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Listen to an Uncommon Conversation: What is a Mastermind Group?

Elizabeth Crouch — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:10:23 +0000

Listen to the audio recording below:

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Time: 12:00 Noon to 1:00pm Eastern

Guest: Nancy Gerber, PCC and Nancy Spivey
Host: The Coaching Commons
Topic: What is a Mastermind Group?

“The Nancys” — Nancy Gerber and Nancy Spivey, long time business coaches and founders of www.TheMagicofMastermind.com — were with us in March for an Uncommon Conversation about “The Magic of Mastermind.” They return to talk about how starting and leading Mastermind groups is a natural fit — and perhaps an additional revenue stream — for coaches.

With the changes in the economy and the continuing evolution of the coaching profession, coaches are looking for new ways to serve greater numbers of people at a more modest price point, while also generating more consistent revenue for their businesses.

Mastermind groups, when well organized and facilitated, are a powerful tool for growth and transformation that can be simply and easily delivered, creating “magic” for both coaches and clients.

In leading Mastermind groups for coaches every month, the Nancys have experienced a tremendous surge of excitement and interest in the process and how it can enhance the business of coaching.

Topics to be covered in this one-hour program will include:

*Principles of Masterminding
*Distinctions between Coaching & Masterminding
*How coaches use their coaching skills to be great Mastermind facilitators
*A live 30-Minute Mastermind Session facilitated by “The Nancys”

For more information, visit http://themagicofmastermind.com

The Chronicle of Coaching – News of the Week – April 30, 2009

admin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:00:13 +0000

Editor’s Note: The rollercoaster global economy means the job market is more competitive. This week’s Chronicle offers a wide variety of coaching counsel addressing leading stressors in the workplace. For the first time, Britain is offering coaching to citizens living in public housing or claiming government benefits in order to help boost their confidence and motivation to find a job. In Ireland, job coaches are offering individuals practical assistance seeking employment and emotional assistance coping with a job loss. One London career coach advises carefully crafting a network of friends, colleagues and family members to increase progress in the job search. Another coach from the US suggests that accepting a pay cut may be the best and only choice for now. So is there a bright note this week? Certainly – Life coaches say add optimism and creativity: organize a to-do list with color or poetry, make a list of 100 (yes 100) things to be grateful for, and take a walk and breathe with nature, enjoying what the Japanese call ‚Äúforest bathing.”

The Chronicle of Coaching provides a snapshot of what’s happening in the coaching profession, designed to show where and how coaching appears in the popular culture worldwide. It is not intended to be a summary service nor a news roundup, although it may serve that purpose for some readers. The Chronicle is new each Thursday morning. Compiled and edited by Alex Goldsmith and Linda Ballew.

Join an Uncommon Conversation with Career Coach Deborah Brown-Volkman
Help Your Clients Find Their Transferable Skills

The Chronicle of Coaching strives for 100% accuracy and regrets any deviation from that standard. Our policy is to correct errors promptly and prominently, in the next edition and in the online archive. Please tell us immediately if you see something wrong.

Executive/Business Coaching

Newly Unemployed? Your Coach Awaits
April 29, 2009, Irish Times – Dublin, Ireland
A new industry is springing up on the back of the thousands of people who have lost their jobs due to the recession. Courses advising people how to find work, how to cope with unemployment, and to how to keep their sanity while on the dole are proving very popular. Two such ‚Äújob coaches”, Clodagh Hughes and Nial O’Reilly, are offering free coaching to unemployed people as their contribution to get the country get back on its feet.

Lost Your Job, Boss? Join the Club
April 29, 2009, Times Online – UK
Thus, it is to support the region’s beleaguered business community that Mr Criddle has launched a kind of executive support package. The Metier passport scheme is a combination of career coaching, psychological support and networking opportunities. At ¬£3,000- ¬£4,000 a year it is not aimed at those on their uppers, but at top-level executives affected by the recession.

Your Office Coach: Adjusting to Different Management Styles
April 28, 2009, The Olympian – Olympia, WA, USA
Calmly explain you are worried about morale and feel your new manager could use some coaching. Offer examples of the business problems created by her leadership style. Suggest the HR manager talk with some other employees. Then wait and see what happens.

Career Coach: Go With the Flow and Accept the Pay Cut
April 26, 2009, The Star-Ledger – NJ.com – Newark, NJ, USA
Let me be clear: The world has changed. Salaries and benefits packages have fallen and that trend will continue as many companies reduce costs to stay afloat. You must get with the program and change your expectations. This is not the time to get rich, but a time to survive.

Put Me In, Coach
April 23, 2009, Examiner.com – USA
Sharon’s journey to becoming an ‚Äúexecutive coach” began at a local church where everyone ‚Äúwould line up outside my door to ask my advice on team development, strategic planning, and how to develop their ministry and staff. I thought it would be really cool to help people bring more of who they are into the workplace, so I talked to people and found out about coaching.”

Coffee Break: Coach Says Entrepreneurship Not a Bad Idea
April 23, 2009, The Star-Ledger – NJ.com – Newark, NJ, USA
The economic downturn actually presents entrepreneurs and small-business owners with a variety of advantages like reduced competition and lower leases, according to Nick Cohron, a business and career coach in Summit.

When You’ve Set the Pattern With an Employee, You Have to Be Tough to Change It
April 21, 2009, InfoWorld – San Francisco, CA, USA
At the risk of sounding self-serving, sometimes executives like the ones you describe need someone from the outside to tell them what to do differently. In this case, I’d advise bringing in someone who can provide both strategic consulting and executive coaching: the strategic consulting to help these two understand what they need to do differently from an operational perspective, the executive coaching so that they understand how they need to behave differently to lead a larger organization.

Life Coaching

Life Coach to Help Jobless Londoners
April 27, 2009, This is London – London, England, UK
Unemployed Londoners are to be assigned a free “life coach” to help them find work. In the first scheme of its kind in Britain, people claiming benefits and living in social housing will be offered free therapy courses to improve their confidence and motivation to find a job.

