Tomorrow's Life Coach
Volume 9 Issue 8 – August, 2010

In This Issue:

• Pat's Ponderings – Relationship Coaching for the Workplace by Patrick Williams, Ed.D., MCC
• Monthly
  • Coaching in the Workplace Teleconference - August 19
  • Free Coach Referral Service for CLC's
• News
  • New Course Offering: The Coach Approach for EAP & Management Professionals
  • New Coaching Service Invitation
  • LifeOptions Professional Services Invitation
  • Invitation for Tomorrow’s Life Coach Newsletter Submissions
• Feature
  • Coaching Cultural Awareness by Lloyd Thomas, PhD and Patrick Williams, EdD, MCC
• Upcoming Classes at ILCT
• What Pat Recommends
  • Turning To One Another by Margaret J Wheatley

Tomorrow's Life Coach (TLC) is a monthly online journal from the Institute for Life Coach Training (ILCT) that nourishes the intellect, intuition and inspiration of the personal and business coaching community.

Pat's Ponderings – Relationship Coaching Approach for the Workplace
by Patrick Williams, Ed.D., MCC

I just completed a training with Dr. Mike Lillibridge at the Smart Marriages conference in Orlando. I have presented at this conference every year since 2000. This year Mike and I were invited to do a 2 day course on Couples Coaching and the Peoplemap. Mike created the Peoplemap assessment many years ago with his partner and I have always thought it was a great assessment that is easy to use, easy to interpret and easy to grasp. In short, it is very user friendly. Now pair that information with the basics of coaching couples and you have a powerful relationship coaching specialization. The participants we had in this training were very enthusiastic about what they learned and many of them are interested in adding more coach training to their skill sets.

Relationship coaching as a specialty can also be transferred to work relationships easily. Similar dynamics of communication, conflict styles, and the ability to work together with different personalities is crucial in both small and large companies, with key personnel. The Peoplemap assists in understanding strengths as well as potential ‘Achilles heals’ that might get in the way of progress and successful management of personal and work relationships. And the techniques of coaching allow a relationship coaching specialist to offer proven value in navigating the typical challenges that relationships pose.

One of my favorite quotes is from Margaret Wheatley (from Turning to One Another)

Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals who can go it alone 

Given that we all have significant relationships, wouldn’t it be great if they were easier and more functional?  Wouldn’t it be great to have relationship coaching as a specialty service available for key relationships and to bring out the best in the relationship potential?

You can provide relationship coaching in many configurations whether it’s for individuals, partnerships or teams. When the coaching includes an awareness of and respect for the web of relationships that comprise the business, its impact is very positive.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Here is the real exciting news. When relationship coaching is fully embraced and valued by businesses it has an incredible impact on their profitability too.

An executive at the Fortune 100 company went on to put together a team that won a national award for diversity achievement, as well as creating millions of dollars of revenue for his company. He directly credited this success to the Relationship Coaching and the new skills he and his team had acquired as a result. 
So check out our specialty training at ILCT in Relationship coaching, for couples or work relationships and also the Peoplemap training.

Warm regards,

Pat

Patrick Williams, Ed.D., MCC
Chief Energizing Officer, ILCT
Executive Vice President, Life Options
Department Chair, Professional Coaching, International University of Professional Studies
Author: Becoming a Professional Life Coach. Therapist as Life Coach, Total Life Coaching,
Law and Ethics in Coaching
Recipient of Global Visionary Fellowship for Non Profit www.CoachingTheGlobalVillage.org
Biography

Monthly

ILCT-CPH Teleconference

Join Sara Oberg, Marketing Manager of CPH & Associates for a discussion about Coaching the Organization.

1. How can coaching be used within an organization?
2. Are there any ethical issues involving coaching without certification?
3. Who benefits from coaching within an organization?

Date: Thursday, August 19, 2010
Time: 2:00 p.m. Eastern/New York/Toronto time
Fee: No charge (some long distance charges may apply)

REGISTER NOW

Free Coach Referral Service for CLCs
ILCT provides a listing of Certified Life Coaches and graduates of our Accredited Coach Training Program. These are coaches who have completed at least 60 to 130 hours of coach training. This is a value-added service for those ILCT students who have reached this high level of excellence!

This list is being offered as a free service to assist individuals in identifying and selecting coaches best suited for their particular need.

If you have your Certified Life Coach credential, and have not registered — Sign up now

News

New Course Offering: The Coach Approach for EAPs & Management Professionals

The Institute for Life Coach Training is pleased to announce the Fall session of The Coach Approach for EAPs & Management Professionals (formerly EACS).

