What you may not know is how MUCH the business and coaching industry has changed over the past year or so.

There’s just too much information (TMI)…

Noise and hype from so-called “experts” guaranteed to make you waste money and time.

Find your true path to the top…

World Business and Executive Coach Pre-Summit May 1^st, 2012

Completely FREE and great value for all executive, business, and leadership coaches.

https://modernmethods.infusionsoft.com/go/wbecs/sp1

Last year…

Over 7,000 coaches listened in from the comfort of their own homes.

An industry first…

Top experts under one “virtual” roof, making sure all in attendance got:

• Maximum value
• Executive training
• Great strategies and advice.

This year, we’re back better than ever, with another all-star lineup.

If you’d like to sneak a peak, you can attend the initial WBECS sessions FREE via the pre-Summit series.

Click on this link to register:

https://modernmethods.infusionsoft.com/go/wbecs/sp1

A small selection of thought leaders presenting at the summit will include:

• Sir John Whitmore—pre-eminent thinker in leadership and organisational change
• Verne Harnish—named one of the “Top 10 Minds in Small Business” by Fortune magazine

• Dr. (VG) Vijay Govindarajan—world’s leading expert on strategy and innovation

• Dr. Marshall Goldsmith—#1 leadership and #7 business thinker in the world…2011 Thinkers 50 ceremony.
• Our very own Suzi Pomerantz – founder of the Leading Coaches Center!

WBECS has one simple mission in mind:

To dramatically improve the success of business and executive coaches the world over…

If you’re on board with that, you won’t want to miss THE online industry event of the year—WBECS 2012…

Sign up today to reserve your spot.

https://modernmethods.infusionsoft.com/go/wbecs/sp1

PS: You’ll be pleased to know—No Sales Pitches Allowed!

https://modernmethods.infusionsoft.com/go/wbecs/sp1

Download a PDF of the 42-page master report.
(click here).

I have often observed in ReciproCoach supervision groups, a common desire among coaches to be able to ‘get out of the story’ when working with clients. And so when I read Martin Vogel’s “Story Matters: An inquiry into the role of narrative in coaching” in the latest issue of the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring (Vol. 10, No. 1, February 2012), I couldn’t help but share the learning through this issue of Coaching Research in Practice.

COACHING RESEARCH:

While many coaches focus on facilitating their clients’ creation of new stories, Vogel’s view “is that the greater contribution of the narrative perspective comes through raising clients’ awareness of the stories that shape their perception of reality and helping them come to terms with a more complex and nuanced understanding of their situation” (p. 9). This, he writes, “provides a stronger foundation for action and decision-making, if that is what the client desires. But it may also be an end in itself” (p. 9).

Vogel’s research, generated through interviews with six coaches and the usual lengthy data analysis, highlighted three approaches to the way in which coaches understand the concept of narrative stories and work with these in their practice:

• Story as the task of coaching
• Story as the content of coaching
• Story in the context of coaching

Story as the task of coaching happens when a client comes to coaching with the explicit desire of developing an ability to tell a story for a specific purpose. This is typically needed by the likes of salespeople, business owners and public speakers, who need “an authentic story about themselves which will serve their purposes” (p. 6).

Story as the content of coaching happens when the coaching focuses on developing a new story, particularly one “that will allow the client to construe reality in the most empowering way” (p. 6). Some coaches offer the lens of the Hero’s Journey in this process of ‘reframing’ their story. The idea is that “we can change reality by telling ourselves different stories” (p. 6).

Story in the context of coaching happens when clients’ narratives are used to understand how they make sense of the world, paying “attention to how a narrative emerges in the moment between coach and client” (p. 7). Here, it’s not important that clients develop new stories, but rather that their existing narratives foster self-awareness.

