Listen to an Uncommon Conversation from August 5th, 2008 – The Coaching Paradigm: Way of Being, Way of Life

Listen to the call below:

Topic: The Coaching Paradigm – Way of Being, Way of Life

Date: Tuesday, August 5th 2008

Time: 11:00am to Noon EDT

The Coaching Commons is delighted to feature…..

Jim Selman, Coach, Facilitator, Consultant in conversation with Vikki Brock, PhD, EMBA

Please join them for this dynamic topic: The ‘way of being’ of a coach, about power and how ego can blind us and turn coaching into subtle manipulation and more-of-the-same management control.

Participants on this call are invited to engage with Jim as he draws distinctions between coaching as a paradigm and the application of coaching to various subjects and with very different clientele.

Jim Selman is a recognized leader and authority in the field of organizational transformation and culture change. Beginning over 35 years ago, he was among the pioneers of organizational/management practitioners who identified the need for manifesting organizational change, distinguishing the leverage points for leaders and managers to generate change and developing a technology for accelerating the pace of change. As a coach, facilitator and consultant, he has made numerous breakthrough contributions to his clients’ capacity to mobilize people and build competencies in the areas of communication, relationship, business process design, coordination and executive leadership.

Jim is the author of Coaching: Beyond Management, the Workbook to Accompany the Video Course (1989)

Jim Selman published this workbook to accompany a course that was presented to 23 business executives who were “grappling with the issues of productivity, keeping up with a rapidly changing world, creating time to meet everyday demands, developing and empowering people to be effective, and working with integrity and commitment given an increasingly uncertain future.” These issues are the same issues executives are grappling with almost 20 years later.

In his work, Selman introduced coaching as a new paradigm, or context, for management and communication. He suggests a radically new perspective that communication is the primary (perhaps only) lever we have if we are to deal effectively with these types of traditionally “soft” issues.

Jim Selman was co-founder with Werner Erhard and CEO of Transformational Technologies in the mid 1980s, which brought these concepts into American corporations.

Selman presents 15 commitments of a great coach, which are repeated here:
1. Be clear that it is a game and that the game is to win.
2. Be ethical within the rules of the game but not limited by them. Remember the greatest coaches invented new rules.
3. Be committed to people and generate a personal stake in the success and well-being of each individual.
4. Be focused on the development of each person. The performer is really the coach’s product.
5. Be uncompromising in your discipline to preparation and practice.
6. Be committed to the possibility that there are never absolute limits to performance for either an individual or an organization.
7. Be in continuous communication with the employees, owner, public, and the competition.
8. Be personally responsible for the outcome.
9. Be honest, talk straight and model the qualities you demand from others.
10. Be awake and aware of the team picture and what is occurring in all aspects of the game that impact the team.
11. Be uncompromising with the details every step of the way.
12. Be a teacher in the original sense of the work – of fully developing the capability of the individual.
13. Be a learner and listen accurately.
14. Be your word.
15. Most of all, be in love with the game and the privilege it is to be a coach.

Selman has continued to advance these ideas and concepts. You can read more about Jim, his current work and download articles at www.paracomm.com.

Vikki Brock, PhD, MCC is the team lead for Connections and the Virtual Museum of Coaching at the Coaching Commons. Vikki is an executive and leadership coach with over 20 years Fortune 100 leadership experience and over 10 years as a successful entrepreneur and in June 2008, completed her Ph.D. in Coaching and Human Development from the International University of Professional Studies. Her dissertation work on the evolution of coaching encompasses interviews of over 150 key influencers. She plans on publishing several books documenting ‚Äö√Ñ√∫Who’s Who in Coaching: Who Shaped It, Who’s Shaping It‚Äö√Ñ√π. Please read more about Vikki here: http://www.coachingcommons.org/who-we-are

As always, please post your thoughts/questions below.