Coaching: The Global Perspective
April 27, 2009, TrainingZone.co.uk – Bristol, UK
With a Global Convention on Coaching and key UK coaching bodies signing a ‘statement of shared professional values’, 2008 seemed a ground breaking year for this emerging industry. The convention’s laudable desire was to establish more defined codes of ethics, standards of practice and qualifications within the coaching industry.

Lawrence Life Coach Offers To-Do List Tips
April 27, 2009, Lawrence Journal World – Lawrence, KS, USA
Train yourself to think that every task on your to-do list is something that you personally want to accomplish, rather than something you have to do. If you need to clean the house, don’t dwell on the chore; remember that you want the house to look nice, so that is why you are cleaning it.

Life Coach: Recommended Diet, Lifestyle Changes
April 26, 2009, Lansing State Journal – Lansing, MI, USA
Making diet and lifestyle changes will have long-term benefits on your health and your heart. These recommendations are from the American Heart Association.

6 Networking Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
April 23, 2009, HarvardBusiness.org – Cambridge, MA, USA
If you were my coaching client, I would simply say: network, network, network. And yet among my clients, networking is often an underdeveloped skill.

Artists Use Life Coach to Beat Recession
April 23, 2009, Wimbledon Guardian – Cheam, England, UK
Europe’s largest collective of artists, huddled in a small annex of Wimbledon, are enlisting the help of a life coach to stave off the recession.

Niche Coaching

Communication Coach: Slackers Hit Chopping Block First in Lean Times
April 25, 2009, The Star-Ledger – NJ.com – Newark, NJ, USA
The people he wanted to let go were underachievers — people who just weren’t producing or carrying their weight. In fact, there was a list of employees whose names came up over and over again as people who were pulling down the firm.

Media coaching: Do the Hardest Thing First
April 22, 2009, Examiner.com – USA
I was just media coaching a woman who was in a major scuffle with the media due to a very controversial product that her company recently released. We were prepping for another equally controversial product that’s now on the market and she was scared out of her mind. Rightly so.

Life Coaching Blogs

Coaching ‚ÄúSafety Net” Questions – For When Your Mind Goes Blank
April 28, 2009, By Become A Certified Coach
Using a safety net question helps the flow of the coaching conversation, takes the pressure off the coach and puts the focus back where it belongs – on the client (as opposed to on ourselves and ‚ÄúWhat do I say next?”).

Manifesting Evolution in Consciousness: On Self-Compromise
April 27, 2009, By Sherry Bakhtian
Once again love, not having it, not recognizing it, and anything related to it has determined the course of our lives. When a coaching client comes to this point in their session, they are usually ready to acknowledge what exactly it is that they do want in a relationship.

Be Your Own Mentor: The Healing Power of Trees
April 27, 2009, By Karin Marcus
As a Life Coach and Retreat Leader, I have always thought of nature as an essential partner. My preferred method of one on one coaching of “Walk and Talks” is done outdoors.

The 4 Stages of Transition
April 27, 2009, By Shann Vander Leek
My talented and brilliant mentor coach, Deb Martin shared some valuable information with me awhile ago about the 4 stages of transition. This material along with my personal story have become a big part of the focus of my life coaching.

Qualities of a Good Coach
April 25, 2009, By MTI Coaching
It is very easy to advise people. All you need to do is look at his or her situation and come up with suggestions on how you think he or she will be able to improve it. But this is not the essence of coaching; coaching requires a relationship between the coach and the client wherein both are in the same place and move towards the same goal together.

Are You Grateful?
April 24, 2009, By Kelly Thorne
One of my favorite life coaching exercises to do with women is to help them create a list of at least 100 things (yes, I did just say – 100 things on a list) that they’re grateful for in their life.

Using an Online Dating Coach to Find Love, Happiness. and Even Find Your Soulmate
April 22, 2009, By Anything Personal
As an added benefit to the convenience of online dating, clients can also receive the services of an Online Dating Coach or ‚ÄúLove Coach” as we’re sometimes referred to by our clients.

Executive/Business Coaching Blogs

Sales Management: The Role of Coaching
April 27, 2009, By Ian Brodie
And finally, they need to understand not only what’s needed for their team’s roles: but also what is needed to continuously improve their sales management capabilities.

What Do Children Teach Us About Leadership?
April 27, 2009, By Andrew Bryant
Both Tasha and Nathan like to clap for themselves when they do something right and they both beam when Zurina and I give them praise. As a leadership consultant I know how important it is that I continue to praise even moderately good performance as research by Dr Ethna Reid shows that teachers who get the best results, validate regularly.

Did Christopher Columbus Have a Coach?
April 24, 2009, By Tom, SmartCompany.com
I’ve worked for a couple of coaching companies, OneCoach and TEC /Vistage, so I’ve seen how having a business coach in your corner can make a huge difference. I ran a faster marathon (and achieved one of my life goals) because I had a great coach, pushing me further than I might have gone on my own. But here’s the thing: You can actually coach yourself.

Books, Products, & Services

Inspiring Mother’s Day Gift is Full of Heart and Easy on the Wallet
April 26, 2009, PR.com (press release) – San Francisco, CA, USA
The Women Masters Teleseminar Series makes a wonderful and meaningful gift for mothers and daughters alike. Offered free of cost, this program is about sharing the wisdom and insights of our most respected women experts with women (and men) worldwide. Additionally, 10% of proceeds from the upgrade package benefit Women for Women International And Girls, Inc.

Publicity Releases

JavaBlackBelt Adds Coaching to e-Learning in Breakthrough Java Courses
April 19, 2009, Emediawire (press release) – Brussels, Belgium
JavaBlackBelt, a global leader in Java learning and powered by over 50,000 developers in its global community, today announced the immediate availability of coached e-Learning for Java developers in Europe, North America, and India.

