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Feature Article #1

Coaching the Narcissistic Client

They come in many forms–control freak, risk taker, charismatic leader.
In the executive suites of major corporations around the world, these traits are common–and often combined with a healthy dose of narcissism.
“The predominance of narcissism in our executives…(makes) it likely that coaches will deal with these types of behavioral tendencies,” says Kerri Kearney, an assistant professor [...]

Mark Joyella | March 10th, 2010 | Continued

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Feature Article #2

Coaching History: 1996 Book – ASTD Trainer’s Sourcebook COACHING

Written by the late Dennis Kinlaw, The ASTD Trainer’s Sourcebook COACHING – Create Your Own Training Program, includes customizable training designs and fully reproducible workshop materials. This book was published as part of an open-ended series where all materials are open-source, and can be reproduced or modified without constraint.
The purpose of coach training is to [...]

Vikki Brock | March 10th, 2010 | Continued

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Feature Article #3

Foundation for International Leadership Coaching

Our world is in a time of extraordinary challenges which create unprecedented opportunities for change. We need effective international leadership more than ever before. As leadership coaches we cannot wait for those leaders to appear.
The new non-profit Foundation for International Leadership Coaching, seeks to address a serious unmet need. Many government and international non-governmental organization [...]

Lew Stern | March 9th, 2010 | Continued

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Feature Article #4

Coaching Teachers at Troubled Schools Without Playing the Blame Game

In coaching—as in comedy—it’s often all about the timing.
As the recent decision to fire the entire staff at an underperforming high school in Rhode Island has sparked a fiery debate over how best to improve failing schools, IAC president Bob Tschannen-Moran is releasing a new book and training method focused on coaching teachers and improving schools [...]

Mark Joyella | March 8th, 2010 | Continued

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Feature Article #5

Innovative Public-Private Program Employs Coaching to Build Stronger Communities

The three stars on the flag of the State of Tennessee represent three geographic regions–East, Middle, and West Tennessee–but the three stars have taken on new meaning with Tennessee’s “Three-Star Program,” which uses coaching as a critical tool in helping rural and urban communities improve quality of life and grow jobs.
“We at the state value [...]

Mark Joyella | March 5th, 2010 | Continued

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Feature Article #6

Research Update: Coaching Guides Cancer Survivors to Better Health

Most coaches would argue passionately that coaching changes lives. But does coaching save lives?
New research suggests wellness coaching may make significant strides for recovering cancer patients, putting them on track for healthier, longer lives. “We are excited about our initial results,” said Dr. Mary Lou Galantino, a professor at Stockton College and Adjunct Research Scholar at [...]

Mark Joyella | March 4th, 2010 | Continued

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Feature Article #7

Coaching History: Cheryl Richardson – Personal Development Guru

Cheryl Richardson, in her own words, “had been working as a tax consultant in the late 1980s, specializing in small business development, and she discovered that a lot of life planning questions and issues would come up as a result of that work.” She joined Coach University in 1992 and soon afterward changed careers.
The first president of the [...]

Vikki Brock | March 3rd, 2010 | Continued

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Feature Article #8

Keeping Coaches “Honest” – With Coaching Supervision

Unless you have come from the field of counseling/therapy, you may not be familiar with a process called “supervision.” In fact, most coaches are unaware of the importance and value of supervision and few engage in supervision on a regular basis.
In their paper, ”Developing Coaching Supervision Practice: An Australian case study” (2009), Hilary Armstrong and Mandy [...]

Kerryn Griffiths | March 2nd, 2010 | Continued

Visitor's Guide

Welcome to the Coaching Commons!
The Coaching Commons is a non-partisan, worldwide, open network inviting coaches to freely discuss and create the future of professional coaching.
What Do You Want To Do Today?

This page is your directory-at-a-glance of what’s available at the Coaching Commons.
Choose your page.
Read and comment when you’re most moved to do [...]

READER COMMENTS AND CONVERSATIONS (Add your photo)

Executive Coaching Needs Research to Back Up ROI


There are many ways (perceptual, semi-scientific, or scientific) that are used to measure coaching ROI. In my practice, for a simplified ...
Billy C H Teoh | 9Mar10 | More

Coaching Teachers at Troubled Schools Without Playing the Blame Game


Although I am not familiar with Bob Moran's model, on a glimpse, I like the many ideas among the most ...
Billy C H Teoh | 9Mar10 | More

Research: Cross Cultural Coaching


Cultural awareness and cultural dimension tools are a great starting point for the cross cultural understanding journey. However, if we ...
Tom Frengos | 9Mar10 | More

Mail & Guardian: Cowboys and Coaches


Excellent article. The last part is the best and most informative for anyone who wants to know how to ...
Erroin Martin | 9Mar10 | More

Executive Coaching Needs Research to Back Up ROI


Hi, Mark. I am intrigued by your article on the effectiveness of executive coaching. As an exec coach myself, I am ...
Josef S. Klus | 8Mar10 | More

Coaching Teachers at Troubled Schools Without Playing the Blame Game


Thanks, Mark, for this well done story. To learn more, I would invite readers to go www.EvocativeCoaching.com. We are already ...
Bob Tschannen-Moran | 8Mar10 | More
Previous Comments
 

Other Recent Articles

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“Ideas Worth Spreading” – Watch Daniel Kahneman’s TED Talk

What’s the point of working with a coach? As a client, my hoped-for outcome is a happier, more satisfying life. As a coach, I support my clients in creating lives that are joyful and fulfilling.
If you, too, think “happiness” is a good outcome for yourself and your clients, this is a must-see video.

