iCoachPapers Issue 01

Business Applications Perspective Shift

Self Care

Team Building

iCoachPapers A Quarterly Collection of articles, case studies and research by professional coaches from International Coach Academy

Coaching Niche

Issue 01 : September 2012

Accessing Intuition

International Coach Academy

Robyn Logan Welcome to the first issue of iCoachPapers. It is with great pride that we bring you this collection of articles, research papers and case studies by International Coach Academy graduates.

Coaching as a profession is influenced by many other philosophies and theories; it is what makes it so exciting and unique. It always amazes me to see the variety in perspectives our Graduates bring to coaching. I hope you enjoy reading these papers as much as I did.

Prabha Chandrasekhar It is a pleasure to publish this collection each quarter. ICA is honored to have each of you walk through its corridors and leave your footprints. The collection of papers spans topics from self-care for a coach to skills sets and business aspects for a coach.

The richness of perspectives and approaches in these papers brings out the; •

Diversity of the community of graduates

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The quality of coaches that walk through these corridors

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Their curiosity and passion to learn to grow and connect

This collection would not have been possible without the support of all the authors and the ICA Team who put this collection together.

Congratulations!! for all the good work that you do and the difference that you make in the world.

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table of contents The Effect that a Perspective Shift Can Have On Energy and Experience. Alexis Adams Turning Lives Around: Coaching for Effective Self-Care. Andrea Wizner Making the Case for Coaching: Methods for Evaluating the Efficacy of Coaching in Business Applications. Carrie Penner Maldonado Team Building. Catrese Brown Finding Your Niche: How to Fnd the Clients that Need You. Dawn Waldron Intuition and Coaching: How Coaches Access their Intuition to Strengthen the Coaching Process. Edda Jonsdottir Letting Go: Terminating the Coaching Relationship. Jeff Anderson Choice Theory & Coaching. Lizette DuBay Intuition – A Coaching Application: Recognizing and Developing Intuition to Create more Powerful Coaching Sessions. Nancy Shelton Core Beliefs. Zeynep Kaymaz

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Alexis Adams, PhD Dr. Adams joined the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as a Personnel Research Psychologist in the Assessment Services Branch of OPM in July 1999. She currently conducts research on programs that support federal employees in maintaining a healthy work/life balance in the Work/Life/Wellness Office of OPM. Dr. Adams received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Hampton University in 1992. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Social Psychology (1996) and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Social Psychology (1999) from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Adams’ dissertation focused on perceptions of gender discrimination in women.

In the spring of 2010, Dr. Adams completed the Certified Professional Coach Program at the International Coach Academy and currently enjoys providing life and spiritual coaching services.

E-mail: ajjordjosh@gmail.com.

Alexis Adams, PhD Certified Professional Coach

The Effect that a Perspective Shift Can Have On Energy and Experience Summary The premise of this paper is that positive change is indeed possible and can be obtained through perspective shifting. One of the most important roles of a professional coach is to walk with a client through the journey of a perspective shift.

This important process will be discussed in greater detail in this paper. Learnings gained from personal experiences and the journey of becoming a Professional Coach have contributed to this paper

introduction Life today is busier than ever, and in the midst of the day-to-day fast pace, individuals often overlook the power they have within to determine their own experience in any given situation. In addition to the family, work, and social demands that people juggle, the stimuli that are received from the media, the internet, and the daily news can become overwhelming. The temptation to exist at the mercy of all of these demands and sources of stimuli is very real. Too often, stress results as people try their best to keep up with the circumstances of life. They begin to feel that their lives are living them instead of them living their lives. It can appear that there is no hope of living from a less hectic place of existence. People have no concept of how change can take place.

There are many benefits that can result when a healthy, positive perspective shift takes place. When a client supported by a coach, determines that a perspective shift is needed, that awareness first takes place in the mind. Then, the client can set out to develop a desired perspective shift and begin to feel the effect of the shift in the body. Ultimately, the client will see the results of the shift in his or her experience of the relevant situation. It is important to first define the concept of perspective, then to explain how to create a new perspective, and finally to discuss the role of a coach in the process.

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What is a Perspective?

Perspective refers to how an individual views something; a situation, a person, or life in general. Perspectives are shaped by a number of factors including the context or culture in which a person was raised or now lives, the type of exposure to information and knowledge a person has experienced, and a person’s social network (Scivicque, 2007). Since many perspectives are born out of one’s upbringing and/or one’s current context, it can understandably appear that perspectives are rooted in fact or truth.

Individuals are often unable to recognize that holding and maintaining a perspective involves choice. Each person holds the power to determine his or her view of the world.

This choice involves interpretation and intent. How people interpret the information they must respond to on a daily basis helps to determine perspective and the resulting behavior. People also have intent behind each perspective that is held (Manusov & Rodriguez, 1989). This intent may or may not exist at the conscious level.

The intent may be to keep the perspective holder safe or comfortable, it may be to provide protection from risk, it may be to facilitate a balanced approach to life, it may be to provide assistance in remembering the limits of one’s own power. There are a whole host of reasons behind the perspectives that people form. The reason or the intent behind a perspective is a driving force and it serves a purpose.

Recognizing that there is a choice, and making a choice for change, can have many powerful effects on how one views life and how one feels. When a new perspective brings with it greater joy, peace, balance, and understanding, the perspective holder begins to feel better about living. Feeling better leads to positive action, which leads to a positive overall experience (Wylan, 2009). In her description of, “In2 Effect”, Carolyn Rubenstein explains that we can always take a minute to ask ourselves what we can do to turn something negative into something positive. Rubenstein goes on to say that this process involves redefining expectations and that a true perspective shift can only occur once current expectations have been explored and transformed (Rubenstein, 2010).

Creating a New Perspective In order for a person to make a shift to a healthy new perspective, he or she must have a good awareness of the current perspective and an understanding of why that perspective is no longer serving an effective purpose. Becoming aware of the intent

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behind a perspective and determining if that intent is healthy or not provides the perspective holder with the information needed to realize that change is necessary (Mahalik, 2009). The previous section of this paper may have painted a picture that perspective shifting is easy and can be accomplished simply by anyone who chooses to do so. In fact, choosing and applying a new perspective can be challenging and may involve real effort. Changing perspective takes conscious practice at first. Once the choice toward a new perspective has taken place, the temptation to slide back to a more familiar and previous view is a challenge to fight against. The perspective holder may have to remind him or herself to apply the new perspective time and time again before it becomes natural (Wylan, 2009).

One’s circumstances don’t necessarily have to change for a change in perspective to take place. In fact, some of the most powerful experiences can take place when a perspective change occurs in a situation where the circumstances have remained the same. When a perspective change lightens a person’s energy level and approach to life despite unchanged circumstances, the person enjoys an experience of empowerment. While a perspective shift may require conscious effort and practice, the empowerment that accompanies a successful perspective shift delivers a great reward. A bonus occurs when a perspective shift not only results in change within the mind and energy level of the perspective holder, but it also creates tangible evidence of positive change within the surrounding circumstances or environment.

The new approach to life that results once a successful perspective shift occurs can lead to changes in patterns of behavior, changes in response to stimuli within the environment, and/or changes in the energy dedicated to small challenges when they arise.

5 Functions to Shift Perspectives Powerful Questioning A coach plays an instrumental role in supporting a client in making a perspective shift. There are several important functions that a coach fulfills in this process. One function is to assist the client in reframing his or her perspective by posing a number of powerful questions (ICA module: Reframing Perspective, 2002). Asking the client questions that will cause him or her to take a look at the current perspective opens the door to the possibility of considering an alternative perspective. This is a powerful part of the coaching process. For example, the coach can help by asking

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a client to consider how well a current perspective is serving him or her and if the current perspective is achieving desired results. Through questioning, the coach also gives the client permission to consider a different frame of mind and what it will take to get there. One powerful question that is suggested by author Kathleen Hawkins is to ask the client to consider the opposite viewpoint in a situation. In other words, the coach might ask the client, “Might the opposite be true? If so, what would that look like?” (Hawkins, 2009).

Some additional examples of powerful questions that assist in reframing are: •

How is your current perspective serving you?

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What is missing in the situation?

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What is your intention here?

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What will you gain by changing your perspective?

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What can you do to empower yourself in the current situation?

Tony Stoltzfus (Stoltzfus, 2008), a nationally known Life Coach and Trainer, asserts that it is important for a coach to assist the client in exploring inner feelings during a perspective shift. He suggests that the coach ask questions such as, •

What is going on inside you during this change?

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How do you feel about that?

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Describe the emotions this situation brings to the surface in you.

Enthusing A second role that a coach fulfills in the reframing process is enthusing the client to make a shift. Encouraging the client to take a look at a situation from a different angle provides the permission that a client may need to take that leap. It also excites the client and raises his or her energy level. If the client has believed that there is no other way to look at a situation - that change is not an option - having a coach introduce the possibility of change can be liberating. Enthusing a client toward positive change involves supporting and empowering the client and providing a safe place to explore alternative ways of viewing the world.

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Encouraging A third function that a coach fulfills in supporting a client during a reframing process is encouraging the client to slow down, step back from the current situation, and determine if the current perspective reflects truth. Clients may automatically accept that a current perspective reflects truth simply because of their limited understanding. An outside source of support, like a coach, can encourage the client to challenge their assumptions and understanding. In their book, Slowing Down to

the Speed of Life authors Carlson and Bailey point out that “how we relate to our thinking is totally dependent on our level of understanding-on how we see life” (Carlson and Bailey, 1997). The authors suggest that slowing down and recognizing one’s current perspectives can allow one to regain “emotional bearings” and move toward healthy functioning. When challenged, a client may not be sure if the current perspective actually reflects truth, but the challenge alone can spark an interest within the client to explore further.

Examining A fourth role that a coach can fulfill is to highlight the impact that a perspective shift has on one’s energy level. The perspective that a client holds has a direct effect on the energy level within the body. A perspective weighted down by worry, guilt, fear, or other difficult emotions can result in a heavy energy level. A perspective characterized by peace, hope, acceptance, or other balanced emotions can result in a light level of energy within the body. A coach can guide the client in examining a current perspective by asking the client what goes on within his or her body during the exploration.

The coach can then ask the client to imagine an alternative perspective and follow-up by asking the client about what is going on within his or her body while envisioning the alternative. If there is a distinction in energy level that the client feels when he or she considers the current perspective versus an alternative perspective, the coach and client can discuss this distinction. This allows the client to actually feel or try on a new perspective. This exercise can be powerful and serve as a catalyst for change.

In the book Anatomy of the Spirit, Dr. Carolyn Myss calls this examination the process of Involution. She states, “In the phase Involution, we assess our external world and how well it is serving our needs. Self-knowledge promotes choice and action, and many people feel unready for either. The support of a coach is critical in allowing clients to feel safe during this examination process.

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Empowering A fifth function that a coach can fulfill in helping a client to shift a perspective is supporting the client in turning a new perspective into action. Here, the process turns toward shifting the client’s internal energy outward. The way that a client interacts with others and his or her environment after a perspective shift represents the depth to which the new perspective is taking root. The coach’s role is to support and encourage the client to move forward. With the changed perspective in hand, the client can now experiment with a new, and hopefully healthier, approach to life.

Once the client has explored the effect that his or her new perspective has on daily life, he or she can partner with the coach in determining whether the change is really for the good or if it is simply a different outlook (Mahalik, 2009). The conclusion may actually be that yet another perspective should be considered. Alternatively, the conclusion may be that the newly adopted perspective is healthy and is pushing the client toward more satisfying experiences and behaviors. One way to measure the effectiveness of a perspective shift is to take a look at the client’s energy level some time after a new perspective has been adopted. The coach can assist the client in determining if the shift has produced an energy level that is light and balanced.

Conclusion According to Dr. Peter Rappa, “All thoughts carry a creative force. We create our internal experiences of each external event by what we think and how intensely we think about it.” In discussing psychological and emotional energy, Dr. Rappa advocates examining one’s beliefs and attitudes about oneself and others in order to see what emotions result. In that result, truth will be found. It follows then that an impactful perspective shift must be accompanied by an exploration of the client’s true feelings and emotions. This exploratory process can involve challenge as the client begins to learn more about what motivates his or her choices and current perspectives. It can also be revealing as the coach guides the client in realizing the effect that a current perspective has on the energy level within the body. A coach can provide a safe place for the client to explore true feelings around a current perspective. It is from this point of honesty that a new and healthy perspective can be born.

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References 1.

Carson, R. & Bailey, J. Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, HarperCollins Publishers, 1997.

2.

Hawkins, K. “The Opposite Might Also Be True” 2009. http://winningspirit.com/ opposite_may_be_true_article.shtml

3.

International Coach Academy “Reframing Perspective”. International Coach Academy Pty. Ltd., 2002.

4.

Mahalik, B. “Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life”, 2009. http:// ezinearticles.com/?Change-Your_perspective,-Change-Your-Life&id=280959

5.

Manusov, V. & Rodriguez, J. “Defeating the Dark Side with Positive Intent Thoughtforms” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 13 (1), 1989

6.

Myss, C. Anatomy of the Spirit. Three Rivers Press, 1996.

7.

Rappa, P. “Move into Health”, 2005. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC1200705/

8.

Rubenstein, C. “The In2 Effect: How One Word Can Shift Your Perspective”, Psychology Today, May 5, 2010.

9.

Scivicque, C. “Understanding Perspective – How Your Views Influence Your Reality”, 2007. http://personaldevelopment.suite101.com/article.cfm/ understanding_perspective

10.

Stoltzfus, T. “Coaching Questions: A Coach’s Guide to Powerful Asking Skills”, self-published. 2008

11.

Wylan, A. “You Can Change Your Life”, 2009. http://www.womensmedia.com/ coaching/158-you-can-change-your-life.html

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Andrea Winzer Andrea Winzer is a Certified Professional Life Coach, Spiritual Director, and Interfaith Minister with a focus on transpersonal and transformational work. Her passion is to support others in creating a joyful, balanced and authentic life. Through her own practice, Reach For The Light, Andrea offers services for individuals who want to explore their uniqueness, understand their challenges, and unfold their full potential.

Andrea is trained in Reiki and other healing modalities. Having a deep passion for nature and the environment, she also holds a M.Sc. in ecology and is currently exploring the field of ecopsychology/wilderness therapy with a strong interest in deepening the relationship between humans and nature to enrich and empower personal development, healing, and growth while at the same time raising awareness for environmental health, sustainability, and protection.

Motto: Reach For The Light - Where there is light, darkness can be no more!

Email: andrea@reachforthelight.net Web: http://www.reachforthelight.net

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Andrea Winzer Reach for the Light

Turning Lives Around: Coaching for Effective Self-Care Summary The purpose of this paper is to explore the role and importance of self-care and how coaching can facilitate raising awareness and creating supportive structures. It discusses implementing effective self-care strategies as part of a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

What is Self-care?

In 2009, a special working group of the World Health Organization (WHO) presented an inclusive definition of self-care: “Self-care in health refers to the activities individuals, families and communities undertake with the intention of enhancing health, preventing disease, limiting illness, and restoring health. These activities are derived from knowledge and skills from the pool of both professional and lay experience. They are undertaken by lay people on their own behalf, either separately or in participative collaboration with professionals.”