ILCT's Coach Approach for EAPs & Management Professionals course is designed for EA, HR, managers and workplace professionals who are committed to enhancing their skills and fully utilizing their talents to inspire organizational excellence and the optimal potential of their employees.  EACC PDHs have been applied for and this course is approved for 20 hours toward certification from the International Coach Federation.

How Coaching Enhances the Value of the Organization

• Advances the organization's image by demonstrating the employer's commitment to the personal and professional well-being of its employees and exemplifying a business climate of continuous learning.
• Workplace Professionals enhance their skills by applying coaching to their skillsets.
• The coaching model offers a compelling benefit and appealing process for employee development when used by manager, human resources and EAPs.
• Coaching increases the employee’s ability to clarify goals, achieve personal accountability & follow through to reach successful outcomes.

The Coach Approach for EAPs & Management Professionals course focuses on the following components:

• Introduction to Coaching – The history, definitions, and distinctions of professional coaching.
• Coaching Basics – The Coaching alliance and model, powerful questions and purposeful inquiry, moving into action, leveraging EA skills and standards.
• The Coaches Tool Box – skills and techniques for empowering & forwarding action, accountability & autonomy and enhancing successful outcomes.
• Peer Coaching Groups – each class will be broken up into smaller groups which will meet weekly to practice the skills learned.

Next Course Begins October 19th

Our October 19th class is a teleclass which will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for one hour, from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EST. 

Hear how this course can help you and your organization! Register for a discussion on Coaching in the Workplace with Patrick Williams, Ed.D., MCC.  August 17, 2010 at 2PM EDT

Instructor: Diana Kilinski, CEAP
Diana has been working nationally since 1992 as an employee assistance management consultant and coach for Working Solutions, which later became United Behavioral Health EAP. Diana works with people at every level of employment and management on the difficult personal and professional issues that face employees and organizations. Her consultation services also include the development of company policies on drug free workplace, workplace violence and trauma, and organization change.
Diana holds advanced certifications from the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation in Critical Incident Stress Management, Preventing Workplace Violence, and Terrorism Response. She has written a manual and multiple articles on workplace violence, trauma, and grief. Diana also provides training advisement for those who are candidates for Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP) standing.

Register before September 3, 2008 for a $100.00 discount!
Early Bird Price: $1195  (Regular Price: $1295)

Tuition includes:

• 20 hours of instruction by a certified coach
• 10 hours of Peer Coaching practice
• Coaching Specialist Manual with training material including tools & resources
• EACC PDHs have been applied for
• CEUs have been applied for
• Certificate of Completion

Two follow-up coaching sessions after course completion

Group discounts are available for 3 or more from the same organization.

The course is also available as a 2 1/2 day customized in-person workshop.  Please contact Donna.Colucci@lifeoptions.com for more information.

If you'd like to know more about the program benefits, you can listen to a recording of how former graduates are using their coach specialist training in the workplace.  Listen now.

LifeOptions Professional Services

Want to connect with other coaches and counselors, and apply for service as a provider in our coaching and counseling networks?

Join our online Practice Hub community. Once you click on this link [LifeOptions Practice Hub] and arrive at our site you'll want to select "Create Account". Upon registering you will then be able to use your email address and the secure password you created to sign in. Registration is secure, free and only takes a minute or two. Join this rapidly growing community of fellow practitioners and share your ideas, try your hand at blogging, explore training opportunities and become a provider.

We look forward to seeing you in our community!

Lyle Labardee
LifeOptions Professional Services

Invitation for Tomorrow’s Life Coach Submissions

Have an article or a book recommendation you’d like to share? We’d like to invite all ILCT faculty and students to submit their articles and recommendations to Tomorrow’s Life Coach. Please keep in mind that all contributions that are under consideration to be published will be edited to meet our specifications. We welcome your submissions and will include proper attribution. Please send submissions to jane.adams@lifeoptions.com.

Feature

Coaching Cultural Awareness
by Lloyd Thomas, PhD and Patrick Williams, Ed.D., MCC.

Psychology has much to offer the field of coaching when it comes to the subject of diversity. The current estimated U.S. population is 271 million - 196 million whites, 33 million blacks, two million American Indians, 10 million Asians, and 30 million Hispanics. People of color currently comprise about 28 percent of the total U.S. population. (www.apa.org/monitor/ dec98/pubint.html) Coaching is an international profession, but one which worldwide needs to attract more diversity in its membership of coaches and the clientele coaching can serve. The following lessons and applications for coaching may help to increase your diversity IQ.

