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Welcome to the Autumn edition of
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This fall, CTI is rolling out an end-to-end system for delivering transformative leadership coaching to global organisations. This revolutionary approach is deeply rooted in adult stage development theory and has been thoroughly validated by many of the world's leading companies and research universities. Moreover, it doesn't step back from what CTI has always stood for -- achieving results in all aspect of life through deep personal transformation. This exciting new initiative is made possible through CTI's exclusive partnership with The Leadership Circle™. This powerful programme tightly integrates the principles of Co-active® Coaching with The Leadership Circle Profile® to produce the industry's most effective system for coaching leaders and transforming organisational cultures. By empowering the Co-active conversation with the science in TLC's framework, something completely new and profound is created in the marketplace. The value created for the client is so powerful that TLC-certified coaches are seeing their training investment returned within their initial few engagements. If your coaching practice includes corporate clientele or you are looking for a path into that lucrative market, we invite you to become a part of our charter group of organisational and leadership transformation architects. Our programme will be in London, UK, on 17-19 November and space is limited to 25 CTI-trained coaches. Claim your seat now and take advantage of this opportunity to position yourself to coach on the cutting edge of leadership transformation in organisations. During this three-day programme, you'll become certified to administer The Leadership Circle Profile and fundamentally reposition your value proposition with organisational clients. We will also discuss the groundbreaking leadership development models and quantitative research supporting the business case for Co-active Coaching and explore why a transformative approach to developing leaders and teams is critical in today's business environment. Remember, seats in this programme are limited, so don't miss this opportunity. To learn more, visit CTI’s website or call 00 1 415 451 6000 to speak with a programme advisor. |
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International Leadership Graduate ConferenceAll Tribes. All Years. All Countries. 9 - 11 October, 2009, in New York City! Hosted by Rick Tamlyn with presentations by Henry Kimsey-House, LA Reding and Kulu!
This is where powerful leaders come together to join forces with what inspires them. Creating and strengthening allies in order to make your Leadership projects and life purposes manifest! By joining our resources together and creating support networks, we can make BIG CHANGE in the world. For more information and to enroll: www.leadershipgraduates.com |
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The 'nodding dog' syndrome. The glazed look. Being asked "What did you just say?" and knowing you cannot answer. If we are honest I am sure we all have moments where we have both asked and been on both the receiving end of such experiences. Of course in the context of coaching, the ideal will be that you're 100% connected with your client at all times, letting the conversation flow through and around you, and yet there will be times when it doesn't happen like that. A noise outside may distract you or something the client says may provide a metaphorical mirror for something in your own life, and you drift off into your own thoughts. Well, the good news is this is where the Co-active context of Self Management can help, whether you are a coach or someone wanting to further their ability to be fully present for another person. The essence of self management is the ability to set aside personal opinions, pride, defensiveness, needing to look good and being right. In practice it represents a combination of self awareness and the skill of recovery. It involves an awareness of yourself, an ability to notice where you are or where you have gone in relationship to another person, and the ability to get back and reconnect. If you notice you have become distracted when listening to another person be honest about it. Most people can sense when someone is distracted or not really listening to them. They will value your honesty and know that you are truly valuing your relationship with them enough to want to be fully present to all they have to share. If it's an ongoing distraction that is going to be difficult to ignore, do something about it. Don't pretend it's not happening and try to plough on. For example, recently I had a face-to-face coaching session at my home. My dog had decided he wanted to join the conversation and was outside whining and barking to put it mildly. I was so distracted by it, I asked the client's permission if she minded me putting the dog away in the utility room. This was not a time to be polite. If you find you are becoming distracted on a number of occasions with the same client, get curious. 'What's trying to happen here?' 