many others as well. Life led me to learn more about these skills, our nature, the truth about our potential, how our belief holds us back and what really creates illness in the body… But it wasn’t until this investigation took me to meeting my wife Sonja—beautiful inside and out—that together we were able to take this realm of Whole Brain Intelligence to a profound new level of understanding.
Some discoveries on our journey We were shown that Whole Brain Intelligence is a unique configuration of the brain, currently quite rare and, in fact, the epitome of brain function. It is where both hemispheres of the brain begin resonating in unison to bring in information beyond what people already know. Like an antenna, the brain actually perceives frequencies of information, similar to a radio picking up on signals, but from everything: people, places, situations and, most importantly, from a sublime consciousness within— the SuperConscious. Our Whole Brain Intelligence gives us the unique ability to pierce the veil of what seems real, giving us clarity as to what is actually real—to read between the lines and see the hidden truths. Life mimics our thought patterns. Our wellbeing reflects our innermost thoughts, our outer universe reflects our innermost universe, and so on. It is through Whole Brain Intelligence that we get to see behind the scenes to the thoughts buried deep, the thoughts that are at the root cause of our life experiences: our marriage breakdowns, our financial struggles, illness and disease, the success or failure of our business ventures, even who we are as a species. We realized a profound misunderstanding had occurred across humanity—our brain was not standalone at all, rather it can be compared to wireless Internet, connecting everyone and everything. It is just that we were not taught this in school, leading us to draw upon a standalone brain only. Our brain can only do what is expected of it. We learned that underpinning our Whole Brain Intelligence, essentially linking all human beings, is a field of frequencies, like a melting pot of knowledge and wisdom, of thoughts and intelligence known, and thoughts yet to be discovered. Like ripples over a still pond, this field relays information
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and insights to those using Whole Brain Intelligence, giving knowledge, wisdom and guidance—a true gift to coaches. Contained within this field are all the answers: how to experience an all-natural, pain-free birth, how to move someone from depression to being on purpose in life, how to grow people from living a mediocre life to experiencing their own greatness in every moment. It is abundant in wisdom, truth and a myriad ways to protect and grow our future.
How does this change coaching? The ability to draw on this field gives rise to helping people in a profound new way. The truth really does lie within and, armed with Whole Brain Intelligence, we can all access it, share it and grow from it. Harnessing this field in a coaching setting gives access to tapping into a person’s core being. The answers to their entire life journeys lay hidden beneath layers of self-doubt. A practitioner is no longer reliant on their thinking mind, but is accessing answers from the SuperConscious Intelligence running through the client and connecting all of us. A coach simply holds an intention to uncover the truth about a situation to uncover the perfect path forward. The answers arrive almost immediately, they do not need to be thought about or considered, because they already exist, waiting to be accessed. The truth already exists within every one of us, and Whole Brain Intelligence is the key to unlocking it. It is somewhat like having Google as your brain, accessing anything—in this case, your client’s life story, belief systems and ultimate perfect fulfilling path.
How do you access Whole Brain Intelligence? As with any worthwhile skill, there is some learning involved. This is why we have structured a free workshop to help those interested. We have created an online resource just for ICF members, where you will find our free online workshop and dates for our free live workshops—visit allknowingdiary.com/ icf. We invite ICF members to contact us if they have any questions. Whole Brain Intelligence can be confronting at first, because it is so advanced and so simple. But when we see that our role as coaches is to bring to light the truth that lies within, you’ll wonder how we ever did without it.
Daniel Rechnitzer
is the author of The All Knowing Diary, a treasure map to All Knowing. Like an ancient manuscript, it reveals timeless wisdom and priceless truths. Daniel and his wife Sonja founded UI Group (Universal Intelligence), pioneering advanced courses in All Knowing, from beginner to self-mastery and practitioner levels. allknowingdiary.com
Global views: “What is the most effective piece of your marketing strategy?” “My own intent in coaching is a spiritual drive. Coaching to me is meditation. I tell the client at the start, whether it’s an organizational sponsor or an individual, that they can gain from my intervention if it’s not a mere transactional issue such as career transition or performance management, but holistic, work life balanced and therefore transformational. Life planning is an integral part of my process. “I also find that since coaching does unleash potential, perhaps to an extent that executives outgrow organizations in vision, there could be attrition if the coach really succeeds. Therefore, I recommend a mix of team and individual coaching where
possible so that the individual and the team are coached in alignment, while the organization is already aligned with team. I also offer my first session free and limit my client engagements to six sessions, each about two hours, allowing me to work with the client as a process rather than dialogue alone. The combination of all these is my strategy and what I hope for is word of mouth promotion.”