IN PRACTICE:

Vogel warns of the risk of coaches imposing familiar trajectories on clients’ stories and highlights the importance of stepping back to maintain a balance between holding your “awareness of [your] role as a collaborator in the client’s narration while having the self-discipline to stand aside from the story and not be the director of the plot” (p. 7). He reminds us that “narrative is most powerful when allied with a non-directive approach” (p. 10). In the words of one of the coach participants in Vogel’s study:

You as a coach aren’t providing them with a different story … You’re asking them to access what’s in their own experience that’s outside of the framework of story, of their typical story. (JB) (p. 9)

Vogel appears to favour the third approach of using story in the context of coaching, and I have to admit, so do I. He’s also given some very clear recommendations on this process:

• Shift “perspectives by looking at stories from the viewpoints of different characters” (p. 7)
• “Help clients notice the diverse and possibly conflicting narratives in their biography and to question the truth of narratives in which they may be stuck” (p. 7)
• Bring “sensitivity to how the story that is told is itself influenced by the coaching” (p. 7)

What do you do with your clients’ stories? And most important, who of your clients could benefit from your use of any or all of these three story approaches?

If you’d like to read Vogel’s entire paper, you can download it here:

http://www.business.brookes.ac.uk/research/areas/coachingandmentoring/documents/vol10issue1-paper-01.pdf

Coaching Research in Practice is delivered free to all ReciproCoaches (including free members) once a month. As a ReciproCoach, you can access all past issues of Coaching Research in Practice via the members area. To see the titles of our issues to date, visit our public website: http://www.reciprocoach.com/coachingresearch.php

Translating coaching research into coaching practice,

Dr Kerryn Griffiths
Global ReciproCoach Coordinator

ReciproCoach: Reciprocal peer coaching, mentoring and supervision
Web: http://www.ReciproCoach.com
Email: coordinator@reciprocoach.com

Here are the slides for this call:

You can order Tom’s book on Amazon here:

Are You Clueless: 7 Clues to Profit, Productivity, & Partnership for Leaders in a Multicultural World

www.amazon.com

DATE: Thursday, February 16th at 12 noon Easter/ 9am Pacific

TOPIC: Cluing In to Culture; How a Global Workplace Influences Coaches and Their Clients

DIAL IN NUMBER: CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT ON THIS CALL! YOU WILL GET THE DIAL IN NUMBER WHEN YOU SIGN UP HERE: http://bit.ly/jLhXw

Tom Finn has coached leaders from all over the world for 28 years. He has distilled those experiences into a book whose precise stories and lessons give his clients guidance on how to be an inclusive leader everyday. Are You Clueless? is frequently shocking in how it shows businesses losing customers, ideas, and great employees – mostly without the organization even knowing! In this session, Tom will engage us with some of those stories, and then have us uncover a cultural lens on coaching.

If businesses need to “clue in” to a multicultural world, Tom is convinced that we coaches can be just as “clueless” to dynamics that may unlock the key to our diverse coaching clients.

Cultural difference may influence:

• Us as Coaches. Could we be misdiagnosing, or suggesting a path, oblivious to a huge part of our coaching partner’s life?
• Our coaching partner. Could she be grappling with a culturally-induced barrier, or creating a culturally-induced barrier?
• Our coaching partner’s leadership. Could he be clueless to conditions his employees face, or evaluating them erroneously with no cultural radar on his screen?

Tom will provide 5 patterns to look for in any cross-cultural situation. If you would like to order the book or ebook in preparation for the session, go here http://www.areyouclueless.com/order_the_book2.php, or to http://www.barnesandnoble.com/.

Tom will focus our discussion on how to be an inclusive coach in a world where difference from gender to generation can have a major influence on your coaching partner or his/her employees…or you! Join this mastermind call for:

1) An overview of “the clueless factor” of Tom’s book – that we can all be clueless to those different from us – and its impact on coaching. When you overlay the clueless factor on the workplace, you can get a host of dynamics that affect both the coach and the coaching partner. The book’s stories show the amazing ways culture shows up for Tom’s customers.

2) Common cross-cultural patterns to look for when you are coaching. Tom maintains these patterns are applicable to any difference – whether you are coaching someone different from you on sexual orientation, generation, race, disability, national origin, gender, and so on. You can use them to see your coaching partner’s world through a whole new lens.

3) Discussion and Q&A on how and when cultural, personal, and organizational differences may influence you in your approach or your coaching partner in their progress.

This session is an optimizer for good coaches. We will try to up your game by adding to your repertoire in a global marketplace. Don’t be clueless – clue in to culture in your coaching.

