NCCA Meeting Notes

24 March 2005

Welcome and Check-In

Attendees: Carl, Sue, Irene, Joan, Carmen, Susan, Mandy, John, Pam

What is going on with you, from the point of view of an artist or artistic expression?

• Joan: Cole Porter's "DeLovely" - a dance.  I did a presentation in a very nice setting in Boston, we had a great discussion.  I re-established connections with old acquaintances and partners.  We danced around marketing, and found that Emerson College has a new program on marketing.
• Sue: A Picasso painting.  Certainly interesting, a lot of beauty, but maybe the pieces need rearranging.  I'm focusing on coaching and mediation, all around conflict.
• Carmen: A tuning fork.  Different types, different vibrations.  I relate to the dynamic of how it expands and then tones down to a simple vibration.  Very spiritual.
• Susan: A favorite album, "Loon Magic", New Age Music.  I've been focusing on marketing more, and I'm seeing things I invested in 5-6 months ago to start paying off.  I finished my office, it's very nice, it's me.
• Mandy: A pile of dirt with a broom behind it.  The artist's studio that needs tidying up.  I just got back from a month in Australia.  I'm working with my mother on a book project - its subject is self esteem and self awareness.  This is an update of a book she sold in Australia.
• Carl: The Entr'acte, the introduction to a new act in a play or opera.  I feel like we're getting ready to do some amazing things in HP.
• John: Copland's "Simple Gifts".  I'm sometimes amazed and grateful for what's in me.  Also, "Invitation to the Dance."  I have one client, and have coached a person who's interested in getting into coaching.  The discussion resulted in some amazing visioning, a great dance.
• Irene: Song "All That Jazz".  It's been going around my head for awhile, it really speaks to me.  My life is full and fulfilling - completing PHD, doing dissertation, and I see new things coming up in the Coaching Studies field.  I ordered new furniture and drapes and all of a sudden things started settling down.

Irene Stein: Coaching Related Research

Diane Stober's IJCO Article: Approaches to Research on Executive and Organizational Coaching Outcomes

Coaching Eye for the Research Guy and Research Eye for the Coaching Guy: 20/20 Vision for Coaching Through the Scientist-Practitioner Model

• Dianne came down sick today, we wish her well.  Dianne and Irene have been working together on this research area.
• Dianne's perspective: background in Psychology, has done a lot of researcher.  Perhaps not a pure researcher, but quite experienced.  She got into this because she recognize the importance of research to establishing coaching, and brought her psychology research background.
• The results of the "Regis Study" haven't been published yet.  A bunch of MCCs were coaching Regis students.
• Irene's perspective: In PhD program, wants to study coaching, and there's no body of knowledge to build on. The scholarly approach is to find out what people are talking about, to look for similarities and differences. This is a soul journey for me, so I started a journal. 
• I find that coaching is both a skill and a profession.  Each coaching school was very proprietary, with different approaches, and not big cross-fertilization.  It's gotten better.
• Coaching roots:
  • Psychology
  • Management
  • Mentoring
  • Organizations
  • Teaching
  • Philosophy
  • Loss of community
  • New Age philosophy
  • Communication studies (conversation)
  • Athletic coaching
• Coaching used in contexts:
  • Team coaching
  • Individual
  • Life coaching
  • Professions and specialties: Lawyers, doctors, etc.
  • Children
  • Spiritual
  • Business
  • Skills that parents/teachers/managers can use
  • For performance
  • Inner transformation
• This whole thing is the domain of coaching research.  Part of it is developing the theory, so we understand how things work and new things fit into the old structure.
• Paradigm: A structure that helps you explore, which helps you come up with an interpretable answer to questions.
• What are adjectives which are different between psychology and coaching?
  • Pedantic vs. Grandpa
  • Similarity: Breakthrough
  • Fix vs. Build
  • Expert oriented vs. Client oriented
  • Theory vs. Practicality
  • Separate vs. Connected
  • Different expectations of the client's results
  • Results vs. process?
• Even the process of observing Psychology is different from observing Coaching, how you develop experiments
• With coaching, there may not be the assumption of the existence of an underlying theory.
• Is this a similar difference to Scientific vs. Artistic?  Perhaps related to how we understand quantum physics?
• Historically, Psychology started where Coaching is now.
• Irene's research:
  • Looking at coaching conversations, collecting audio tapes
  • Will be interviewing coaches
  • Question: What role relationships do the coach and client create during the coaching engagement, and how do they create those relationships?
  • This is a qualitative dissertation
  • My background is in discourse and dialog, to me it doesn't matter if there's a single theory of coaching
  • You have to have names in order to study things, so this will create some terminology to describe what coaches are doing
  • I'll test the model's validity by bringing it back to the coaches, to see if they think it describes what's going on
  • I'm not starting with a hypothesis
• Practitioner as Researcher
  • Dianne will send a copy of her keynote at ICF Research Symposium last November
  • It's not ivory tower research, but it's also not just practitioners waiting for the theorists to come up with results.  We as practitioners can do research ourselves.
  • The Adler School of Coaching has a "Do-it-yourself Coaching Research Pack" which takes you through the steps of doing your own research.  You can even publish it.
  • It would be possible to do behavioral interviews before and after a coaching engagement, which would tell you a lot about their shift in approach and viewpoint
• Existing research:
  • Coaching Research Symposium - last 2 years of the ICF conference
  • "International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring" online journal www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/education/ijebem/home.html
  • "International Journal of Coaching in Organizations" journal www.ijco.info - the past issue was on research
  • Lots of research in UK and Australia
• Additional resources
  • Introduction to the ICF Research Symposium 2003
  • Irene's paper: "The Coach-Approach as Dialogic Discourse"