Ram S. Ramanathan Mentor Coach, PCC Leader of the Coaching Global Executives Community of Practice Continued on page 12…
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“I generated several large enterprise accounts due to articles I wrote for magazines or interviews I gave to them. Being mentioned in prestigious magazines (online and offline) was the starting point for these large clients to get in touch with me. This strategy goes along with an Internet presence that reflects what I am doing and what clients can expect from working with me. I’m focusing on a specific niche which makes it even more compelling for potential clients from that industry to get in touch with me instead of other coaches. “Strategy number two, and very successful as well, is being in touch with former clients and people I know from my previous businesses. What works well for me is the fact, that I do not sell coaching to
them. I just call them, email them, meet them and we talk. Sometimes the time is right for them, and they ask me, if I could coach either them, one of their employees or a colleague. This strategy is pretty powerful because it starts with a lot of trust and respect right from the start. “I should admit that I do sell coaching to them… by telling them success stories from other clients and find ways to relate these stories to them. If they are ready for coaching, they ask me—if not, they like the story and keep it in mind.”
Axel Rittershaus International Executive Coach in Germany and South Africa President of the ICF Cape Town Chapter
keting y mar mply m f o ing. Si ece i n o p i t e i v s i HAT ct po arket st effe lling W o e m s m y s i e m O t be “Th ith g “WH s mus n i ncy w t e n n t e fi s i e s m d on eing ur ele learly gy is c ese fo eans b rom c h f m T ies strate s t y l .” g S u undar res rate NEL t o g s b N n s i e A i s n h H e o t y ositi hich C its. Th ect of ome m put, p nt asp ish lim that c ough w l a r t s b r h e a t i o t n t , i s i p e OM resent portun s help d an im p p e n n o to WH r o a i s y t f s i l e e e n n hat th ng. I o ones se defi e busi sitioni m or w o. The handl clear t o e n o p e t y s y a y w s m e o and ed to ing th t with s on h ibility, prepar terest heir fi d choice t n i e r r y c o w f m o form g of h o look o build ices is will in ntial t hinkin refer t t e p s f I s o , e in serv e d s v s a i i s t e t e t c fi s e n i s sp rceive way. In of bus ith thi ss per ource hey pe tent w t s s busine f l i i f s u f o s n r r o s e e term to oth truly c st pow being name he mo t or me t r a r u h o o t f y er . And f lue f e find e a d r i v v y g l o n r you p derlyi will on w I am rvices the un e I kno People e r . s e h e h t h u w t of-mo ojects u and nts.” wording pr ust yo t r p t e to clie n c a c e c a u l y h a e t i v th g real arts w this st f addin o e l b capa
Eva Hirsch Pontes Executive Coach, PCC, Phoenix Consultoria Ltda. Member of the ICF Brazil Chapter Board of Directors
Coach Profile: Teri-E Belf, MA, CAGS, BCC, MCC Life Purpose To inspire and guide us to take steps toward our dreams.
Coaching Purpose To guide an essence journey of wisdom for abundance and wholeness.
Coaching Overview Referred to as ‘the Grandmother of Coaching,’ she is the world’s first MCC and an inspiring coach pioneer. Since 1987, she has helped shape the profession and continually contributes to its evolution. She has more than 30,000 hours of coaching, coach training and mentoring experience. She has published more than a dozen books and several of those have been translated in various languages. Additionally, she has published many articles and had many media appearances including ABC, other TV, radio and Internet talk shows. She has delivered more than 40 presentations and several keynotes speeches about coaching. As Adjunct faculty, she has taught coaching in six colleges and universities. Teri-E Belf founded and directs Success Unlimited Network® (SUN), with an ICF and CCE-accredited Coach Training and Certification Program rooted in life purpose and spirituality. She also created and chaired the 1st ICF Credential, Accreditation and Continuing Education Committee.
Additional Achievements • Created the world’s 1st International Coaching Symposium, Sharing Visions, Resources, and Approaches to the Art and Science of Coaching, in 1996. • Board member, Personal and Professional Coaches Association (PPCA). • Founding member of the Greater Washington Alliance for Coaches (pre-ICF) , • Founding Member of Association of Coach Training Organizations (ACTO) • Editorial Board for CHOICE (the Magazine for Coaches) • Chair, ICF Ethics Contract Sub-Committee, Member ICF Ethics Committee, for four years
Awards • In 1996 identified as one of the 10 most influential coaches by readers of Professional Coach magazine • Honorary member of International Who’s Who of Entrepreneurs
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The Conversational Nature of
D
avid Whyte is a poet first and foremost. While he is often asked to speak to various companies or large gatherings of professionals, his focus, or main ‘conversation’ is getting the insights and understandings of good poetry to as many people as possible, from straight literary readings in Oxford or San Francisco to the monastic insights of the theological world to our more familiar work-world of corporations and organizations; he has brought his insights into large and small organizations for over twenty-five years. Whyte looks at poetry as a way of elucidating crucial milestones and thresholds in the life of an individual or an organization, whether they are personal, professional or deeply involved with a sense of meaning. He insists there is a precise phenomenology in the way necessary and courageous conversations unfold between individuals and organizations, or between individuals and the people that surround them—their customers, their industry, and their own future career. “My job,” he says, “is to show everyone that the courageous conversation is just one step away and that with understanding and preparation and the right approach, it is a step rarely regretted.”