'Is there a theme emerging?' If this is occurring with a number of clients what do you need as a coach? This is where self management represents what we do around our sessions. Reading client notes and reminding yourself of the agenda you are holding for the client is good preparation. Recording sessions with the client's permission is a fantastic way to reflect your skills. I would strongly encourage more experienced coaches to record their sessions just as they may have done in the earlier days of training. We can all fall into bad habits. For coaches in training you may want to pin up the principles and models of coaching you have being learning in front of you as a focus. Or have structures to remind you of an agenda you are holding for the client. I have a colourful squidgy I hold with a client whose Big Agenda is bringing more playfulness and laughter to their life. Then there's self-management in the broader context of how we continue to develop as a coach between sessions and clients. For example, as a coach do you have supervision? It is important to take a step back and separate our own transferences from that of the clients. To have a safe place to share our practise in greater service to our clients. If cost is an issue, there are many coaching networks that offer free and reduced supervision, mentoring schemes for new coaches and co-coaching forums. Finally, for coaches and non-coaches alike there is an even bigger context to self management in our lives. If we want to be as fully present and authentic as possible in our relationships we need to look at what we can do to support this. What daily, weekly or monthly activities can you put into action to help you be fully present in your relationships? Do you need to change your diet? Be more communicative in your relationships? Take more exercise? Participate in the local community? Mandy Gutsell, CPCC, can be contacted at: |
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Profile of a Successful Coach Kate Jones, CPCC, founder of Inspired Lives |
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After graduating from University with a degree in Law, I became a Solicitor, a career I enjoyed for many years. Then one day I had one of those 'I have to change' moments at 4 am while on a conference call to discuss a contract with a firm of US lawyers for the TV company I was working for. I realised that this just wasn't my hearts calling. I negotiated a year off and trained in psychotherapy and a variety of alternative therapies and reflected on what I truly wanted to do. I realised that it was the relational aspects of the job that I enjoyed, not necessarily law itself. I reconnected with an old colleague who had since become head of the Coutts organisation which focused on outplacement and career coaching for senior executives. I was curious about what they did, and whether it was a match for my passion for building and growing client relationships and working with my peers from the inside out, across industries. After chatting for half an hour, they offered me a job. This was back in the early nineties, before coaching had become a common term or was even that well known in the UK, and yet some of my work did resemble what we know as coaching today. My work was more in the mould of being a consultant and mentor; it was necessary to be quite directive at times! However I drew heavily on my work as a psychotherapist to help my clients break out of closed thinking. I then went onto work for Lee Hecht Harrison a US executive coaching firm, and later trained as a psychologist with an MSc. in Organisational and Occupational psychology. How did Co-active Coaching arrive in your life? In 2000 with the fresh energy of a new millennium, I set up Inspired Lives to focus on executive one-to-one and systems coaching. By 2002, I was getting what I call 'itchy brain cells' again, that urge for continuing professional development, to stretch and grow, which comes periodically. I researched coach training and CTI was on my short list of 2. I spoke with Karen Kimsey-House and was completely wowed by the values led and holistic nature of the model -- it wasn't about putting people in boxes and categorising them. It gave me a language and frame for something I was doing instinctively and linked all my past experience together. What is the biggest personal breakthrough that you've had because of coaching? Co-active coaching and Co-active leadership are transformational. They have given me a sense of urgency to respond and the power and fearlessness to use my gifts in service of the humanity, giving me the greatest personal fulfilment in so doing. I also love what I call 'Co-active learning' whereby you get the opportunity to witness your own learning reflected through the learning of others. What's your greatest client success story? I love to celebrate all successes and especially those clients who've made radical career changes, like the high flying corporate lawyer who became a rare breed organic pig farmer, or the publisher who became a commissioned fine artist. I especially love the story of one client, renowned as a technical expert in his field, who didn't change jobs. He simply realised that his primary role was as a leader of people, and as a result transformed his organisation. What's your greatest client failure story and what did you learn from it? Failing to say 'no thank you' to an assignment, even when every cell in my body was saying NO. But my head rationalised the assignment was possible and so I took it anyway. The problem was that the client was being 'sent for coaching' by a sponsor who perceived the individual as broken and needing to be fixed. I dealt with it by insisting on quarterly 3-way meetings, and yet sometimes the coachee still didn't show up -- he just hadn't bought into it. In addition, the sponsor was unwilling to