Dear friends,

On October 1st and 2nd, The International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations (ICCO) held the XII Global ICCO Symposium “Coaching for Change Management in Hard Times” in San José, Costa Rica, sponsored by Bayer AG CA-C.

The colorful coaching savvy group from 10 Latin American countries and the US built a gratifying, intense, high-quality growth, learning experience, which seems to have been a landmark, deeply impacting most of the participants’ lives.

Surrounded by exuberant nature, incredible flowers on top of the tallest trees, and the Latin American typical warmth – well balanced with ICCO’s proverbial highest quality / ethical standards and rigorous world class coaches. Regional corporate clients, HR professionals and Business Leaders learned side by side, living in real time the coaching process of real people, and crafting the consulting proposals for real organizational challenge, in the intimacy that has come to be ICCO’s footprint for Symposia.

The whole experience left us all wanting more … and Bogotá, Colombia – the chosen location for the 2010 Symposium – will surely satisfy this strong wish. You are all invited (if you speak Spanish)!

Ramiro Ponce, member of the Board of ICCO and Team Lead for Costa Rica Symposium

“I would like to thank you for the great ICCO Symposium in Costa Rica. This is the second time that I participate with ICCO, my first being with Novartis and now with NISSAN. It was a good opportunity to meet other colleagues (Coaches and HR people) and share with them our Coaching experiences. It has been very useful for me and my company to present our case and receive new ideas and tips that we implemented with great benefit. Thank you again for the invitation, it was a great congress – great value.” – Talent Management Subdirector Nissan Mexicana, S.A. de C.V.

Como soy nuevo en el tema no sabía muy bien saludarles o expresar mi agradecimiento a todos, por esto me tome algo de tiempo para escribirles, la experiencia de la semana pasada marco un cambio en mi vida, debo darles las gracias a todos por plantar en mi las mejores señales de dirección y crecimiento personal que voy a poder disfrutar en mi y con otros. Adquirí compromiso de crecer cada día, humanizar y hacer sensible mi carácter.

(Translation) “Being new to this theme I didn’t really know how to express my thankfulness. That’s why it took me a little time to write you all. Last week’s experience in the Symposium marked a change in my life. I must thank you all for having put in me the best direction with signs and personal seeds for growth. I’ll enjoy this growth in myself as well as with others. I am committed now to grow every day, and to humanize and make my character more sensitive.” – Manufacturing Regional Director – M.E.C.O.

“Como te comenté, hace unos días participé en el Simposio de sobre Coaching Organizacional, el cual fue organizado por ICCO. Realmente fue una experiencia estupenda con gente experta y con calidad humana extraordinaria. A mi juicio es un tema que todos los que tenemos responsabilidades en la Administración de RRHH debemos conocer y practicar….Lo maravilloso de esto es que en el 2010 el simposio será en Bogotá, Colombia. Es una experiencia que merece se aprovecha, principalmente por el poder del ayuda que tiene el coaching para nuestra gente y la organización.” – HR Director of MECO Costa Rica

- by Jonathan Sibleyjs@jonathansibley.net

This year’s Executive Coaching Summit will take place Nov 30 – Dec 1 in Orlando, Florida, just prior to the ICF conference.

For 10 years, as many ICCO executive coaches know from personal experience, the ECS has served as a think-tank where executive coaches can get together to meet and share experiences with other, senior executive coaches. While ICCO has embraced communication among multiple executive coaching stakeholders, the ECS has focused purely on executive coaches. Over the years, summits have used various formats, from Open Space Technology to more structured presentations and workshops.

This year, the Summit will include an experiential workshop using Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s Overcoming Immunity to Change methodology. This work grew out of “How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work” and is particularly effective with what Heifetz has called “Adaptive Challenges” – challenges which do not respond to typical efforts to solve them. Not only is the methodology effective, but it also represents a useful business model for moving from individual to team level work within an organization.

In addition to the experiential workshop, we expect to have a session dedicated to executive burnout, time allotted for a discussion of the future of the ECS, and several blocks for discussions that will be decided upon by participants once we are all together.

The world has evolved, including the world of executive coaching. We realize that the ECS needs a compelling mission and to provide enough value for participants to budget the time and funds required to attend.

