As a social venture philanthropist, I’m accustomed to some of my projects coming to a conclusion or transitioning into another form.  The Coaching Commons isn’t disappearing entirely: its archives will be available at the Institute of Coaching.

It’s a fitting home, because of the coaching-related research done under the auspices of the Institute of Coaching. If future scholars chronicle the development of this field, the archives of The Coaching Commons and its predecessor, The Foundation of Coaching, will probably provide the most comprehensive overview of the times.

The archive of the Coaching Commons comprises several years’ worth of observations and aggregation, a contemporary history of coaching and the people who were shaping its practice.

I’m not sorry to close the Coaching Commons. We didn’t have enough True Fans to warrant the continued investment, and it’s crazy to keep deploying capital to create what’s not passionately desired in this format. We appreciate those of you who teamed up to pledge thousands of dollars, and you are free to redeploy that capital. 

Our True Friendraising goal was all or nothing.

When I first became interested in coaching and attempted to find out everything I could about the field, it was the dark age of information. In other words, pre-Wikipedia. 

There wasn’t much sophisticated material available about coaching online back then. Very few coaches knew how to find a webpage, much less create one of their own. 

Today, most coaches are web-savvy, and anyone seeking information on coaching can access more with one click that I found in months of searching in the early days. We used to scour the internet looking for references to professional coaches (not necessarily in sports). Now, it takes Linda Ballew’s deft and experienced eye an hour or so each morning to cull the hundred-plus Google Alerts and choose the three or four stories to post as daily news.

The independent space the Coaching Commons hoped to create back in the dinosaur days is a click away on Facebook now. Coaches can meet there, exchange news there. If a controversial topic in coaching arises, someone will create a Facebook page about it, and that’s where people will meet to discuss it.

The Coaching Commons is simply not needed – the void it was born to fill no longer exists.

So the natural life of the Coaching Commons is ending, but not without boundless gratitude to the readers, the writers, and those who provided the breath, the heart, and the soul of connection for all these years. 

That list is long and you will find it elsewhere on the Commons, but special thanks go to Linda Ballew whose caring attention and love for coaching and journalism shows in every word and every punctuation mark, to David Goldsmith who provided the model, inspiration, and guiding hand, to Andrea Lee who created the format, to Mark Joyella who offered an opportunity for professional journalistic coverage of coaching and coaches, to those who built it and those who came.

Everything is temporary, everything has a life cycle, and this ends the Coaching Commons.

As the Coaching Commons team has discussed the future of this enterprise over the past few months, I haven’t been able to get this image out of my head. Memory plays tricks: I remembered it as “Shoot This Dog,” not “Kill This Dog.”

I sigh deeply and face the cold fact: If You Don’t Buy This Magazine, We’ll Kill This Dog.

No euphemistic “shoot” – we’ll kill the Coaching Commons if enough of you don’t want to save it.

When a visionary group of volunteers gathered to create the Coaching Commons, it was not just a “labor of love.” It was passionate public service to a profession that seemed on the cusp of a new era. We hoped to create an independent resource for all things coaching, and the Coaching Commons was the evolutionary product of our communications efforts.

There’s no doubt in my mind that The Coaching Commons is a great idea – independent journalism covering the beat of professional coaching, without advertising, without affiliation with any school or business. Mark Joyella has, I think, demonstrated to the coaching community that his brand of reporting adds a needed level of accountability and transparency to the world of professional coaching. It’s every bit the service to coaching that the founders intended. Many of you have told us we’re needed, and irreplaceable.

The Coaching Commons was created as a safe place for game-changing conversations about the future of coaching, to offer a non-commercial, independent, trustworthy forum for the exchange of information and ideas. When the Coaching Commons added a dedicated professional journalist to cover the coaching beat and opened the doors to freelance reporting, it was revolutionary. We hoped that the coaching community would welcome this brand of journalism. In fact, we believed that the coaching community would appreciate it so much that they would insist upon supporting it.

Right now, it’s looking as if we were wrong about that. The response to our call for 1000 True Fans has been underwhelming.

It’s been suggested that since this is “my” project that I will continue to support it. It’s never been “my” project – it is the product of other people’s vision and hard work. I have simply approved the expenditures. We always intended for this to become self-sustaining, supported by the community it served, with diminishing degrees of underwriting from the Harnisch Foundation.

