She said ”We believe there is something needed in the coaching world, something that’s been missing that this place (The Coaching Commons) will fill. Enough people believe this to be the case that there is energy, inspiration, action, and funding to make a go of it.”

Andrea Lee and David Goldsmith were architect and strategist respectively, who built and perfected the concept of the Coaching Commons. I thank them for their innovative thinking and for the courage to launch this adventure.

In that first post, Andrea expressed the vision: “The Coaching Commons is a place for the collective intelligence to emerge through radical conversations that aren’t being held elsewhere, and that are most profoundly compelling to the majority of coaches.”

New territory indeed. Non-partisan, independent, inclusive.

That’s a specialty of visionary, philanthropist and coach, Ruth Ann Harnisch. As founding funder of the Coaching Commons, The Harnisch Foundation was sole support of this coaching experiment, and Ruth Ann spared no expense to bring the creative inspiration of the Coaching Commons to life, and keep it fresh for our international coaching community.

The Coaching Commons was “the road less traveled,” and it’s been quite a trip picking up team members, volunteers, freelancers, readers and coach-friends from all over the world. The experiment has been rich with diversity of people, thoughts and ideas – collecting knowledge and wisdom and sharing with the global coaching community. 

I got to drive the bus.

A staggering 2,456 stories and 2,752 comments have been published, read and discussed. The number of thoughts expressed and thought-provoking stories gives me pause - I sincerely express my gratitude to Ruth Ann, and to all who helped create this pivotal and inspiring body of work.

All along this unpaved, unchartered road, we began adding tourist attractions and sightseeing opportunities.

First, Sandra De Freitas, our tech superhero, cleared the road and kept the Coaching Commons working like a well-oiled machine.

Then we invited Vikki Brock to set up weekly “snapshots” of coaching history.

Elizabeth Crouch and Katherine Gotshall English hosted live chats over coffee with brilliant guests creating Uncommon Conversations. And in case you weren’t able to ”stop by” in person, they recorded the calls so you could get yours “to go” and listen in later. 

Emmy-Award winning journalist Mark Joyella joined for the last half of the ride, charting his way as the first Community Supported Journalist. He brought us compelling stories, breaking news, fresh interviews and a variety of instructional, funny, and innovative videos.

We also decided coaches should have their own daily “newspaper” so they could keep up with international coaching news, and if readers didn’t have time to stop by and check the news, the Commons delivered it (via email) each day.

When coaches asked us about research, the Commons added a corner where you could stop for the latest reports and understand what new research meant to your practice, and to the advancement of the profession.

When the economy declined, many coaches faced a financial roadblock that prevented them from having their own coach. Instinctively Ruth Ann found and arranged a partnership with Kerryn Griffiths at ReciproCoach, to offer free coaching coins to Coaching Commons’ readers who posted stories or comments. These coins were redeemable for reciprocal coaching, mentoring or supervision.

The Coaching Commons widened the road by inviting freelance journalists and coaches to submit stories for publication. This added new voices with diverse viewpoints.

Last year, the Coaching Commons redesigned the entire roadmap to reflect what readers told us was most important – original stories, breaking news, open conversation and international daily coaching news. We even added a mobile app so our audience could read and participate remotely.

Today, I’m bringing the bus to a halt and bidding all my colleagues and coach-friends a fond thank you and farewell. Although we are at the end of this road less traveled, I’m hoping the inspiration from this adventure will never stop.

What a ride!

People are past ready to make changes in their lives. Just watch CNN, observe the workplace, survey the marketplace. Freeze-frame time and look around. The time is right and ripe.

When people know more about what coaching can do, they’ll be lining up at your doors. Phones will be ringing in your pockets 24/7. Your diaries and calendars will be filled.

As your clients find their answers, the effect of the transformation will be seen, heard, felt – and more people will want to know how to make their own changes. As your clients begin to wake up, they’ll nudge and shake others awake.

That’s what we’ve been waiting for, isn’t it?  A groundswell of public awareness and an understanding of the power of coaching? For everyone who wants a coach to have one? To watch the world become a thriving, peaceful planet, populated with individuals who love their lives and feel deeply connected to all life?

It’s bound to happen.

My suggestion is that we make it happen NOW.

It’s time to connect and advance as a bold, global coaching movement. We’ll work out the glitches together, keep each other acutely informed, and firmly grasp that common goal. We’ll save valuable time if we move forward together.

Help us connect every coach to the Coaching Commons. 

The Commons will supply the breaking news, the international daily news, the platform for lively commentary on controversial issues, the latest research to boost ROI and coaching credibility, and contextual history about the roots of this unique profession.

One coach is a powerful agent of change. A million coaches moving forward together? That’s a whole NEW definition of “strength in numbers.”