If the ECS is to continue, this year’s discussion about our future is likely to be key and we would love to make sure that the right people are in the room for this discussion.

Already this year, we have created a new way for members to interact, using a LinkedIn group which now includes 99 ECS attendees and continues to grow. We have also experimented with co-creating the agenda prior to arriving at the Summit. And, we have increased our outreach to potential attendees, while still maintaining strong criteria for acceptance to the Summit.

Information about this year’s Executive Coaching Summit is available at http://www.ecs2009.com

If you have any questions, please contact Jonathan Sibley at js@jonathansibley.net

Our ancestors, in the spirit of community, regularly sat around a fire to have conversations that deepened their own communal connections. This dialog assisted in increasing the quality of life in the places where they lived. In our modern-day communities, there is a longing for shared meaning, connections, and the deep conversation that coaching can bring to our world of electronic social media and speed-of-lightening pace.

• How can coaching support the individuals and organizations that sometimes struggle to define their roles and find their place in the modern community?
• What are the ways that these organizations can work synergistically to optimize the spirit of community? What does coaching have to learn from a community?
• What can a community learn from coaching?

A number of senior coaches and community leaders will explore these topics through “Synergy in Community”, the first ICCO Community Symposium on August 27-29 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The word “synergy” invokes the combined sum of individuals doing greater good than a single person can alone.  In this ICCO community symposium, we will be exploring how the combined sum of individuals and organizations can work together to create and sustain greatness within our communities.

In the places where we reside, people often pass by their next door neighbors without knowing them; they expect their governments or “somebody” to take care of the problems of crime, poverty, empty buildings, unemployment, litter and whatever else plagues the places they live and work in. These problems must be dealt with in order for us to enjoy the successes of synergy in our communities. They can be only be addressed by the “somebodies”(individuals and organizations) who are willing to roll up their shirtsleeves and work together for the common good of the places they live and work in.  Does coaching have a role in supporting the somebodies who are responsible for enhancing the quality of life in our communities? Many believe it does.

Kalamazoo, Michigan is a mid-sized city with a cultural history of somebodies who have taken responsibility to assure that life in their community is the best that it can be. It is a city of business innovation, beginning with W.E. Upjohn and his “friable pill” that fueled The Upjohn Company growth, as well as a myriad of companies throughout its history, embraced the innovation that fueled prosperity and the growth of the community: Checker Motors, Gibson Guitars, Stryker and many others. More recently, it is the home of the ground-breaking “Kalamazoo Promise”, where an anonymous group of donors has funded the college education for every graduating high school senior.  In refusing to accept the economic recession as reality, Kalamazoo has recently supported new and existing companies in moving here or expanding, resulting in several thousand new jobs in the region.

However, Kalamazoo, like any city, cannot simply sit back and revel in its success.  The quality of life in any community requires an ongoing collaborative spirit of dedicated individuals and organizations willing to “grab the rope” and work together, as in this excerpt from the book, Community Capitalism: Lessons from Kalamazoo and Beyond, by Ron Kitchens:
““Grab the rope!”

That is what you are likely to hear if you find yourself on a ship, becalmed and threatened. That is what you will hear when you have no wind to sail by or engines to propel. You must resort to kedging to get out of trouble.

…..Kedging is the act of having a light anchor (a kedge) loaded into a rowboat and taken out as far as the lines tied to it will allow. After dropping the anchor, every man, woman, and child on the main boat grab the rope and pull the line as if his or her life depended on it, literally hauling the ship to the anchor. This is repeated again and again until the ship arrives at its destination or the fair winds once again blow.”

We hope that those of you who work, live, volunteer and have your heart in your community will consider joining us and grabbing the rope at the ICCO Symposium in Kalamazoo, Michigan on August 27, 28 and morning of the 29th, to explore and learn together how coaching can support the synergy in our communities.

- by Mary Jo Asmus, an executive coach who works with community leaders, Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Her clients include remarkable individuals and organizations that are dedicated to making an impact in the places where people live, work, and play throughout the United States.

Executive and organizational coaching have gained in popularity in recent years.  Distinct from life or personal coaching, executive and organizational coaching use a developmental process to assist executives in achieving their goals within the context (and with the support of) the organization they work within.  An executive coach relies on a number of tools such as assessments, interviews and shadowing the executive to assist that person in creating and fulfilling an action plan geared to their goals.