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Reality “One of the primary uses of poetry is to look at the way that an individual never forges their identity alone,” explains Whyte. “Nor do they do it successfully if they merely try to imitate or become the world that surrounds them. They do it best when they create a living frontier, a living conversation between how they think they are made and how they think the world is made.” According to Whyte, coaches make for a very creative and attentive audience, being people with a natural hunger for real conversations. “They are individuals primed to meet other people, they have apprenticed themselves to the conversational odyssey and their whole identity is shaped by that apprenticeship.” “What is lovely about the word conversation is that it cannot be narrowed into one dimensionality. It cannot be made into jargon. It means everything from just a little chatter at the water cooler to a midnight, life-changing exchange at the kitchen table, or an exchange where you exit the room with a promotion and a new life or without a job and yes, still, a new life.” Thus to David Whyte, the word dialogue is: “too narrow, too human-centered and too verbally centered.” Whyte feels that conversation is all about meeting things that are other than you. It could be with people, other organizations, your future horizon, or something quite frightening. For instance, “The world always changes around an individual or organization so that it no longer supports whatever they were previously doing, or how they were doing it,” explains Whyte. “So
the courageous conversation is the heartfelt conversation with what is actually occurring or not occurring around you. You are coming to ground in the present, no matter how difficult that might be, so that you can step into a future that has integrity and that is based on actual, solid ground.” “Poetry is a kind of subversive invitation to the part of us that has already identified the patterns that are forming our future; an invitation for that leading frontier inside us to speak out and make itself known. You can’t get a Google or a Facebook or an Apple from an already established identity. Microsoft seems helpless to save itself because of the hardened identity it has forged, but Google, Facebook or Apple also have to keep the conversation alive between themselves and their world so as not to succumb to that same fate. Creativity comes from a frontier identity, a revelatory identity; from a person or a group of people on the edge of discovery. All of these great questions regarding a business or an organization have internal parallels going on inside an individual. The courageous conversation is the one that brings you to ground, to reality. As a leader, I must identify the courageous conversations I’m not having. As a leader I must also be visible and make an invitation from that visibility. How invitational is my identity? Is there any invitation at all to others? There are other parallels: what are the courageous conversations I’m not having with my partner, my family, my son, or my daughter?” “The reason people won’t have the courageous conversation is because to have that conversation you have to acknowledge what is disappearing as well as what is on the up and up, it is attached to the great confrontation with disappearance and death. Courage means facing up to our temporary and not so temporary disappearances.” “One of the great conversational conundrums is between a parent and a growing son or daughter, the conversation almost always fails because the parent refuses to admit they are trying to relate to someone who is now no longer there. The child has grown past the person we want them to be. The essential
difficulty is often the heartache of having missed a part of their growing. The refusal to face the heartache is often the refusal to have the conversation.” According to Whyte, poetry as a medium grants courage and is emboldening and invigorating. He explains that a few lines of poetry can take us great distances that might take years to traverse were you only using your empirical, intellectual mind. He is also careful to say that, at its best; poetry brings together the imagination with the strategic intellect in a very powerful marriage. “You can’t write good poetry without the intellect or you produce nothing but New Age drivel.” “It doesn’t ask you to abandon your intellect,” explains Whyte. “It actually asks you to magnify it by putting it in the realm of the imagination and the greater field of human belonging.” So either as a coach or any other business professional, Whyte recommends you taking the time to ask yourself: What is your courageous conversation right now? What is the invitation you are making to others? What is the invitation to which you should respond? What is the essential conversation you hold in life of which your work is just an expression?
David Whyte, an internationally recognized
poet, author, and speaker, and an Associate Fellow of Said College at the University of Oxford. Using poetry of his own and the work of others, Whyte illustrates things that bring out qualities and deeper currents that even someone who has been looking at it didactically for a lifetime might not see. Whyte will be a Mega Catalyst at ICF Global 2012. He will speak to the state of our current world in which coaching is being employed, and the challenges ICF is experiencing—implicitly asking, “what is your courageous conversation right now? What are the potential wrong turns you might be about to make, have made, or can avert in the future, and what would be a courageous path for you to follow?” Every organization of ICF’s size comes to a point of testing whereby it has to go down the old route that all institutions take—over bureaucratization, the tail wagging the dog and the institutional drive to profit at all costs, all of which can wring the heart, mind and spirit out of existence, when it’s often the heart, mind, spirit that might have brought us to the world of coaching in the first place. Register for ICF Global 2012 today!