As a bold venture philanthropist, I’ve had my share of investments that came to a natural conclusion. When that happens, I call it “An idea whose time is no.” I’m willing to accept that The Coaching Commons, while useful and beloved, does not have a big enough fan base to justify the continued expenditure. I’m still willing to be convinced to underwrite the lion’s share of another year’s expenses, but I won’t do it unless I see the kind of community response that tells me it’s an effective use of my capital.

So, it’s up to you – are we going to kill this dog?

Click here to keep the Coaching Commons alive.

If you, too, think “happiness” is a good outcome for yourself and your clients, this is a must-see video.

Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman, chosen to deliver the first TED Talk at this year’s TED Conference in Long Beach, gives us important tips for creating pleasurable experiences and minimizing unpleasant ones.  Would you believe that even a colonoscopy can be made less yucky? 

If you’re new to the TED Talks,  let this be the first of many exciting discoveries, all free, and most available in many languages.  TED is devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading,” and there’s no better idea than happiness.  Enjoy!

Click here to view the Daniel Kahneman video.

These are short, memorable, black-and-white cinematic portraits that capture the essence of an individual.  (Yes, you can hire him to make a film starring YOU.)
 
It would be unfair to judge the quality of his current technique by viewing his oldies-but-goodies, but Nic has kindly given permission to share two of his (very early) coach-specific films with us here at the Coaching Commons.
 
The first video (screen below) will bring a smile of recognition to your face as a coach searches for just the right words to explain what he does and how he does it. 

The second is a short visit with one of the pioneers of coaching, Sir John Whitmore.  Watch second video here.

[LOWER THE LIGHTS - SWITCH OFF THE WORLD - PLAY FULL SCREEN]

MORE FILMS FROM THE FILM MAKER NICASKEW.COM & SOULBIOGRAPHIES.COM

Well, with less than three months on the job, he’s done all that and more.

Trouble is, it’s all because of his wife’s blog, http://myhusbandisannoying.com.

Mark’s wife, Tiffanie Wong, started a funny little blog cataloguing the minor annoyances that mar the perfection of their otherwise blissful newlywed state.

Turns out a lot of people – I mean a LOT of people – are interested in the husbandly foibles of our Coach Reporter.

If you missed the mostly-happy couple on the CBS Morning Show on Monday, August 24, take a look.

We just got word they’re booked on the Tyra Banks show on Tuesday, August 25.

Tiffanie’s busy turning this sudden fame into a book, while Mark has dreams of a sitcom (we think Jerry Seinfeld is perfect to play him, although Tiffanie might think Michael Richards more accurately captures the spirit of The Annoying One).

We’d find this all semi-annoying (he missed our weekly editorial meeting because, you know, Fame was on the other line) except for one thing.

He’s still a helluva reporter and he’s bringing something special (besides that ubiquitous green sweater and those frat-boy jokes) to the Coaching Commons.

Case in point: his stunning interview with Jayson Blair, disgraced plagiarist famously fired from the New York Times who has reinvented himself as a life coach.

Mark’s questioning revealed more than you might imagine, and I was spellbound by this podcast.

Coaching needs a reporter with this kind of moxie, and I’m glad Mark Joyella is on the beat for the Coaching Commons.

If you find him annoying at times, well, you’re not the only one.

The Art of the Small: How to Make an Impact
by Leo Babauta

There’s a Jedi Force technique called The Art of the Small wherein the Jedi essentially narrows his focus ‚Ķ until he can use The Force to change things at a microscopic level.

That’s a geeky way of showing how focusing on less and less can, in the end, change everything.

There are a lot of us who would like to make an impact on the world, in some way or another. We’d like to make a contribution, change things for the better, improve lives, leave behind something positive.

And yet, with the vastness of this world, with the number of people out there who will resist change ‚Ķ it seems impossible at times. How can one person make an impact on the world? Normal people ‚Äî those of us who aren’t in the circle of influencers such as elected officials or influential media types ‚Äî just don’t have that kind of power, right?

Not necessarily.

When we think of the world as such a vast place, it’s overwhelming. It’s like sprinkling drops of our efforts into the ocean ‚Äî the overall effect is so little as to be unnoticeable.