In essence, self-care involves being aware of one’s very own, unique physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, financial, professional and/or recreational needs, i.e. knowing what contributes to a healthy, balanced, peaceful, and joyful sense of well-being, and consistently taking the necessary steps to implement appropriate actions in daily life. Taking effective care of oneself is a commitment that needs to be maintained on a continuous basis and involves three different levels of engagement: Understanding/Awareness, Learning/Creation of Structures, and Practice/ Accountability.

The Importance of Self-Care Norcross & Guy (2007) clearly indicate the central importance of the commitment to self-care by stating “Self-care is not a narcissistic luxury to be fulfilled as time permits;

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it is a human requisite, a clinical necessity, and an ethical imperative.” According to Corey, Schneider Corey, and Callanan, (2011), “Self-care is not an indulgence. It is necessary to prevent distress, burnout, impairment, and to maintain a level of psychological and physical wellness.”

Self-care is deeply connected with the acceptance and love for oneself as well as with the reverence for one’s very unique skills, talents, character traits, and body features.

Caring for oneself with love and honesty lays the groundwork for a happy, balanced, and joyful life. Being deeply connected with one’s own needs and wants and setting the appropriate actions to fulfill and integrate them into daily life, opens the door to creativity, success, passionate living, and fulfilling one’s unique purpose in this world.

Lack of Self-Care and Consequences Lack of self-care always has serious consequences on many different levels and impacts a person’s physical and emotional well-being. Numerous studies have shown that individuals who fail to exercise regularly, eat right, get sufficient sleep or find satisfaction in their work and personal lives experience higher levels of depression, anxiety, and illnesses, including heart disease, stroke, or other chronic diseases.

Another common consequence of neglecting one’s own self-care, especially when working in a helping profession or being a caretaker, is a syndrome called Compassion Fatigue; a form of burnout that manifests itself as physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion.

When focusing on the needs of others more than on self, destructive behaviors that are associated with the secondary traumatic stress disorder. These include apathy, isolation, explosive expression of bottled up emotions, substance abuse, or obsessive behaviors such as overeating, overspending or gambling, can surface.

These symptoms can lead into a downward spiral and take a tremendous toll on the overall well-being of the individual, which in turn decreases the ability to take care of oneself and others or find fulfillment in one’s professional or personal life.

Common Misconceptions around Self-care The concept of self-care is fraught with misconceptions and misinformation and is often connected with feelings of selfishness, narcissism, guilt, and shame. Most people are taught from a very early age to take care of everybody else except themselves, to be “a good girl/boy” and to put their own needs, dreams, and wishes

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on the bottom of the list. The consequences of this self-neglecting behavior affect not only the well being of the individual, but also impact the functionality and health of relationships, families, communities, and essentially the whole society.

When asked what they do for “self-care”, many people think of pampering or indulging themselves by getting a pedicure, a massage, or going to a fancy restaurant and they often feel guilty about it. Although these activities are definitely valuable and can support a healthy lifestyle, true self-care is the continuous maintenance of one’s physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental health.

Research Method For the purpose of this paper, I conducted a survey among 20 coaching students and experienced coaches consisting of 10 questions related to the topic of self-care and the role coaching can play in supporting the development of healthy self-care behaviors (see Appendix). In addition, published materials as well as various coaching tools (established as well as my own) were researched and reviewed.

The Role of Coaching in Supporting Healthy Self-care The International Coach Federation (ICF) defines coaching as, “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” This unique relationship sets the stage for deep exploration, discovery, growth, and transformation in many areas of a client’s life and is especially effective in supporting the issue of healthy self-care. When working the coaching process, the coach first assesses the current situation and observes the obvious challenge. As a next step, the coach focuses on the source of the problem rather than on the symptoms and, by doing so, the client is encouraged to look for the undercurrent, the underlying beliefs, and the hidden truth behind the existing behavior. This work opens the door for awareness and honest self-exploration that eventually - if the client is ready, willing and able - it leads to change and lasting transformation.

When approaching the topic of self-care, there are three levels of engagement that need to be explored and worked with in order to facilitate healthy change and longlasting success; understanding, learning, and practicing self-care.

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Understanding Self-care As mentioned above, the topic of self-care is very controversial for most people. Selfcare is associated with unjustified selfishness or self-centeredness and therefore many people feel guilty when they even think about taking time for themselves or making their own needs a priority. In the survey conducted with 20 coaching students and professional coaches (see Appendix), 75% of the participants express that they only sometimes pay attention to their own needs and 25% state that they hardly ever pay attention to their own needs.

Although 100% of the respondents agree that there is a connection between happiness and self-care, only a small percentage of the population makes self-care a priority in their life, mainly due to a lack of knowledge and awareness.

Coaching Approach The first level of engagement when working with clients is helping them understand that self-care is not about pampering oneself, but about owning one’s personal power and deeply honoring one’s inner worth. In this stage of the process, the coach leads the client in exploring their unique values, uncovering underlying beliefs around self-care, clarifying common misconceptions, and creating awareness of how self-care or the lack thereof affects them in their personal and professional life.

This can be a very challenging process when clients, perhaps for the first time in their life, are encouraged to look at the truth of why they are giving too much at their own expense. The role of the coach in this stage is to create a safe space for the client while actively and deeply listening and asking powerful questions.

Coaching Tools and Practices During this first part of the process, tools may be helpful. These might include the Wheel of Self-care (an adapted version of the Wheel of Life), Self-care Assessments (e.g.http://www.counseling.org/wellness_taskforce/PDF/ACA_taskforce_assessment. pdf), the exploration of areas where the client feels deprived and burnt out, as well as working with lists of emotions and identifying where they experience what feelings.

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Learning Self-care Awareness opens the door to a new perspective and creates valuable insights.

However, knowledge is not enough to create a lasting transformation. Self-care, like any other skill, needs to be learned and practiced to eventually become a permanent part of a person’s life. Creating specific action steps regarding self-care based on the client’s needs is a very powerful process and can serve as “rocket fuel” by simultaneously boosting other parts of their lives, which in turn leads to more fulfillment, balance, and essentially happiness.

Coaching Approach In this second level of engagement, the coach supports clients in their unique learning process regarding self-care. Depending on the area of self-care (physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, etc.), different tools can be used to very specifically create an action plan a client feels comfortable with and is able to implement in his/her life. It is important at this stage to foster the learning process for the client with concrete challenges and goal-setting to move the process of making self-care a permanent part of a client’s life along.

Coaching Tools and Practices Some of the tools that can be used in this process include meditation, visualization, creating a health- and/or fitness plan. Exercises can also be helpful, particularly those that, support clients in learning how to speak up for themselves, how to create healthy boundaries and how to say no to overwhelm and to too much responsibility.

It is also beneficial to assist them in clarifying what they need or want, work on strategies to find time for themselves in a busy schedule or help them explore interrupted dreams and hidden passions.

Practicing Self-care Practicing self-care is not a singular event, but a lifelong commitment. Having understood and created awareness about the importance of self-care as well as created structures to effectively implement self-care into one’s daily life, the client now needs to create a momentum to let self-care become a habit, an indispensable part of their life. In this third level of engagement, the coach supports the client in creating long-term strategies and structures for accountability. The coach also celebrates with clients and reviews the wonderful changes that increased self-care has brought into their lives

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Coaching Approach After the initial fire and excitement of starting a new project or trying out a new idea subsides, persistence and perseverance are necessary in order to create a successful outcome. The same is true for practicing effective self-care. In this third level of engagement, it is therefore crucial that the coach supports the client in creating longterm structures for implementation of and accountability for the self-care approaches they have learned.

Coaching Tools and Practices In this part of the process, tools like a vision-board, weekly or monthly checklists as well as regular follow-up sessions with a coach can be used to support the client on his or her ongoing journey.

Conclusion Self-care is an essential foundation for a balanced, happy and healthy life. Taking good care of oneself is in no way selfish: it is giving oneself the gift of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellness.

Coaching focuses on the improvement of a person as a whole, on exploring and developing their full potential and bringing their dreams to life, and nurtures and supports their growth on a physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual level. Coaching can very effectively support clients in understanding that self-care is not indulgence but responsibility for one’s own life that can be lived out by learning ways of self-care that fits a person’s unique lifestyle and circumstances, and by creating structures to successfully practice self-care as an integral part of daily life.

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References 1. Aron, E.N. The Undervalued Self. New York/Boston/London: Little, Brown and Company, 2010.

2. Corey, G., Schneider Corey, M., & Callanan, P. Issues and Ethics in the Helping

Professions. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning, 2011.

3. Norcross, J.C., & Guy, J.D. Leaving it A the Office: A Guide to Psychotherapist Self-

Care. New York: Guilford Press, 2007.

4. Richardson, C. The Art of Extreme Self Care. New York/London/Carlsbad: Hay House, 2009.

5. Smith, P. To Weep for a Stranger: Compassion Fatigue in Caregiving, Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project, 2012. (http://www.compassionfatigue.org) 6. World Health Organization, Self-Care in the Context of Primary Health Care.

Report of the Regional Consultation, Bangkok, Thailand, 2009, January 7-9.

APPENDIX: Survey Question 1: How would you define self-care?

Question 2: What is your first reaction when somebody advises you to take better care of yourself (i.e. do something just for yourself, for your very own enjoyment or pleasure)?

Question 3: If you think about your own needs, dreams, and wishes, how much attention do you pay to them?

Question 4: Do you think that there is a connection between self-care and happiness?

Question 5: As a coach, what role does self-care play in your work with your clients?

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Question 6: How often does self-care become a topic in your coaching relationships with your clients?

Question 7: What tools do you use to help you clients understand, learn, and practice (better) self-care?

Question 8: How does improved self-care influence and affect your clients in reaching their goals?

Question 9: Research has shown that not taking care of oneself in different areas of life can have a tremendous impact on our physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual health.

Do you agree, based on your experience from your own life as well as your work as a coach? (Please explain) Question 10: Would you agree that coaching supports clients in understanding, learning, and practicing more effective self-care, which leads to a more balanced, happier and more successful life? (Please explain)

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Carrie Penner Maldonado Carrie Penner Maldonado is the founder and principal coach of Today’s Leadership Solutions, specializing in helping leaders become more effective and more fulfilled in their careers and their lives. She is a Certified Professional Coach, specializing in Executive Coaching. Her background includes a degree in psychology, postgraduate training and consulting experience in Organizational Behavior Management and over ten years in executive management, specializing in management training, development and compliance. Her passion is to help others discover and achieve their goals.

Email: cmaldonado@todaysleadershipsolutions.com Website: www.todaysleadershipsolutions.com

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Carrie Penner Maldonado Today’s Leadership Solutions

Making the Case for Coaching: Methods for Evaluating the Efficacy of Coaching In Business Applications Summary An Organizational Development Executive, when evaluating services like coaching, would like to know if tangible benefits are demonstrated by utilizing coaching.

The purpose of this paper is to create an awareness of a few tools for coaches to demonstrate the value of coaching to an organization. In conclusion we will see that coaching and business can continue to grow as strategic partners. Improvements in traditional evaluation procedures will only enhance this relationship.

Introduction Coaching as a discipline has been steadily emerging over the past few decades, and we are seeing it become firmly entrenched in the business world. It is becoming an effective tool for growth, development and the increase of key performance indicators in an organization. “Coaching has been around too long to be a management fad�, according to Dr. Michael Cavanagh in his keynote address to the British Psychological Society, 2nd Annual Conference of the Special Group in Coaching Psychology (Fillery-Travis & Lane, 2006). It is clear that businesses have a need and are willing and able to pay for coaching as a means to fill this need. What is not clear is how effective a tool Coaching can be.

Impact of Coaching There are many reasons why an organization might consider utilizing coaching.

Carter, (2006) categorizes the reasons as being either to prove something, to improve something or to learn something. In other words, coaching could be employed to determine if an existing leader or program is effective (to prove something), to make existing leaders and/or programs more effective (to improve something) or, to

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find out what makes an existing program or leader effective (to learn something).

The primary objective of most businesses is to produce profit; the most obvious reason for a business to retain a coach is to improve individual performance of the coachee (usually an executive) in the hope that this would translate into bottom line improvements in the organization (Treur & Van Der Sluis, 2005).

Efforts to this end include providing one-on-one coaching for executives to enhance their effectiveness in such things as leadership, customer service, productivity, communication, conflict resolution and a host of other skills. The intent of this endeavor is twofold; • That the executive will improve in the areas in which they are being coached • That the organization’s performance will improve as a result of the executive’s performance improving.

Surprisingly, the evidence supporting the efficacy of coaching towards this goal is scant, albeit growing (Leedham, 2007; Passmore & Gibbs, 2006).

Another reason why an organization might retain a coach is for retention purposes.

There is much evidence supporting the fact that executives who receive coaching indicate that they personally derive value from the experience (Fillery-Travis & Lane, 2006). Because of this, there is presumably a demand from within organizations themselves for coaching programs as executives become more knowledgeable about coaching as a discipline. This demand increases the likelihood that an organization will employ coaching as a tool. It also underscores the need for an organization to understand the costs and benefits of undertaking a program. And the costs are considerable.

One Australian study revealed that in only two years, seventeen Human Resource Professionals were responsible for procuring over fifteen million dollars in executive coaching programs (Dagley, 2006). In light of this, the question of cost justification and quality coaching evaluation becomes more relevant than ever before.

Evaluations So how does one evaluate the effectiveness of coaching in a business application?

A study of the existing literature shows that this is not an easy question to answer.

Evaluation methods range from surveys to interviews, to performance metrics such

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as sales volume and profitability. A closer examination of these methods reveals strengths and weaknesses intrinsic in all, which is often the case when looking at practical applications as opposed to pure academic research (Linley, 2006). The problem is that outside of a controlled experiment, it is very difficult to prove causation, and thus much of the coaching research is open for interpretation (Spence, 2007).

Evaluations – Coachee Many of the coaching evaluation methods depend on survey information. There are many ways to use surveys when analyzing the effects of coaching. One method is to survey the participants, or coachees. Some surveys ask participants to provide responses; while others ask them to rate their opinions on a Likert Scale. A Likert Scale is a scale with an odd-number range of scores, with each score representing a point on a scale of ‘worst’ to ‘best’. This type of data is called ordinal data in which the number is used more as a category label as opposed to it actually being a mathematical quantity (Spence, 2007). An example of a Likert Scale would be a 5-point scale with 1 being ‘very unpleasant’, 2 being ‘somewhat unpleasant’, 3 being ‘neutral’, 4 representing ‘somewhat pleasant’, and 5 representing ‘very pleasant’.

Many social scientists do statistics on survey data to analyze survey responses from groups who received an intervention such as coaching (Spence, 2007).

An issue with surveys is getting them back from participants (Carter, 2006). Often the results can be biased simply based on the subject pool who chooses to return the surveys versus the ones who do not. There are ways to increase the return rate of surveys. One method is to have the coach administer the survey during the last coaching session, and then collect it from the participant. The problem with this, of course, is that often the coachees will rate the coach or coaching artificially high for fear of offending the coach (Carter, 2006). Another method is to administer the survey questionnaire in person, by having a third party ask the coachee the questions and record the results.