The Chronicle of Coaching – News of the Week – April 9, 2009

admin — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:00:14 +0000

Editor’s Note: Work, work, work! Find a better way to deal with workplace issues, get better at the job you have, get a better job, better not settle for just being good at your job, better start a business. Seriously? Coaches from Canada to Hong Kong, from the US to the UK to South Africa are writing, reporting, being interviewed and blogging about the nail-biting, adrenalin-pumping career challenges of 2009. When a coworker receives unfair promotions and favors from management, one business coach recommends bringing it to a boss’ attention in a calm and collected manner. How can a young professional fresh out of college communicate that they’re worth hiring? One executive coach’s book may have some timely answers. Need coaching in a business specialty? This week’s chronicle offers help for a handyman franchise owner, unemployed attorneys, writers, nurses, bloggers and even co-dependent coaches. All work and no play? Of course not. Smile (or laugh) as singer John Mayer plays life coach this week in a post on his Twitter account.

Ask Yourself a Dangerous Question at the Coaching Commons

Executive/Business Coaching

Business Coaches Help Owners, Bosses, Employees Succeed
April 6, 2009, The Tennessean – Nashville, TN, USA
When Hadley Hurford Jr. decided his home repair company needed to grow, he didn’t add an extra handyman to his staff. Instead, Hurford hired a business coach. With the help of Hendersonville-based coach Mike Hedge, Hurford plotted how his Mr. Handyman franchise could grow from $600,000 in annual revenues to $2 million and from employing four handymen to as many as 20.

High Spirits + Energy = Better Job Search
April 3, 2009, The Complete Lawyer – Atlanta, GA, USA
In my previous article I shared ten tips for tending to your career in a down economy. As we continue to struggle through these uncertain times, I’d like to focus on the last point I raised‚Äîthe importance of staying positive.

Career Coach in Demand
April 2, 2009, Agoura Hills Acorn – CA, USA
Tough times call for action. In today’s job market, potential employees must give themselves every edge they can. Dr. Ian Rosen of Applied Development Solutions in Oak Park is a career coach who prefers to focus on the present and future rather than the past, and on identifying and working toward overcoming barriers to a person’s career success.

Do You Want to Make a Life or Make a Living?
April 2, 2009, National Post – Toronto, ON, Canada
The silent killer for the inner spirit is being a slave to obligations, while not feeding our inner purpose. While answering the call to duty for family, boss and company may be laudable, continual neglect of our own inner development and spirit will produce resentment, anger, regret, boredom and apathy. And then you can serve no-one honestly. As a professional executive coach, I have worked with hundreds of people in all walks of life and careers, with a focus on these questions: “what should I do with my life?” and “what should I do for a living?”

Life Coaching

How Successful Executives Can Up Their Game Plan
April 7, 2009, Dispatch Online – South Africa
At that point in their career, with all eyes on them, there is added pressure on executives to excel. This is when they might want to up their game plan and develop their skills to make them even more valuable to their employer. This is where Carita McCallum comes in. McCallum is a life coach who helps successful executives to achieve their goals in life.

How Coaching Can Change Your Life for the Better
April 7, 2009, Glasgow Daily Record – Glasgow, Scotland, UK
For many of us, these turbulent times have meant having to make some big decisions about our future. Most of us do our best to muddle through by ourselves, taking advice only from those closest to us. But more and more people are turning to professional life coaches for help as they reach a crossroads.

The Co-Dependent Coach
April 6, 2009, TrainingZone.co.uk – Bristol, UK
Is your client starting to depend on you for solutions? The issue of dependency is one of the moral dilemmas of coaching. Particularly in today’s difficult market, if you’ve promoted yourself successfully, passed through the vetting stage and contracted with a coachee, it can be tempting to continue with this person, rather than having to go through the whole rigmarole again with someone else. It may be easier, but it’s unethical, if you’re prolonging the relationship for your benefit not the client’s.

John Mayer, Life Coach
April 3, 2009, OK! Magazine – New York, NY, USA
Though it was only a week ago that John Mayer declared that writing on micro-blogging site Twitter.com is “inherently silly and inherently dumb,” that didn’t stop Jennifer Aniston’s on-off-on-off boy-toy from waxing a bit philosophical on his Twitter page recently.

Friendship Leads to New Business
April 3, 2009, Aberdeen Press and Journal – Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
‚ÄúWe’d both often found ourselves offering our confidential advice and reassurance to others, and then receiving a lot of positive feedback from those we supported,” said Ally. And now – nine years after first forging their friendship at Aberdeen University – the two women are harnessing their natural skills with Stepping Stones Life Coaching.

Life Coaches Named for April 23 Mini-Retreat
April 2, 2009, The Coloradoan – Fort Collins, CO, USA
Many of us wonder if we are on the “right” path. Especially during tumultuous times like these, we consider making changes in our personal or professional life. We wonder if we are headed in the right direction, what else might be out there for us, and how we can explore options and find answers. Joan King and her cadre of professional coaches can help!
Each of these coaches has been personally selected by Dr. King, and each has built a distinguished career helping others. Each has the education, experience, insight and training to help you transform your personal and professional life.

Life Coach: It’s the Only Job for Me
April 1, 2009, Grand Junction Free Press – Grand Junction, CO, USA
Coaching challenge: The next time you are frustrated with someone, ask yourself these questions: What is my part in this situation? What options do I have? How can I manage my feelings through this situation? The person you have the most influence over is you, which is a great place to start.

Faydra Rector-Sargent: People Change as They Grow
April 2009, Red Bluff Daily News – Red Bluff, CA, USA
People are always changing and evolving. If you put all of your investment in assuming how they will respond to life, you may not get much of a return. What’s more, if your assumptions are always negative or cynical, you may be in for an even bigger surprise.

Chiswick Life Coach Says ‘Eureka Moment is Incredible’
March 31, 2009, Hounslow Guardian – UK
He said: “It’s incredibly simple but so effective.”The job satisfaction has been incredible – seeing that eureka moment when people recognise the problem that has been stopping them.”