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Sixteen years later, the organization, which began in some railway arches in one of the poorest areas of London, has grown to serve 17,000 children and young people a year, 97% of whom self-refer to us. A team of 600 staff members, comprising of therapists, coaches, youth and arts workers, psychologists, advocates and generally fascinating people, help the children with a re-parenting intervention and wraparound care. The primary crisis of the children we support is the vulnerability of the parental carer. Some are poor and struggling with stark decisions: whether to buy electricity instead of food that day or whether to have the children sit in the freezing darkness and yet be fed. Others are negotiating the legacy of their own childhood maltreatment, living in the house as a parallel victim as opposed to a parental figure.
I trained as a psychotherapist in some of the best therapeutic centres of England. My tutors were leading thinkers in the field of child development and psychological therapies. But very little of my training prepared me for the extraordinarily disturbed children and young people I would come across on the streets of London when I founded Kids Company in 1996.
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The Kids Company community is sustained through 11,000 volunteers and extensive fundraising. It’s a precarious, unsettled flow of resources. Our income, on average, comes from some 1,700 different sources every month. Every day we witness the miracle of kindness, as some stranger turns their empathic capacity into potent action. Each time someone donates, we are empowered to restore greater dignity to our children. Who would have thought that in one of the richest countries in the world, Kids Company alone has some 500 children on a waiting list for beds? Hundreds of children ingeniously pile squashed cardboard boxes on top of each other to give them a cushion against the freezing floor and the illusion of a mattress on which to rest their heads. It has not been easy alerting the government to the plight of these kids. Vulnerable children don’t vote and, therefore, are unable to hold decisionmakers accountable. It’s so easy to erase a needy child with platitudes, almost punishing them for the fact that they are bi-products of parents who cannot sustain the pro-social decorum. The national negation of vulnerable children has left Britain with shocking statistics: at least 1.5 million children maltreated, and the accolade of being internationally perceived by UNICEF (2007) as being bottom of the league of the 21 wealthiest countries in the world for the wellbeing of children. A cursory glance across eleven
years of the child protection statistics should raise the alarm. On average 550,000-630,000 children are referred to the child protection systems every year, but a process of assessment ensures only those with drastic risks end up being on the child protection register; on average less than 40,000 children out of this cohort end up being allocated a social worker and being vigilantly observed. Being placed in corporate care with such rigor is a temporary achievement. Most of the children on the child protection register are de-registered within the year, some so precariously that 26% have to be placed back on it within the year. Imagine being a social worker in a busy, local authority child protection department, instructed to minimize expenditure. You are left choosing between a hungry, neglected child living with drug-addicted parents and a child who is being sexually abused. The sexually abused child will get help; the other will be left to fend for himself. Secretly you assume that he will be able to shoplift to fill his belly. When you have to make such perverse decisions on a daily basis, something of your soul is murdered to enable you to cope. The children are betrayed, and so are the workers. It is not lack of money, it is an inability on the part of national purse-holders to step into the shoes of the maltreated child and see the world through their eyes. If they were administered a truth-facilitating drug, they would admit that the building of the Millennium Dome, costing the equivalent of ten years’ worth of the child mental health budget at the time, was more visually confirming and superficially pleasing to voters than child-protection expenditure. The bottom line is that politicians perceive the public as not caring about child abuse, so they don’t bother to prioritize it on the national agenda. Climate change and the Olympics wins the middle class vote, and it is not until the rot of negated communities manifests itself in riots that the nation wakes up to the disease in its inner cities. Even when the legacy of shattered childhoods rears its ugly head, the media and the political classes quickly mobilize to dismiss it as the greedy behavior of people who want an extra TV or pair of trainers, conveniently forgetting to mention that if you sell these you can make money for food and keep your gas meter going. The television cameras reporting the summer riots of 2011 were not sent round to the food shops where thousands of people were fighting over bags of rice. You have
to be desperate to steal a heavy sack of rice and carry it home on your shoulders. The consequences of this national denial of childhood maltreatment are enormous. As a result of developments in neuro-imaging we are now realizing that child abuse and neglect have a significant impact on the structure and functioning of the brain. The toxic repercussions go so deep as to alter molecular functioning and tamper with gene expression: a warning to the next generation to adapt itself biologically in order to survive adverse care environments. So surely the challenge of the decade is to reconceptualizing the values by which we measure human achievement, both personally and nationally. The obsession with the materialism of success has left us bankrupt in relation to the emotional currencies we should be minding. In my talk at ICF Global 2012, I am hoping to present what I have learned from the maltreated children of Kids Company about the philosophical framework of leadership required to address the national emergency of child abuse and its repercussions. The children who Kids Company works with are courageous visionaries, but their voices are suppressed to whispers and cannot be heard for fear that their truth will be unforgiving. It is not about blame, it is about freeing up the human potential which emerges from letting truth hold court. Looking forward to our molecular communion, our bacterial interchange and hopefully some creative thoughts!