• Top stories and breaking news from Coach Reporter, Mark Joyella
• Quick daily access to international coaching news
• Original reporting on timely coaching issues and hot topics from freelance journalists and coaches worldwide
• Reader commentary, opinions and dialogue about pertinent issues and hot topics
• Multimedia features and reports
• Updates on the latest coaching research and how findings help practitioners to build, sustain and improve their businesses
• Brief snapshots of coaching history and history-makers

All this information is offered front and center, so it’s quick and easy to skim through and access from your PC or laptop, and (newly formatted) for your mobile device.

The news sections have been pared down, identified accurately, and offer a minimum of scrolling and clicking. Find what you want, when you want it, and read as much as you want – or as little.

This upgraded version helps Coaching Commons readers/subscribers stay current with the coaching world in just a FEW minutes EVERY day.

Our mission is to scout out the news and information coaches and coaching clients need to know,  our eyes open 24/7 to gather the vital information about our emerging industry. (The Coaching Commons is updated daily.)

And our purpose?

To present the very best opportunity for the international community of coaches to collaborate and advance professional coaching toward a strong and successful future.

Have a look around.

Let us know if you can’t find what you need, or if links don’t link – we’re alert and eager to make the Coaching Commons your #1 click for coaching news.

The Gulf oil spill, the floods in Nashville, the series of tornados that cut a swath of destruction through the Midwest not long ago and the recent storms that disrupted power for weeks in the Northeast all underscore one thing: While it’s essential to have a business plan, it is equally important to plan for special situations that can lead to business disruption and potentially significant financial losses.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a sole proprietor or a multinational corporation – as BP is learning the hard way – you’ve got to be ready when it’s not “business as usual.”

The importance of having a business plan is not lost on savvy employers, but a company must also take into account potential business disruption, natural disasters and even employee injuries as part of the planning process. These unforeseen “special situations” happen outside of your normal scope of business.

Here are some basic tips for making sure you don’t end up on the wrong end of a special situation: Read Tips.

Back then, it was a challenge to find credible news stories about professional coaching.

In 2009, when The Foundation of Coaching transitioned to The Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate, news and feature stories about coaching were not only easy to find – combing through the daily feeds became time consuming, tedious –  AND very exciting.

When The Chronicle of Coaching was archived and the Coaching Commons took over reporting the news to our readers, a new challenge was born -  there were SO MANY coaching stories, that reporting only once each week created a long and exhausting document for our readers to view.

Coaching News – Present

We updated the reporting format and the Commons now gathers and prints the latest global coaching news every day – 7 days a week.

Also in 2009, the Coaching Commons hired its own Coach Reporter, the first journalist to exclusively cover the “coaching beat,” writing original news and feature stories for the Coaching Commons audience. 

And we appreciate our many readers, coaches and researchers who have volunteered their coaching blogs and stories to the Coaching Commons as guest contributors. (Applause to Vikki Brock, who volunteers snapshots of Coaching History each week.)

New News

The thrilling next step is an invitation to our community of coaches/writers (and to freelance journalists and reporters) to pitch stories to our Editorial Team, and if the story is accepted, write for the Coaching Commons and get paid!

We want to expand our international coverage of the coaching profession, and offer our readers the latest ideas and commentary about executive coaching, business coaching, leadership coaching, life coaching -and specialty coaching niches that are fresh and timely.

• Are you attending a major coaching conference that you would be willing to critique and/or review?
• Are you doing coaching research that would benefit Coaching Commons readers?
• Do you want to start a provocative conversation that coaches would be eager (and passionate) to discuss?

Join us in creating the next level of the Coaching Commons – expanding international coaching news that will advance coaching to the next stage of growth.

Click here for information:  Write for the Commons

North America’s Leading Career and Franchise Business Coaching Company Ranks 10th Among All Franchises Southbury, CT – The Entrepreneur’s Source (TES), the leading career and business coaching company with more than 230 offices in the United States and Canada, has been ranked 10th among all franchises on the RedHotFranchises.com 2010 “Hot 100 Franchise List,” which recognizes the world’s best franchises and business opportunities in dozens of different industry categories.

The ranking acknowledges TES as the leading business-coaching and consulting franchise opportunity based on its proven business model, which gives aspiring entrepreneurs the necessary tools for long-term self-sufficiency. Franchises are ranked based on a variety of factors, including management, franchisee satisfaction, franchise support, growth rate, financial stability and profitability.

“We’re proud to be recognized as the leader in career and business coaching, especially in this New Career Economy® , where a growing number of individuals are choosing to move from employment to empowerment™,” said Brian Miller, president and chief operating officer of TES. Self-employment could be the only path available to many individuals who have lost their jobs. Read more.

According to a January 2010 article in The Economist, “Women now make up almost half of American workers (49.9% in October). They run some of the world’s best companies, such as PepsiCo, Archer Daniels Midland and W.L. Gore. They earn almost 60% of university degrees in America and Europe.”