But think of those same drops of effort dripping onto one tiny spot, perhaps not in the ocean but on a rock. The drops of water, concentrated on one spot, can eventually break through that rock. And if that rock is supporting a lot of other rocks, those drops of water can cause an avalanche.

The same effort, concentrated in the right place, can make an impact. Diffused over a wide area — not so much.

Four Lessons in The Art of the Small
So our little metaphor ‚Äî of drops of water falling on an ocean, or on a rock ‚Äî contains in it four lessons that we’ll call The Art of the Small (only slightly related to the Jedi Force technique):

1. One person can make an impact. Don’t feel that it’s hopeless. You don’t need to be someone famous or powerful to have an impact. You can make a difference, you can change things ‚Äî if you focus on The Art of the Small.

2. Concentrate your efforts on smaller and smaller areas. When your efforts are diffused over a wide area, they won’t have much of an impact. So focus on smaller areas, and your efforts will be felt more fully. It could take time for change to happen, but keep that focus narrow.

3. Try to find an area that will cause a tipping point. You’ll have the biggest impact if you can change something that will in itself cause further changes ‚Äî the rock that causes the avalanche. This isn’t an easy thing, to find that pressure point, that spot that will cause everything else to change. It takes practice and experience and luck and persistence, but it can be found.

4. Don’t try to beat an ocean. You’ll lose. Instead, focus on small changes that will spread.

Learning the Art of the Small
This isn’t something you’ll always grasp instinctively, but you’ll learn its effectiveness when you put it into practice. Want to beat climate change? It’s too huge for one person to change ‚Äî so focus on something smaller instead. Change your behaviors in small ways, help your children change, help other family and friends change. And teach them to help others change.

Start in small ways ‚Äî help others, do little good things, and see what the impact of those things are. Never underestimate the power of putting a smile on someone’s face. That smile could change the person’s entire day, and they could go on to do something brilliant that in turn helps thousands of people. All because you did something small that put a smile on their face.

Sounds corny, but it works. Small things can have huge effects. Over time, you’ll learn to focus your efforts more effectively, but in the beginning, it doesn’t matter. What matters is you learn to focus on smaller and smaller things, and learn to be persistent.

Small things can change the world.

The following letter has been edited and I’ve removed the names of specific coach training programs as well as the identity of the writer.

Hello, Ruth Ann.

I am very interested in the coaching profession, but am finding it difficult to find the funding to allow me to start. Some schools offer payment plans, but they are very expensive ($500 per month) and are unaffordable to me at this time. Other programs offer some kind of student loan, but their programs consist of intensives and travel, which add more to the cost. I have a young family, and traveling long distances would be very difficult.

I am interested in [name of training program] specifically, because of their reputation, accessibility, and convenience, but again their payment plan sucks! I was wondering of you knew of any way to find scholarships, student loans, or other funding options to pay for coaching programs?

It is my opinion that if this profession wants to hit mainstream, someone is gonna have to offer some kind of funding, loan, or scholarship program to assist people like me. Not everyone has $3000- $14,000 lying around to pay for it. So until I find something, I will remain patient and faithful. I will find a way. Any suggestions? I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

(Insert sound effect here of Ruth Ann’s head exploding)

I get requests like this all the time, because I have given large grants for coaching-related research, and I’ve funded a number of coaching-related philanthropies.

My answer is always in the form of a question, followed by another question, and another.

What kind of coach do you want to be? What kind of coaching work to you want to do? Why do you think expensive training and certification are required to achieve your goals? Are they necessary right now, or could you start on a low-or-no-cost path today to begin the journey to your desired destination?

I first heard about the field of “executive coaching” when I was a working journalist. I knew that top managers, entrepreneurs, and leaders engaged professional coaches to help them maximize their effectiveness, achieve their goals, advance their skills.

Later, as the chair of the board of a not-for-profit organization that hired a professional coach to serve the members, I experienced a personal coaching session myself. Curious, I began looking into “this thing called coaching.”

I attended conferences, joined coaching organizations, began working with coaches. A journalist at heart, I couldn’t help asking questions, digging, finding out more, looking for the who-what-where-when-why-how of coaching. What I discovered was, to quote Gertrude Stein, there is no ‘there’ there.

