Ruth Ann’s vision of an unbiased source for coaching information was championed by David.  When I shared my my passion for coaching history, Ruth Ann asked me to organize the history arm of their foundation, which began as The Foundation of Coaching.

Those early years were ones of innovation, creativity, and collaboration. 

Mary Wayne Bush led the Research Division – and with $100,000 in annual research grants from Ruth Ann, Mary Wayne put research on the map of coaching forever. Linda Ballew held everything together in her role as Director of Operations – a cheerful and competent individual who is a dear friend.  I remember the time she suggested, just after I completed my Ph.D., that my blog posts had become less engaging and more academic.  From that point forward, she became the final approval for my history posts.

Ruth Ann funded The Foundation of Coaching, which transitioned (along with a million dollar grant) to establish the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School in 2008.

The Coaching Commons was birthed in early 2008 by Andrea Lee to fulfill Ruth Ann’s initial vision of a source of unbiased information, which was “where radical ideas were explored and pursued.”  Today the Coaching Commons has expanded to include  “Online Breaking News, Original Reporting, and Reader Commentary for Professional Coaches Worldwide.”

I am honored to be the volunteer team lead for the History and Archives division – which meant publishing historical blog items for the past three years. My focus was on sharing accurate historical information, honoring  key influencers in the birth of coaching, and describing the focus of the earliest coaching books published in English (from 1979 to 1999).

At the end of 2010 we are archiving the Coaching Commons due to lack of support by the coaching community. 

With a conservative estimate of 50,000 coaches globally, the request to continue this worthy effort was a mere $40 from 1,000 supporters (or $4 from 10,000 supporters, or less than $1 from each professional coach).  At last count only 146 coaches contributed less than $10,000. 

I am deeply saddened by this turn of events. 

Maybe The Coaching Commons was ahead of its time; maybe it did not really provide value; maybe….  And, does it really matter? The fact is that The Coaching Commons will become a permanent part of history when it ceases to exist In January 2011. I will miss my colleagues, the consolidated news source, and contributing to something coach worthy.

What gives me hope is that there remains a core of us who aspire to contribute and make a difference.

Here’s to what we will create next!

Vikki Brock

Presenting three models of executive coaching, this book also describes ‘appreciation’ as a concept and  distinguishes between executive coaching, counseling and consulting.

• Appreciation – willingness to engage in dialogue with another person from an assumption of mutual respect and mutual search for discovery of distinctive competencies and strengths.
• Consulting – systematic process whereby a client requests and receives assistance from someone who is not immediately involved in the ongoing operations of the organization in which the client works.
• Counseling – assisting employees with personal life issues that have negatively influenced their job performance (sometimes by Employee Assistance Programs – EAPs).
• Coaching – primarily involves the teaching of skills in the context of a personal relationship with the learner and it is the most useful means of teaching human relations skills to executives.

While I don’t believe that coaching is teaching, I do resonate with the appreciative approach to coaching and living life.  This book was ahead of its time with regard to strengths-based processes and approaches.

How do you use an appreciative approach in your coaching?

Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., EMBA, MCC
Team Lead, Coaching History

Coach John Wooden died on June 4, 2010. His Pyramid of Success (link below) is one of his greatest contributions to humanity and coaching.

John Wooden (born October 14, 1910) was coach of the UCLA Bruins basketball team from 1948 to 1976 and the most winning coach in basketball history. You might ask, what does this have to do with coaching outside of sports? Check out Wooden’s Pyramid of Success and 12 Lessons for Leadership. (Both speak to self responsibility and values that are foundational for all coaching.

In October 1987, Werner Erhard hosted a satellite broadcast with famous sports coaches of the time. The discussion purpose was to identify the uniform distinctions of coaching, regardless of the subject being coached. Jim Selman moderated the discussion and documented the outcome in an article called “Coaching and the Art of Mangagement” in 1989.

You can learn more about Wooden by Googling him on the Internet. What else can you share about Wooden and his impact on coaching as we know it today?

Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., EMBA, MCC
Team Lead, Coaching History

A coach for more than 20 years when this book was written, she describes what a personal business coach does and what happens in a coaching session – like gathering information about who the client is and what they want from coaching, completing self-assessment and 360 assessments, and agreeing on an agenda.

She also describes on page nine that “an effective coach not only gives good advice but offers that advice in a manner that recipients can internalize and make their own, so they can feel true to themselves.”

Today, in 2010, coaches have definite opinions on the appropriateness of  advice in a coaching relationship.

What is your position on the appropriateness of providing advice in a coaching relationship?

Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., EMBA, MCC
Team Lead, Coaching History

This post is reprinted from the April 18, 2008.

Peter Drucker (November 19, 1909-November 11, 2005) was a management guru of Austrian descent. Back in the fifties and sixties, he said a manager’s job was to develop the staff. His 1969 book The Effective Executive is deemed a classic.