Find a New Job in Retirement
March 31, 2009, Examiner.com – USA
Life coaching is a practice with the aim of helping clients determine and achieve personal goals. Transition coaches are the latest expression of personal coaching and usually help people retire. They use exercises, readings and other methods to help clients identify their goals and strategies to meet them.

Niche Coaching

SCORE ‚ÄòSpeed Coaching’ Event April 30
April 3, 2009, New Hampshire Business Review – Manchester, NH, USA
Small-business owners who are seeking good business advice – and fast — should consider attending the Small Business Speed Coaching event on April 30 in Concord, NH.

Life Coaching Blogs

Secrets to Getting the Top Salary of a Life Coach: Business Coaching Certification the Coaching Schools Don’t Understand
April 6, 2009, By Jeffrey T. Sooey
There is one secret technique to getting top salary of a life coach that isn’t based upon the ability to psychoanalyze your client, or have some great ‚Äòintuition’. You can’t learn this skill with some business coaching certification, nor can you produce great results without it (unless you get top salary of a life coach simply because you are a guru already).

Writing Instructor vs. Writing Coach – Which Do You Really Need?
April 6, 2009, By Suzanne Lieurance
But generally, a writing coach works with a person (or persons) who knows the mechanics of the type of writing he wants to write, but he has trouble staying on track. The writing coach’s client needs help with specific strategies to develop a focus for his writing (and perhaps even for his writing career) and then comes to the coach seeking additional help maintaining that focus.

6 Things I Secretly Hope are Included in Life Coaching
April 5, 2009, By I Hate My Message Board
On Tuesday I have my first session with Tim Brownson! It was tremendously generous of him to agree to coach me and based on what I’ve read from other bloggers he’s coached, it’s going to be a very valuable experience. Now, I know a bit of what to expect based on these blogs, especially Jay Frawley’s Inner Noodle series, but there were a few things that weren’t mentioned that I secretly hope are included.

You’re Just a Dreamer
April 4, 2009, By Blessed With Full Hands
One of the things I do “on the side” is life coaching. I do it more as a ministry and I do not actively advertise. My full time job of being a mom to three boys does not allow me to do it any more than a little. But, when I meet with a life coaching client, I love it.

Sadness = An Opportunity to Create
April 4, 2009, By Creativity Coach Sherrie
Don’t take this the wrong way, and certainly don’t let sadness rule your life, but don’t rule it out either! If you don’t sort through the feelings of pain, they’re just going to linger and may even get worse.

Luv Coach Q&A: Frustrated with Marriage
April 2, 2009, By Rebecca Brody
You may feel like life is suffocating and you may feel trapped, but neither one of those is true. You have given up the position of financial provider for your family, and in the process, it seems that you have forgotten that you are the provider of everything else.

Executive/Business Coaching Blogs

Business Coaching – A Growing Trend
April 6, 2009, By Organic Blueprints
One of the biggest trends in the business world is to seek Business Coaching. Retaining a Business Coach doesn’t mean your business is failing or that you necessarily have a problem to solve. Instead, Business Coaching is often used by business owners to create a collaborative opportunity to review ideas and create structure for improving their businesses, management style and professional skills.

Business Coaching in Challenging Times
April 6, 2009, By Carole Davidson
It has become apparent that not only is the global economy in crisis but
those in leadership positions have been exposed and shown an inadequacy
of coping techniques.

Dealing with Favoritism at Work: Golden Boy/Girl Syndrome
April 4, 2009, By Powerful Mind Coaching
I call it ‚ÄúGolden Boy/Girl Syndrome”: Someone you work with in your office has been singled out by your boss as exceptional and deserving of special consideration and, perhaps, additional perks and compensation you and your co-workers do not receive. As totally and incredibly aggravating as the Golden Boy/Girl Syndrome is, and justifiably so, your primary job is to take care of yourself and your own career.

8 Questions with Tim Besse Co-Founder of Glassdoor.com
April 3, 2009, By Seattle Interview Coach
Q: When I think about Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter, its users have come up with creative ways to use the core software. Has the Glassdoor community created anything unique with functionality or data?
A: Our mission is to become the world’s most trusted source for helping people make informed decisions about their work. We really are unique in the type of content that’s available and the functionality of the site, which we designed to help people engage with one another to improve discussions in and around the workplace.

‚ÄúWork On Your Business, Not In It.” Huh?
April 2, 2009, By Angus Gordon
If you’ve never heard the motto ‚ÄúWork on your business, not in it”, then you probably haven’t spent much time hanging around business coaches, or fans of the various iterations of Michael Gerber’s E Myth. If you own a business, you shouldn’t be spending your time doing the day-to-day things that keep the business ticking over (“working in your business”). Instead, you should hire, outsource or automate these tasks, and concentrate instead on the ‚Äúbig picture” strategic tasks that will make your business bigger, more scalable, more efficient, more saleable down the track, and so on (“working on your business”).

Books, Products, & Services

New Book Helps Up-and-Coming Professionals Discovers the Keys to Workplace Success
April 6, 2009, Emediawire (press release) – Nashville, TN, USA
As the state of the economy declines and unemployment rates skyrocket, recent college graduates and young professionals, managers, and leaders need tools to help them become strong contenders in a competitive job market. Executive Coach and Leadership Development Executive, Charles I. Story, uncovers key tactics to career success and more in his debut book release, “Success in Your Pocket or Purse: Its More Than Who You Know”.

Publicity Releases

2009 Coaching Roundtable Series Kicks Off in Hong Kong with Coaching Executive Women
April 7, 2009, NewsReleaseWire.com – Hong Kong, China
As women executives expand their roles in the business world, they continue to encounter specific challenges as their careers develop. Human Factor International created the Coaching Executive Women program to address issues facing women executives and to provide an opportunity for networking and learning with key thought leaders and senior business executives.