There’s no such thing as “coaching central,” no single recognized source or authority, no governing body, no one standard of certification or licensing, no agreement among the varying factions and schools and philosophies about something as simple as a definition of coaching, much less who “is” a coach, or what constitutes “good” coaching.

What I found: there are hundreds – repeat, HUNDREDS – of different certifications. There are dozens of coach training programs, certificate programs, degree programs. It’s possible to get a Ph.D. in coaching and not be “certified.” It’s possible to be a grammar school dropout and be “certified.” Different countries have different ideas about coaching. Different cultures have different ideas about coaches. It behooves the potential student to investigate thoroughly – why should I take THIS training? Is this specific training REQUIRED for what I want to do as a coach? Where does my money go? What alternatives can give me what I need to get where I want to go? Am I getting the runaround when I ask these questions?

Many people think of “schools” as benign nonprofit entitites, perhaps government-sponsored or government-approved. They are shocked to discover that many coach training entities are for-profit businesses. No coaching certification programs that I know of are associated with any U.S. government standard for coaching. [It may be different in other countries.] You’ll find some “accredited” schools are in fact merely licensed by a government agency as a business, not recognized for meeting the academic standards of an educational institution. Many coach training schools are ‚Äúaccredited” only by a trade organization. The trade organization creates its own standard for certification, then accredits schools to teach to that standard, and the wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round. A school may well be accredited, but that doesn’t mean “meets a government-approved standard for coaching education.”

One coach told me that her certification was “the” standard “because it’s the only one accepted for getting [a specific local government contract]. If you want a contract with [a specific local government] then you need that certification. In other words, that organization convinced some local lawmakers to accept their certification as the standard. The lawmakers probably asked, “How can we make sure that the coaches we hire are not charlatans?”  “How do we legislators cover our hindquarters?”) So they chose to accept the standards of a particular trade organization. Mission accomplished: politician’s backside covered, and bragging rights for that private trade group and its business. And that’s how the world works – at least, that’s how it worked before people started looking harder at how lawmakers decide who gets the goodies.

What kind of coach do you want to be? What kind of coaching work do you want to do? What is REQUIRED in order to achieve those ends?

Research is showing that most clients don’t care about a coach’s certification. They care about the coaching relationship and the results.

Don’t get me wrong: I think professional coaches need to study and learn coaching skills. I think they need to practice those skills. I think they need the guidance and mentoring of experienced, skilled coaches. I think they need to be accountable and responsible for their conduct as coaches, adhering to a code of ethics, willing to allow others to look over their professional shoulder.

I’m just not convinced there’s any single “right way” to do that or that it should necessarily cost thousands of dollars. Coaching is largely unregulated. It’s not universally considered a “profession,” and certainly, not everyone who coaches is professional. Some groups with special interests (monetary and philosophical) would like that to change. My own certification is from the International Association of Coaching, and I only chose to become certified because I served on the IAC’s Board of Governors. As a condition of board service, they required me to become IAC certified, which seemed reasonable. It was not expensive and no formal schooling was required. I had to pass a written test and prove to trained observers that I could coach according to their methods. The preparation, practice, and study certainly made me a better coach. But I saw some coaches “fail” the certification test on the day I “passed,” and trust me, some of them were and are good coaches. They already had thriving practices. Their clients love them and they get results, and the happy clients don’t care if their coach passed some arbitrary test. (All coaching certification tests are arbitrary, subjective, judged by fallible humans.)

Should you pay thousands of dollars for your coach training and certification? That depends on many factors. Right now, in my opinion, it’s simply not necessary. Thousands of people have a vested, monetary, business interest in promoting and perpetuating their own brand of coaching. For many well-meaning people, the coach training business is a righteous livelihood that provides monetary and spiritual rewards. Coach training and education is always “worth it” in terms of your skill-building, experience, and confidence. But how much time and money will you spend? Where will you spend it?

If you can afford the time and money, great! Get dozens of certifications! Join every coaching organization! Do intensives, workshops, mentor coaching! Buy every book! Take every teleclass! But if money is an object, why would you go into debt to meet an arbitrary and optional standard when it is entirely possible to acquire the skills without racking up the bills?

I welcome your comments – if I’m mistaken on the facts, I’ll make immediate corrections. If you have further suggestions for the aspiring coach, I’ll be delighted to post them.