Framework for coaching your clients

With the complete mapping of the human genome, we now know that genetically speaking, human beings are 99.97 per cent the same. Genetically, human differences are minuscule compared to human similarities. On the genetic level, we are alike. Yet on the social and cultural level, we are not. If we were, human evolution would stop, and our interpersonal relationships would be boring at best and constricted at worst. Shared individual differences are essential for expanding our “humanness.” Without diverse individuals in relationship to one another, human life would be little more than biological stagnation.

Any human culture, whether it’s familial, organizational, societal, national or planetary, consists of “webs” of people bound to one another through trust, mutual need and compatible aspirations. Culture is based upon shared individual differences in knowledge, experience, skills, history, talents and dreams. Culture develops and grows when membership within it benefits everyone who lives or works within it, inevitably dissolves when those involved no longer benefit from being part of it, and crumbles when even a few powerful members no longer value human differences or appreciate diversity.

As a life coach, you need to value and appreciate the human differences in your clients. Develop a coaching culture in your social networks, and the results will be synergistic. We have often said, “As life coaches, we learn more from our clients than we ever do from books or even our formal education.” Imagine how boring coaching would be if all your clients were the same. Imagine how predictable your life would be if all your friends and colleagues were exactly like you. Imagine how restricted your knowledge would be, if everyone else knew only what you knew. Now imagine how rich your life experience would become if you were affected and influenced by the unique personalities of many people from divergent backgrounds. Imagine how satisfying your coaching practice might be if your clients called you from different countries, spoke different languages, and shared with you all of their unique differences.

This valuable life lesson, which we call Life Lesson #50, contains the following messages:

1. Genetically, all human beings are essentially the same.
2. Socially and culturally, all human beings are different.
3. Human differences are to be highlighted and incorporated to enhance your life.
4. When integrated, human diversity results in broadening and deepening individual success and happiness.

The bottom line: Appreciating differences and valuing diversity broadens your humanity and enriches your relationships and your life.

Coaching questions to ask yourself and your clients

“What person who I don’t really know will I contact within this next week? Why?”
“What ethnic cultural activity (such as Hanukkah, Swedish Dance of Lights, Kwanza, Cinco de Mayo) will I engage in within the next month?”
“Will I read a book about the history of a foreign country?”
“Where might I travel to learn firsthand about another culture?”
“What are the culturally unique qualities, strengths and skills of the individuals with whom I work?”

Diversity checklist

Share this checklist with clients who want to enrich their lives by learning about and integrating the uniqueness of others into their own lives.

• I have an attitude of genuine curiosity about how others differ from me.
• Without fear or anxiety, I interact with people who are different from me.
• I make a point to meet with acquaintances from other cultures and ethnic backgrounds.
• I encourage my friends and acquaintances to share their different opinions, thoughts, feelings, and judgments about any project or endeavor.
• I ask for assistance or counsel from people whom I know hold mindsets different from my own.
• I establish a good working relationship with at least one or two key members of the varied cultures to which I belong (such as family, clubs, organizations, social networks, my workplace, special interest groups).
• I identify relationships outside my own perceptual paradigms that expand my awareness and aid in my achievement of goals and desires for my life.
• I seek out people who can give me useful information, unique perspectives, identify resources, and offer support or critiques.
• I participate in cultural traditions and events different from those within which I grew up.
• I attend professional, international conferences and make contacts with key people living in other countries.
• I am open to, approach, and invite others to share their unique ideas, even if they have little relevance to my life.
• I champion diversity efforts in my workplace, in my social network and within the organizations to which I belong (such as ecumenical activities in my church, synagogue or mosque).
• I learn a different language when many of my contacts speak it.
• I view every person as a source of new knowledge. I can learn something from everyone I meet.
  

Expand Your Business! Deepen Your Coaching Skills! Register For Upcoming Classes at ILCT
NOTE: Flexible payment plans are available. For details call 248-588-7733.

REVIEW OUR FULL CURRENT CLASS LIST

What Pat Recommends

Turning to One Another by Margaret J Wheatley "I believe we can change the world if we start talking to one another again." With this simple declaration, Margaret Wheatley proposes that people band together with their colleagues and friends to create the solutions for real social change, both locally and globally, that are so badly needed. Such change will not come from governments or corporations, she argues, but from the ageless process of thinking together in conversation. "Turning to One Another" encourages this process.

Tomorrow's Life Coach™

Patrick Williams, Ed.D., MCC, Founder
Jane Adams, Publisher
© 2010 Institute for Life Coach Training, a LifeOptions Group Company, all rights reserved.
www.lifecoachtraining.com
Phone: 888-267-1206
info@lifecoachtraining.com