1Mar2010 | Ruth Ann Harnisch | 1 comment | Continued
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Coaching Researchers Join the Drive to Collaborate

2010: Coaching’s Year of Collaboration?

In February, we told you about the cooperation taking root between coaching’s dominant associations, with the ICF, IAC, WABC and EMCC all putting cooperation and collaboration among their top priorities in the new year.

Now, add coaching researchers to that list.

1Mar2010 | Mark Joyella | 0 comments | Continued
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Coaching Olympians and CEOs

This week, the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team made Olympic history, winning a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Games. The team broke a nearly 90 year streak without winning a single medal–and this year, they’ve won two. “There’s a tremendous sense of pride and satisfaction,” said Tom Steitz, a coach who’s worked with the [...]

26Feb2010 | Mark Joyella | 0 comments | Continued
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Coaching History: 1996 Book – Coaching, Mentoring, and Managing

The first edition of Coaching, Mentoring & Managing: Breakthrough Strategies to Solve Performance Problems and Build Winning Teams was published by Micki Holliday in 1996, with a second edition in 2001.
Written as a management resource, this manual includes practical techniques to coach employees to become more productive, positive, inspired, and effective.
Presenting a trademarked StaffCoach Model, the word [...]

25Feb2010 | Vikki Brock | 3 comments | Continued
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Coaching Study Says Women Make the Best Leaders

Gordon Gekko’s out, and Angela Merkel is in.

New research commissioned by the executive coaching firm ASPIRE suggests the “greed is good” mentality of Michael Douglas’ notorious corporate raider in the 1987 film Wall Street has run its course. “The old school style of many politicians and corporate CEOs is on the way out,” said Dr. Samantha Collins, founder and director of ASPIRE.

24Feb2010 | Mark Joyella | 0 comments | Continued
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How Coaching Works: Flow

Watch How Coaching Works: A short (3:47 minute) video on You Tube

We released a movie titled “How Coaching Works” as a way to explain coaching, via YouTube, using an animated cartoon. This blog series aims to share the psychological underpinnings of the coach approach demonstrated in the carton and utilized by master coaches.

23Feb2010 | Margaret Moore | 5 comments | Continued
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Coaching’s “Force of Nature” and How She’s Maximizing Business on Facebook

The folks who know Atlanta coach Wendy Y. Bailey describe her as a “force of nature.”

“Her passion, commitment and unyielding support is unparalleled,” said Gladys Anderson. “She not only shares generously her knowledge, resources and tips to her community of learners, she is a trendsetter, a visionary and beacon within the coaching community.”

22Feb2010 | Mark Joyella | 5 comments | Continued
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ICF’s D’Alessio: Restoring Trust Is Top Priority

The ICF’s message to its member coaches: we hear you—all of you. “I’ve received incredibly good feedback,” said Giovanna D’Alessio, the ICF’s president. “It was a really good gift for us.”
The gift—delivered in person and in blunt fashion at the ICF’s annual conference in Orlando last December—involved not just the hugely discussed proposal to change [...]

19Feb2010 | Mark Joyella | 1 comment | Continued
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Coaching History: Frederic Hudson and Pamela McLean

Frederic Hudson is a Rockefeller and Danforth fellow, and earned his doctorate from Columbia University in New York. 
In 1973 he was founding president of the Fielding Institute of Santa Barbara, a learning organization whose mission was providing graduate degrees to midlife adults through an innovative self-directed learning model that embraced the intersection of change and [...]

18Feb2010 | Vikki Brock | 0 comments | Continued
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IAC Hosts First of its Kind Coaching Conference in China

At first, the pitch—an “excellent opportunity for you to meet about 100 attendees…for innovative and collaborative exchange and learning”—doesn’t exactly jump off the page.
But the title—and the location—does.
Next month, coaches will gather for a noteworthy event, the “2010 Shanghai Coaching Conference: the Centre of Coaching in China—Advancing to International Excellence.”
“I think it’s quite significant,” said [...]

17Feb2010 | Mark Joyella | 0 comments | Continued
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Career Coaching Is Going In An Interesting Direction

Job seekers, who previously would have not gone after a career they really wanted due to financial responsibilities and worries, are looking at their careers differently since being out of work or being extremely unhappy in their jobs.
As one client put it to me:
 “I have always wanted a career which doesn’t feel like a job [...]

16Feb2010 | Deborah Brown Volkman | 1 comment | Continued
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Coaching Associations: Collaborate, Cooperate, or Compete in 2010?

Coaching is on the move—growing and expanding—and, increasingly, the world’s dominant coaching associations are working together to ensure that growth continues.
“There is an increasing recognition that coaching is the most personalized and effective tool to develop human potential,” wrote the ICF’s president Giovanna D’Alessio and president-elect Ed Modell. “In five to ten years’ time, the [...]

15Feb2010 | Mark Joyella | 5 comments | Continued
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Springboard Forward: How Coaching Can Transform Lives and Workplaces

Elliott Brown had a vision about coaching—that for people feeling stuck, having a coach is like stepping onto a springboard.
“We help low-wage workers get that light bulb to go on that says, ‘wow, I can do a lot more than I thought I could do,’” Brown said.
Brown created Springboard Forward, a group that provides skills [...]

12Feb2010 | Mark Joyella | 1 comment | Continued
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Coaching History: 1996 Book – Sales Coaching

Linda Richardson published “Sales Coaching – Making the Great Leap From Sales Manager to Sales Coach,” as a brief and concise book covering the fundamentals, nuances, and tools needed for moving from boss to coach.
The key was how to create a sales coaching culture steeped with developmental coaching, as a part of every day contact.
Linda looks [...]

11Feb2010 | Vikki Brock | 0 comments | Continued