Camila Batmanghelidjh is an inspirational businesswoman, charity leader, author, founder of two non-profits and a psychotherapist of more than 30 years. She has created a unique and pioneering approach in delivering services to vulnerable children. Her organization, Kids Company, provides approximately 17,000 at-risk children across London with practical, emotional, and educational support each year. Camila has contributed to numerous publications including authoring her book Shattered Lives: Children Living with Courage and Dignity. Often described as the UK’s most colorful charity leader, she has been named Businesswoman of the Year, Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Most Admired Chief Executive, and has been given the Lifetime Achievement Award by numerous groups. She is a Mega Catalyst at ICF Global 2012 this fall.
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From a Breakdown to a Breakthrough How a viral video, research on vulnerability, and a new book are helping Brené Brown coach better leaders. “I had a break down.” It was a scary statement for author, researcher and speaker Brené Brown to admit in front of a large live audience during a TED talk. Then the video of her talk went viral and her audience turned from 500 people to six million people.
In her forthcoming book, Daring Greatly, Brown challenges the common concept of vulnerability. Based on 12 years of research, she asserts that vulnerability is not weakness, but rather it’s our clearest path to courage, engagement and meaningful connection.
In her “Listening to Shame” TED talk in March of 2012, Brown admitted that she didn’t leave her house for three days after her first TED talk, “The Power of Vulnerability” in 2010. When she finally did, her conversation with a friend went something like this: “I told 500 people that I became a researcher to avoid vulnerability and when being vulnerable emerged from my data as being absolutely essential to wholehearted living—I told these 500 people I had a break down. I had a [PowerPoint] slide that said, ‘breakdown.’ When did I think that was a good idea?”
Brown is the opening Mega Catalyst speaker at ICF Global 2012 in London. Her humor, warmth, and honesty makes her entertaining to listen to, but combine that with her experiences and research and you’re left with a powerful presentation that demands your attention. Brown engages with an audience on a level that few other speakers achieve. Drawing on her own experiences, she relates to the very heart of her listeners and pushes them dare greatly, embrace vulnerability, and to live wholeheartedly. “I’m going to talk about the strength and power of vulnerability, how it relates to change and adaptability using personal and leadership examples.” Brown continued, “It’s great for coaches, because to me it’s the heart of the issue.”
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” Brown was forced to face the fact that she was a vulnerability researcher who refused to be vulnerable and it was robbing her of life. In her “Listening to Shame” TED talk, she poignantly reflected, “Vulnerability is not weakness. … Vulnerability is our most accurate measure of courage.” As Brown’s breakdown weighed heavy on her heart she was forced to listen to her shame. It was there that she discovered something: “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” This journey from a breakdown to a breakthrough combined with her extensive research forms the basis for her new book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead.
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Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW is a
research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Brown’s fourth book, Daring Greatly, will be released in September 2012. She is a nationally renowned speaker and has won numerous teaching awards, including the College’s Outstanding Faculty Award. Her groundbreaking work has been featured on PBS, NPR, CNN, and has appeared in The Washington Post, Psychology Today, and many other national media outlets. Her 2010 TED talk on the power of vulnerability is one of most watched talks on TED.com. Find out how you can hear her speak at ICF Global 2012 in London this fall. brenebrown.com
A Pivotal Executive Coaching Experience meeting from the team to the executive. This experience, although initially uncomfortable, brought new insight and perspective to the executive. This allowed for a pivotal shift within the executive and the team that propelled them forward by addressing the team and their needs.
Weinstein Factor Results The Situation
Within 3 months the assessment scores increased in all areas measured:
The executive was frustrated, important initiatives were being stalemated, the department’s individual leaders were a non-cohesive group and communication had broken down. The executive’s focus was splintered by day-to-day crisis and the department was in disarray. Initially, the executive was skeptical that the Weinstein factor could positively alter the situation.
Weinstein Factor Approach The Weinstein Factor process brought leadership theory into application. While simultaneously coaching the executive in altering his leadership approach with his subordinates, the change agent interfaced with the group quickly ascertaining the areas of dysfunction utilizing such tools as assessment, observation or interviews. Redirecting the group through the utilization of conflict management and communication, the change agent addressed the tensions within the group while she guided them toward becoming a High Performing Team. The facilitator created a “defining event” by implementing a one-way communication
Click here to continue reading about the results that were achieved from the Weinstein Approach.