Have fun learning about the striking influence of cultural difference in the workplace through Tom’s customer stories, such as:

“A Bank For White People”
“Oh, My God, You’re a Completely Different Person”
“Gaining 1000 Customers”
“Iowa and the Cultural Unknown”

You can also get a gist of Are You Clueless? by seeing Tom’s appearance on “Latina Voices,” a Houston TV show, in a seven-minute clip at http://www.areyouclueless.com/clips_latinaVoices.php.

When Cultural Cluelessness Hurts the Bottom Line

Companies that use the power of inclusion gain customers, increase their talent pool, and boost their referral base

A Spanish-speaking couple came into a bank, looking for a recently hired manager who spoke Spanish.

She asked them what had brought them in that day. They responded, “We heard you had someone who could speak Spanish. We never came in before because we thought you were a bank for white people.”

A bank for white people? Indeed … and clueless scenarios like these are replicated untold times each and every business day.

In his ground-breaking book, Are You Clueless? 7 Clues to Profit, Productivity, & Partnership for Leaders in a Multicultural World, Tom Finn shows business leaders how diversity gets business results…if you’re not clueless.

Using workplace anecdotes to drive his points home, Finn clues in managers, giving them cross-cultural radar essential for a diverse, global marketplace.

Clued in, you attract more diverse customers and employees.

Clueless, and you’re like the Bank for White People.

Clued in, you grow and retain employees you have.

Clueless, and you bury talent that shines outside your workplace.

Clued in, you reap ideas from employees and help from customers.

Clueless, and engineers are circulating resumes.

A cultural gap influences business success, and poor cross-cultural skills can mean everything from large lawsuits to customer avoidance and a shallow talent pool. Acknowledge the gap and clue in. Your company’s future depends on it.

Praise for Are You Clueless?

“Want to understand the power and potential of leveraging diversity? Here’s a clue … read this book.”
Tiane Mitchell Gordon, Senior Vice President, Diversity and Inclusion, America Online

“From ‘A Bank for White People’ to ‘A Restaurant for Men,’ Tom’s stories sparkle. Leaders in business and government: You’ve got to read this.” State Senator Janet Howell, Commonwealth of Virginia

“I’m learning things I never knew about myself.”  Reader of Are You Clueless?

ABOUT TOM FINN…

About the Author:

Tom Finn has consulted to leaders and teams of all levels in the United States, South America, Central America, and Asia for more than 20 years. His clients have included Booz | Allen | Hamilton, ETrade Financial, General Dynamics Land Systems, Inova Health Systems, Texaco, Verizon, The World Bank, and the Argentine Education Ministry.

Tom is an executive coach and consultant who improves performance of leaders and organizations by developing skills and plans to succeed in a global marketplace.

Tom has twenty seven years of experience as a consultant, trainer, and coach. He is an author and former organization development consultant of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Tom has consulted to clients on organization system change efforts, coached leaders, led team building efforts, and trained thousands in leadership, positive influence and communication, and cultural diversity He is the author of Are You Clueless? 7 Clues to Profit, Productivity, and Partnership for Leaders in a Multicultural World (Kells Castle Press, Mar 2008). Clueless is a guide leaders can use every day for managing diverse and global workplaces. He coaches leaders on handling overload and pressure through a unique coaching approach called LifeLine.  www.lifelineconsulting.com

Tom has coached and trained leaders and employees at all levels of organizations. Some of his clients include The Weather Channel, Verizon, Inova Health System, International Paper, Prudential, Booz| Allen| Hamilton, NASCAR, Harvard University, ETrade, Barnett Banks, and US government agencies. Tom has an interest and skill in international relations and business, and has coached and trained leaders in Spanish. His international clients include the World Bank, the Education Ministry of Argentina, Civilian Personnel Union, Argentina, and private/public sector leaders in six other Latin American countries and Pakistan.

Tom has a B.A. in international relations from Brown University and an M.S. from Georgetown University. He is fluent in Spanish and does much of his work in that language. He is a member of NTL Institute, one of the leading professional groups in the field of organization development. He is certified on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator instrument, FIRO-B, and MFS, a software program for providing feedback to leaders.

Mark your calendar now!  Happy new year…we will ring it in during our first community mastermind call of the year featuring Leading Coach and author Mike Jaffe, who has an inspiring and amazing story to share as he celebrates the launch of his book Wake Up! Your Life is Calling!