When surveying the coachees, evaluators can look to many measures. They could ask question like: • Did you find coaching valuable?

• Do you believe that coaching made you more effective?

• How do you think other people perceive you?

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• Did coaching have an impact on your communication skills?

• Did coaching impact your conflict resolution abilities?

• Did coaching impact your leadership skills?

Treur & Van Der Sluis, 2005.

The biggest issue with this data is that it is perceptual only. There can often be a discrepancy between a participant’s perception of their performance and other measures. Fillery-Travis & Lane, (2006), found that sometimes when coachees report the impact of coaching on their performance as high, external measures of performance do not strongly confirm the self-estimates.

One way researchers have tried to overcome this issue is to administer 360-degree reviews. 360-degree reviews are surveys or questionnaires that are completed by a subject’s peers, subordinates and supervisors (or a combination of these). The benefit of conducting a 360-degree review is that people are commenting on the coaching who have not gone through it and therefore are less biased towards it (Fillery-Travis & Lane, 2006). This data can also be collected as free flowing information or as scored data on a Likert Scale.

Evaluation - Businesses The next question is to evaluate the efficacy of coaching in the workplace. Assuming coaching does have an impact on the coachee (and the research suggests that there is a positive correlation, Treur & Van Der Sluis, 2005; Feggetter, 2007, is this impact translated to the bottom line of the organization?

In order to look at this, one has to determine what to measure (Carter, 2006). There are many measurable variables to look at when examining the effects of coaching.

Some examples are units of work completed (productivity), (Dagley, 2006), customer satisfaction, revenue and profit, to name just a few (Leedham, 2005; Treur & Van Der Sluis, 2005). The problem with any of these measures is how to causally link a change in the variable to coaching. Unfortunately, this is not an easy relationship to prove.

One of the weaknesses in the social research done in this field is a lack of experiments with a control group so that one can analyze the effects of coaching in an environment where a control group exists who experiences almost all of the same variables except for coaching. Much of the existing research calls for more

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experimental type research (Spence, 2007; Passmore & Gibbs, 2007, Fillery-Travis & Lane, 2006).

The issue as Linley, (2006) explains is that the research is costly to undertake.

The primary recipients of the benefits of the research are the organizations themselves and the coaching industry (should a relationship between coaching and organizational profitability be established), and both of these entities have limited resources to expend on purely academic research. However, as Dagley (2006) points out, the development of practical measurement tools can ultimately help both the coaching industry and businesses that employ coaching.

Libri and Kemp (2006) did undertake an experimental approach to coaching in which they ran an ABAB intervention design (a research design to measure change) in an effort to prove that changes in key performance indicators were a result of coaching and coaching alone. In this study, they used the same executive as their subject and measured key performance indicators prior to the coaching intervention, during the period in which the subject received coaching, after coaching was stopped for a period and then after coaching was reintroduced.

Libri and Kemp (2006) used many different types of evaluations in their experiment.

They had the subject fill out a Likert Scale regarding his Core Self-Evaluation and another one regarding his subjective global rating of performance. Both of these were designed to get information about the subject’s perception of his efficacy before and after coaching. Key performance indicators related to the subject’s sales performance, such as client leads generated, loan interviews, applications submitted and loans approved were also measured. The results showed that all of the measures of performance, both perceived and objective, went up in tandem during the coaching. The performance measurements subsided when coaching was withdrawn, and went up again after coaching was introduced.

This is very powerful data, because not only did the self perception surveys mirror pre-selected objective performance evaluators, it also showed compelling evidence for the effectiveness of coaching in this application. Unfortunately, the experiment only used one subject, so it is difficult to generalize the results. However this is a good example of a combination of academic and applied research. As Linley (2006) concludes in his paper, there are competing research drivers for academic and

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practical research, but if the right questions are asked, valuable information will be uncovered.

There has been much written about determining how to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) of coaching, and further, whether practitioners have been able to do so. An oft-cited study by McGovern et al. (2001, cited in Passmore & Gibbs, 2007) states an ROI of 545%. This figure was calculated by having the executives who received the coaching estimate the financial benefits their coaching had on their businesses. The researches then ‘corrected’ or scaled down the estimate based on factors such as the executives’ confidence in their score. Another figure used estimated the ROI of coaching is the cost of rehiring the executive, which uses as a primary assumption that coaching is a valuable retention tool (Dagley, 2006).

As Passmore and Gibbs (2007) conclude in their survey on existing research, evidence does seem to be accumulating that suggests coaching has positive effects in many areas of self-development. Fillery-Travis and Lane (2006) also concur that coaching has an impact on the executives who receive it but they advocate working to create a ‘structured framework’ in order to firmly establish an objective return on investment.

Conclusion The good news for business and executive coaches is that the evidence gained from participant surveys, 360 reviews, impact studies, questionnaires and ‘reactionaries’ (surveys specifically targeting participants’ reactions to coaching (Carter, 2006) is that people enjoy receiving coaching, certain behaviors are improved and impacted by coaching, and that this has a positive impact on their effectiveness (Fillery-Travis & Lane, 2006; Laske, 2004, Treur & Van Der Sluis, 2005). The challenge for business coaches continues to be to establish a firm link between coaching and bottom line organizational improvements.

The call to coaches is to help establish more causal links between coaching and organizational performance. The literature cries out for more experimental type research that will help prove causation. Perhaps the next step is for practicing coaches, academic researchers and organizations themselves to team together to conduct working experiments where control groups are established and coaching interventions follow experimental design. This could be a very beneficial step to even further earning coaching a respected and legitimate place in the world of business.

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References 1. Carter, A. Practical Methods for Evaluating Coaching. Brighton, UK: Institute for Employment Studies, 2006.

2. Dagley, G. “Human Resources Professionals’ Perceptions of Executive Coaching: Efficacy, Benefits and Return on Investment”. International Coaching Psychology

Review 1,2, 34-45, 2006.

3. Feggetter, A.J.W. “A Preliminary Evaluation of Executive Coaching: Does Executive Coaching Work for Candidates On A High Potential Development Scheme?” International Coaching Psychology Review 2,2, 129-142, 2007.

4. Fillery-Travis, A. & Lane, D. “Does coaching work or are we asking the wrong question?” International Coaching Psychology Review 1,1, 23-36, 2006.

5. Leedham, M. “The Coaching Scorecard: A Holistic Approach to Evaluating the Benefits of Business Coaching.” International Journal of Evidence Based

Coaching and Mentoring 3,2, 30-44, 2005.

6. Laske, O. “Can Evidence Based Coaching Increase ROI?” International Journal of

Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring. 2,2, 41-53, 2004.

7. Libri, V. & Kemp, T. “Assessing the Efficacy of A Cognitive Behavioral Executive Coaching Programme.” International Coaching Psychology Review, 1.1, 9-20, 2006.

8. Linley, P.A. “Coaching Research: Who? What? Where? When? Why?”

International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 4,2, 1-7, 2006.

9. Passmore, J. & Gibbs, C. “The State of Executive Coaching Research: What Does the Current Literature Tell Us and What’s Next for Coaching Research?”

International Coaching Psychology Review. 2,2, 116-128, 2007.

10. Spence, G.B. “GAS Powered Coaching: Goal Attainment Scaling and Its Use In Coaching Research and Practice.” International Coaching Psychology Review, 2.2, 155-167, 2007.

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Catrese Brown Catrese Brown is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) based in Maryland. As a coach, Catrese specializes in Career and Transition Coaching for individuals, Executive Coaching for new Executive Directors in nonprofit organizations, and also coaches intact work teams.

Catrese Brown is also a consultant and facilitator.

As a solopreneur, she works with nonprofit organizations on board and leader development, transition issues, and strategic planning. She also facilitates board and staff meetings and retreats, and is a nationally recognized speaker on transition and succession planning topics.

Catrese has a MS in Human Resource Development from Towson University, is a certified administrator of the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator, and a Board member of the Maryland Chapter of the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Visit her website: www.OwnYourPotential.com

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Catrese Brown Own Your Potential

TEAM COACHING Summary Working with groups has always been my passion and most of the content in my coaching school (ICA) was focused on individual coaching. As a facilitator it seemed as if the skills needed for coaching a group or a team and facilitating groups were complimentary skill sets, so I was intrigued about the possibilities of pairing the two.

Trainers, coaches and facilitators are potential beneficiaries of the information in this paper.

Introduction Team coaching is one way to provide coaching in organizations in an affordable and effective manner that can make a difference at all levels of a business. Team coaching has become part of the mainstream of coaching in the workplace and can have a positive effect on the satisfaction with work. It translates into greater efficiency, productivity, and improvement morale in the workplace and increase staff retention.

Adding individual coaching for members of the team both reinforces the positive effects, and improves the potential for success.

Team Coaching Team Coaching refers to coaching provided to an intact team of individuals. An intact team is a group of people who work together for a specific period of time on a project, in the same department/division of a company. It is a group of individuals from the same company who could benefit from coaching around the same topic or set of topics, or who might benefit from becoming a working team. The team can be newly formed, already existing or coming together for a specific project or timeframe.

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Generally, team coaching is a facilitated process in which a supervisor or leader engages a Coach for the team, rather than the team “signing up” for coaching.

It is commonly customized to the needs of the team or determining ways to work together. It could also be arranged topically to include the opportunity to strengthen skills needed by members of the team to be more effective as individuals, team members, supervisors or leaders.

The HarBeck Company defines team coaching as “the process of a single coach working with a team of leaders or an existing department.” The Center for Creative Leadership’s (CCL) team coaching “provides groups and teams the opportunity to go beyond their current abilities; to create broader opportunities using a results-oriented process based upon member relationships, shared experience, and interpersonal awareness.”

The Learning Continuum states that, “The goal of team coaching is to help a group of people with a common purpose, identify and meet goals and simultaneously enjoy the journey. The role of the coach is to collaborate with the team to clarify desired outcomes develop plans of action and overcome barriers.”

Group Coaching Group coaching is often offered by coaches to mitigate the cost for individuals and is either designed around topics or topical areas that a group of related or non-related individuals may be interested in. It focuses on specific industries or positions, such as executives, vice presidents, etc. The members of the group identify the topics and agenda so they each benefit. Each group member holds him/herself accountable for individual goals and achievements.

Ginger Cockerham, MCC, is well known for providing group coaching, which sometimes involves intact teams, or leaders/decision-makers in the same company.

Ginger uses the Nautilus Sea Shell as her symbol of group coaching. She believes that, in a group coaching environment, where each individual brings the best of who they are into the group, that group can shine with energy and brilliance, like the inside of the shell. “Just as in the nautilus, where each chamber is separate; in group coaching each member is separately honored and valued. People join coaching groups with the intention of receiving personal and individual business value by achieving specific goals. It is only after those individuals join together to become group that the magic

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happens where reciprocity and generosity create greater value than ever imagined.”

Benefits of Team Coaching The individual members of the team, the team itself, and the company benefit from providing team coaching within the organization. Team members who receive coaching opportunities feel valued and appreciated by the organization, and therefore tend to invest themselves more in the organization and its continued success. Mitsch and Cockerham state that the “types of teams that can benefit from team coaching include executive or leadership or management teams, project teams, or teams formed to kick start a new initiative.” It can also be helpful for teams in turmoil, teams unsure of how they can work together, or individuals who have not worked together as a team. Organizations who invest in team coaching for their leadership teams have seen marked improvement in everything from job satisfaction to improved performance.

Judy Feld, MCC of the Association for Women in Science, believes that individuals receive the following benefits: •

Immediate sharing of their individual/team best practices, for mutual benefit. As a result, great ideas are quickly integrated.

•

Ability to manage change quickly and respond without delay. As a result, change happens more smoothly and with less chaos.

•

Company and organizational initiatives are reached more easily. As a result, the bottom line is positively impacted.

•

Many years of combined wisdom from the participants accelerate the transfer of knowledge. As a result, each participant and her company reach their goals faster.

Outcomes from Team Coaching Teams who participate in team coaching have shown increased cooperation through deepened understanding of other team members’ preferences and work styles, improved understanding of how the team shares, processes, and uses information; deepened awareness of how different individuals impact the team; and an enhanced understanding of team process.

Denice Rothman Hinden, PhD, ACC, President of Managance Consulting & Coaching, provides team coaching for socially responsible organizations, many of which are nonprofits. The application of professional coaching in the nonprofit sector is still

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a very new trend and there is a perception that nonprofit organizations just “can’t afford it.”

Team coaching not only offers an affordable way to offer coaching to nonprofits, but it turns out that it is an effective tool to meet a critical need for support in strengthening working relationships between staff with responsibilities for both managing other staff and sharing in day-to-day service delivery. Nonprofit organization directors and leaders are pulled in many directions. As a result it is easy to lose focus cultivating and nurturing a strong staff team – instead it is episodic and “catch as catch can.” Team coaching helps leaders make time consistently to focus on building the organization and growing themselves and their staffs’ awareness and capacity for strategic thinking and finding solutions. It doesn’t take long to get to results in team coaching and quickly reinforce the value of investing in it.”

Valerie Pelan, MBA, PCC, President of Integrated Focus, states that “Team Coaching improves individual and team performance, members learn transferable skills they can use on other teams, and encourages members to improve their communication and active listening skills.” She lists the benefits for the team and the organization as “achieving organizational goals, producing team results, and improved communication, listening, and interpersonal skills.”

The Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness (CMOE) states that the results of team coaching include “team buy-in and commitment to the organization, ability to resolve differences, increased productivity, creativity, accountability and confidence.” They believe that coaching management teams is an essential part in developing leaders and employees “to be flexible enough to use their existing skills in new situations and gives them confidence to develop new skills and processes.”

Approaches to Team Coaching Often, the individuals on the team need to be educated about what coaching is and how it can work in a team environment. It works well when it is set up to be the team coaching itself along with a coach facilitator. In other words, it is not the coach asking questions and the participants answering each question individually without any interaction among them. Participants on the team benefit from the experience, insights, coaching approach and facilitation of the coach, and also learn more about and appreciate each other’s knowledge, experience and styles.

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The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) provides group coaching and team coaching.

Team coaching opportunities “follow CCL’s research-based framework, customized to achieve the organization’s specific needs and desired outcomes. CCL’s coaches use individual and team assessments, to identify common group behaviors, demonstrate gaps in perception and thinking, providing everyone the opportunity to think more openly, and to work together in a manner that creates shared group understanding and increases effectiveness.”

It is helpful to begin team coaching with one or more assessments to determine the individual and team’s strengths and coaching needs. The coach and the team (perhaps in conjunction with an organization leader who is providing the opportunity for coaching) jointly agree on desired outcomes, and schedule for the coaching sessions.

It can also be helpful to begin the coaching relationship with a workshop that debriefs any assessments and enables group understanding of the purpose and topics of team coaching, and set goals for the team coaching process.

The Learning Continuum and Managance Consulting & Coaching begin team coaching with a workshop. Team Coaching International begins team coaching with their exclusive data driven assessment tool, which they use to “develop a team profile which paints a real-world picture of where it is strong, and where it must be stronger.

With this accurate baseline and specifically designed training exercises, their Team Coaches set the team on the path to immediate and sustainable improvement.”