After all, I like to think of myself as “coachable,” and I promise I’ll only judge your reasoning, not your credentials.

We think Jeff Immelt has it exactly right. It’s an emotional, social, economic reset.

And so it is with The Foundation of Coaching – we’ve hit the Reset button. Before we reboot completely, we’d like to take a moment to look around at what is, what was, and how we got to this moment.

In the fall of 2005, members of the board of the Thomas J. Leonard Memorial Foundation met at the office of The Goldsmith Group in Santa Fe, NM. David Goldsmith and others in his firm had been involved with Thomas and his pioneering work in the nascent field of coaching. After Thomas’ sudden and surprising death, the memorial foundation was created to honor his memory. Ruth Ann Harnisch had been invited to join the board.

As the group discussed possibilities for projects, it became clear that Dave Buck, to whom Thomas bequeathed his business and intellectual property, was the natural leader of anything directly connected to Thomas. He accepted that leadership (and ownership) role, along with the opportunity to reconfigure the board.

David Goldsmith, Ruth Ann Harnisch, and others wondered how else they might be of service to the field of coaching. They decided to explore the creation of another nonprofit, and at the fall conference of the International Coaching Federation in San Jose, California, they began discussing the idea with others.

What they had in mind was a ‚Äúbig tent,” an independent, inclusive organization that could be an international online resource for ‚Äúall things coaching.” Funding from The Harnisch Foundation made the work possible.

The first to join what would become The Foundation of Coaching was Dr. Mary Wayne Bush, who was heading up the ICF Research Symposium that year. Ruth Ann happened to sit next to Mary Wayne at lunch that day, and before the meal was over, Dr. Bush shared her far-reaching vision for the future of coaching-related research.

Next to say ‚ÄúCount me in!” was Vikki Brock, who might have been personally acquainted with more individuals in the coaching world than anyone on the planet, and she had interviewed most of the major figures who shaped the emerging field of professional coaching.

Goldsmith and Harnisch had many more conversations with leaders in coaching centered on this question: If we build it, will coaches come?

Were coaches interested enough to work together across disciplines, share information, research, history, and participate with one another globally? The nucleus of interested coaches discussed a variety of needs The Foundation of Coaching might serve: Communication, History, Research, Archives, News – what else?

Mary Wayne Bush led the Research division, administering a $100,000 annual budget for coaching-related academic research grants. Mary Wayne assembled the first group of coaching professionals to serve as the Research Advisory Panel. James Hunt (USA), John Bennett (USA), Michael Cavanagh (Australia), Alison Carter (UK), and Dianne Stober (USA) helped define The Foundation of Coaching philosophy and guidelines for accepting grant proposals. This esteemed inaugural panel reviewed and discussed research proposals that were submitted, and made recommendations for grant awards.

Mary Wayne Bush traveled to more places, made public appearances before more audiences, and her personal connections and relentless networking made The Foundation of Coaching Research Division the best-known and most effective leader in coaching-related research.

Dr. Francine Campone joined the effort, dedicating herself to the creation and promotion of the first-of-its-kind Coaching Research Repository, a place where peer-reviewed research is readily available to the public. She continues to contribute, now at the Coaching Commons, hosting and recording coaching researcher interviews that enable practitioners to access and understand current coaching research and how it is beneficial to coaching practice.

Vikki Brock headed up the work that was concerned with the history of coaching, the artifacts and documents that existed, and the possibility of a library for such materials. Although Vikki advocated forcefully for the creation of a library, there wasn’t enough financial support available to make that a reality. In the meantime, several other coaches and interest groups began their own efforts to create libraries. Core values of The Foundation of Coaching included ‚Äúnon-duplication of effort” and ‚Äúcollaborate, don’t compete.” So The Foundation’s ideas for a library were shelved.

However, Vikki continued to explore the history of coaching, eventually writing her Ph.D. dissertation based on those interviews. This work was the centerpiece of the History Division of The Foundation of Coaching. The woman now known as Dr. Brock is using the research from her dissertation to create a reader-friendly reference on the historical roots of modern coaching. Vikki also writes for the Virtual Museum of Coaching and the Coaching Hall of Fame at the Coaching Commons, retelling stories from her (over 175) interviews with coaches and her research about those who pioneered the coaching field.