Byrne (2005) wrote on his passing:

November 11, 2005, at the age of 95, Peter F. Drucker died peacefully in his sleep at home. Drucker’s genius lay in his ability to find patterns among seemingly unconnected disciplines and to focus on opportunities rather than problems. Asked how he came up with so many original insights, Drucker said, “I learn only through listening to myself.” It was never Drucker’s style to bring people clear, concise answers to their problems, but rather to frame questions that could uncover the latent issues standing in the way of performance. “My job,” he once lectured a client, “is to ask questions. It’s your job to provide answers.” Drucker never fit into the button-down stereotype of a management consultant. He always worked from a home office filled with books and classical records on shelves that groaned under their weight. He never had a secretary, answered the telephone himself and admitted he was something of a phone addict.

Sounds like a coach to me. What do you think?

Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., EMBA, MCC

Team Lead, Coaching History

A must have resource on coaching, this book presents a particular approach to professional/personal coaching called co-active coaching.  It involves active and collaborative participation of the coach and the client, and is the foundation for The Coaches Training Institute (CTI) program.

Beginning with looking at the ideal coaching relationship from a client’s point of view, the key characteristics are:

• Someone listening, not only to your words, but also to what’s behind them and the spaces between the words.
• Someone who will hold you accountable and keep you moving forward toward your dreams and goals.
• Someone who is totally curious about your dreams and aspirations, what makes you tick, what you value, what you are most passionate about in your life.
• Someone who is sometimes even more committed to what you want in your life than you are.
• Someone who will absolutely tell you the truth about where you are strong, where you sell yourself short.
• Someone who listens to you without judgment and allows you to show emotion without analyzing you.

The four cornerstones that form the foundation of co-active coaching are:

1. The client is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole.
2. Co-active coaching addresses the client’s whole life.
3. The agenda comes from the client.
4. The relationship is a designed alliance.

As I type these cornerstones I reflect on the influence co-active coaching has had on the International Coach Federation (ICF) and the field of coaching as a whole.

Please share your thoughts and how this book has influenced you and your coaching.

Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., EMBA, MCC
Team Lead, Coaching History

Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) was a German existential philosopher. His inclusion in the Hall of Fame is due to Heidegger’s theories about the nature of biological existence, language, and human action, which influenced Flores and the development of ontological coaching.

Heidegger used the concept of ‘transparency’ to refer to what is so familiar that one is not aware of its presence, just as coaches have been referred to as transparent in the coaching relationship.

Who can share more about Heidegger’s influence on coaching?

Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., EMBA, MCC
Team Lead, Coaching History

Stone defines these techniques as:

• Coaching – continuous feedback and encouragement to help employees do their jobs well
• Counseling – proactive involvement to improve sub-par performance
• Mentoring – establishing a relationship to help top performers excel and take their careeers to the next level.

Filled with realistic scenarios and scripts, this book illustrates what to say (and not say) to build trust, establish rapport, and get superior results.

Who else has a share from this book?

Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., EMBA, MCC
Team Lead, Coaching History

Action coaching involves moving people from self-awareness to improved performance, with individual performance objectives that are aligned with organizational goals.  Dotlich and Cairo identify four levels of coaching goals:

1. Self-awareness
2. Performance improvement
3. Performance breakthrough
4. Transformation

An eight step coaching process is the foundation of the action coaching aproach:

1. Determine what needs to happen and in what context
2. Establish trust and a set of mutual expectations
3. Contract for results
4. collect and communicate feedback
5. Translate talk into action
6. Support big steps
7. Foster reflection about actions
8. Evaluate individual and organizational process

Providing a common-sense approach to organizational coaching, this book contains some nifty checklists and tools for professional coaches.

Who else has used this book as a resource for their coaching?

Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., EMBA, MCC
Team Lead, Coaching History

This post is reprinted from the March 28, 2008 post.

Fernando Flores (born 1943 in Chile) is the originator of an ontological approach to coaching, and mentor to Julio Olalla, Rafael Echeverria, and James Flaherty. Influenced by Maturana, Heidegger and Searle, he produced a new understanding of language and communication and, according to Alan Sieler, invented the term ontological coaching.

Flores was an important minister in the Allende Government who came to the United States through Amnisty International after the September 11, 1973 coup in Chile. He completed his PhD dissertation at Berkley in California with Werner Erhard’s sponsorship.

Flores’ intellect substantially affected Erhard’s thinking and more or less framed the development of Erhard’s Forum. Flores’ contributed a particular vocabulary to coaching and the Forum that included the following phrases: declaring the future, declaring what’s possible, taking a stand for yourself, making promises, making requests, making assertions and assessments, and different ways of listening.

Vikki G. Brock, PhD, EMBA, MCC
Team Lead, Coaching History