The duration of the team coaching process depends on many factors. Optimal results require no less than 6 months of team coaching and at times can be as long as 12 or 18 months. The schedule also varies. Some coaching organizations provide weekly coaching, some provide bi-weekly or monthly coaching. In the process of team coaching, the team members identify actions and accountabilities that are important to reach the goals that have been set either in a pre-coaching workshop or in the first coaching session.

Common Team Coaching Topics Similar to group coaching, team-coaching topics can be selected and prioritized by the participants. Occasionally, the leader of the department in which employees are being coached will select the topics deemed appropriate for the group, but when the actual participants select topics, there is more investment in the process.

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Potential topics include: •

Team Building

•

Leadership Skills

•

Leadership Styles

•

Management Skill Building

•

Goal Setting

•

Communication

•

Work-Life Balance

Topics may vary from team to team, and work best when tailored to the team or organization.

Special Training Needed Coaching a team requires some skills in addition to coaching skills. For a successful outcome, it is necessary that the coach understand group dynamics, how teams are formed and may work together, and dynamics of navigating an organizational system. The International Coaching Community (ICC) believes that coaches providing team coaching in a business environment need additional training, and offers specialized training on this topic. This four-day training includes topics such as: •

Definitions and structure of team coaching in business and the most important differences between team coaching and one to one coaching

•

The characteristics of high performance teams and how to develop them and the obstacles to high performance and how to deal with them

•

Teams as a system – using leverage points and feedback

•

Getting agreement and clarity about team goals, working with team values and how to deal with conflict in teams

•

The different stages of teams and how to deal with them

•

How to measure a team performance and how to structure effective team action plans

•

The practicalities of team coaching

Center for Creative Leadership coaches receive special training on the tools and the process necessary to enable the team to be more effective. “However, the coach is not bound by any particular structure-instead; the coach uses their sound foundation of assessment knowledge and business experience, along with the desires of the team, to produce results far beyond the capability of the team alone.” Experienced

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organizational coaches use motivational, consultative and educational process interventions designed to enhance team effectiveness.

Adding Individual Coaching for Team Members The Learning Continuum and Managance Consulting & Coaching include individual coaching to team members as part of their package. Managance Consulting & Coaching provides team coaching every three weeks, and coaches the individual members of the team between those times. Denice Rothman Hinden, PhD, ACC, President of Managance Consulting & Coaching believes that adding the individual coaching opportunity “solidifies learning, provides a safe space to explore team dynamics, and consequently strengthens the team coaching process.” Team Coaching International believes in treating the team as a system and does not recommend adding individual coaching.

Conclusion Team coaching is quickly becoming more popular in business as results show that team coaching can transform individuals, teams, departments and whole organizations!

References 1.

Clutterbuck, David. Coaching the Team at Work. Boston, MA: Nicholas Brealey International, 2007.

2.

Cockerham, Ginger and Mitsch, DJ. “Distinguishing Group and Team Coaching” ICF Annual International Conference, Orlando, FL, 2009. www.coachginger.com

3.

Feld, Judy. http://www.awiscoaching.org/Group_Coaching.php

4.

Harvill, Riley, PhD. Available at: www.harbeck.com

5.

Teegarden, Paige Hull, Hinden, Denice Rothman, and Sturm, Paul. The

Nonprofit Organizational Culture Guide: Reveal the Hidden Truths That Impact Performance. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2010. www.Managance. com.

6.

Thornton, Christine. ). Group and Team Coaching, the Essential Guides. New York: Routledge, 2010.

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Online References http://www.coachfederation.org/includes/media/docs/Mitsch-and-CockerhamHandout-1.pdf http://www.ccl.org/leadership/coaching/team.aspx http://www.cmoe.com/coaching_management.html http://www.fulllifecenters.com/organizational_coaching.html http://www.internationalcoachingcommunity.com http://www.scribd.com/doc/7824610/Team-Coaching-Building-Value-by-UnlockingPotential http://www.sustainabilitycentre.net/teamcoaching.html http://www.teamcoachinginternational.com/measurable-outcomes.php http://www.thelearningcontinuum.biz/teamcoaching.htm http://www.willcando.co.uk/coaching/benefits-of-team-coaching_156.html

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Dawn Waldron Dawn Waldron is a Professional Coach, Nutritionist, Author and Public Speaker. Her coaching practice, Vocation Location, is designed to help people do something they love with their lives. Finding your life purpose and your niche is part of that process.

Email: dawnwaldron@mac.com Web site: http://www.dawnwaldron.com

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Dawn Waldron Vocation Location

Finding Your Niche: How to Find the Clients that Need You Summary This paper presents a coaching-centered model for finding a business niche with the aim of helping coaches and complementary therapists identify the market segment that they are best suited to serve. The author discusses classic niche marketing techniques and adapts the theory to provide a new model for identifying clients that takes into account the values and life experience of the coach as well as commercial considerations in order to target a group that is willing and able to buy the service presented.

INTRODUCTION The biggest challenge facing the qualified coach is finding a supply of regular clients.

With the majority of coaches having less than 10 active clients and most of these reporting 5 or less (ICF, 2008) the ability to earn a living from coaching is debatable.

It is widely accepted that coaches are more successful when they establish a niche for themselves but the evidence shows that few coaches exploit the potential of this idea.

Over half of qualified coaches have obtained an advanced degree, and two-thirds place great emphasis on professional development, but relatively few come from an established marketing background (ICF, 2008). Such emphasis is placed on authenticity and integrity that commercial sales and marketing models have little appeal. A model is needed that sits happily within the caring culture of coaching.

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Fig 1: Number of active coaching clients per coach (ICF, 2008)

This paper presents a new marketing model which combines business analysis with a coaching approach to help small businesses identify a market niche that makes economic and emotional sense, allowing them to measure success by evaluating profit and purpose at the same time, without sacrificing one for the other. It is a useful model for coaches and for their business clients.

Niche Marketing Theory Niche marketing is the process of identifying a defined segment of people who are likely and able to buy a specific product, and tailoring a proposition to suit them. The theory derives from the market segmentation model, an economic and marketing theory, which divides purchasers into groups with similar needs, for example gender, occupation, health. By grouping consumers in this way it is possible to target them efficiently and address them directly (Lake, 2009).

In the early 1900s manufacturers were selling to undifferentiated markets. The new industrial age meant that most customers were satisfied with standardized goods, typified by the Model T Ford (Harvard, 2005). As competitors entered the market the need for differentiation increased.

In the early 2000s the surge of internet marketing made it easier to design and promote very specific product offerings to clearly defined groups. This kind of marketing is ideal for small service businesses with modest marketing budgets.

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Fig 2: Standard distribution curve (Bowman, 2009)

Small businesses do not need a large segment to be profitable; they can operate at either end of the standard distribution curve where there is less competition for customers and more scope for offering superior service and choice (Anderson, 2007).

A Business Approach Large companies use quantitative multifactor analysis to identify market segments in order to identify profitable new groups of consumers and reduce the risk of new marketing ventures. They assess the whole market, seeking untapped opportunities, studying buyer behavior including frequency and total spend, as well as the factors that prompt buying decisions; a costly process. They may carry out supplementary research into the more profitable-looking segments to identify market growth potential, competition and accessibility of consumers (Harvard, 2005). The body of data is analyzed for segments, which offer the closest fit for their product; occasionally the research leads to a completely new product for a new segment.

They will relate it to the company’s existing customer base, identify pockets of new opportunity, possibly new marketing partners, and select a profitable niche (Neilsen, 2011).

Large-scale market segmentation usually takes place when a company has achieved substantial market share in one segment of a market and is looking for further areas to diversify into. They have the budget and capability to carry out the work to a high level of rigor.

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Smaller businesses, with fewer resources, aiming for a stake in a market, can adapt the classic model to suit their capability and budget. A good starting point would be to decide either to sell a specific product or serve a key market. For example, a clothing manufacturer may start with their product, aiming to attract a group of young executives, whereas a service provider may identify an affluent market segment of 50-year old women and design an offering to appeal to them. There is still a need to ensure your product is attractively priced and promoted, but taking a cool, objective look at your market to see what is missing makes good business sense before you leap in with a new product.

Many coaches, however, will not be satisfied simply with choosing an efficient, profitable niche. Nearly 65% of coaches are dedicated towards personal development (ICF, 2008) for themselves and their clients: here is likely to be a pull towards more personal and meaningful ways of selecting a niche.

So how can coaches keep the benefits of the business model and make it feel more meaningful?

A Coaching Approach Conversations with several ICA students indicate they are planning to select their niche in line with the Communities of Practice workshops offered by the ICA . These valid niches already support a growing number of coaches. New entrants will be faced with the challenge of how to stand out.

Chatting with coaches in a local networking group revealed that few had given much thought to niche marketing beyond pondering how to describe themselves; Life Coach, Wellness Coach, Relationship Coach etc. Most were offering a broad-based service in the belief that it is better to be available to everyone. None had looked at the market, identified segments and deliberately targeted them.

Why not?

A strong belief for coaches is the unique individuality of themselves and their clients.

Coaches recognize that no two people are alike. The idea seems to undermine the concept of niche marketing. If everyone is unique, how can one target groups?

One answer to that question is that, although humanity is diverse, we have connecting themes; dreams, passions, and ideas, defining experiences. Highlighting

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these deeply personal qualities is the way to add more meaning to your marketing message and to create a more profound connection with your client.

Among the coaches asked, most had entered the profession as a second career. Most had a deep-seated desire to make a difference. Most could point to a turning point that influenced their decision to become a coach. The evidence suggested that the ‘turning point’ is a critical factor for coaches in finding the market segment they are best designed to serve, and so it was decided to test that theory by asking coaches on Twitter how they found their niche. It is reasonable to assume that people on Twitter are making a decisive attempt to reach their market and are more likely to be targeting a niche.

The Question:

The Answers:

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The Turning Point For coaches it seems that there is a turning point that is key to connecting with clients. The Twitter conversation led to the following descriptions of turning points: “It was when I was diagnosed with cancer. I left the consultant’s office and no one was waiting for me to offer me any help or advice. I decided to devote my life to making sure no one else ever had to feel so hopeless.” (Waldron, 2011) “I was sitting in the barber’s chair and I saw this grey faced man staring back at me.

I didn’t recognize him. I knew it was time to change my life. And that there were thousands of other people like me wanting to do the same thing.” (Crofts, 2011) “I’ve got stories to tell and people to motivate. And…I’ve got a revolution to start. A revolution founded on people pursuing their dreams and living out loud and taking their own big leaps, a revolution that I believe can change the world.” (Maurer, 2011) “I spent my whole life trying to climb the corporate ladder. Then one day I sat back and realized that what I’m really good at is spotting what other people are really good at. It was a stark realization. My success came from helping others to succeed.

So that’s what I do now.” (Foster, 2011) In each of these cases a profound personal experience has led to a sense of universal connection with others in the same situation. The niche they are drawn to has become sharply defined through a moment of intense personal insight.

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A Combined Approach Can these two different approaches be combined in order to find a market segment that makes sense from both a commercial and a ‘personal meaning’ perspective?

Both the approaches described are a form of niche market identification: the first, a logical, quantitative approach that aims to reduce risk and priorities profit; the second an emotional, experiential approach that taps into purpose and passion. Both appear to be valid though they may seem contradictory.

A model that combined the best of both approaches would be valuable.

The positive aspects of each approach are highlighted in the table below (Figure 3), showing that the ideal model would look at the whole market objectively, while still recognizing the relevance of personal experience and meaning. It would aim to do this within a realistic budget and timescale, while still being reliable.

Fig 3: The pros and cons of Business vs. Coaching approach

When the two methods are compared side-by-side, it becomes easier to see that they are not mutually exclusive. There are some important areas of crossover including: - Communicating with customers in a shared, specific language - Finding customers who really need/want what you are offering - Targeting customers with the ability to buy

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Three Critical Questions By looking at the overlapping aims of each approach it is possible to formulate the questions that the coach needs to ask and answer.

•

What is my defining experience? (Articulating shared language/experience)

•

Who are the people I want to help? (Identifying who really needs help)

•

Who is buying coaching services? (Targeting customers with the ability to buy)

The point at which these three questions overlap is the niche market that our coaching business is best designed to serve.

Fig 4: Where the Critical Questions overlap

What is my defining experience?

Who is buying coaching?

Who can I help?

Although the scope of the surveys was limited, it is clear that the coaches asked have a deep understanding of what makes them uniquely qualified to help others. An hour spent looking at coaching websites shows that most fail to take the important step of targeting their message to their niche, although this is most critical.

When setting up in business it feels counter-intuitive to exclude 90% of potential customers in order to focus on just 10%: there is innate resistance to turning people away. Yet, English-speaking coaches are normally prepared to accept that they won’t be coaching Japanese-speaking clients.

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Targeting your niche is just another way of making sure you are speaking the client’s language (Harvard, 2005). By excluding the segments you don’t want to talk to, you can talk more directly to your customers. They are more likely to relate to your message, to feel understood by you and then engage your services.

Conclusion This paper has shown how identifying a niche market can provide more direct access to clients. The classic business model of market segmentation has been examined and compared with a more unusual coaching approach. There is value in both.

By looking at where the two models interconnect it is possible to design a set of questions that can be asked and answered to identify a profitable and purposeful niche market ideally suited to both the coach and the clients who need it.

The process can be repeated for multiple niches within a single coaching practice.

References 1.

Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited

Demand. Random House, 2007.

2.

Bowman. “Statistics Notes - Properties of Normal Distribution 2”. 2009. http:// rchsbowman.wordpress.com/2009/11/page/2/

3.

Crofts, N. Interview with Dawn Waldron. 12.4.11

4.

Foster, S. Interview with Dawn Waldron. 24.5.11

5.

Harvard Business School “Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.”

Harvard Business School Press, 2005.

6.

International Coach Federation. “Global Coaching Study, Executive Summary”.

2008. ICF Website. Accessed 3.6.11

7.

Lake, Laura. Consumer Behaviour for Dummies. Wiley, 2009.

8.

Maurer, A (2011) Interview with Dawn Waldron. 26.5.11

9.

McNamara, Hannah. “Niche Marketing for Coaches”. Thorogood, 2007.

10.

Nielsen Consulting Website: “Market Structure and Segmentation”. 2011. http:// www.nielsen.com/uk/en/practices/market-structure-segmentation.html Accessed 3.6.11

11.

Waldron, D. “Personal experience” recorded 4.6.11

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List of illustrations Fig 1: Number of active coaching clients per coach (ICF, 2008) Fig 2: Standard distribution curve. (Bowman, 2011) Fig 3: Table comparing pros and cons of Business and Coaching approach (Original) Fig 4: Where the Critical Questions overlap (Original)

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Edda Jonsdottir Edda coaches women all around the world. Her coaching evolves around women who want to be leaders in their own lives. She has developed a model of transformation - a valuable compass for women on their journey towards becoming the best version of themselves. One of her specialties as a coach is guiding her clients to connect with their intuition.

Edda came to coaching from a versatile background.

She was a research journalist in radio for seven years, covering human rights issues and international affairs. As a human rights specialist, she has worked for international organizations and advised governments.