recognise the positive changes the client was making, persistently seeing the client 'in the box' they were most edged against. What I learned from the experience was to trust my intuition and be willing to say 'no' to business, and as importantly to stay with that 'no'. I would advise anyone who is asked to coach someone on behalf of a third party to ensure the sponsor is aligned with the Co-active paradigm and that everyone is naturally Creative, Resourceful and Whole and doesn't need fixing. Without this alignment, the coaching relationship will be weakened and in some cases, seriously undermined. Always insist on transparency too. What has surprised you most about Co-active coaching? The ease with which it translates to the executive world. If you had 2 minutes to advise someone considering a career in coaching, what would you tell them? Your heart must really want this, not just your head. You've been able to develop a successful practice coaching corporate businesses. Do you have any tips about how to move into this area, which is so attractive to so many coaches? Look at who you are as a person and how you show up. Then test out the new you on business people who you trust and respect and who know you well. Share your enthusiasm for coaching with them, and ask them if they were to hire a coach what would they look for, and then what they perceive the gap is, between what they would look for and how they experience you. It is quite possible that this 'gap' does not exist -- it is merely a hidden aspect of you – there, but not recognised. Look at your unique strengths and the sum of your experience (personal and professional) to date. Look for a match out there in the corporate world. There will be a place for you. Oh yes, and don't forget to ask them for a referral to someone else in their network and go and have a similar conversation with them. You have a reputation for being a master networker and builder of local community. What's the key to success here? Remember networking is not just about passing on information and referring people. True relationship marketing must come from the heart. When you connect with people from the heart, they get something different, and they remember. Really see and hear the human being you are having a conversation with. Level 2 focus! What is the one piece of advice about starting a career as a coach that you wish you had been given? Don't wait!! What do you like to do for fun? Connecting with what's freely available with this abundant gift of life – family, friends, nature, art galleries, street music, dance and song. And that was just last weekend! The list goes on and on. I feel very lucky. Tell us something on your bucket list you recently achieved, and something you've yet to realise? I recently saw Leonard Cohen live in a small intimate open air gig in Dublin. Contrary to folklore his work is not depressing. It is life affirming. He is an exquisite poet and observer of life and our process. |
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Change or Transition?by Nick Martin I am getting married later this year. That is big change, even if we have been living together for several years. I wonder what will change as a result of being married. We will both wear wedding rings. We will be able to call each other 'husband' and 'wife'. My parents may allow us to sleep in the same room when we visit them. These are examples of things that will change. But what of the transition? The distinction between the two concepts is that change is the external circumstances that have altered – for example, the new house, the new job, the loss of a job, the new boss, the significant birthday, the death of somebody close, the corporate takeover or the marriage. Transition, on the other hand, relates to the impact on our inner world -- our thoughts, feelings, morale, confidence – as we go through the external change. Over the years, I have come across several models of change, most of them quite similar. Many are based on Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's book On Death and Dying, in which she looked at the impact on people who had been diagnosed with terminal illness. Most of these models depict transition as a curve, with various stages, for example:
One of the implicit messages of these models is 'It may get worse before it gets better. And it will get better.' Even a positive change, one that we wanted, may bring its moments of discomfort, as I found during some of my early experiences as a new CTI front-of-room leader! In Managing Transitions, William Bridges describes a very simple model with only three stages. At first sight, it appears to be back-to-front. It starts with Endings and ends with Beginnings. The idea behind starting with Endings is that in order to be able to move forward effectively we have to acknowledge and celebrate the past, we have to recognise what people are leaving behind, and we have to find ways of bringing the best of the past with us into the future. By the time we have reached Beginnings, we are ready to accept the new situation. Between Endings and Beginnings is the Neutral Zone. This can be a place of anxiety and discomfort, as well as of creativity and opportunity. In the Neutral Zone nothing is certain any more, there is nothing solid to hang on to. The old rules no longer work, and we have not yet been able to make up any new rules. The opportunity is to create the new situation in a way that best serves us. How can coaching help? 1. Use the skill of clearing.