Suzanne Weinstein, the founder and
CEO of In Sync Consulting Corporation, is an accomplished coach, strategist, and transformation consultant. Suzanne has committed her life to the growth of visionary, authentic and meaningful leadership. Combining her passion for people with an expert knowledge of teams and continuous process improvement, she obtains results that matter by effectively addressing behavioral changes and the skill development required for successful leadership. She holds a Master’s Degree, with an emphasis in Group Dynamics and Conflict Management from the University of San Diego in Organizational Leadership. Courtesy of the Library of Professional Coaching
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Health professionals: Extend your skills as an
Integrative Health Coach The need for health coaches is growing. To answer this need, Duke Integrative Medicine has developed a health coach training program based on clinical experience and research. Our Integrative Health Coach Professional Training Program allows you to: • Develop effective health coaching skills • Gain an understanding of the integrative health care model • Incorporate your own health goals for a firsthand experience of health behavior change
Participants must have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. Some exceptions will be made for those with three to five years of experience in a medical or allied health field. For a curriculum overview, training competencies, training schedule, and application, please visit our Web site. Enrollment is limited; early application and registration are encouraged. TO LEARN MORE
866-313-0959 TOLL-FREE 919-660-6826 LOCAL DukeIMPrograms@duke.edu dukeintegrativehealthcoach.org
Now accepting applications
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How Coaching Empowered Women in a Corporate Culture A Closer Look at Burton Snowboard’s Coaching Program In a male dominated corporate culture, coaching changed everything for Burton Snowboards. Employees at Burton, like Kyler Ronner-Blend, quickly recognized one thing, “There is value in coaching people.” Ronner-Blend is one of 134 employees who went through a custom coaching training program initially aimed at empowering women. The program, which started with only a dozen people, sent a shock wave of energy through the company changing it from one of command and control, to one of collaboration and creativity.
ABOVE: Lea Belair and Liz Dallas hold a photo of the first coaching
group, which was a gift to Lea for the mentorship she provided to them in coach-to-coach support.
invested $600,000 in the leadership coaching program and it showed.
The benefits were widespread from increasing productivity to improving morale. The turnover rates decreased It all started when Jake Burton Carpenter and Donna dramatically. Belair commented Carpenter, owners of Burton Snowboards, evaluated that employees reported they stayed their company and realized there was a gaping with the company longer specifically hole. There were no women at the vice president or because of the coaching program. director level. So the Carpenters sought the help of Dallas added, The Coaching Center of Vermont. “Women were ready “Women were not accessing the Overall, Burton leaders for leadership.” That opportunities to grow and develop in their job,” explained Liz Dallas, were given the skills to was evident when internal promotions the Center’s Executive Director. inspire and empower skyrocketed. 125 Lea Belair, the Center’s Director their team while instilling women received of Coaching and Training, added, promotions, more “They needed to find their voice.” a creative mindset, than 12 women So Burton Snowboards and The encouraging innovation were promoted to Coaching Center of Vermont began manager positions, a Women’s Leadership Initiative and restoring passion. and nine women with a dozen participants. were promoted “We were looking for ‘champions of change’ and it to directors. Women also gained created a title wave of buzz at Burton. Eventually industry-wide recognition for their the executives wanted in on the program,” explains honed leadership skills. Three Belair. In all, 134 Burton employees went through employees were named Pioneering the six-month leadership program that included Women Award Winners, four were ICF accredited coaching skills training material, named Ascent Award Winners, and individual leadership and performance coaching, Donna Carpenter was named Action group coaching, and practicum workshops among other things. Over the course of six years, Burton Continued on page 22…
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WATCH NOW! The coaching culture from the employees at Burton Snowboards.
Sports’ Most Influential Woman by Transworld Business Magazine. Overall, Burton leaders were given the skills to inspire and empower their team while instilling a creative mindset, encouraging innovation and restoring passion. However, the program didn’t come without its challenges. Dallas explained their biggest struggle was getting “buy-in from the top.” She added, “It was hard to get the program off the ground.” But once they did, Burton employees were expressing heartfelt gratitude for the transformation. “Coaching has changed everything,” said Kyler RonnerBland in customer service. “It’s changed communication styles, its opened people up to setting goals and … figuring out how to really meet them. It has helped people realize there is value in coaching other people.” Employees also reported learning valuable new skills. John Thorborough, Director of Operation Sales explained it like this: “new tools to try on ageold problems.” Thorborough added, “Coaching draws us back to the human-side of doing our job.” Rachel Gaitin, a production engineer, added, “I can now listen on a whole new level,
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mirror people’s words and use their words to help my message resonate with them. The concept of matching agendas was completely new to me and it’s amazingly powerful.” Even employees at the manager-lever realized the company was getting a great return on investment. Chris Doyle, Manager R & D, said, “It’s an investment that will pay off.” While Dallas and Belair were considered the “teachers” in this experience, they learned a lot too. The program helped them grow as coaches. “You have to be ready to constantly re-innovate.” Dallas continued, “Move with what wants to happen and have the confidence to reevaluate and not follow a script. It paid off for us every time.” Belair added, “Coaching skills are really important in rapid change companies.” “It’s really a snapshot in time,” explained Belair. This six year project improved the corporate culture at a fast-paced, rapidlygrowing company. Dallas concluded, “It’s an indication that the next generation is looking to coaching as a viable option.”