Originally from Iceland, Edda resides in Oslo, Norway with her husband and two children. Edda holds university degrees in human rights, media and communication studies and Italian. She has spent long periods of time in Italy and is a graduate from the University of Bologna. She speaks four languages.

Email: eddajonz@gmail.com Website: EddaCoaching.com

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Edda Jonsdottir Edda Coaching

Intuition and Coaching: How Coaches Access their Intuition to Strengthen the Coaching Process Summary “The only real valuable thing is intuition.” - Albert Einstein Intuition is an essential element to coaching. Accessing intuition and being able to trust it are among the core competencies a coach needs to have, according to the International Coach Federation competency standards.

It is a finding of a survey conducted among coaches as a basis for this paper, that by defining and visualizing the intuition, accessing it becomes easier. Coaches use methods to become centralized in order to connect with their intuition. This strengthens the coaching process and makes a difference in what a coach brings to the table. Furthermore, listening for the messages the client is getting from his or her intuition is important to strengthen the coaching process.

INTRODUCTION Accessing the intuition and trusting one’s inner knowing is one of the International Coach Federation Core Competencies. ICF Competency - 4.2. “Accesses own intuition and trusts one’s inner knowing - ’goes with the gut’.”

It is important for coaches to be able to access their intuition to be competent as coaches. But how do coaches access their own intuition? How can they trust their inner knowing to be able to “go with the gut”? What is the role of intuition in the coaching process?

The aim of this research paper is to reflect on these questions and to search for answers about the use of intuition in coaching.

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Intuition Defined According to the Oxford Dictionary, the origin of the word intuition arrives from late Latin intuitio (n-) and from Latin intueri ‘. The dictionary defines the meaning of the word as “the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning”. The root of the word intuition is related to tuition, which arrives from the Latin word tueri. Tueri means to protect or guard. In late Middle English it meant denoting spiritual insight or immediate spiritual communication.

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines wisdom as “intuitive reason combined with scientific knowledge”. The French Philosopher, Henri Bergson stated “an absolute can only be given in an intuition, while all the rest has to do with analysis”.

Intuition, sensation, thinking and feeling are the four major functions of the human mind, according to Carl Jung. In Psychological Types, Carl Jung describes intuition as “a perception of realities which are not known to the conscious, and which goes via the unconscious.” He also said that intuition is not only a perception, but also a creative process with the capacity to inspire.

In her book, The Art of Intuition, Sophy Burnham describes intuition in this way: “you can’t touch it or see it or find in on the Internet. I believe it is our subconscious mind speaking to us from dark and covert caves. If we do not listen, it will try to send its messages in dreams. Or else it becomes so insistent that we hear it even as an External Voice. Perhaps it is only our inner selves talking to ourselves, but sometimes it feels so different, so “otherworldly”, that you’d think it could be orchestrated by angels.”

Intuition and Coaching In a search for indications on how coaches define and access their intuition and then use it to strengthen the coaching process, ten coaches were asked to answer ten questions on intuition. The survey questions were sent out via individual emails. The recipients had agreed to take part in the survey.

The answers the coaches provided are not to be perceived as scientific proof, although they are an indication of the understanding and practice of how coaches define their intuition, connect with it and use it to strengthen the coaching process.

As the survey included a case study question, the identities of the participants are kept secret to protect their coach-client confidentiality. The coaches and clients are

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always referred to in masculine. That is only for grammatical reasons and has nothing to do with the actual gender of the coaches and clients in question.

How Coaches Define their Intuition When asked to define their intuition, three of the coaches talked about it being a gut feeling and other three talked about it being a feeling that gives direction. Intuition as inner knowing and as universal wisdom was also mentioned along with intuition as an inner voice and as inner guidance.

One of the coaches said that intuition “is not necessarily opposed to a rationalized behavior, but it is almost some kind of ‘thinking in suspension’. It is some kind of an instinct at the level of the emotional and spiritual.” Another coach described intuition as “direct perception of truth independent of any reasoning process.”

Roger Wolcott Sperry, a neurobiologist that conducted research on the connection between the left and the right hemispheres of the brain, concluded that intuition is a right-brain activity, while factual and mathematical analysis is a left-brain activity.

In light of that, it is interesting that five of the coaches placed their intuition in their heart place or close to the heart. Three of them placed it in the solar plexus region (gut). Four coaches placed their intuition in their mind or their subconscious mind.

Four of them placed their intuition in more than one place, including the “third eye”, and one said it is placed “within [his] total being”.

Identifying that something as untouchable as intuition has a form and a color, can make a great difference for many people, when it comes to accessing intuition.

When asked to describe their intuition in form and color, most of the coaches sent in vivid descriptions. Four of them claimed that their intuition had no visible shape, but described it as a sound or connectedness.

The others’ descriptions were “white form almost angelic and innocent”, “it has a core which emanates movement […] dynamic with soft rainbow colors”, “round and yellow”, “electrical hub, gray in color”, “form […] of a lightness inside of my body […] moving dots of energy swirling around”.

Many of the coaches that answered, wrote back saying that at first these questions concerning the identification of the intuition – its placement and its color and form - seemed a little odd. However after having answered the questions, the coaches

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claimed that accessing the intuition became easier, thanks to having visualized it this way.

How Coaches Access their Intuition Coaches need to be aware of the messages they are receiving from their intuition.

The coaches were asked three questions on how they gain access to their intuition.

First they were asked how they get messages from their intuition. One of the coaches said the messages come as “everything wrapped together, thought, emotion and physical reaction”. Another coach also claimed to have a physical and mental reaction when receiving messages from his intuition. Three of them said that the messages come through a voice. Four of them described getting messages through a feeling.

Finally one of them described getting messages through his clairsentience, and clairvoyance.

Secondly, the coaches were asked to answer where the messages their intuition sends them, come from. More than half of them answered that the messages come from within them. Others claimed they come from God, higher self, soul or spirit, something superior or from angels.

Thirdly, the coaches were asked how they connect with their intuition when coaching.

Most of the coaches stated that active or attentive listening was the key to being connected to their intuition when coaching. Many spoke about setting an intention, meditating or breathing prior to the session also helped them stay connected and being totally present for the client during the session.

How Coaches use their Intuition to Strengthen the Coaching Process The coaches were asked to answer three questions in order to gain information on how they use their intuition to strengthen the coaching process. First was the question about the role of the intuition in their coaching. One of them said the role of his intuition was to be his “co-coach”. Most of them described the role of the intuition as the role of a guide, navigator or an informer that helps them to “connect more empathetically”, “listen and be present without judgment” and “to be a source of support and understanding for the client”.

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One of the coaches described the role of intuition as “one of compassion, empathy and connection”. Another spoke about the role of intuition being the force that moves the conversation, so that the coach can hear what lies beneath the surface of what the client is saying: this may include things the coach is perhaps not even aware of, but responding intuitively may help them to rise to the surface and be dealt with in the matter that best serves the client.

The second question was how using their intuition strengthens the coaching process. One of the coaches described intuition as the foundation for the strength of the process. “Coaching […] is rooted in intuition. When I listen to my intuition, I am […] going in the right direction […]. It makes the interaction authentic and wholehearted.”

Another coach said he believed intuition strengthens the coaching process because intuition comes from a deep place. He said he believes that real, beneficial coaching that delivers lasting results is achieved when a coach helps a client to go deep inside.

Another coach claimed that intuition strengthens the coaching process because of the willingness of the coach to be open to something bigger than himself - to something more than even he can see. In allowing his intuition to lead his coaching he is allowing his higher self, which he believes knows more than him, to give guidance in the direction that best serves the client.

“It makes the process faster,” said another coach. “The intuition does not seem to take any detours, but gets straight to the point, even when it does not seem rational at first.” Another answer was that “using intuition makes the coach align more to the client’s way of thinking and hence, the coach is able to understand what obstacles to work on to move the client ahead.”

The renowned novelist Jane Austen said that we all have a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be. In a feature article on intuition and coaching, published in Choice Magazine, Laura Berman Fortgang MCC brings that same point to the coaching scene by saying that “coaches are the voice of their client’s intuition”.

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One of the coaches identified the use of intuition to strengthen the coaching process as being exactly that, as listening and strengthening process! It assists the client to connect with his intuition in order for him to understand when his intuition is indeed sending him messages. He said the most important role of the coach is to help the client receive the messages that the client’s intuition is sending him in a given situation. He points out that at the end of the day, coaching is about the answers that the client himself holds, and if the client connects to his intuition it can play a vital role in getting to the core of those answers.

The third question the coaches were asked, having to do with the coaching process, was if they believed intuition to be an important element to coaching. All of them agreed that it is a fundamental element. One of them said that there have been so many times where, had he not listened to his intuition and asked the deep questions, his clients would have lost opportunities to have great breakthroughs. Another one called intuition “the pillar of authentic and successful coaching”.

Case Studies When asked to name an instance where using their intuition made a difference in their coaching, all the coaches named powerful examples. These are examples of how coaches access their intuition and trust their inner knowing.

“I had a client who always felt small and my intuition guided me to remind him of his greatness in life so far. This bit of intuition moved him forward to see his accomplishments and be grateful. In his gratitude he found space to move into a new direction with his goals.”

“I was working with one of my clients who was struggling with very destructive, negative self-talk. Coaching him from significance into lightness was a wonderful process, but at the end of the session I realized that I actually was not doing the talking and questioning. It felt as if I ‘woke up’ at the end of the session and that my intuition had led the way beautifully and very effectively.”

Conclusion Accessing the intuition, trusting one’s inner knowing and “going with the gut” are very important elements to coaching. They are among the International Coach Federation Core Competencies. It is extremely important for coaches to be able to access their intuition to be competent as coaches.

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Ten coaches answered questions about intuition and how they access their intuition in order to strengthen the coaching process. Many of the coaches claimed that by defining their intuition and placing it visually in the body, it became easier to gain access. Awareness and active listening were identified as key elements when it comes to being connected to the intuition in coaching.

When turning the mirror 180 degrees, to the client, it is also important for the client to be connected to his intuition. The role of the coach is to be aware of and identify the messages the client’s intuition is sending him.

REFERENCES 1.

“Albert Einstein Quotes”. Retrieved March 8, 2012, from http://www. brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins165188.html

2.

Aristotle (350 B.C.). Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI. Translation by Ross, W.D. Internet Classics Archive Retrieved March 8, 2012, from http://classics.mit.edu/ Aristotle/nicomachaen.6.vi.html

3.

Austen, J (1814). Mansfield Park. London, Thomas Egerton.

4.

“Roger Wolcott Sperry” Britannica Online Encyclopædia. Retrieved March 7, 2012. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/559468/Roger-Wolcott-Sperry

5.

Burnham, S. The Art of Intuition: Cultivating Your Inner Wisdom. New York, Penguin, 2011.

6.

“Henri Bergson Quotes”. Retrieved March 8, 2012. http://www.quotesnsayings. net/quotes/13154

7.

Fortgang, L. B. “Intuition and Coaching”. Choice Magazine, Volume 9, number 5, December, 2011.

8.

International Coach Federation (n.d.) ICF Core Competencies. Retrieved January 31, 2012. http://www.coachfederation.org/icfcredentials/core-competencies/

9.

Jung, C.G. ([1921] 1971). Psychological Types, Collected Works, Volume 6, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

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APPENDIX QUESTIONS ON INTUITION 1.

What is intuition?

2.

Where is your intuition placed?

3.

What does your intuition look like? (form and color)

4.

How do you get messages from your intuition?

5.

Where do the messages your intuition sends you, come from?

6.

How do you connect with your intuition when coaching?

7.

What is the role of your intuition in your coaching?

8.

Please describe an instance where using your intuition has made a difference in your coaching?

9.

How does using your intuition strengthen the coaching process?

10.

Do you believe intuition is an important element to coaching?

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Jeff Anderson After 40+ years in the information technology industry, I followed my own dream, taking classes at International Coach Academy to become a personal coach. I wanted to run my own business and, frankly, never ever work for a corporation again. Now I coach people from around the globe I am a husband, a father and a grandfather. I bring a wealth of life experiences to the table. Some I have enjoyed, some I have not, but all of it has shaped me and brought me to where I am today.

Email: jeff@your-life-plus.com

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Jeff Anderson Professional Coach, Your Life Plus LLC

Letting Go: Terminating the Coaching Relationship Summary Coaching relationships can end normally or abruptly, but in all cases the coach should attempt to review the relationship with the client, discuss the reasons for ending the relationship, and help the client perceive the ending as a positive result. While much has been written about the coaching relationship in terms of client interaction, coaching tools and developing the relationship, there is little discussion in the literature of terminating the relationship, particularly when the termination is other than that which one might expect in the normal course of events. This paper attempts to bring together that disparate information.

INTRODUCTION Perhaps it would be best to define what we mean by “termination”. Ryan Howes, in his article “Terminating Therapy, Part 1: What, Why, How?” states, “Termination is clinical jargon for the last phase of therapy. ...In fact, for some it’s the most profoundly healing, meaningful and transformative phase of therapy.” (Howes, 2008) The same is true for the coaching relationship. It is not the abrupt cessation of all contact, but rather the thoughtful, carefully planned summarization of goals achieved, actions remaining to be taken and, finally, a positive parting.

Causes for Ending the Coaching Relationship Coaches are aware that although there is always an ebb and flow within the coaching relationship, inevitably the relationship will have run its course. Ideally, the coaching relationship ends when the client has achieved his goals and both the coach and the client recognize that they are ready for the relationship to end.

Sometimes the coaching relationship ends early, or even abruptly. Among the variety of reasons could be:

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•

The client simply terminates the relationship

•

Either party feels that the relationship is incompatible

•

The coach recognizes that the issues under discussion are beyond the coach’s capabilities and a referral to another coach or to a trained professional such as a therapist or marriage counselor is in order.

It is important in each of these cases for the coach to handle ending the relationship with skill so that the relationship ends positively, the client feels supported and is able to move on to the next step, and the coach’s reputation remains intact.

Handling the Termination In the ideal situation, the coach and the client have established goals, defined action steps, executed them, and continued moving forward until the goals are achieved.

At that point, both will realize that the reason for the relationship is coming to an end. “The end of a coaching assignment is an important event. The more effective the coaching relationship has been the more important the ending is likely to be.”

(Transition Partnerships, 2005) Ending a relationship can be a difficult transition for many people. It can bring up memories of separation, loss and death. Skillfully handled it can be a celebration of goals accomplished. The coach can prepare for ending the coaching relationship by allowing several sessions for discussion of both the coach’s and the client’s readiness to end the relationship.

For some clients, time will need to be spent talking about feelings of loss and separation and fears of moving forward without the coach’s support.

Time will also be spent reviewing the goals that were set, how the client accomplished them, the progress that was made and the readiness of the client to go forward on his own.

During these preliminary ending sessions, a date should be set for the last session.

The last session is a celebration of all the client has accomplished, a discussion about the client’s moving forward in the future and finally saying goodbye. At this time, the coach may ask or invite the client to check back at some future point. A good coaching relationship with a successful outcome and a skillfully handled ending will ideally result in future referrals.

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Unfortunately, some coaching relationships will need to end sooner than expected.

Some of the reasons for ending the coaching relationship are failure to establish a bond of mutual trust, failure on the part of the client to pay fees, or a lack of progress on the agreed upon goals. Sometimes the presented issue requires professional help beyond the skills a coach has to offer.