The Communications division of The Foundation of Coaching had many early supporters and leaders. Deborah Brown-Volkman was there at the beginning.

The Chronicle of Coaching began as an idea to track news and identify coaching trends in the media. In May 2006, Pamela Gerloff joined the team as the editor of The Chronicle, providing a weekly snapshot of coaching-relevant information. Since that humble beginning, which cited only seven items of interest from the coaching world, The Chronicle of Coaching has evolved to a comprehensive view of many areas of coaching: breaking news, executive coaching, life coaching, niches in the coaching fields, samples of blogs, books, products and press releases worldwide.

In addition to Dr. Gerloff, Christine Heinrichs, Alex Goldsmith and Linda Ballew have all served as newshounds and editors for The Chronicle. Each week, the Chronicle of Coaching features selections from a wide variety of popular media around the world. Today The Chronicle of Coaching includes 25-40 entries each week, and is loaded with the latest news and trends on global coaching worldwide. To view the latest issue, CLICK HERE.

When Linda Ballew joined the team in July of 2006, her organizational skills, attention to detail and divine flexibility helped bring order to the many projects of The Foundation of Coaching, along with a heaping helping of Southern grace and charm. She now reverently holds much of the Foundation’s organizational memory. She’s not only the temporal and parietal cortex of our brain, she’s the beating (and sometimes bleeding) heart of this organization.

Late in 2006, the concept of a Community Network Division and an online coaching reference was born. Robyn Logan, a brilliant early adopter of social networking, took on this challenge. Robyn is an international visionary who was more than slightly ahead of her time, and she was certainly ahead of ours.

Robyn believed building a social network of coaches would allow the global community to be involved in every aspect of the ‚Äúall things coaching” dream. She envisioned an online wiki-type ‚ÄúCoachpedia.” She devoted countless hours to these projects. Robyn is now concentrating on her business, and we will always be grateful for her farsighted ideas and selfless contributions.

Providing crucial administrative support throughout all these enterprises, Harnisch Foundation Grants Manager Jennifer Raymond has been an essential contributor to the work from the very beginning, overseeing the creation of The Harnisch Foundation website and keeping an eye on the big picture.

When Andrea J. Lee joined the team, she took the social networking idea to a new site: the Coaching Commons, which became another project of The Harnisch Foundation.

In spring of 2007, Dr. John Bennett was hired as CEO of The Foundation of Coaching, along with Peg Esgate Aldridge. The directive: explore the viability of The Foundation of Coaching as a stand-alone, self-sustaining non-profit organization. Was there sufficient support from the global coaching community that would value and contribute to this independent ‚Äúall things coaching” concept?

John soon discovered that Mary Wayne Bush and the Research Division of The Foundation of Coaching had done such a spectacular job in getting the word out about their work that ‚ÄúThe Foundation of Coaching” name was known worldwide. One problem: it was known almost exclusively for coaching research.

Attempts to expand the way people thought about The Foundation of Coaching did not gain traction. Changing the perceptions and raising outside funds seemed like insurmountable obstacles to independence. The Foundation of Coaching continued to rely upon the Harnisch Foundation for financial support.

In the fall of 2008, the first International Coaching Research Forum was convened by Dr. Mary Wayne Bush and Dr. Carol Kauffman, and facilitated by Dr. Sunny Stout Rostron. Meeting at the Harvard Faculty Club, dozens of academic researchers and others from the field gathered to identify the top priorities for the future of coaching-related research.

As a result of the work done by the ICRF and the relationships formed there, Ruth Ann Harnisch established The Harnisch Fund for Coaching, which will continue the next generation of grants for coaching-related research and support the creation and launch of The Institute of Coaching. Headquartered at the Harvard Medical School teaching facility McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric hospital affiliated with HMS.

The Fund is intended to make $100,000 in coaching-related research grants each year until at least 2015. The agreement specifically promises to “leverage prior successes and brand awareness of The Foundation of Coaching and build continuity from that entity’s endeavors to the work now moving forward at McLean.”

The agreement says: “The purpose of the Fund will be to generate empirically supported best practices for coaching, especially peer-reviewed research into the transformational aspects of coaching relationships and effective change strategies, then assure the widespread dissemination of those research findings to encourage the application of the coaching model of conversation in everyday life.”