Based on the distinctions outlined in his new book, Mike takes his experience as a 9/11 survivor and shares his powerful, inspiring and touching story of how it served as his WakeUp call. Through this powerful message of self discovery and empowerment, Mike will lead us in a conversation to identify our own WakeUp moment and use it to explore what’s possible, stay accountable and committed, and get started on the path to achieving extraordinary results. You can order the book by simply going to www.wakeupbook.com

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT ON THIS CALL! YOU WILL GET THE DIAL IN NUMBER WHEN YOU SIGN UP HERE: http://bit.ly/jLhXw

In this thought-provoking guide to creating the extraordinary life you’ve always wanted, business and personal coach Mike Jaffe will challenge you to dramatically redesign your life.

Jaffe, a 9/11 survivor who worked on the 96th floor of the World Trade Center, arrived 20 minutes late to work that day after deciding to have breakfast with his wife and daughter. This was his personal wakeup call to realize that life is a precious gift and small actions can make a big difference. It’s time to join him—and countless other successful individuals—in the Wakeup RevolutionTM.

Stop floating or drifting. Stop waiting for “someday.” Now is the time to own your path and start moving powerfully toward what you want.

Wake Up! Your Life Is Calling will get you there by inspiring you to:

• expand your universe of what you believe is possible
• develop the internal fire and vision to stop accepting a life that is “fine” and push for one that is truly extraordinary
• land your dream job, create that lasting relationship, and carve out time to achieve bigger goals.

The secret? The five essential principles for rewriting your tomorrow contained in this book. Your life is waiting.

Are you ready to dive in?

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT ON THIS CALL! YOU WILL GET THE DIAL IN NUMBER WHEN YOU SIGN UP HERE: http://bit.ly/jLhXw

About Mike Jaffe

Mike Jaffe, President and Founder, MBA, CC, CLPC
As a 9/11 survivor who has transformed his life, Mike Jaffe serves as The Human WakeUp Call™ by using his own brush with tragedy as a message of self-discovery and empowerment. Mike is an inspirational and motivational speaker, facilitator and business and personal leadership coach whose programs WakeUp your potential and get you to take inspired and courageous action, living your live powerfully, and on your terms, without losing another precious day. Mike stands out for his energetic, authentic and thought-provoking approach to the issues and opportunities that people and organizations face in today’s complex, fast-paced world.

As a Business and Personal Leadership Coach, his unique approach and rare insight combined with the power and directness of his coaching, supports his clients in dramatically increasing their business and enhancing the quality of their life. As a Speaker, Mike touches the hearts and minds of a wide variety of audiences, rallying participants into empowered action with life-changing results. He utilizes the power of humor, insightful stories and practical tools to spur each of us to redefine the possibilities in both our personal and professional lives. Mike’s new book, “Wake Up! Your Life is Calling – Why settle for FINE when so much more is possible” is a thought-provoking guide to creating the extraordinary life you’ve always wanted.  Within its pages, Mike will walk you through the five essential principles for rewriting your tomorrow.

Mike’s work has helped unlock the potential for organizations such as Yahoo!, Prudential, Acxiom, NCR, About.com and Discovery Channel, among others. An energetic and passionate professional, Mike received his MBA in Management and Marketing from New York University and his BBA in Management and Finance from SUNY Albany. He is a certified life coach and is a senior trainer for the Life Purpose Institute (LPI) of San Diego.

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT ON THIS CALL! YOU WILL GET THE DIAL IN NUMBER WHEN YOU SIGN UP HERE: http://bit.ly/jLhXw

What exactly is The Human WakeUp Call?

As a business and personal coach, I love supporting professionals in dramatically increasing their business and enhancing the quality of their life. Most are looking for what I call Gentle Fire. They want a jumpstart, that boost of energy, increased confidence, more personal power and strength, all with a lot of support and encouragement. They want to reach that goal, get that promotion, write that book, make those changes, whatever is most important to them.  As The Human WakeUp Call, I help them wake up their potential, get them to take inspired and courageous action, and live their life powerfully, and on their terms, without losing another precious day.

Mike’s Book page: www.wakeupbook.com

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT ON THIS CALL! YOU WILL GET THE DIAL IN NUMBER WHEN YOU SIGN UP HERE: http://bit.ly/jLhXw

FACEBOOK WITH US DURING THE CALL!