In spite of a coach’s training, skills and experience there are times when a coach will be unable to establish any kind of rapport with the client. If rapport cannot be established, a client will not open up and respond to the coach’s suggestions.

“Personal chemistry is vital. It is a significant factor in building trust.” (Transition Partnerships, 2005) A coach will spend time talking with the client about the client’s issue and relating it to the coach’s own experience to establish a sense of shared context. If the coach is unable to establish a bond of trust because of differences in values, attitudes or biases it is best to end the sessions early in the relationship.

In other cases, a bond of trust is established and the coaching relationship starts out positively but then the client stops making progress, or continually skips sessions, or stops paying fees. In these instances, the coach can explore the client’s reasons and try to address them. If the coach and the client are unable to come to an agreement on how to move forward, it is best to end the relationship.

The coach may determine that the client is simply not ready to work on their issue at this time. The client has failed to take agreed upon actions, skipped or continually rescheduled sessions, or declines to talk about what may be blocking her. All these are symptoms of the client’s reluctance to address the issue and this lack of progress can serve as the lead-in to the termination process.

There are also times when a client will contact a coach and the presented issue would best be referred to a psychologist, psychiatrist, or marriage counselor. The coach must constantly be aware of the potential for these situations to develop so they can be handled in a sensitive manner. The coach must not only know his own limits, but also be aware of the potential liability involved.

Finally, it would be remiss to ignore the situation where there is an actual physical threat. Most coaching is done via telephone or other communications media, so there

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is some degree of safety built in. If the session is face-to-face, the best approach is to present a calm demeanor and try to end the session as expeditiously as possible.

At this point, the goal is to get to safety. Once safe, the coach can rationally explore the event and determine an appropriate response, which may range from continuing coaching to notifying the police.

With the exception of the physical threat scenario described above, any coaching relationship ending early must be handled in a professional, positive manner.

When ending the relationship, the coach should be careful not to be accusing or judgmental. Just as with the client who completes the coaching process with a positive outcome, the coach wants every client to leave with positive thoughts about the contact. When ending the coaching relationship early it is important to attempt to get the client to take ownership for the issue that is causing the difficulty. The coach can bring up the topic that is causing the difficulty, explain how he perceives it and then encourage the client to discuss the issue. At this point, the coach may ask the client how she wishes to proceed. If there is no mutually agreeable solution, the coach can assume a more active role, stating possible actions and the consequences of those actions.

If the issue is an inability of the coach and client to establish a working relationship, or the need for the client to seek professional help, the coach can refer the client to another coach or professional and end by �...summarizing what they have gained from their relationship and wishing them luck.� (personal-coaching-information.com, 2008) The coach may also encourage the client to check back with them about their success or difficulty in making the new contact and with the client’s progress.

In the case of a client who is not progressing, missing sessions or not paying fees it may be possible to make a contract with the client on how to proceed. In these cases, the client and the coach will make an agreement spelling out the details on how the relationship will proceed. The client may agree to consistently attend sessions, meet certain goals or begin a reduced payment plan with the understanding that failure to adhere to the agreement will end the relationship.

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Conclusion A client who has worked with a coach is much like the client who has worked with a therapist. A relationship of trust was established that enabled the client to set goals and achieve them, teaching the client how to move forward on his own with a new sense of confidence. When it is necessary to end the coaching relationship early, the coach needs to exercise as much skill as possible in order to successfully support the needs of the client and end the relationship on a positive note. A successful conclusion to the coaching relationship leaves the client with a positive view of the coach and possible referrals to future clients.

References 1.

Barnett, J., & Zur, O. “Codes of Ethics on Termination in Psychotherapy and Counseling”. 2010. Retrieved from zurinstitute.com: http://www.zurinstitute. com/ethicsoftermination.html

2.

Hopkins, M. ((n.d.)). ehow.com. Retrieved from “How to Finish a Counseling Relationship With a Client” http://www.ehow.com/how_5688966_finishcounseling-relationship-client.html

3.

Howes, R. Terminating Therapy, Part I: What, Why, How? . 2008. http://www. psychologytoday.com/blog/in-therapy/200809/terminating-therapy-part-i-whatwhy-how#

4.

International Coach Federation. “Code of Ethics”. 2008. http://www. coachfederation.org/about-icf/ethics/icf-code-of-ethics/

5.

International Coach Federation. “Code of Conduct for Coaching and Mentoring”. International Coach Federation, 2011.

6.

personal-coaching-information.com. “Ending Your Coaching Relationship”, 2008. http://www.personal-coaching-information.com/ending-your-coachingrelationship.html

7.

Transition Partnerships. “Coaching: How to Make it Work for You”. 2005. http:// www.transitionpartnerships.com/docs/coaching.pdf

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Lizette DuBay, RD, LD Lizette DuBay is a registered dietitian and wellness coach dedicated to empowering people to live well. She currently practices at Salem Hospital in Oregon as a clinical outpatient and inpatient dietitian. Additionally, she provides sports nutrition, nutrition coaching and wellness coaching as a consultant at Silverton Fitness in Silverton, Oregon and for several Fred Meyer/ Kroger stores throughout Oregon. Lizette has delighted in seeing her clients and patients benefit from applying the principles of Choice Theory in both the clinical and non-clinical settings. She benefits from these same principles in managing her personal and professional relationships as well. Lizette lives in Oregon with her husband and her children.

Email: lizette@damzil.com Website: www.coachmerd.com

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Lizette DuBay, RD, LD Damzil Enterprises, LLC

Choice Theory & Coaching Summary The goal of Choice Theory is to empower the client to choose behaviors that create satisfying relationships in all areas of life and thus allow him or her to create a more satisfying life. Coaches have the ideal set of tools and skills to move clients to a place of understanding Choice Theory and using it as a tool for creating the life they want. Dr. Glasser’s book could be a valuable addition to the coach’s library, a resource available for Choice-Theory-ready clients to delve deeper into the concepts, and influence their quality world for the better.

INTRODUCTION “…choose life so that you and your children may live…”

Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV 2011) Regardless of worldview, the pursuit of wisdom drives humans to find peace of mind and become more powerful in creating their own life or quality of existence. From ancient books like The Bible, there are references to the suggestions of the power of an individual to choose his or her own life. How often does one experience helplessness in a given environment or circumstance, to do just that?

Choice Theory, developed by William Glasser, PhD, describes his method for a client to become empowered to choose his or her own life. In essence, Choice Theory teaches the client to recognize a condition of powerlessness as the result of a choice. This raises awareness of what could be changed, and invites creativity to make these changes. Much of this empowerment results as the client understands his responsibility in creating the condition in which he finds himself. He can clearly see the choices he has made that created the current outcome and can then choose different actions to create a different, and hopefully more satisfying, outcome. With continued choices, the client learns to what extent a different life can be created.

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Choice Theory In the 1960s, Dr. Glasser began using a therapy in his practice called Reality Therapy, in contrast to the conventional methods. According to Dr. Glasser the methods of conventional psychology addressed what he termed as external control psychology.

External control psychology refers to controlling one’s external environment. He recognized the traditional methods failed to bring about real solutions and positive change for clients despite months or years of weekly therapy sessions. He observed the conventions of psychotherapy demanded patients or clients dwell on past experiences with the theory that these deep past wounds must be healed prior to progressing. It seemed to Dr. Glasser that the more time one spent dealing with these past hurts, the more deeply rooted one became in the past, making it almost impossible to progress or move forward.

The problem, Dr. Glasser noticed, is the past cannot be changed. He recognized there is no power in spending time in a place or time you cannot affect. He began using what he called reality therapy to take his clients out of past-dwelling and start examining the parts of themselves, their conditions and their environments that they had the power to affect and change based on the choices they make. Choice Theory developed out of the practice of Reality Therapy, giving him a method or technique he could teach to others. The following sections describe major aspects of Choice Theory.

Shifting Terms: Nouns to Verbs Choice Theory defines terms and identifies key components of the goal of Reality Therapy. The basic concept in Reality Therapy is the responsibility of the individual.

The client must recognize where their responsibility lies in creating their behavior and thus affecting their relationships. Once they recognize their personal responsibility, they can recognize that they have the power to change, and finally exercise their power of choice.

Choice Theory and Reality Therapy differentiate between behavioral conditions resulting from poor choices and lack of responsibility and physiological abnormalities that require psychiatric treatment. In contrast to psychiatric diagnoses, Dr. Glasser viewed these former behavior disorders as chosen actions rather than conditions. He re-defined these conditions with verbs rather than nouns. For example, depression is depress-ing or choosing to depress; anxiety is anxiet-ing or choosing to “anxiet”;

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anger disorder is anger-ing or choosing to anger. Once he redefined these disorders as verbs or actions, clients were more clearly able to recognize their personal responsibility for creating them and could then more readily understand they can choose to change this behavior by repeatedly choosing different actions. These new actions affect not only the outward behavior but also the accompanying thoughts, emotions and physiology. Glasser coined the term total behavior to include all four components.

Total Behavior Explained Dr. Glasser uses the term total behavior to describe the way one behaves to include not only the thoughts that influence the behavior and the actions that characterize the behavior, but also the emotion that surrounds the action (whether as an influence and/or a result) and the physiology that occurs in the body (based on the action, thoughts and emotions or that cause any or all of these). These four components of total behavior can each be a cause and effect of each of the other aspects. One can control his thoughts and his actions and thus affect both emotion and physiology.

How often does dwelling on certain thoughts cause emotions? Change the thought and likely the emotion will change as well, and the physiology that accompanies it will very likely change one’s choice of action.

Quality World Explained Essential to providing a complete explanation of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy is describing the concept of quality world. Each individual has one. It is the vision of one’s world when one is happy. As long as an element of the quality world is perceived as something necessary for happiness or potential happiness, that element will remain in one’s quality world.

An example might be a job that one perceives has a future that will lead to happiness, or it may be a relationship that is perceived as essential for continuing on a path to happiness. The job or the relationship is an element of that individual’s quality world. Once the individual perceives an element no longer serves the vision of happiness, it is in danger of being removed from his quality world. For instance, if a man perceives his wife is keeping him from achieving his dream lifestyle of moving to Tahiti, he may remove her from his quality world and jeopardize the marriage. Those who practice Choice Theory recognize the importance of remaining in another’s quality world to continue in a satisfying relationship. An individual with

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this level of awareness will make choices that influence another to maintain him in the other’s quality world.

The Role of Relationships: Satisfying vs. Unsatisfying According to Dr. Glasser, all behavior disorders result from reactions or responses to unsatisfying relationships. Behaviors like depress-ing, anger-ing, anxiety-ing result from one’s expectations not being met though an unsatisfying relationship or lack of a satisfying relationship. Unsatisfying relationships result when an individual’s greatest need is not met by another despite the expectation of such. Dr. Glasser identifies five basic needs: freedom, control, love, belonging and fun. While most individuals have a measure of all these needs, usually one or two are dominant and obviously clash directly with one or more of the others. For instance a person with a high need for power will sometimes violently clash with another with a high need for freedom. Relationship compatibility can largely be discerned by knowing each individual’s highest need. When the expectation is that the other(s) in a relationship is responsible for meeting one’s greatest need, and it appears to a person this does not happen, resulting actions may include depress-ing, anger-ing, anxiety-ing, obsessing, compuls-ing, etc. As long as an individual believes someone else is responsible for this choice of action and cannot recognize his choice in the action, he cannot be empowered to change the situation. Reality Therapy is the technique Dr. Glasser developed and uses to apply Choice Theory.

Reality Therapy: Aligns with Coaching Partly therapist directed and partly client directed, Dr. Glasser conducts his Reality Therapy sessions by asking powerful questions. As in coaching, these questions are designed to allow the client to realize his or her ability to change. Once the client establishes a solid awareness of his available choices and a willingness to take responsibility for his current condition as based on choices he has made in the past, Dr. Glasser teaches the client Choice Theory.

Terms need be defined, concepts explained and examples demonstrated to allow the client to effectively apply the principles and effect positive change. This also allows the client an opportunity to decide whether he completely agrees with the theory.

The work that ensues is largely client directed and utilizes coaching methods. Dr. Glasser estimates therapy time is reduced from years to months or weeks by applying Reality Therapy based on Choice Theory versus conventional psychotherapy methods.

This saves clients both time and money and brings about empowerment to create a

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better condition for them.

Therapy is not coaching, nor is coaching therapy. In fact, coaches are taught the opposite, that coaching is for people who are not stricken by mental disorders. But according to Dr. Glasser, a majority of these diagnosed “disorders” are nothing more than irresponsible behavior. In reading Reality Therapy and the subsequent publication of a collection of case studies applying Reality Therapy, one quickly realizes this is not ordinary psychotherapy. Except for the initial process of convincing a person that their “illness” is actually irresponsibility easily dealt with by applying the principles of Choice Theory, all ensuing sessions resemble coaching.

Choice Theory in Coaching Applying Choice Theory is organically what coaches do every day. Coaches assume clients are responsible for their lives and for creating their lives differently if they are unsatisfying. Coaches focus their clients on actions that move them forward into a successful future. Verbs, instead of nouns, dominate the language of Choice Theory as with the language of coaching. Clients are encouraged to identify “what can I change?” in order to answer the next question “what can I do?” to bring about this change. Four steps can be used to outline the process of using Choice Theory in a coaching model: I. Raise awareness of what can be changed; II. Evaluate relationships; III. Explore choice options; IV. Choose Total Behavior that can influence actions.

Raise awareness Awareness needs to raised first of the fact that conflict is the cause of the desire to change. The client needs to then become aware of which relationship is associated with the current concern, issue, challenge, obstacle, or object of conflict. As the client begins to specifically define concerns, issues, desires, and dissatisfactions, she will almost certainly identify a relationship that she seeks to influence.

Tools of a coach could include active listening, followed by powerful questions.

Individuals typically believe their lives will be improved if only this or that relationship is improved, eliminated or cultivated (in the case of a relationship that does not yet exist). As discussed previously, the source of the client’s conflict, the presence of a less-than-satisfying relationship (or lack of any satisfying relationship), is the foundational premise on which Choice Theory is built. The final powerful awareness: it is only possible for the client to change herself, not the other individual in the relationship.

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Evaluate relationships Once the relationship associated with the concern or issue is recognized, it is important to recognize the value of the relationship to the client. How does this relationship fit in his quality world? The goal is for the client to recognize the value of salvaging, cultivating, or scrapping the relationship. Even this exercise requires choice. More powerful questions, extreme perspective, third-person story, and releasing judgment are some coaching tools that can be helpful in moving the client through this part of the process.

Explore choice options At this point, exploring options is the focus of Choice Theory. When exploring options, total behavior must be thoroughly examined. As previously identified, total behavior includes physiology and emotions (under less direct control by the client) as well as thought and action (much more likely to be controlled by the client).

Therefore, options are categorized as actions, in other words choosing to think and to do or to act. Examples of coaching tools include listing pros and cons, decision squares, extreme perspective, visualization, releasing judgment, and powerful questions.