Ways to Build a Successful Coaching Brand at Little to No Cost Brands are everywhere. And that includes an ever-increasing number of coach brands, too. So, how do you stand out in that crowd and reach the clients you want to attract? By building an even more powerful brand for yourself. The good news is: You already have five assets in your branding arsenal that you can use immediately to build your unique brand as a coach, at low cost—or no cost at all.
1. Your brand positioning. How you position yourself as a coach is fundamental to the success of your brand, but what does “positioning” mean? I like to define it as the way you want clients to perceive, think, and feel about you as a coach, in relation to other coaches. It helps you get clear on the specific piece of “mental real estate” you want to— and can—own. Many coaches say to me, “But I’m not a ‘company,’ so I don’t have a brand.” But the truth is that your clients and potential clients already have perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about you. That means you have a brand—right now—
“Communicating your brand happens as a result of what you do, not what you say.” whether you like it or not. The question is whether you have the brand you want. This is why it’s so critical to take charge of your brand definition. Leaving it to chance is no way to build a coaching business; after all, great brands don’t get to be great by accident. Every successful brand positioning—whether for a company or a person—is based on six elements: Target Group, Needs, Benefits, Reasons Why, Comparative Framework and Brand Character. I recommend that coaches use these elements
to create a Brand Positioning Statement. Writing it down helps you to define what you want your brand to stand for. Once you have that clear definition, you can design a marketing plan that helps you communicate your brand to your Target Group—the type of clients you want to attract. If you remember one thing, remember this: communicating your brand happens as a result of what you do, not what you say. You can say you’re a reliable coach, but what good is that if your actions don’t show that you are? Through what you do, you create a credible brand that your clients will trust and believe.
2. Your clients.
Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “Make new friends, but keep the old… one is silver and the other gold?” Well, as a coach, these “old friends” are your existing clients. Just how golden are they? Studies show that it costs six to nine times as much to attract a new customer as it costs to keep an existing customer happy. How does this apply in the coaching world where your objective is to help clients establish new behaviors and meet goals so that they don’t need you as a coach anymore? Even if you’re no longer coaching a particular individual, that person is still a “client.” You can continue to stay in touch and ask for referrals. Part of my concluding conversation with every client is, “How comfortable would you be recommending me as a coach to someone else?” Continued on page 24…
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If they say, “Sure!” I say, “Great, could you provide contact information of five people you believe would be interested in coaching?” I also send an email once a month to every current and former coaching client. It’s full of valuable information, and it serves to remind them about the coaching experience they had. At the end of this email, I again ask them to refer me to anyone who could benefit from coaching. This simple question has attracted new clients again and again, and it doesn’t cost a thing. I also send happy birthday emails to my current and past clients. These bear no cost, but this personal touch can make all the difference in the world. I reward clients for referrals, too, with a thank you bottle of wine or book I think they’d like. The cost is only a small fraction of what I gain.
3. Your products and services. Your own service as a coach can be a powerful asset for your brand. If you have a superior service, get it in the hands of potential customers by offering a free trial session. It may cost you some time, but it’s a way of demonstrating what you can do, and it creates free “advertising” for you.
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from you. Be specific, and make choices. In other words, don’t try to be the perfect coach to all people. Perhaps you specialize in helping middle managers gain the confidence they need to get promoted. You might be a coach who works with teens to help them set their future course in life. Maybe you work with top executives who need to strengthen senior leadership skills. Ask yourself: What is your passion, and what strengths do you have as a coach that your clients most need from you? This is where you find your point of differentiation.
free @gmail or @yahoo accounts to send emails to prospective or existing clients, which immediately says, “I’m small potatoes.”
One way to create a meaningful differentiator is to become an expert in your local area. Write a column on coaching in your city’s newspaper, or publish a blog. Write a book, if possible, especially given that you can publish e-books for next-tonothing these days. I get a large number of training, speaking and coaching business from people who’ve read my books; writing articles or books can help your business, too.
I often hear coaches say, “I’m just a one-person-show, so there is no one else to help me market myself.” That’s one of the biggest branding myths out there! Everyone you know is on your “marketing team” and can help spread the word about your brand!
If you don’t believe what you offer is truly superior—and it’s important to be honest with yourself about that—there are many ways for your brand to be perceived as better and to differentiate yourself from other coaches.
Invest in a good website. I hate to say it, but a lot of coaches’ websites actually work against their brand. It’s absolutely necessary to have a good site that highlights your products and services, pointing out what makes you unique. Have people visit your site and give you feedback on their user experience. Make it easy for your clients to find what they need to know about you—especially your contact information.