For my fiancée and me, knowing that things are likely to change once we are married, possibly in unpredictable ways, will help us to deal with those changes when they happen. It also means that we can be easier on ourselves and on each other as we experience the transition. Nick Martin stubbornly resists having a website, but (and!) can still be contacted at nick@questhills.co.uk, telephone: 01684 562 442, Mobile: 07979 851 529, Skype: nickmartin365 Metaphor: Holding the Client as Larger than Lifeby Fiona Monks Metaphors are everywhere. We use them for hunger, tiredness, happiness, the weather. We use them to describe sensations, experiences, emotions and reactions. We use them when plain descriptions just won't do. They are so much part of the rich texture of our language that we use them without even trying! They often have universal meaning, and as coaches we are always looking for the personal meaning that is true for the client. Is the client skating on thin ice? We know what that means for us but what does it mean for them? Is it slippery and treacherous or smooth and fast on the ice? Are they scared about making cracks or secretly hoping the ice will break and they can start swimming? It can be easy to assume that we already know what the client means, but just by staying curious and digging under the surface, metaphors hold powerful personal meanings that shine a light on the client, their lives and how they see themselves and their experiences. Metaphors can be the doorway into any of the three principles of Co-active Coaching -- is it a perspective, a saboteur or an emotion-laden process place? Here's the same example looked through the lenses of the three principles: Your client comes to coaching excited about starting their business and committed to taking action. You sense the resonance in their voice and choose fulfillment. As you question and their vision starts to come to life, they talk about how much people excite them, how they want to reach out to more people. The client's vision is lighting them up. You blurt an acknowledgement, 'You're a beacon!' Maybe it lands, or maybe the client has their own metaphor for example a 'lighthouse.' By asking them to step into being a lighthouse, you bring the metaphor to life. Where can you acknowledge them? What really moves you and strikes you about your client? What values are they honoring when they embody this powerful Self? You acknowledged their strength, security and the power they have to guide people home. You start moving the coaching back to the topic, pointing the client to breathtaking action from this resonant place of being. However, the light starts to fade, the client asks to sit down, the energy goes flat, they make a joke about being arrogant. Using the metaphor, you ask the client to shine their light on the saboteur, bring it fully into view and sending it running. Here's another perspective: Your client comes to coaching excited about starting their new business. You notice that they say 'uphill struggle' several times. Deciding to go with Balance coaching, you agree on the topic as 'my business' and start exploring this 'uphill struggle' perspective. Using geography to bring the perspective to life, the client says they are at the bottom of a steep hill. They look at their business at the top of the hill and feel tired, hopeless and ready to walk away. What do you notice about them here and what is the Level Three energy? What does the client notice about their own geography here? Take the metaphor further with more perspectives, how about exploring the 'walk in the park', the "downhill slalom" or the "ramble", ask the client for one or introduce a new one. And yet another perspective: Your client comes to coaching excited about starting their new business. You ask them how much they charge and notice that the energy changes, that they don't answer the question and you sense a dissonance. No matter what you ask, the client can't be with the subject of money. You decide on Process and ask them if they want to explore money. As the client starts exploring, you ask them how they are sitting they say they feel stiff and hard 'like a rock face.' You use your own geography to mirror them, giving you more information about their experience. They notice cold deadness, barren land and brittle hardness. You stay with the client, intensifying the experience. What are they like here, what is their experience and how does this way of being show up in their life? Notice the shifts and notice when the client has really shifted and is pushing out - how do they want to break out of this rock face? Maybe there's softening, a heating up, smashing or falling away. How are they shifting? Once they've moved, what is being created now, what new metaphor of their experience is coming to life? Listen to your intuition for metaphors that surprise and create wonder that opens up curiosity. It's important to go with what works for the client. Metaphors tend to be visual but not everyone experiences their world in pictures. Metaphors come from all the senses -- the sound of a dentist's drill, a clenched fist, a tapping toe, the words of a song or a repeated phrase. Depending on the client, some senses work better than others and using all the senses intensifies the experience. Letting the client look in new places for information makes the coaching alive, and stops it from becoming predictable. Try this. Think of one of your clients and let metaphors come to you that represent that client. Pick the one the feels right. Bring it to life in whatever way suits you, creatively, imaginatively, in writing.
Tips for working with metaphor:
Fiona has finished Certification and is about to take her oral exam. She has been coaching since 2007 and can be contacted via wildhorsecoaching@hotmail.com or through her website www.wildhorsecoaching.co.uk. |
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