Choose Total Behavior This is the decision step and the one that moves the client to action. The client must prioritize the first step. What is she going to do? SMART goals are very useful here but other tools that help with project management can also be utilized. Depending on the magnitude of the change to be made, the steps of the process may be identified as part of the larger plan. In coaching, the client is encouraged to choose at least one decisive action to be performed until the next coaching session and a final take-home message determined before conclusion of the session. Dr. Glasser states on page 71 of his book Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom that there are three choices one can make to stop choosing a painful behavior “1) change what we want, 2) change what we are doing, or 3) change both.” (Glasser 1998) Similar characteristics of Choice Theory and Coaching: •

Take action

•

Focus on the things one can change

•

Move forward, leave the past behind

•

Heighten awareness of responsibility, thus choices, thus possibilities

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•

Recognize power to make choices and create one’s life

•

Shift perspective to open the realm of possibilities

•

Adjusting attitude becomes possible with perspective shift

•

Respond instead of react to influence others’ responses and choices

•

Release judgment, especially those that are not longer useful, alleviating unnecessary burden

•

Change only what can be changed

Conclusion The opportunity to make a choice in any circumstance leads to an individual’s feeling of empowerment in that circumstance. Creativity and intentional forward movement towards one’s goal are inhibited as soon as one feels a lack of power due to the feeling of having “no choice.” The individual may acquiesce to these influences and relinquish the choice to another. Choice Theory comprehensively explains these influences in relationships and environment. Reality Therapy provides practical techniques that can be utilized to increase one’s ability to recognize the choices available in each situation, as well as how to access and apply these choices to create more satisfying relationships and more often achieve goals. By focusing on choosing thoughts that influence actions that can change emotions and physiology, an individual has access to endless possibilities for empowerment. Though developed for psychiatric and psychological therapy, Choice Theory and Reality Therapy are valuable tools for coaches in helping their clients become more empowered through recognizing and exercising choice in any circumstance.

REFERENCES 1.

Glasser, MD, William, Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom.

New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.

2.

Glasser, MD, William, Reality Therapy In Action. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2000.

3.

Glasser, MD, William, Reality Therapy: A New Approach to Psychiatry. New York: Harper & Rowe Publishers, 1965.

4.

International Coach Academy, “Action vs. Delay,” International Coach Academy Pty. Ltd., 2002.

5.

International Coach Academy, “Responsibility vs. Blame,” International Coach Academy Pty. Ltd., 2002.

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6.

International Coach Academy, “Responding vs. Reacting,” International Coach Academy Pty. Ltd., 2002, Last updated 2002, September 4.

7.

International Coach Academy, “Releasing Judgment,” 2009 International Coach Academy Pty. Ltd.

8.

Wikipedia, “SMART Criteria,” 2012, March 12. Accessed 2012, April 3.

Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_ criteria#cite_note-0

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nancy shelton Nancy Shelton obtained her coaching certification from International Coach Academy in 2011 and created Life After Athletics. Life After Athletics is dedicated to assisting retired athletes transforms their athletic drive and determination into passionate and productive lives. Nancy uses her coaching training, personal experience with the transition, and intuition to conduct workshops and one-on-one sessions that help athletes connect to the strengths that made them great athletes and identify new ways to harness those traits in this next stage of their lives.

E-mail: Nancy@lifeafterathletics.com www.facebook.com/lifeafterathletics

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Nancy Shelton Life After Athletics

Intuition–A Coaching Application: Recognizing and Developing Intuition to Create More Powerful Coaching Sessions Summary The use of intuition is a powerful tool that is available to all coaches. Intuition can help move coaching sessions in powerful directions and allow insights and discoveries that might otherwise take much longer to discover. The use of intuition in coaching is recognized in credible coaching training programs around the world, as well a component of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) Core Competencies (ICF 2008). It is the intent of this paper to identify what intuition is, how to develop it, and address some applications of intuition to the practice of coaching.

INTRODUCTION “It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover” (Poincaré)

Intuition is defined as “quick and ready insight, immediate apprehension or cognition, or the power of faculty of attaining direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference” (Merriam-Webster 2011). A more expanded working definition is “Intuition is the act or faculty of knowing immediately, directly and holistically without rational processes and without being aware of how you know. It is also the channel through which you access the realms of universal truth, absolute knowledge and ultimate reality” (Salisbury 2008). This immediate or direct knowing is essentially the opposite of rational or logic thinking, which is far more prominent in today’s society.

The concept of intuition has been studied and defined throughout the ages. Going back as far as Socrates and including great thinkers, philosophers, and mystics such as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, Plutarch, and Plotinus, intuition was

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accepted and recognized as an opposing side of logical thinking and reason: it was believed that while logical thinking can provide a great deal of information, intuition provided a higher level of understanding (Salisbury 2008). A more rational and linear approach to thinking was prominent during the times of the Roman Empire, which led to decreased use and acceptance of intuition. What acceptance there was of intuition was more based in religion. During the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance Period, the acceptance of intuition diminished further, being challenged and considered inferior to reasoned thinking, creating a clear division between the known and the unknown. During this time people who openly used intuition were ostracized and even hunted as witches. During the age of Enlightenment or Reason (from the 1600s to the 1700s) and on into the Industrial Revolution (1800s), it was believed that truth and understanding were best achieved through rational thought (Salisbury 2008). However, from the late 1800s on into the 1900s intuition was acknowledged as important by some groups in mathematics and ethics, and by psychologists such as Maslow, Jung, Bruner and Allport (Goldberg 2006).

In modern times, rational thinking is still prominent. In the words of Albert Einstein, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” However, since the 1960s, general acceptance and understanding of intuition has started to gain a wider level of acceptance and is being used more frequently and openly (Goldberg 2006), albeit frequently labeled differently from “intuition” with terms such as “following a hunch” or “gut feeling” (Shealy in Salisbury 2008). While the labels may be different, these means of coming into knowledge or making decisions are still based in intuition.

Detecting Intuitive Moments “What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists…and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know exactly what you want…and are fully determined not to quit until you get it.” - Alexander Graham Bell

Intuition may present itself as a physical sensation, an emotion, a thought or sudden sense of knowing (Rosanhoff 1988), or through the environment around the receiver (Emery 1994). Physically, an intuitive message may be anything from experiencing hair standing on end or goose-bumps to abdominal pain or other physical experience.

This can be exemplified by an intuitive receiver experiencing the sensation of a lump in his/her throat as s/he meets with a friend, only to learn that the friend has

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experienced a great loss and been unable to cry. As the friend begins to cry and allow the pent up emotions to flow, the lump in the receiver’s throat resolves (Naparstek 1997).

Emotional intuitive messages may result from a sense or impression emanating from another person or a sudden sense of an emotion that may seem to be unexplained or for no apparent reason to the person receiving (Goldberg 2006). An example of this would be if the receiver meets with a friend and, upon joining the friend, is suddenly struck with a sense extreme sadness. Upon conversing with the friend, the receiver learns that the friend’s loved one had just passed away.

Intuition may come as knowledge that just inexplicably occurs to the receiver or events that upon reflection seem like a coincidence. An example of this would be if an elevator in a public place opens and when the woman waiting sees the man within it she suddenly knows that getting into the elevator could lead to personal danger (Naparstek 1997), or when a person thinks about someone they have not spoken to for ages only to receive a call from the estranged person later that day.

The events occurring around the receiver or the external environment can hold the message. For example, the receiver “inadvertently” leaves a bus ticket on the counter at home and thus misses the bus, only to learn later that the bus was in an accident.

While not all thoughts, emotions and sensations are intuitive messages, if these sensations or experiences seem to be derived from outside the receiver or do not seem to have a rational explanation, there is a good chance these experiences are intuitive in nature. Likewise, persistent images or thoughts that recur in a receiver’s mind are worth closer examination and interpretation. This type of experience is likely an intuitive message.

Why or when does intuition occur? Intuition is a response to a stimulus and the information that occurs is for the best interest of the recipient, according to Gavin de Becker, author of The Gift of Fear. He goes further to note that all things communicated through intuition are meaningful and timely; however, our interpretation of the message may result in error (Salisbury 2008).

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Strengthening Intuition “When you force solutions on problems, you only create new problems. But when you put your attention on the uncertainty, and you witness the uncertainty while you expectantly wait for the solution to emerge out of the chaos and the confusion, then what emerges is something very fabulous and exciting.” - Deepak Chopra Receiving intuitive messages or understanding is something of which all humans are capable (Vaughan 1979). There are a number of steps a person can take to heighten his/her intuition as well as improve and understand interpretations of perceived intuition.

The most widely recognized method is to quiet the mind, primarily through meditation (Emery 1994, Goldberg 2006, Naparstek 1997, Rosanoff 1988, Salisbury 2008, Vaughan 1979). Making time to tune into the intuitive mind while relaxing and dispensing with physical and emotional tension creates a silence in which intuition can grow (Vaughan 1979). Self-hypnosis and guided imagery can produce this same effect (Salisbury 2008). By actively clearing the mind, it may passively receive information (Naparstek 1997).

Being clear of one’s intention to increase or “awaken” intuition is a critical step to strengthening this ability (Vaughan 1979). When a person lives each day with the intention of observing and understanding moments of intuition, s/he will become aware that these moments are already occurring. Just as a person can go to a car lot and “see” (recognize) a certain car for the first time and then realize in the following days or weeks that these cars are readily present and had just gone unnoticed before. Raising awareness to intuition provides a greater number of opportunities to experience and hone the interpretation of intuition.

Trusting the process and being receptive to it will allow a greater occurrence and understanding of intuition. If a person is fearful of the process or the experience, intuition will be inhibited. Openness will allow the space necessary for intuition to develop (Vaughan 1979).

Creativeness is cited in numerous sources as a means of opening channels through which intuition can flow (Salisbury 2008, Vaughan 1979, Naparstek 1997, and Goldberg 2006). Regardless of whether the medium is drawing, music, movement, or

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other forms of expression, creativity performed in the spirit of play and expression (as opposed to achieving a goal) activate functions in the right-side brain that allow for greater intuition (Vaughan 1979).

In addition to being receptive and open, it is important for a person seeking to hone intuition to be aware of personal strengths, weaknesses, tendencies, habits, vulnerabilities, and experiences to prevent personal influences from contaminating intuitive interpretation (Goldberg 2006). Introspection and a deep understanding of personal patterns that may interact with understanding intuition will improve the usefulness of intuitive messages (Goldberg 2006).

Knowing some of the major inhibitors to intuition can assist in their avoidance. Fear is the biggest inhibitor of intuition. It cannot only inhibit intuition, it can affect or contaminate the interpretation of received intuitive thoughts. This is particularly true when the message received is uncomfortable for the receiver. In addition to fear, negativity and self-importance can not only adversely affect intuitive abilities, but also can lead the receiver to question the “reality� of the insight. Negativity can include anger, anxiety, fatigue, and depression (Salisbury 2008). Finally when emotions and prejudices are high, misinterpretation of intuition is more common (Salisbury 2008).

Applying Intuition to Coaching Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next. – Jonas Salk

Perhaps one of the most effective ways for a coach to incorporate intuition into their practice is by increasing the use of intuition throughout all aspects of life. Just as a person does not only use the sense of hearing when specifically listening to someone, intuition can more readily be called on during a coaching session when it is developed to the point of occurring naturally and effortlessly for the coach. As the coach hones the skill of identifying a flash of intuition and quickly making a translation as to how that information relates to the situation, the use of intuition in the coaching practice can be non-disruptive and effectively guide sessions.

While developing a high awareness and use of intuition is beneficial to a coach, during a session, the recognition of the intuition, as opposed to the interpretation, is of the greatest benefit. When intuition is recognized, questions can be posed around the subject, allowing the client to find the interpretation that is meaningful.

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Tony Stoltzfus, in his book Leadership Coaching: the Disciplines, Skills, and Heart of a Christian Coach (2005), recommends that the coach listen to his/her intuition to sort through what is being said to select the points, spoken or unspoken, that really matter, then allow the client the space and time to do the work. Allow intuition to get the conversation started, but then allow listening skills to take over. When the coach stops his/her internal conversation and allows listening to preside, the conversation and coaching can move to a higher level.

Coaching with intuition to inspire curiosity is more powerful than using intuitive information to diagnose the issue. By allow the client to delve into the issue and determine what parts are significant, the client can then decide how best to move forward. Using intuition as a diagnostic tool keeps the conversation on a superficial level and deprives the client of an opportunity to discover the deeper meanings surrounding the issue (Stoltzfus 2005).

A coach who is new to the use of intuition should be aware of the potential of focusing on the intuitive thought rather than listening attentively. If during a session the coach asks a question based on intuition but the client does not respond or find substantial meaning to the question, it is possible that the coach is identifying their own personal connection to an issue, rather than perceiving the client’s. In these instances, it is appropriate for the coach to move forward in a new direction without hesitation (Wilson 2007). This is consistent with a basic tenant of coaching to allow the client to direct the session.

Conclusion Intuition is a powerful coaching tool that is available to all coaches. The use of intuition in a coaching session can promote great insight and move sessions to a deeper, more meaningful level. A number of steps a coach can take to increase his/her intuitive aptitude are provided herein, but the most accepted and direct approach is to elevate awareness through intention and quiet the mind to allow space for the intuitive process to occur. With practice, the sense of intuition can become as common and practical as the sense of smell or hearing. The greater the coach’s comfort and familiarity with intuition, the more easily this sense will assist in the coaching practice.

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REFERENCES 1.

Emery, M. Intuition Workbook: An expert’s guide to unlocking the wisdom of

your unconscious mind. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994.

2.

Goldberg, P. The Intuitive Edge: Understanding intuition and applying it in

everyday life. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc. 2006.

3.

International Coach Academy (ICA). “International Coach Academy (ICA).

“Learning Resources for Course Modules”. 2010. (Online), June 27, 2011. http:// learn.icoachacademy.com/.

4.

Naparstek, B. Your Sixth Sense: Unlocking the power of your intuition. New York, NY: HaperCollins, 1997.

5.

Rosanoff, N. Intuition Workout: A practical guide to discovering and developing

your inner knowing. Fairfield, CT: Aslan Publishing, 1988.

6.

Salisbury, A. Eureka!: Understanding and using the power of your intuition.

Garden City, NY: Morgan James Publishing, 2008.

7.

Stoltzfus, T. Leadership Coaching: The disciplines, skills, and heart of a Christian

coach. Virginia Beach, VA: Booksurge LLC, 2005.

8.

Vaughan, F. Awakening Intuition. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1979.

9.

Wilson, C. Best Practice in Performance Coaching. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page Limited, 2007.

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zeynep kaymaz Zeynep is the founder of Empowering Your Vision Towards Fulfillment. She is a certified professional life and career coach. She supports women in transition, to create a structure to find balance and fulfillment in their lives.

She has a profound understanding of the relationship between brain-emotions-actions: hence, to discern that the awareness of our thoughts and beliefs is the first step towards achieving our goals. She has also recognized the importance of a clear vision of what we want and perseverance in pursuing our goals.

The various transitions that she has had to make in her personal life has contributed to shaping her niche in coaching - life transitions.