The Institute of Coaching is now headed by Dr. Carol Kauffman, working with Lew Stern, Susan David, and Margaret Moore. The last of the research projects funded by grants from The Foundation of Coaching will be coming to a conclusion soon.

From its beginnings in 2005, The Foundation of Coaching has been a leader in coaching-related research and providing opportunities for people to talk about coaching. Co-founder David Goldsmith served as the organization’s manager, leader, and strategic planner. His international ambassadorship helped put The Foundation of Coaching at the forefront of ‚Äúall things coaching,” his original vision.

As we hit the Reset button, you’ll see even more exciting developments in the weeks and months ahead. Follow the developments on the Coaching Commons and The Harnisch Foundation.

11^th Annual International Coaching Week

February 1-7, 2009

Scroll down to view the 2009 ICW Contest Winners!

Back when I was a television and radio talk show host, newspaper columnist, and journalist-about-town, I depended on Chase’s Calendar of Events to give me ideas. For example, according to Chase’s, today is “Better Conversations Day.” If I were still working at WLAC Radio (1510 AM, Nashville), I might ask my listeners for ways to have a better conversation on the air today. (I know my fans – “You shut up” would have been suggestion numero uno)

Yes, hundreds of people who work in radio, television, or public relations rely on Chase’s Calendar. That’s why when Chase’s started listing International Coaching Week back in 1999, coach Jerri Udelson knew her little idea could grow very big indeed.

It was Jerri’s idea to create International Coaching Week to highlight the value of working with a personal, business or executive coach.

Jerri, who earned her Master Certified Coach designation through the International Coach Federation, (link) originally called it “National Personal and Business Coaching Week,” but Canadian coaches wanted to participate, so the name was changed to International Personal and Business Coaching Week.. In 2000, a mention in the ICF’s newsletter and special Coaching Week broadcasts to members and chapters in helped the event get traction. The next year, coaching pioneer Thomas Leonard (1955-2003) created a Coaching Week page on his Coachville website, designed a logo, and offered to post coaches’ press releases and listings of Coaching Week events on his site. In 2002, he created a dedicated CoachingWeek.com website for those stories.

In 2007 Jerri Udelson created a website, www.coachingweek.org, where coaches and ICF Chapters could post their Coaching Week-related activities.

Last year, International Coaching Week drew the participation of coaches from coast to coast in the United States, as well as Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, and elsewhere. Some offered free coaching sessions; others produced special events, such as workshops and appearances at local busin esses. Many made local media appearances to talk about coaching. Others raised money for charity.

What will YOU do promote and celebrate the value of coaching world-wide?

I believe that coaching can be a force for good in the world as we face what lies ahead. So for International Coaching Week 2009, I’m looking for the brightest ideas on the planet – original, effective, publicity-garnering ways to bring attention to coaching during International Coaching Week 2009.

This isn’t some official contest with rules and laws governing the outcome. This is me, an individual person, offering to give Amazon gift certificates for the first ($500) second ($250) and third ($100) best ideas ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ and if you want to help pick the best ideas, let me know.

Send description of activities (and photos if applicable) to team@coachingcommons.org.

1st Place $500 Amazon Gift Certificate

Dare Kent

The pressure to come up with a big world-wide coaching idea is overwhelming, so I focused on one small step in my local community.

I offered to coach one person, for free, who I thought would enjoy and benefit from the process. This person is kind and thoughtful and giving and I wanted to give them something in return – a hand of coaching support for the month of February.

I think one of the best advocates for coaching, and the way to make that a world wide chorus, will be from people who have experienced coaching and have grown and succeeded as a result. Their praise will do much to raise awareness. The WOW factor -> Word Of Wonder -> as we promote and celebrate the client – they in turn will promote and celebrate the wonder of coaching. To continue with this trend, I will continue to coach at least one person for free throughout my career as a coach. http://www.rightbrainyoga@live.com

2nd Place $250 Amazon Gift Certificate

Katherine Gotshall English

I am preparing for the 12th Annual International Coaching Week by getting 12 leaders to commit to create events for Coaching Week 2010 now. I’ll organize a monthly call for these 12 leaders to share ideas, inspire and coach each other for the next eleven months.

NOTE: In 2008, Katherine Gotshall English produced a series of Uncommon Conversations for the Coaching Commons.