In order to find a meaningful point of difference, understand your Target Group well and get crystal clear about what they need
If you have a website, be sure your email address ends with @[your-domain-name].com. Too many coaches use their
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4. Your team.
I say, “Every time you shake a hand, you market your brand.” Think of all the people you interact with daily—friends, family, existing customers, suppliers, associations you belong to, former classmates and on and on. Make a master list. Then, think about all the connections each of those individuals make every day as well. Get the people on your list to recommend you, making sure they are clear about your brand positioning. That’s how all of your connections become walking, talking advertisements for you. What is the #1 underutilized piece of branding space? The back of a business card. That’s 50% of your brand-building space wasted! For just a few cents more, why not use it to explain the benefits you offer as
a coach? When you do, every person who receives it has the potential to become a marketer for you, especially if you give them a few extra cards and ask them to hand them out to people who might be interested. One coach I know uses the back of his business card to offer a free trial session. No matter how you use it, that blank space offers you a powerful branding opportunity to expand your business and your marketing team at the same time.
setting a strategy to succeed. On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 is high), how well do you know what other coaches are doing to be successful? Most coaches answer 3 or 4, but that’s probably not high enough if you want to be the coach of choice for your Target Group.
5. Your competitors.
Luckily, there are many ways you can learn about other coaches without spending any money. Create a Google Alert for the name of each coach you want to learn more about. Every time something is written about that person on the Internet, you will get an email about it. Subscribe to that coach’s e-newsletter or
When I mention to a coach that competitors are one of their best brand-building assets, they often look at me like I have two heads. Aren’t ‘competitors’ a liability, not an asset? Not at all! If you don’t know what other coaches are doing, you will have a hard time
You can learn a lot from other coaches that can help make your own brand stronger. Learn more about the other coaches who your existing and potential clients might choose.
blog, follow him/her on Twitter, “like” his/her Facebook fan page, and watch their YouTube videos. This is smart, ethical research. Then, don’t copy what they do— instead, do it better. Use what you’ve learned to improve your own brand. Is your branding and marketing budget limited? Don’t worry! There are dozens of additional low-cost and no-cost ways to use the five assets you already have to build your brand as a coach. Carefully define your brand, develop a low-cost marketing plan, then each week, ask yourself: What top three activities can I do this week to strengthen my brand? That’s how you build a differentiated image that makes you the coach of choice for clients.
Brenda Bence is an internationallyrecognized branding expert, Certified Speaking Professional, ICF-Certified Coach, and the author of four awardwinning branding books, including the recently released Smarter Branding Without Breaking the Bank: Five Proven Marketing Strategies You Can Use Right Now to Build Your Business at Little or No Cost. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Brenda spent 20 years developing mega brands for Fortune 100 companies across 50 countries and four continents. In 2002, she founded her own company, BDA International. Now based out of Singapore, and with clients that span six continents, Bence travels the world speaking, training, and coaching individuals and companies to greater success through corporate and personal brand development. BrendaBence.com
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Looking Ahead
It’s a good time to be a coach. There are more than 47,500 professional coaches worldwide, bringing in an annual income of close to $2 billion. Our 2012 ICF Global Coaching Study gave us a look inside the life and perspective of coaches across the globe.
WATCH NOW! Results from the 2012 ICF Global Coaching Study!
Change Expected Generally, the coaches we surveyed view their prospects over the next 12 months in a positive light and are looking ahead with confidence. That’s because more than three in four expect their number of clients to increase, and six in 10 expect an increase in revenue because they expect their number of coaching sessions to rise.
Annual Revenue/Income Despite the critical mass of coaches found in the higher-income regions, evidence from the study indicates faster growth has emerged outside these regions, such as in Latin America and the Caribbean. 84% of coaches in those regions are expecting to see an increase in annual revenue over the next 12 months.
Key Issues Facing the Industry Every growing industry faces issues so we asked coaches to comment on a range of concerns facing the professional coaching industry. A majority of coaches, 53% to be specific, believed coaching should be regulated. Among those who believe coaching should be regulated, or who were unsure, the overwhelming majority (84%) felt that professional coaching bodies were best placed to regulate the industry. The greatest obstacle that coaches recognized was untrained individual who call themselves coaches, which was followed by marketplace confusion about coaching.
Opportunities With all obstacles comes opportunity to overcome. The main opportunities were viewed as increased awareness of the benefits of coaching and credible data on the return on investment (ROI) or return on expectations (ROE) from coaching.
For more information from the 2012 ICF Global Coaching Study click here.
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Register by August 31 and save! Make plans to join the world’s biggest coaching community gathering at Novotel London West in London, UK! Inspiring world-class speakers Innovative tools and coaching techniques The Latest Coaching Research ICF CCEUs Visit coachfederation.org/icfglobal2012 for registration and schedule information. Early bird registration and savings are available through August 31.
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