In honor of Women’s History Month, I offer women in business a roadmap to success that doesn’t require that they resort to traditional male behaviors and tendencies. My transformational approach to executive coaching has been proven to help women break through self-imposed barriers that hinder their professional growth and personal satisfaction.

Getting in the door is just one step on the road to success and satisfaction; it’s far from the end of the journey. Dealing with adversity without sacrificing one’s feminine nature is a very important part of development for women executives. Business Week’s article “How Women Leaders Find Success and Happiness” points out that, “Much psychological research underscores that women tend to experience emotions more at the extreme than men do, with the result that adversity can lead to feelings of failure. But it’s possible to stop that emotional downward spiral consciously and address whatever the problem really is.” (Business Week Special Report: Oct 23, 2009)

What follows are several action steps designed to help women get beyond lies that limit those self-imposed barriers – and be true to themselves while claiming their place in a world historically dominated by men. Read more.

Everybody has been granted the wonderful gift of being able to choose what life they want to live

Making a new start is not about instant success. It requires a fresh commitment at the start of every day. 

EURIPIDES wrote, “A bad beginning makes a bad ending.” Does a good beginning therefore make a good ending?

Everybody has been given the wonderful gift of “the next decision”; we all have the ultimate freedom to weigh facts in order to make those decisions.

Life coaching offers tools that can help you to make the next most important decision that will probably change the trajectory of your life. Life coaching is about making the next decision to change from a focus on the past to a focus on the future by living out that next decision in the present.

Craig, our case study on “new beginnings”, was coached to simply acknowledge the present and the role he played in the design thereof, regardless of what he had lost up to that point. He was asked to give his brain an opportunity to take a break off the trajectory his mind was following and to introduce new possibilities into the equation of his life.

After a deep breath, he said, “I take full responsibility for where I am right now in my life.” Read story.

Coaches are feeling and expressing passionate viewpoints around the credibility and viability of coaching. They are determined to be heard and want to get this one right. Right?

Within this passionate conversation, there is the not-to-be-missed opportunity to fling open the doors and  invite in the leadership of all professional coaching associations worldwide. And their members. And coaches unaffiliated with a professional organization.

There’s a place at this virtual think tank for everyone who believes that coaching is a valuable instrument of change. Isn’t that still the ultimate goal of the coaching field? Let’s go there.

What common beliefs do coaches share universally about training, professionalism, ethics, and standards? (Everyone would agree there are great coaches with little training and poor coaches with mega-training.)

Decide what training creates a great coach? How long should it take? How do you measure it and give it a stamp of approval? Done.

Coaches need to be out in the world COACHING, not expending energy word wrestling about credentials…

Unless it’s a genuine, worldwide, open conversation that defies barriers and defines shared beliefs about training coaches to effectively change the world.

Who is better equipped than coaches to listen well, ask the right questions, move forward in collaboration and facilitate change?

Knock.   Knock.   Knock.

When you participate at the Coaching Commons as a guest contributor whose post is a featured story, or when you make a comment that generates lively conversation, you will receive a unit of ReciproCoach credit called a “coaching coin.”

You’ll receive an email with the news – how many coins you’ve been awarded, along with information about how to register. The more you join in the coaching conversation at the Commons, the more coins you collect – one gift each month – up to six coins in a year.

Here’s how it works:
Once you register at ReciproCoach, a professional ReciproCoach match-maker will choose a coach for you in what is called a coaching “round.” (A coaching round is the term of the coaching agreement: a specific number of coaching hours over a specific period of time.)

And here’s where the “Recipro” part of ReciproCoaching comes in: you take a turn coaching another coach. (No worries - it’s not the coach who’s coaching you.)

Reciprocal coaching. ReciproCoach!

Simple. Collaborative. Brilliant. Life-changing.

And free to Coaching Commons participants.

So why do we call this “a gift” when you’re asked to coach someone else?

That’s because ReciproCoach coins ordinarily cost up to 25 USD each. You need two coins to join a coaching round. These coins pay for the professional administration of the program, web development, matching coaches with coaches and monitoring the coaching rounds.

Through a grant from The Harnisch Foundation, the Coaching Commons partnered with ReciproCoach to offer this rare opportunity to our guest contributors and readers who keep stirring the conversation with their published comments.

ReciproCoach (formerly Contra Coaching) was created in 2005 by Kerryn Griffiths in Brisbane, Australia. She believes, as we do, that every coach should have a coach.

When we ask coaches why they don’t have a coach of their own, most say they’ve had a coach in the past, and plan to have a coach again, but right now they have too many demands on their time and/or on their budgets.

ReciproCoach was created to meet that need.

The Harnisch Foundation is covering registration fees and has purchased a number of coaching coins for Coaching Commons guest contributors and commenters — and you’re eligible to get your share  – until all the coins are awarded!

To find out more about Kerryn Griffiths and ReciproCoach, click here.

To visit The Harnisch Foundation, click here.