New Coaching Program Helps Charge Nurses Develop Leadership Skills
April 4, 2009, PR Web (press release) – Lenexa, KS, USA
As the frontline leaders on a hospital unit, charge nurses make a tremendous impact on financial outcomes. B. E. Smith has a unique leadership development program that sends a tenured nurse executive coach into the work environment to teach charge nurses the skills they need to succeed in a rapidly evolving healthcare climate.

Nearly 600 Entrepreneurs Gathered at InfusionCon 2009
April 2009, PR-USA.net (press release) – Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Infusionsoft also unveiled the new Double Your Sales Coaching Program exclusively to event attendees. The business coaching program was officially announced today and is open to all entrepreneurs, regardless of whether or not they use Infusionsoft’s technology.

Executive Coaching Helps De-Stress Leaders, Builds Employee Stability
March 31, 2009, PRNewswire (press release) – Rockville, MD, USA
At a time of economic uncertainty, executive coaching helps companies survive and thrive, says executive coach Laurie Hackett-Maddalena.

The Chronicle of Coaching – News of the Week – February 19, 2009

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:00:29 +0000

Editor’s Note: An old German proverb says ‚ÄúCharity sees the need, not the cause.” This week’s chronicle is about coaches recognizing the need. The New York Times reviews a new TV show designed to coach others on their love life. A UK life coach tries to help a reality TV star battle cancer, while another coach helps herself by writing a thank you letter to her heart. With layoffs looming large in the United States, an office coach tries to help a doctor regain his old job. Single and looking for love? One coach recommends learning to love yourself. This week, recognize the need, then give or find help.

Coaching Clients: Tell Us about Your Coaching Experience

Executive/Business Coaching

Closing the Gap
February 17, 2009, Business Standard – Mumbai, India
One executive described how his company had narrowed the offering of corporate university ‚Äúcourses” and increased the coaching, training and developmental assignments tied directly to the daily work of the employee.

Laid Off, Left Behind or Looking?
February 15, 2009, Gazette Online – Solon, IA, USA
Lisa Van Allen, owner of Van Allen & Associates Personal and Business Coaching, says grieving the loss of a job is a natural reaction. “Allow yourself to feel what you’re feeling and give yourself time to go through the stages of grief that we associate with dying,” Van Allen said. “There certainly is a loss. You can’t repress these emotions because it’s not healthy.

Workplace Coach: In Tough Times, Lead — and Listen
February 15, 2009, Seattle Post Intelligencer – USA
As an executive coach, I always have my eye out for leadership “best practice” examples. The news often draws attention to the bad examples (such as the recent million-dollar office renovations and bonuses being awarded during Wall Street’s meltdown and subsequent government bailout). I want to share some positive examples from recent local news (and one from afar) that I believe we can learn from.

Office Coach: Fired Doctor Should Give Bosses an Injection of Enthusiasm
February 12, 2009, Arizona Daily Star – Tucson, AZ, USA
Describe your plans for the future and ask them to reconsider your termination. If an immediate reversal seems unlikely, see if they will give you an additional six months to prove yourself. At that point, they can review their decision again.

Life Coaching

Life Coach: Skin Care
February 16, 2009, Telegraph.co.uk – United Kingdom
Our panel of experts answers your questions on everything from skin care to school bullies and how to encourage parrots to talk.

A Little Direction
February 16, 2009, MassLive.com – Springfield, MA, USA
True Directions covers the gamut of career development issues: the company offers coaching and consulting to help professionals balance creative risk-taking and working towards the bottom line.

Weatherly Woman Aims to Help People as Life Coach
February 15, 2009, Citizen’s Voice – USA
At her most recent gathering, Colangelo hosted her first workshop in a series for women at the Dragonfly Cafe in Hazleton. Throughout the spring, summer, and fall, Colangelo plans to have more workshops. The goal of the workshops is to create a group of women in the Hazleton area who support and mentor one another about careers, major decisions and just daily life.

Charles Darwin, His Name is My Name Too
February 13, 2009, Dallas Observer – Dallas, TX, USA
I’ve been real thoughtful about my career choice — not because of my name, but because of who I am. The dynamics of natural selection play into that to the extent to that those whom I coach both formally through my practice and informally through my family could make choices that would have a negative impact on their lives.

Ten Questions: Personal Life Coach Kelly Thacker
February 12, 2009, Edinburgh Evening News – Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
(An interview with Kelly Thacker.) She is 28 and lives in Duddingston. She is a personal life coach and owner of Lust for Life Coaching.

Bournemouth Life Coach Helping Jade Goody Fight Cancer
February 10, 2009, Bournemouth Daily Echo – England, UK
A happiness and confidence coach from West Parley has been offering words of support to reality television star Jade Goody, who is battling cancer.

Life Coach: Releasing Worry
February 11, 2009, Grand Junction Free Press – Grand Junction, CO, USA
Tyler began our session with, ‚ÄúToday we got news that one of the industry leaders in a similar market went out of business. The economy is changing and if you don’t change, you lose. I’m worried I might lose my job.”

Get “Unstuck” In Your Career and Personal Life
February 10, 2009, Park Record – Park City, UT, USA
Successful people have that desire to be wise stewards of their time, energy and resources in achieving great things. Unfortunately, we’re not all Great Gatsby’s. That’s why life coach Terry Sidford would like to help.

Love Yourself This Valentine’s
February 2009, Red Bluff Daily News – Red Bluff, CA, USA
There is no greater love that you can give than to genuinely love yourself. When you truly love yourself, all good things come your way. It is through developing the habit of self-love that you come to expect only the best for yourself and draw that to you.

President Barack Obama is Our First Life Coach
February 2009, BlackNews.com – Columbus, OH, USA
Barack Obama is the first person of color to be elected President of the United States of America. He is also one of the youngest, least partisan and most technologically savvy, and in my opinion he’s the first president to life coach the country.

Niche Coaching

Peer-to-Peer Coaching Provides Cost-Effective Aid to Firms, Associates
February 11, 2009, The American Lawyer – USA
Individual coaching can enhance the performance of a law firm and its top performers; however, the cost of providing it to every attorney in a law firm is prohibitive. Yet, coaching improves individual career development, accelerates culture change, improves organizational effectiveness and enhances personal productivity.