Executive and organizational coaching have evolved into a well-tuned process for those executives who are already high performing but wish to “up their game”.  A sports analogy often provided is that of Tiger Woods, someone at the top of his game who has several coaches to help him improve and stay on top.  In our fast moving world, a business executive with a coach can potentially achieve their goals quicker, with greater ease and with a broader perspective than one who doesn’t. 

On August 27-29, 2009 the Chamber, together with t together with ONEplace @ kpl (Kalamazoo Public Library), and Southwest Michigan First, will be co-hosting an International Consortium of Coaching in Organizations (ICCO) symposium entitled “Synergy in Community”. Bronson Methodist Hospital is sponsoring this event. The symposium will bring together executive and organizational coaches, consultants, OD practitioners, researchers, nonprofits and businesses, coach training schools and educators who are interested in “Synergy in Community”. Specific emphasis will be on the enhancement of synergy between and among the nonprofits, businesses and government organizations that support Kalamazoo and other communities.

ICCO symposia have been conducted in many parts of the world, providing an opportunity for leaders to get coaching and consulting from master coaches for the fee of event participation.  These symposia are purposely limited to 35 total participants to ensure inclusiveness and engagement. This is a marketing free zone where there are no lectures or PowerPoint presentations.  Generative facilitated dialogue will bring forth divergent opinions and perspectives, alert to the ideas of others, which are collaborative, inclusive and thought provoking to help participants move forward in their respective ‘worlds’ and organizations.

In this first innovative community focused symposium, ICCO invites nonprofit; for-profit; government organizations; coaches and consultants who feel they could benefit from the experience of coaching, consulting, and intimate conversations to advance the synergy in the Kalamazoo community and beyond.

Registration information can be found at http://tinyurl.com/kryk4u . 

Please contact Mary Jo Asmus at mary.jo.asmus@aspire-cs.com or 269-372-2688 with any questions.

- by Agnes Mura

Are you a Spanish-Speaking Coach or Consultant?

Latin America needs coaches. Let’s look at a vehicle that allows us to make a big difference.

Most coaching conferences you have attended in the US or developed countries have been replete with coaches, and only featured a smattering of organizational representatives. But in most of Latin America, there is more corporate need and curiosity about coaching that there are coaches to fulfill the need, so educational events there have a very different ratio of participant groups. Coaches, educators, researchers are needed.

The International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations (ICCO) seeks to bring together HR, OD and learning managers responsible for coaching programs in organizations, with executive coaches, coach educators and coaching firms, in “conversations that don’t happen anywhere else”(our motto).

One of the formats most conducive to creating such a climate and a safe, stimulating container, have been the Symposia ICCO launched in 2005 across the US, Central America and northern Europe. Imagine a group of no more than 35 people, working on cases – or more plainly said, helping organizations whose representatives are in the room to explore, re-think and sometimes resolve coaching challenges their firms face.

In Central America, the ICCO Symposia had to activate lots of personal connections to bring together enough experienced coaches with the numerous companies who wanted to join us for a limited-attendance event. Once we met, though, the level of engagement, passion, eagerness to learn and experiment rewarded us each time in spades.

All symposia are based on live case-work, which in Mexico, at ICCO’s first symposium south of the US border, meant helping executives from Bayer Crop science, Exxon Mobil and Banco Santander (the host) reflect on how they can introduce and leverage the use of coaching against their leadership development challenges. Look at the industries that raised their hands to get help working on their issues: they are among the most successful but also pressured and controversial in the world. Their leaders need fresh thinking approaches, fresh ways to collaborate laterally, new methods of working through influence vs. directives. In Guatemala, about a year later, other Human Resource and business line executives proposed their cases, always with this same objective: to understand coaching better and to learn how to infuse their leadership with this developmental approach. In Costa Rica (October 1-2, 2009) we are helping companies understand coaching as a change (and crisis) management tool.