Also, to enhance our connection during this community call, we’ll be communicating live using the “wall” on our Facebook page during the call. Search for “Leading Coaches Center” on Facebook or copy and paste the following url into your browser and “Like” us so we can stay in touch:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Leading-Coaches-Center/134526634180

Then, when we’re on the mastermind call, we can comment to each other and ask questions, make comments, introduce ourselves, etc. during the call.

Meanwhile, you can access and download all the recordings from the past Mastermind Calls here: http://leadingcoachescenter.com/clubhouse/category/mastermind-live

Read the free  executive summary here.

Go here to participate: http://qsurvey.net/coach

Free downloads, complete research reports, from Sherpa Coaching and Executive Education partners at the University of Georgia, Texas Christian, Miami University.

COACHING RESEARCH:

De Haan identified several common critical moments in coaches’ development. Interestingly, they all stemmed from self-doubt:

1. At the outset, with the question, “Who am I to think I can do this work?” (p. 531)
2. After enrolling a client, wondering what is going to happen, and whether they will be capable of contributing to the relationship once it is in place
3. During the relationship, when something critical arose and coaches doubted how to respond to it

He then continued to outline further doubts, which arose at different moments during coaching conversations. These included:

• “Doubts stemming from the nature of a coaching conversation” (p. 531)

This relates to the unstructured, question-based moments that tap into coachees’ emotions when coaches doubt “whether they are the right coach and whether they will be able to maintain the coaching relationship when it comes under pressure” (p. 532).

• “Doubts stemming from the coaching relationship and transference” (p. 532)

This relates to the phenomenon of transference, when coaches doubt their own internal responses to incidents in the coachees’ experiences.

• “Doubts stemming from the boundaries of the coaching relationship” (p. 532)

This relates to the coaching contracts, codes of conduct and ethics, as well as the boundary between coaching and theory. Internal coaches also experience additional boundary-related doubts.

• “Doubts stemming from guiding the coaching conversation”

This relates to doubts as to whether to explore an issue or not, not wanting to seem too controlling or too passive, not wanting to over-direct or under-direct, and wanting to maintain the right balance. This also included doubts around the particular approach coaches chose.

IN PRACTICE:

“The attendant uncertainty and feeling of not knowing appear not to be the obstructive by-products of coaching, but actually more like the starting point for coaching, having a decisive influence on the quality of the outcome. These doubts, tensions and questions cannot be answered or resolved in advance of the incident, so it is crucial for the coach to be receptive to as many signals as possible, and to explore how their doubts can be responded to productively” (p. 534).

Four patterns seemed to emerge in these critical moments and recognition of these critical moments and possible responses to them could help you accelerate your development as a coach. Therefore, when you notice yourself in a critical moment, rather than try to banish your doubts, value them and remember:

• “It is precisely in and as a result of such moments that the coach can learn something about him or herself, about the coaching relationship and ultimately about the coachee” (p. 534).

• “Critical moments are potential breakthrough moments” or “missed opportunities” (p. 534), depending on your response to them.

• “The more critical moments, the better the coaching” (p. 535). While this does not mean you should deliberately “create as many critical moments as possible” (p. 535), simply do not avoid or repress critical moments when they arise. Also, consider the coachee’s critical moments. In fact, “[c]oaching is about getting coachees to share and (re)experience their own critical moments” (p. 535).

• “Without critical moments coaches cannot continue to learn” (p. 535).

• Don’t try to banish doubt. Instead, use it to create learning for both you and your clients. Indeed, de Haan points out that this is often the reason why the inexperienced often perform better than the experienced, as the inexperienced tolerate a higher level of doubt.

De Haan, E. (2008). Becoming simultaneously thicker and thinner skinned: The inherent conflicts arising in the professional development of coaches. Personnel Review, 37(5), pp. 526-542.

Coaching Research in Practice is delivered free to all ReciproCoaches (including free members) once a month. As a ReciproCoach, you can access all past issues of Coaching Research in Practice via the members area. To see the titles of our issues to date, visit our public website: http://www.reciprocoach.com/coachingresearch.php

Translating coaching research into coaching practice,

Dr Kerryn Griffiths
Global ReciproCoach Coordinator

ReciproCoach: Reciprocal peer coaching, mentoring and supervision
Web: http://www.ReciproCoach.com