Offering a Helping Hand in Building a Love Life
February 9, 2009, New York Times – United States
With the aid of Fran Greene, identified as a ‚Äúflirting, dating and relationship coach,” he proceeds to try to turn Ms. Walker into a bar slut. They drill her in various flirting techniques popular in pickup joints: the hair toss; the sending of drinks to men spied across the room; a suggestive handshake that ought to require a masseuse’s license to administer.

Life Coaching Blogs

Hostility Kills
February 15, 2009, By Coaching Parents
Most of us don’t really know what our hearts do. We also don’t know what hostility is, much less how the two interact and influence our health. Such ignorance can prove fatal.

A Letter to My Heart
February 13, 2009, By Life Coaching for Women
As I wrote this post, I thought how strongly this letter drives home the importance of listening to your heart to create the life you desire. It is impossible to be fully comfortable in your own skin if you tune out what your heart is saying‚Ä¶ so start tuning in today.

Happily Ever After?
February 13, 2009, By Karin Manske, Life Coach
One of my friends got married. After having being single for 20 something years she got married at age 68 and she was glowing and radiant with love and excitement.

The Holistic Nature of Coaching and Being Coached
February 13, 2009, By Susan
The student said that she’d heard a lot about the high-quality ways of living that many coaches had carved out for themselves. She wanted to know if that was the “real deal,” or just a legend floating around the virtual halls of Coach U.

Interviews in Creativity: Jennifer Lee
February 12, 2009, By LifeDev
Today’s interview is with life coach Jennifer Lee. When did you decide to do creative work professionally? JL: I’ve always been creative and crafty. During my corporate career, I used my spare time to sell some book arts and explore how to better integrate creativity with coaching.

Here is Why I’d Be a Good Life Coach
February 10, 2009, By Brad Flory
Declining fortunes of the newspaper industry force a man in my position to make a fallback plan for a new career. I want to be a life coach. Life coaching is a wide-open market not even listed in the Jackson phone book between “Lie Detection” and “Lift Gates.”

Executive/Business Coaching Blogs

Business Coaching: Coaches Are Not Just For Sports
February 17, 2009, By Gabriel Adams
A business coach is used to help a person make their business process more successful. Do not confuse a business coach with a consultant, because a consultant is usually brought in for advice on a single project, or a few similar projects.

Executive Coaching Can Help You Greatly
February 17, 2009, By Bartt Iccles
These four themes cry for personal attention of an experienced business coach. When a company hires a business coach, he has the opportunity to step back and look at things from a different angle.

Harvard Business Review on Executive Coaching
February 16, 2009, By Ed Batista
Harvard Business Review’s Diane Coutu and Carol Kauffman surveyed 140 executive coaches (including Rebecca Zucker, who gave me some great advice when I made my own transition into coaching), and they’ve generated a set of resources from the data that both coaches and clients will find useful.

The CIO’s Coach: It’s No Longer Business As Usual
February 16, 2009, By Kim Batson
With these unchartered and rapidly changing times, the global economic collapse and huge numbers of layoffs at all levels and industries, it takes a radically new mindset to gainfully and quickly secure your next position.

What are the Benefits of Coaching to the Organization?
February 15, 2009, By Maria
One constant in coaching is that it is focused purely on enabling people to consistently improve their performance. It creates the opportunity for each client to bring more of their potential into reality for the benefit of both the individual and the organization.

Publicity Releases

How to Attract Your Ideal Client
February 14, 2009, RisMedia.com (press release) – Norwalk, CT, USA
Have you clearly defined the qualities of your ideal clients? In coaching people for the last 30 years, I have found that most people are fuzzy when it comes to knowing who they really most desire to work with.

Small Business Coaching Trio Unveils MarketingActionClub.com
February 13, 2009, Newswire Today (press release) – Leawood, KS, USA
The site includes free marketing articles, marketing resources, a marketing blog, free marketing video tips, and much more for anyone wishing to join the membership side of the site. Members gain full access to a complete, step-by-step marketing course, a members’ only forum, monthly marketing teleclasses and live coaching calls, as well as a marketing resource library.

Robertson Lowstuter Expands Executive Coaching Team
February 10, 2009, Marketwire (press release) – Chicago, IL, USA
Privately held Robertson Lowstuter, a leader in coaching, developing, and transitioning executives, is pleased to announce that Stephen Axel, Pat Mater, and Barbara Hancock Annin have been added to its executive coaching team.

Listen to an Uncommon Conversation from February 10th, 2009 – Coaching Clients Through Career Transition

Elizabeth Crouch — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:47 +0000

Listen to the recording”

Tuesday, February 10
Time: 1:00 – 2:00pm Eastern Time

Guest: Deborah Brown-Volkman, PCC

Host: The Coaching Commons

Topic: Coaching Clients Through Career Transition

***To attend this Uncommon Conversation and participate live with questions or examples, register right on the home page.***

Your career runs 30, 40, 50 years or more. So, when you are unhappy at work, it carries over into your entire life.

And, that’s if you have a job. Many people today would be thrilled to have a job they don’t enjoy. The workplace is scary and coaches are needed more than ever to help people through it all.

So, how do you help your clients through one of the toughest times in their lives?

Join Deborah Brown-Volkman, PCC, veteran career coach and author of 6 best-selling career and business books as she shares her secrets on how she helps her clients through career transition.

*** Note: this is a Q & A call. Deborah prefers to find out what’s on your mind and directs the call based on what’s important to you. So, brings lots of questions! ***

More about Deborah…..

Deborah is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), and the President of Surpass Your Dreams, a successful career, life, and mentor coaching company that has been delivering a message of motivation, success, and personal fulfillment since 1998.

She specializes in four areas with emphasis on Career Change, Career Development, Career Effectiveness, Wellness, and Mentor Coaching:

1) Career coaching for Senior Executives, Vice Presidents, and Managers who are looking for new career opportunities or seek to become more productive in their current role.