During the symposia, we first, need to present a whirl-wind introduction to how organizational coaching works. While most Latin American HR managers and executives have a sense of the promise of coaching, few know what the coaching conversation is like, and they have little idea of how programs can be implemented on a broader scale. While in developed coaching markets, symposia attract very senior leaders and executive coaches, who work on the tough issues that the implementation of organizational coaching pose, in Central America we are building from the ground up:

- What does a truly effective coaching conversation and coaching process look and sound like?
- How do you design a coaching program that links into the performance management and the existing deployment initiatives of the company?
- How do you align it with the strategy that’s on the mind of senior executives, so that it becomes a more compelling “sell” to them?
- What sort of preparation do the managers need who will run such programs?
- How do you source coaches? Is it worth building a parallel approach of using external coaches as well as building internal capacity – often using those same coaches?
- How do you introduce coaching differently in large global corporations vs. a medium-sized local business?
- How do you sustain momentum and patience? – The culture won’t absorb this overnight.
- What measurement and evaluation systems work and don’t work?
…And much more.

ICCO has a sense of mission that envisions many countries “leapfrogging” the expensive trials and errors so many excellent companies have learned from in their coaching programs. We envision Eastern Europe and Latin America (you may like to work with us on connections with Asia!) establishing coaching programs that are even more economical, more strategic, and more efficient… sort of going straight to cell-phones without laying first laborious phone lines across the region.

There is a need not only for personal coach training programs but for programs that teach consultants, former business people and other graduate professionals how to help companies large and small leverage coaching in their cultures. There is a need for internal coach training programs that don’t just teach coaching skills and the business of coaching for the solo practitioner, but that teach the management of coaching programs: A lot of unsuspecting, often young HR people are thirsting for guidance, having found themselves saddled with creating and implementing something they know little about. There is a huge need for better disseminated research literature, newsletters, hands-on educational conferences produced by consortia, vs. by individual vendors.

And last but most important, there is a need for a major adjustment in the coach approach to the cultures involved. We have worked with executives and teams of managers in the US and in LatAm, and have experienced the temptation of imposing the western corporate cultural values and modus operandi on organizational systems (i.e. communities of people) that have a totally different set of concepts of hierarchy, expectations of leadership, sense of identity and life priorities. Regionally home-grown practitioners need to be thoughtful, original, and intentional about re-creating coaching in their clients’ worlds, not just based on imported models… and that’s hard when you have been trained in and look up to US coach training models.

What ICCO envisions is an unprecedented enrichment that will start flowing both ways, when coaching finds its voice in the companies that are the life blood of countries outside North America and western Europe. Join us in this exploration at www.coachingconsortium.org.

WHERE in the developing world do you think we should gather next with these different stakeholder groups and work on live cases that teach everyone what they need to learn?

Agnes Mura, founding president of ICCO, is a multi-lingual leadership coach and facilitator, who works in Los Angeles, Europe and Latin America. (www.agnesmura.com)

- by Agnes Mura

Coaching in times of crisis has become all about resilience, for me.

As we know, true resilience comes not from looking away but from looking reality squarely in the face and avoiding denial. So, more than ever, as an executive coach, I help clients interrogate reality, questioning the assumptions of their businesses: what are they learning from the market today? Asking three to five levels deep, what is likely to come next? With what purpose and end in mind are they staffing down and what are they staffing UP for? What products/service, structures and bureaucracies should not survive this cycle?

Once we courageously look at all the implications of the current changes, we work on what story we are telling ourselves and others about it. Most leaders I work with “know” that they have to have a mind-set of seeing the opportunity underneath the crisis. Many will tell stories of how people “made it” during the worst of times. But what mind-set do their actions convey? Just the other day, a division VP showed such physical signs of dejection when being informed in a meeting that another account was lost, that the whole team’s spirit fell noticeably for days. Nobody expects unnatural poker faces in the work-place, but it’s important to coach intensely around the deep-seated conviction and optimism of the executives, because in times of immediate stress the truth of their attitudes will be visible. We can’t control Amygdala responses, we can only control the overall mood and philosophy with which we hold and meet set-backs.

The third component my coaching sessions seem to revolve around a lot these days is visioning. This is a learned skill, not natural to too many people (and those who have it a lot, seem fly like kites at times). re-invention, playful brain-storming, talking to the young, to the lowest rungs of the hierarchy, to other industry colleagues, to artist, reading great literature and history… these are ways to wash one’s brain of prevailing paradigms. VISA’s CEO is quoted to have said something to the effect that it’s much harder to get rid of the old than to introduce the new. (That’s why the new is introduced often on top of the old, which makes for fascinating archeological layers of processes and products in organizations.) Listening to different music, learning new physical skills, how fun it can be to refresh the whole being.