3rd Place $100 Amazon Gift Certificate

Chapter Name: Hungarian Chapter of the ICF

Chapter Leader: Laura Komocsin

The one-year-old Hungarian Chapter of ICF is proud to launch a national Business Coach Club on 5th February, on the occasion of the International Coaching Week. At the same time we launch our own web site: http://www.coachfederation.hu. The Coach Club shall take place on the 1st Thursday of each month. We invite top CEOs, HR managers, coaches to share a presentation with us and a discussion forum follows. We aim to bring all the now-scattered coaches in Hungary under one umbrella for the sake of the coaching profession.

Congratulations to all our winners and to every coach who helped celebrate International Coaching Week!

The trailblazing work that you have been doing under the auspices of The Foundation of Coaching is about to move into a new and exciting stage of growth. You know that we have been negotiating to create an academic home for the research program that was created by Dr. Mary Wayne Bush.

Mary Wayne, who imagined the possibilities in 2005, personally recruited a remarkable team comprising the most credible, ethical, philanthropically-minded individuals in coaching research worldwide to help her establish criteria and protocols for grantmaking.

She traveled the world, literally, drumming up enthusiasm for coaching-related research.

“We have money!” she would announce cheerfully. And now an impressive roster of researchers has some of it, and they are putting that money to work for the benefit of the field of coaching.

Mary Wayne created mentoring matches, so that aspiring researchers could receive professional advice and support, and she personally gave countless hours of mentoring to scholars from around the globe.

With Francine Campone, a repository of research was created so that scholarly work would be accessible and searchable.

Together, this wonderful community of researchers and the coaches who love them, under Mary Wayne’s leadership, with administrative support from Linda Ballew, Jennifer Raymond, Vanessa Koury, and others, created the largest grantmaking program we know of in coaching.

The only thing we didn’t do was fulfill Dr. John Bennett’s dream of having the first endowed chair in coaching. We offered that opportunity to Baruch College – the original Research Advisory Board members will remember meeting Dr. Kathleen Waldron, president of Baruch, at our first annual dinner. Dr. Waldron reluctantly but wisely concluded that it was not the right investment at the right time for Baruch. She is no less committed than we are to the creation of a coaching culture, and eventually Baruch’s academics will reflect that.

So from a twinkle in the eye of David Goldsmith, Vikki Brock, and most importantly Mary Wayne Bush in 2005, the baby is all grown up and ready to go to Harvard Medical School, specifically HMS’s largest psychiatric hospital, a teaching facility of HMS, McLean Hospital, where your work is about to become the first building block in The Institute of Coaching.

Today I authorized the transfer of $500,000 as an initial gift toward a promised minimum of $2,000,000 to the newly created Harnisch Fund for Coaching, which will continue the next generation of grants for coaching-related research and support the creation and launch of The Institute of Coaching.

The next $500,000 will be paid soon after the first of the year so we will start 2009 with a million dollars in the fund.

The Fund is designed to continue until at least 2015, with the intention of making $100,000 in coaching-related research grants each year.

They’re well aware of the value you built into the brand of The Foundation of Coaching, and they specifically put in writing their intention to “leverage prior successes and brand awareness of The Foundation of Coaching and build continuity from that entity’s endeavors to the work now moving forward at McLean.”

I want to share some of the specific language of the contract I signed.

It says:

“The purpose of the Fund will be to generate empirically supported best practices for coaching, especially peer-reviewed research into the transformational aspects of coaching relationships and effective change strategies, then assure the widespread dissemination of those research findings to encourage the application of the coaching model of conversation in everyday life.”

To continue the “going off to Harvard Medical School” analogy, Mary Wayne made a decision to step back and take pride in what she brought forth, entrusting same to those who will now act in loco parentis. That team will be headed by Dr. Carol Kauffman, along with Lew Stern, Susan David, and Margaret Moore. None of this would have been possible without Dr. Mary Wayne Bush and we thank her most sincerely for her untold contributions that will be creating ripples on the pond forevermore.

I hope you agree that this is one of the best outcomes we could have imagined for the work we have done together so far.

It’s a wonderful way for us to celebrate the end of 2008 and quite a way to start 2009!

Ruth Ann Harnisch

President, The Harnisch Foundation