2) Life coaching and Wellness coaching for those who want to improve other areas of their lives in addition to their career.

3) Start-up and practice building for those who want to make coaching their next career.

4) Writing services for those who want to stand out in their career.

Before becoming a coach, Deborah spent twelve years running sales & marketing programs for Fortune 500 companies and dot.coms. She currently works with a variety of clients including Coaches, CEO’s, Entrepreneurs, Financial Service Executives, Internet Executives, Lawyers, Marketing Executives, MD’s, Partners, Professionals, Senior Executives, Sole Proprietors, Students, Small Business Owners, and Vice Presidents.

Deborah’s extensive education and background:

Graduate of Coach University’s Accredited Coaches Training Program in Business and Personal Coaching

Advanced Training in CoachVille’s Graduate School of Coaching

Founding member of Coachville.com

Member of the International Coach Federation

Member of the East Moriches (NY) Chamber of Commerce

BA in Marketing from Hofstra University

AAS degree in Data Processing from Queensborough Community College

Certificate in Financial Planning from New York University

Professional Background: Financial Services, The Internet, Marketing, Sales Management and Web Technology

Learn even more about Deborah here: http://www.surpassyourdreams.com

As always, please post your thoughts/questions below.

The Chronicle of Coaching – News of the Week – February 5, 2009

admin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:31:58 +0000

Editor’s Note: Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci said: ‚ÄúEvery obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.” This week’s Chronicle is about overcoming life’s obstacles. Coaches give advice on handling many different office stumbling blocks, from loose cannon coworkers to an employee with a passion for secret surveillance. A New York life coach has advice for returning to dating life after a divorce, while another life coach in Colorado discusses re-testing negative ‚Äòtruths’ about yourself from time to time to overcome them. Another coach has advice for those who see themselves as impostors in the world. This week, make it over the hurdle.
The Chronicle of Coaching provides a snapshot of what’s happening in the coaching profession, designed to show where and how coaching appears in the popular culture worldwide. It is not intended to be a summary service nor a news roundup, although it may serve that purpose for some readers. The Chronicle is new each Thursday morning. Compiled and edited by Alex Goldsmith and Linda Ballew.

Join us for an Uncommon Conversation about Coaching Clients through Career Transitions.

Executive/Business Coaching

Coaching Corporations
February 3, 2009, Metro Canada – Calgary – Calgary, Canada
Tough times call for drastic measures ‚Äî or at least a fresh perspective, which may be exactly why the phenomenon of work/life coaching continues to grow as the world economy shrinks.

Workplace Coach: Defuse Loose Cannon or Business is in Peril
February 1, 2009, Seattle Post Intelligencer – USA
As an executive coach/consultant, I commonly get calls like the one I got last week from an HR professional who, along with the company CEO, was looking for help with a valued employee also considered a loose cannon. These “problem employees” can be a huge challenge and risk to companies.

A New Helm for HR?
February 1, 2009, Human Resource Executive Online – Horsham, PA, USA
In addition, they may need ongoing executive coaching — which Fasolo himself often provides. The executives then meet with their bosses, whose jobs are to help carry out the executives’ development plans. “We make sure the boss has in his objectives his commitment to his direct reports,” says Fasolo. “He’s held accountable.”

Career Coach: How to Overcome a Job-Hopping History
January 31, 2009, New York Times – United States
It is easier to overcome a choppy history if you are young and just starting out, said Ronald Mitchell, chief executive and co-founder of the career mentoring site GottaMentor.com. ‚ÄúIt’s more acceptable for those under 30 to move around, so I don’t think they need to address it, unless there are big gaps in their r√©sum√©,” he said.

Woman’s World
January 29, 2009, Legal Week – London, UK
The role she held was in a support capacity she felt, and was completely undervalued because of her non-direct fee earning capacity. Coaching was used to improve her capability to network internally and to communicate with clarity the value of her role to the organization.

Your Office Coach: Co-Worker’s Stealth Recordings are Cause for Alarm
January 27, 2009, The Olympian – Olympia, WA, USA
Q: A co-worker told me that he brings a voice recorder to work to catch people talking behind his back. He will tape it underneath a desk or hide it behind a picture. We used to be friends, but I now seem to be on the list of people he hates. I’ve started searching my work area every morning to be sure his recorder isn’t there.

Business Coaching Trains Entrepreneurs to Win in Rough Economy
January 28, 2009, Brandywine East Community News – Hockessin, DE, USA
Business coaching involves taking a hard look at the strengths and weaknesses of a business and its owner in search of ways to improve both, explained Doug Dowd, owner of a Growth Coach franchise in Chadds Ford, Pa.

Leadership in Crisis
January 2009, ACA International – Minneapolis, MN, USA
Working with a coach is a powerful way to improve your leadership skills. Under the right circumstances, one-on-one coaching, with an objective third party, can provide support that other training methods simply cannot. Coaches are attuned to one’s unique individual needs.

Life Coaching

Life Coaches Offering Free Sessions This Week
February 3, 2009, Hamilton Journal News (subscription) – Hamilton, OH, USA
It is International Coaching Week and the Hamilton Coaches Association is offering free one-time sessions this week, a value that ranges in price from $300 to $600.

Dating After Divorce
February 1, 2009, Poughkeepsie Journal – Poughkeepsie, NY, USA
As a life coach working with men and women going through divorce, I find old sayings sometimes help my clients feel grounded: “Timing is everything!” My client could not understand why her new boyfriend (Bob for our story) had chosen the night after they had a big fight about her spending a day at a soccer tournament with her ex and the kids.

Socialite Sweeney Reinvents Himself as a Life Coach Guru
February 1, 2009, Irish Independent – Dublin, Ireland
Socialite and former restaurateur Marcus Sweeney is biting the recessionary bullet and setting up a new business as a self-styled life coach and fitness guru.