The challenge is that all this occurs against a mass-generated background of anxiety and fear. Acknowledging that in every moment when it shows up, looking fear in the face and smiling anyway – that’s where our sessions usually lead.

Agnes Mura, MA MCC
Santa Monica

by Ramiro Ponce

Next time someone desperately comes to you asking for some “sound advice” during hard times, beware. The person may be suffering from “Sleep Thieves”.

The” Top Ten Sleep Thieves”, as I call them, are derailed, tempting thoughts/behaviors we all have during hard times of perceived or real loss – times of anxiety and stress. Far from being abnormal, they are very natural ways in which our mind tries to deal with uncertainty when there are no clear signals or direction indicators “outside” about what’s best to do in the face of it (uncertainty).

Overcoming them usually requires increasing self- awareness, and some kind of re-framing of the context/situation, re-sizing it and daring to ask for help. Phrases like “There’s life after “X” – fill in your organization-, “there are more fish in the sea” or questions like “what’s the worst that could happen? are colloquial, practical ways to stimulate this re-sizing of the problem. Almost always immediate relief is experienced because we touch base with reality again.

The arguments presented in the “Reflection” part of the section below may be useful for you when you –as leader or team member – are confronted with questions which look for certainty in uncertain times. E.g. “Look, they’re offering me this job, but I’m afraid to leave now. On the other hand, things here are just worsening. What should I do?” Because anxiety caused by uncertainty doesn’t necessarily decrease with certainty, you must NOT answer the question, but rather stimulate the other person to look for the indicated context.

For example, you could answer: “Well, what would you say your scenarios are? Leaving / Staying? Things go wrong / things go OK.? Try mapping your options on a 2 x 2 table, analyze them and decide”.

When the Thieves are active, day to day managerial interventions of this type can make all the difference between the success or collapse of the transition process in the organization. Of course the concepts underlying the “thieves” presented here are not new. But systematizing them in an accessible, practical, and usable way may add real value to you in your daily role as a coach, leader or team member.

Thieves and Reflections

1. Rush decisions: “I’d better leave at once…”

Reflection: What if things improve around here? Imagine scenarios, don’t decide immediately

2. Extreme “Love”: “I won’t be as capable as I’ve been here at any other place…”

Reflection: There’s life after “X” (this organization)”. Write down your skills inventory/look outside

3. Clogged brain: “I can’t even think…my mind is in blank” …”

Reflection: What’s the simplest scenario I can visualize?

Start with ANYTHING.

4. Dejection: “What’s the use of going on?”

Reflection: Has giving up on oneself ever brought something good to anyone? Begin picking up your own pieces. Pay attention again to those “little things” (personal appearance, punctual again, and so on)

5. Hostility: “I won’t strain myself anymore… to hell with all this…”

Reflection: Is this the way I want to be remembered here? How you leave is more important than how you arrived.

6. Detachment: “This is business as usual…no need to be dramatic”

Reflection: It’s OK to feel and be even-tempered. It’s not OK to be indifferent and lower one’s performance.

7. Denial: “Me?… I’m just trying to help!”

Reflection: Dare to ask your team mates: How do you see me? Am I sometimes part of the problem?

Ask for specific examples.

8. Bargaining (with life, God, your boss…): “If they only gave me more money, training, time…”

Reflection: Is there a chance to drive forward sensibly if you look always at the rear mirror? Go; move ahead, even if the scenario is far from ideal.

9. Temporarily going down: “Maybe it’s me, I’m not good enough. Oh my… oh my…”

Reflection: What’s the worst that could happen?

How did I get out of similar situations?

Who can help me?

10. Control Need “I have to turn this around (on my own)”.

Reflection: Is this really under my control?

Look around you, verify common symptoms of loss in other people, find a shared positive goal.