E-mail: kaymaz.zeynep@gmail.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/zeynepkaymaz/5/440/527

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Zeynep Kaymaz Empowering Your Vision Towards Fulfillment

Core Beliefs Summary Core beliefs are the fundamental basics of how we see other people, the world, the future, and ourselves. They develop over time through significant events or circumstances in our lives. They are held strongly by our tendency to focus on feedback/information that supports them and ignoring any data that contradicts them. Over the years core beliefs get more and more rigid.

Our core beliefs get activated in certain situations that may resemble the past situations when they were first created: they become the driving force behind our thoughts, emotions, actions, and talks. They stimulate certain responses in us. The healthier our responses, the smoother our life experiences become.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of coaching in managing the core beliefs in order to achieve a more pleasant life.

INTRODUCTION A man’s way of doing things is the direct result of the way he thinks about things –

Wallace D. Wattles Core beliefs are central ideas and convictions that exist at the very core of an individual’s psyche that are held to be true. They are formed throughout life, starting in childhood, as a means of making sense of our experiences in this world. They are the underlying cause of repeating patterns of experiences. These patterns reappear in various situations where the names and the faces might be different but the interpersonal dynamics, or outcomes, are remarkably similar.

An example of a repeating pattern would be starting a new career and working really hard in order to learn the job and its many attributes but, once we start really doing well in the position, we might find ourselves feeling anxious and making lots

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of mistakes. This threatens our job security, which may create more anxiety, hence more mistakes. This is likely caused by an underlying, negative core belief such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m incompetent”. Some other core beliefs could be “I am worthless”, or “In order to be loved you have to please everybody”, or “Life is always unfair”, and so on.

Here is how our core belief in reality works: with a new job we start learning the various aspects of the job, and gradually feel some competence. This feeling of being competent is a threat to the core belief that “I am not good enough”. This conflict causes anxiety. At this point, we continue to perceive situations in a way that gives evidence to the core belief, which will ultimately lead to another situation where the pattern of making lots of mistakes is repeated, and our job is again in jeopardy.

Choosing a direction (what we want from life) and then moving down that path (taking action) are both heavily influenced by our core beliefs - what we fundamentally believe to be true about ourselves, about other people, about the world, and about life in general. True transformation involves looking closely at what we believe and then choosing healthier beliefs.

Coaching in this context creates awareness for the client about their core beliefs, so that the client can then choose to manage them. This awareness is the only way to change the repeated patterns in their lives and/or to stop sabotaging themselves and achieve their fulfillment by listening to the messages from their higher, wiser, positive core, and pursuing a conscious life.

What are Core Beliefs According to McKay, Davis, Fanning (2007), our core beliefs are the very essence of our identity in the world and are formed mainly during our childhood (p. 205). Based on our early interpretation of messages received from our siblings and the adults who matter to us most, these often erroneous convictions are deeply ingrained and actually become part of the fabric of who we perceive ourselves to be (Forrest).

If these beliefs are positive, they help us create a constructive, healthy and functional life journey, whereas our negative core beliefs are “restrictive and fear-driven”.

Hence, they cause us to exhibit compensatory behaviors that are designed to keep reinforcing the original and unhelpful core beliefs.

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With respect to the distinction above, in this paper, I focus on the negative core beliefs that cause dysfunctional behaviors and prevent us from achieving our full potential, i.e., our fulfilled life.

How Core Beliefs are Formed As stated before, most core beliefs are established in early childhood, sometimes even before language has developed. They are typically formed in response to traumas or as Bradshaw4 (1992) calls it “injuries”- events in the child’s life which from the child’s point of view were traumatic or made a strong emotional impression. These “injuries” could be events which an adult would also view as traumatic - such as the death of a parent, an accident etc. But they can also be events which an adult would not regard as traumatic at all - such as having a favorite toy taken away, an unexpected departure of a parent (even if it is only to go out to the shops), the arrival of another sibling, not being fed soon enough to avoid hunger, and so on. The list is endless, and not all children will find the same events traumatic or come to the same conclusions about them.

The mind responds to such “injuries” by deciding what the event means. These conclusions become the basis for ongoing beliefs. The purpose of this process is fundamentally around safety and survival, i.e., instinctive mechanisms that we cannot avoid.

We can pick up additional core beliefs from those around us, e.g. parents, teachers, peers, society in general, the media, etc. - all can reflect back to us and reinforce our own core beliefs.

Therefore, any negative core beliefs we might have are the result of (a) instinctive brain mechanisms, (b) the thought processes of a young child, possibly pre-verbal and (c) external reinforcement.

Remembering this makes it a lot easier to understand that we, the adult, cannot be “to blame” for either having negative core beliefs or for keeping them for so long.

In fact, it would be fair to say that we did not have a chance of not having them.

It is therefore pointless to give oneself (or anyone else) a hard time about having negative beliefs - and such judgment actually makes things worse, often further reinforcing the negative core beliefs themselves (“You see, look how bad/weak/

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hopeless I am for having all these beliefs.”)

McKay and Fanning (1991) explain that the core beliefs influence our lives in two major ways; first, by establishing rules for survival and coping; second, by setting the tone of a constant inner monologue by which we interpret events, evaluate people, and assess our own performance.

The Rules: Once we accept a certain picture of ourselves and our relationship with the world, we must, by necessity, set up rules for how we will survive. These rules have an absolute quality, a governing influence on how we conduct ourselves in our relationships. Each of these rules is a logical outcome, a necessary adaptive strategy in our world (that we perceive as true). So, we use these rules to “protect” ourselves, i.e., as a behavioral shield to defend ourselves against the world we perceive as “harmful”.

The Monologue: In our conscious life we continually talk to ourselves – interpreting our experiences, judging, making assumptions about the feelings and motivations of others, predicting outcomes, trying to figure out what things mean, etc. This is a natural process that helps human beings survive.

But while this monologue is adaptive, helping us understand our environment, it can also be painful and inhibiting. It frequently reflects our core beliefs and the derived rules from them. It applies them to each particular situation or circumstance we experience in any given moment.

When a core belief has been established, there are two natural processes that tend to preserve its influence. The first process is our propensity to accept only the information that confirms our existing viewpoint. It is a kind of selective filtering.

We simply fail to notice or remember events that do not match with how we see the world or ourselves. In other words, we actively look for/pay attention to only what supports our preset vision of reality. To seek out people and events which contradict our core beliefs would be to undermine their validity, and hence to make ourselves “wrong”. In fact we will go to great lengths to support our vision of reality and core beliefs even if it means experiencing emotional distress, troubled relationships, financial difficulty, and unfulfilling lives along the way.

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The second process creates mental ruts that are returned to in situations of stress and uncertainty. If we do not fully understand a situation or feel anxious, we start looking for some quickly available memory, thought, information, or assumption that will help us decide what to do. Our core beliefs are the preconceptions that help us in those ambiguous situations.

In the coaching world, a well-known concept is the so-called gremlin (Carson 2003), which embodies these rules and the monologue. The gremlins are our internal judges accompanying us throughout our lives evaluating and assessing our worth as a human being, and keeping us away from what they consider to be dangerous and directing us toward whatever ideals they feel make us acceptable, lovable, and successful persons (Brown 1999).

As discussed earlier, the rules derived from our core beliefs to help us cope with our world are what our gremlins abide by. Once very essential to our “protection”, these gremlins continue to maintain the status quo to stay alive, to justify their existence, ignoring the fact that we are now adults responsible for ourselves. They disguise themselves behind various faces acting with our best interests at heart.

Again, since they are inherent for our “survival” into adulthood, we believed in them, and their monologue has been ingrained in our being as our own. Thus, we stop listening to the voice of our own true selves, and pursue a life following “should” and “must” and “have to” instead. In other words, our gremlins, by forcing us to create compensatory behaviors, which are usually automatic and unconscious, restrict us from exerting our true selves and limit our capacity to be fully alive in the present moment.

How do the core beliefs work in our daily lives?

We usually exercise those compensatory behaviors when we find ourselves in situations and/or interactions with people that either reflect our core beliefs about ourselves or challenge them.

According to Reivich and Shatte’s ABC Model9 (2002), when we experience any adversity (A), i.e., any event/encounter that precipitates a reaction from us, we develop emotional and behavioral consequences (C), which we believe are logical. In reality, however, it is not the adversities that happen to us that cause our feelings and behaviors, it is our beliefs about the events that drive how we feel and how we act.

In other words, the world operates as A → B → C, and not A → C (p. 66). Especially

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when we cannot explain the intensity of our reactions upon an adversity, we can be sure that the driving force is our gremlins.

For example, when John comes home after an exhausting day at work, and finds that dinner is not ready (A) he might be disappointed (C), but overreacting by yelling at his wife has something to do with these words of his gremlin “You see that she does not care about you! You mean nothing to her!” based on his core belief (B) “If people do not comply with my preferences it means that they do not respect me.”

In another example, Carol holds the core belief “I am not lovable.” Her gremlin forces her to act in a way to avoid any rejection, or any confrontation, or any adversity (A) with anyone that would justify her core belief. She goes to extremes to be nice, helpful, and available without setting boundaries, ignoring what she really wants (C). Paradoxically, her attitude attracts more of what she fears, i.e., more encounters with people who treat her disrespectfully, hence validating that “she is not lovable” (B).

Managing Core Beliefs Maya (2008) claims that overcoming negative core beliefs forms a substantial part of our life’s journey. “Overcoming” might sound radical, but managing them, or even being aware of them, are already big steps in our lives. Therefore, to turn some of our negative core beliefs that are based on an inaccurate filtering of our life experiences in a more realistic direction could be our goal.

1. Identifying the core beliefs The first step in changing a core belief is to actually identify it. There are several approaches for identifying core beliefs: a) Core Beliefs Inventory: McKay and Fanning (1991) present an exercise to see how we rate ourselves in ten areas of life that often contain troublesome core beliefs. b) Keeping Track Of Our Gremlins’ Monologues: By paying attention to any painful emotion such as anxiety, guilt, depression, embarrassment, or anger, and identifying what our gremlins are saying to us just before we felt bad, we can clarify the substantial role our gremlins are playing in our feelings. c) Laddering: By simply asking “what if?” and “what does it mean?” questions11

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(Neenan & Dryden 2002), we can find out the underlying core belief of our negative feelings. For example: Lilly: “He doesn’t care about me.”

Coach: “What if he doesn’t care about you? What does that mean to you?”

Lilly: “It means I am not very important.

Coach: “What if you are not very important? What does that mean to you?”

Lilly: “It means I have no value.”

Coach: “What if you have no value? What does that mean about you?”

Lilly: “It means I am worthless.”

The underlying core belief explains Lilly’s feeling of not being cared for by people: because she was not worth of anyone’s care. d) Theme Analysis: This method is similar to keeping track of gremlins’ monologues.

Here we analyze situations looking for common themes that connect them, such as “perfectionism, fear of failure, guilt, etc.” Then, we name the underlying core belief.

2. Challenging the core beliefs The second step is challenging the core beliefs. Once we uncover our core beliefs (and the monologues of our gremlins) that play a role in how we interpret ourselves and our world, and how we feel and act especially when faced with adversities, we are ready to evaluate how accurate and realistic they are, and to change them to more accurate beliefs if necessary. a) Preparing a/ Pros/and Cons List: This list involves writing down the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining our core beliefs. Through carrying out this task, it will show more clearly whether the beliefs are actually helping us and are worth holding onto or not. With evidence of this sort compiled both “for” and “against” the belief, we can weigh it and make a sound judgment. b) Asking ourselves exploratory questions: Pondering questions like below might enhance our awareness about the effects of our core beliefs.

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What limitations have I been accepting without question?

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What core beliefs have I been assuming were facts, but are really merely

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perceptions?

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Just because it seems to be a prevalent experience, does this perception need to be true for me?

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Where do I have trouble knowing the truth about myself?

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What is my evidence for thinking this way?

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Does this belief hold true in every situation? For everyone? Anywhere? Always?

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Is there any evidence that does not support this belief? Has there ever been a time when this belief was not true or did not apply?

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What are the exceptions to this belief?

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Could there be other ways of interpreting this event?

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What caused me to believe this in the first place? Where did I learn this? Is it even valid?

Conclusion The process of recognizing our negative core beliefs can be challenging because it is often difficult for us to be honest with ourselves. Also, we might feel uncomfortable at first, questioning beliefs we thought were simply “the way things are”. We all use beliefs to help us define who we are, what the world is like and our position within it. Questioning these beliefs can seem like a threat to our current understanding of these fundamental assumptions.

The process of discovering limiting core beliefs is almost always in the context of the clients’ wanting to improve a specific area of their lives. During the coaching process, when the clients discover that it is their negative core beliefs, which have actually been behind their issues at hand, and discern the effect and sometimes the terrible cost they have on their success and happiness, the clients are usually only eager to be rid of them, as they can see the benefits of doing so.

The coaching process then becomes like a de-cluttering their hearts and minds, eventually helping them start feeling lighter and more at peace with themselves and with a lot more energy and freedom to pursue what they really enjoy and value in life.

Of course, as Curry (2008) accurately states, figuring out the beliefs that sabotage our goals provides important insight, but does not automatically create change. The second, more important step that is essential for lasting change is to shift the conflict between near term and far term payoffs. Change efforts fail when the payoff for

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not changing is powerful in the near term, and/or when the payoff derived from completing the change is far in the future.

For a change to become the new status quo, we have to be willing to surrender those easy, quick payoffs in exchange for a strong hope for, vision of, and belief in the satisfaction that will come when self-sabotaging ends.

Coaching, in that sense, provides the necessary support for the clients to turn their discoveries into a fulfilling life by holding them committed and accountable in their conscious and persistent efforts.

References 1.

Bradshaw, J. Homecoming: Reclaiming and Healing Your Inner Child. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1992.

2.

Brown, B. Soul Without Shame: A Guide To Liberating Yourself From the Judge

Within. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1999.

3.

Carson, Rick Taming Your Gremlin: A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting

Out of Your Own Way. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2003.

4.

Curry, D, Ph.D. (2008). “Changing the Self-Sabotage Impulse Hidden Beliefs - Fast Payoffs Keep Us from Getting What We Want.” http://ezinearticles. com/?Changing-the-Self-Sabotage-Impulse-Hidden-Beliefs---Fast-Payoffs-KeepUs-From-Getting-What-We-Want&id=1552428 [Accessed September, 2009].

5.

Forrest, L. (n.d.). “Core Beliefs: Our Personal Fiction.” http://www.lynneforrest. com/html/core_beliefs.html [Accessed April 1, 2010].

6.

Maya. Core Beliefs: A Life-changing Journey Of Self-Discovery. United Kingdom: Athena Press, 2008.

7.

McKay, M. Ph.D., Davis, M., Ph.D., & Fanning, P. Thoughts and Feelings:

Taking Control of Your Moods and Your Life. Third Edition. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2007.

8.

McKay, M., Ph.D., & Fanning, P. Prisoners of Belief: Exposing and Changing

Beliefs that Control Your Life. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 1991.

9.

Nutting, J. “List of Typical Negative Core Beliefs.” 1996-2008. http://www. growingaware.com.au/Negative_beliefs_examples.htm

10.

Reivich, K., Ph.D., & Shatte, A., Ph.D. The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding

Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life's Hurdles. New York, NY: Broadway Books, 2002.

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Coaching Relationship Choice Theory

Applying Intuition

Core beliefs

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