Some Oregon Businesses Hold Up Well in the Gloom of the Recession
February 1, 2009, The Oregonian – OregonLive.com – Portland, OR, USA
Business is good at the Baraka Institute, a leadership consulting and training company in Northeast Portland. “We’re flourishing,” said Feroshia Knight, executive director, who is adding another full-time life coach and is expanding her company’s contract staff from five to 18.

Fox’s Life Coach Says, “Get Over It”
January 31, 2009, News Hounds – Newport Beach, CA, USA
Fox Business publishes Nancy Colasurdo under the title “Life Coach”. Last Wednesday, Ms. Colasurdo published this piece. It would be nice if FOX News editors, producers and pundits read it, too. FBN’s life coach says: “I recently took a semi-serious stab at measuring my emotional intelligence by taking a quiz on iVillage.com‚Ä¶

A Chance to Turn Your Life Around
January 30, 2009, The Northern Scot – Inverness, Scotland, UK
The 40-year-old from Elgin was in the depths of despair when he summoned up the courage to enter a competition to win coaching and mentoring, run by ‘The Northern Scot’. In the autumn of 2007, he was jobless, had suffered a relationship breakdown and landed in hospital because his health had deteriorated.

Thinking of Retiring? Hire a Coach
January 29, 2009, Wall Street Journal Blogs – New York, NY, USA
Bill Losey, a retirement coach and certified financial planner based in Wilton, N.Y., is part of a growing field of retirement coaches who help clients prep financially and emotionally for retirement.

Life Coach: Testing Our Truths
January 29, 2009, Grand Junction Free Press – Grand Junction, CO, USA
So why write about this in a life coaching column? This experience is a metaphor for the stories each of us creates, adopts and repeatedly tells. Just ask any of my friends, family or coworkers and they’ll retell the story of my allergies to all kinds of nuts. But I’m not allergic to ALL nuts. Not anymore.

Niche Coaching

Sharon’s Bringing People Together
January 31, 2009, Journal Live – Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Sharon recently launched Coco Moon, a bespoke matchmaking service for single professionals, which helps lonely souls find a partner using individual profiling, relationship coaching and one-to-one introductions.

Life Coaching Blogs

What is the Salary of a Life Coach? Can Life Coach Training Make the Difference?
February 2, 2009, By Jeffrey T. Sooey
According to Forbes.com, the salary of a life coach is six figures for only 10 to 20 percent of coaches. Since the median salary for life coaches in the United Sates is only $30 to $40K per year, it means that there are a lot of coaches out there who are making much less than $30K.

Coaching in Life for Honor
January 31, 2009, By Holistic Practitioners
I usually am able to discern that the purpose of being is rooted in honor and self respect. My conscience gives me a coaching in life for honor to be sought. A samurai is not only concerned with his personal objectives but it is intertwined with a sense of self preservation which is more than what can be perceived tangibly, even by other people.

The Impostor Syndrome. Guilty!
January 30, 2009, By Jane Pollak
On Monday a coaching client mentioned feeling inadequate to put herself in front of high-end clientele. The next day I heard the same fear articulated by another woman I was coaching who also had that ‚Äúless than” thing going on. Then, over lunch with a colleague yesterday same story again.

Counseling Versus Coaching
January 29, 2009, By The Discomfort Zone
Firstly, that awareness of life coaching and what it can offer it still very much in its infancy. I have posted before; the question I get asked most frequently is ‚ÄúWhat does a life coach do?”

Executive/Business Coaching Blogs

Business Coaching: Survive the Recession by Focusing On Cash Flow
February 2, 2009, By Paul Simister
The key message in both is that the emphasis has to move from growth to survival and from managing for profit to managing for cash. Those with money in the bank or plenty of unused borrowing facilities have options and can prosper from the opportunities presented by the market changes which arise from competitors running into trouble.

Home Business Misconceptions
January 31, 2009, By Blinds Chalet
In my home business coaching sessions, I have found that many people start their home businesses based on misconceptions, myths, and half truths.

Adapt or Face Extinction ‚Ä¶ What’s It Going to Be?
January 30, 2009, By Tom Ferry
Circuit City filed bankruptcy while Best Buy is the go-to place for gadgets!!! Now, I’m not an analyst (just a Real Estate coach), but I think it’s safe to say that these surviving companies adapted to their clients and the economy, while the ones who failed did not.

Wrangling With Time Management Demons
January 29, 2009, By Bizzy Women
Here is my simple and effective process. Everything is input on my calendar. I currently use iCal for my daily calendar and sync everything to mobile me and my Blackberry.

Books, Products, & Services

Coach Yourself to Success
January 29, 2009, By Talane Miedaner – London, UK
Using the practical wisdom drawn her Talane’s experience as a professional coach for hundreds of Fortune 500 clients and her own business background, Talane shares 101 of the most powerful and effective coaching tips and presents them in an easy to follow, ten-part program.

Publicity Releases

Results of Landmark ICF Global Coaching Client Study Released
February 2, 2009, By India PRWire
An overwhelming majority of individuals who have experienced professional coaching report being “very satisfied” with their coaching experience and would repeat it, according to the first global survey of coaching clients commissioned by the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Career Management Firms Merge
January 29, 2009, Industrial Distribution – Sarasota, FL, USA
Lorie Lebert, CEO of the Loriel Group, is a certified career management coach and certified professional resume writer who has helped place professionals in new careers for more than 18 years.

Life Changing Women’s Empowerment Group to Begin Next Week
January 28, 2009, EVLiving – USA
In response to these challenging times and the special needs of women, Crossroads Life Coaching is offering a women’s empowerment group for women in transition, “W.I.T.” Every Thursday night in February from 7-9 p.m., women can come and learn techniques and skills for making positive changes.

Meet Me at the Forum
January 22, 2009, By AWRT Women’s Forum
Accomplished sociologist turned career coach Nancy Dailey has helped hundreds of professionals turn over a new leaf, resulting in an upward career momentum. In this session you will explore the differences between a positive attitude versus a pessimistic approach‚Ä¶