Ramiro Ponce is ICCO Board Member, Executive Coach, Engineer-Psychologist and develops leaders and their teams throughout the Americas.

www.ramiroponce.com
e-mail: rpf54@intelnet.net.gt

Derived from my work with managers and their teams when they are striving to make it during hard economical times, when leaders insist on “pushing hard” – when pushing hard makes no sense anymore- and burnout is at the gates of the organization, I have found the following line of reasoning very useful and practical:

1. Organizations and individuals also, we love to think we really can control everything.
2. Leaders have been taught consequently that main organizational priorities are results and very often (though not so loudly declared), control.
3. Changes and crises, by their own nature are not controllable. (Though we also like to think they are)
4. So the usual speech: “We’ll continue doing business as usual, just focus on results, here’s a great opportunity, we are a great company” really begins to sound painful, as things get worst. This is NOT to say that change doesn’t bring opportunity, but just to emphasize that this rationale must be used timely and wisely by managers with desperate employees.
5. Reality: Business is not as usual, nothing is. “I’m sick of hearing about results, I don’t see where the **** opportunity is, and if we really are such a great company, why we all feel so angry?”

In this extreme context, you may find useful to orient the coaching process toward helping people understand to:

a. Let go of the illusion of control. It sounds easy. It’s not. But it’s healthy and possible.
b. Admit they don’t feel well. Nobody really does.
c. Results are really delivered during these hard times, as a side- effect of healing aching “casualties of work overload”, not from stubbornly and naively insisting that we must deliver – what by simple pure reality is NOT possible right now.
d. Recognize that their bosses many times are clinging to past glories -like ex-wealthy families insisting on maintaining a standard no longer validated by reality- and that bosses do so, most of the times, simply because they don’t know what else to do. After all they are bosses becauses they delivered results, not because they really listened to people (at least in most cases).
e. Making them aware a temporary hurting/loss process is taking place, that the “good old days” are gone
f. Accept they have to take care of themselves and their teams, and suggest concrete activities for doing this.
g. Make a stop on the road, re-think, re-schedule and re-prioritize what they are doing.
In short it’s about stopping in yourself -even if your boss doesn’t- the denial process, and awakening to real new possibilities by focusing on what’s really going on inside you, what your real possibilities are NOW, and what you’re feeling. Yes…feelings are important in these times.

It’s about recognizing that during crises periods, an external locus of control becomes useless, since outside nothing looks well. That’s why your new senses of purpose must be looked for inside you, in your history, in your prior losses and how you surmounted them, in your inner sense of self-confidence, in our strengths inventory and ultimately in your ability to defend your right to enjoy – yes, enjoy- even while going through the crisis period.

This denial stopping and search for an inner sense of purpose, as opposed to the “everything’s OK” so common posture, bring a very healthy sense of relief. You don’t have to worry anymore for those things which are out of your control.

You can begin planning on solid real bases and begin building again. The only difference is that you’ll do better this time, and emerge stronger from the process.

Ramiro Ponce is an ICCO Board Member, senior executive coach, engineer and psychologist who works throughout the Americas.

www.ramirponce.com
E–mail: rpf54@intelnet.net.gt

The President of our Board of ICCO recently posed this question to the Board at large. Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting some of our answers. This first one comes from Dorothy Siminovitch.

What’s “innovative” is one of the perennial questions connected to human creativity, organizational sustainability and workplace optimization. In difficult economic times, “what’s innovative” may be the question that ignites the kind of thinking and behavior that cuts through what is no longer working and new possibilities that will serve a “renewing” marketplace. During affluent times, “what’s innovative” can help individuals and organizations stay at their cutting edge. It is acceptable, at the least, to see challenging times as a test of us at all levels of the human system. It is important to call in “old truths” during challenging times, inspirational support to “see” though challenging times and provocative new possibilities that break up outdated models. Some thoughts for your reflection:

1. There is a cyclical nature to life and that means economic and organizational life. Affluence and economic strength sometimes get tested and corrected by the lean times. The question becomes, how prepared are we for the challenge of lean times. What values and which models serve us? What did we miss in the affluent times that can be captured by the difficult times?

2. What are you learning? What do you need to learn, short term and long term? How can you stimulate and encourage the power of learning when there may be more time for learning and benefits around the corner in relation to learning. Encourage learning transferable skills in different sectors, work part-time for learning, or become CEO of your own new venture and hire in your learning at negotiated salaries.

3. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Assist clients to become skilled at how they use themselves in selling themselves in relation to what matters-their position, their perspective, their offer. How effective does the client feel in creating new possibilities and negotiating new possibilities. Negotiate as possibility versus negotiate as reduction. Teach the difference.

4. Emotional intelligence and wealth of presence. How effective is the client in being transparent about what matters when it is also important and therefore delicate. Can they access feelings that assist interpersonal exchange, strengthening of communication, reduction of uncertainty, enhancement of relationship and infusion of optimism. If not, are they interested in working on these human capacities which add value to the workplace. As coach, consultant or leader, can you be the guide toward skill practice? Have you also “done your work”? Do we see what is hidden in front us waiting to be recognized and named?

5. The “I” , the “you and the “we”. “Who am I” is a lifelong developmental task punctuated by the desire for relationship and the need for livelihood. What identity have we developed that serves our interior and how do our interior experience, our values, emotions, lived experience serve our being as we present to others? How well do we allow ourselves to inhabit the moment with attention to process as well as content? What supports our staying reflective to what matters and focused on doing what serves our uppermost goals and values? What developed habits serve us and what have become “outdated” that we may be unaware of. How committed are we to staying “awake” to our own challenges of development? 2. All of us only experience our impact in the presence of others. Who do we surround ourselves with? Who are/is the “you” we turn to? Old social science research taught us that we need one other person to confirm our reality, do you have others who validate you but you trust enough to test you? Do you have a trusted other to reality test feedback you are given? If not, why not? Feedback, is always an opportunity for growth, even bad feedback. Even wrong feedback. We decide what we “take-in” but, if we do not ask for feedback, we have deprived ourselves of the developmental possibility for growth. 3.) The “we”. An Indian guru of mine likes to say, “surround yourselves in good company”. We need the “we” archetypally to feel safe in the world. In the basic sense, organizations are dressed up versions of the human species around the camp-fire. But the human collective, the “we” is the caldron that feeds us with possibilities of positive competition, cross-pollination of ideas, economies of life when we share new products, relevant ideas and concerns. The “we” allows us to be more resource wealthy. Social impoverishment is the isolation of the “we” from the “I”. Alienation is the when the “I” rejects the “we”. Human loneliness is revealed when we lose our connection to the “you” who are important to us. All three levels of systems conspire together in terms of leaders, coaches and consultants. Where are we effective in intervening? Do we have a developmental understanding of the challenges at the individual, dyadic and organizational level? Are there any levels of system that we feel less skilled in engaging with? Is there an opportunity for learning?

6. What “matters” is the accent piece to what is innovative. How willing are we to be adaptive in service of growth, but adaptive in relation to what matters. Survival is not just a muscular outcome as people misinterpreted Charles Darwin. He did not really mean , survival of the fittest, but survival of those most willing to adapt. The capacity for adaptation is behind a new learning competency recognized as “learning agility” that affects our capacity for adaptation to people’s needs, desired results, process, and the constant march of change. Learning flexibility needs to be molded to human relevance or growth can be feared rather than welcomed. And, we need to get more skilled at welcoming change since we now swimming in swiftly changing patterns across organizational, social and technological dimensions.

7. Learn to seize the moment. At a recent conference, I decided to offer a powerpoint because I thought the size of the audience would do better with a large visual. The learning I got was that my presentation was the powerpoint and the actual powerpoint was the tool. Identify what are your personal sources of power are to make your relevant points in the moment. Be your own powerpoint!

8. The great Carl Whittaker used to preach, “practice dying everyday”. He meant this figuratively. If we start to take stock of the speed of our lives and the rapidity in which it is over, then we may become more committed to cherishing every moment where choice and opportunity live. Difficult times are an opportunity to find out about our character, our capacity to influence others and our willingness to live with optimism over despair. No matter what, we are always choosing. Are we aware of what we are choosing?

9. Keep learning. The smarter you are, the more you know this.

10. We were “built” for difficult times because it calls for us to be engaged with new possibility. We are lucky to have this come again, let us use it.

Dorothy E. Siminovitch, Ph.D., MCC
ICCO Board Member
Gestalt and Ontological Coach
Eurasisan Gestalt Coaching Program
Director of Training & Co-owner IGCP
Life & Executive, Group & Organizational Coach