Financial Status - Mandy

• No big changes, we're in good shape financially

Ann Strong and Sample Coaching Session Rituals - Sue

• A follow-through from Ann's presentation at the last meeting
• Sue interviewed Ann, and came up with a document which describes what she does
• She converts a very high proportion of her sample sessions to paying clients
• You can view this information at: http://nccoaches.org/Notes/2005-03-24AnnStrong.htm

Updated Ethics - Sue

• The ICF has updated their code of ethics: http://coachfederation.org/ethics/code_ethics.asp (you may have to log in first)

ICF Teleconferences being held to answer credentialing questions - Sue

• There doesn't seem to be active calls on credentialing?  But they do them periodically.
• There was a sample coaching agreement on the web too: http://www.coachfederation.org/regulatory/agreement.asp (you may have to log in first)

April Meeting on April 21st in evening - Sue

• The April meeting is a week early, in the evening
• 6:00 meet here for a potluck dinner, followed by a meeting
• Objective: Determine the Future of NCCA’s Related to ICF Credentialing Changes
• Invitees:  We ask that we each spread the word to get ANY coaches or potential coaches in the area, we want to reach out not just to NCCA members
• We'll send out a separate message on this topic, with a sample invitation.  Carl will draft this.
• I'd like to talk about how people would like to make the NCCA more valuable.

Call for new officers - Sue

• We should be transitioning to new officers, but we haven't talked about this much yet
• Desire to stay in roles?
  • Joan: I'll do Fun again
  • Sue: I'd like to transition President to someone else
  • Mandy: I can keep doing
  • Carl: I can continue, as long as the load doesn't expand
  • John: The VP role has been a stretch, but I can continue if I don't have to expand my role
• This kind of depends on the direction we take with staying affiliated with the ICF
• If we do, we should have a person who stays connected with the ICF, that will be pretty important.  John's been playing this role for the last year.
• If anybody has connections, ideas, or would like to influence people to take roles - please start pursuing these and let Sue know.

Opportunities for Professional Development

• E-commerce for Coaches: 2-day session in Denver, $275, April 22-23
  • Susan is planning to go to the class, will let us know how it goes
• Clear Home, Clear Heart: Personal Clearing Workshop, April
• 6 Steps to a Better Business, April 26, Free, Donna Beaman
• ADHD Telecourse http://www.addresources.org/
• Irene's friend doing a training on Crucial Conversations, $225 for the materials
• Joan signed up for the Consultants Resources Group conference in Vancouver, Pat recommended it. http://www.lifecoachtraining.com/resources/links/links.shtml
• Buffalo Niagara chapter teleconference, "Who are you really?"
• Book publishing teleconferences, www.SinatraSolutions.com
• Joan and Carmen are doing a workshop, April 22 8:00am-12:00, focuses on leadership, balance, goals, organization

Focus on the Coach - Sue

• Sue's website: www.clearchoice-coaching-mediation.com
• I'm coaching individuals, on career changes, students at FRCC
• I'd like to be doing more group/organizational/small business type things
• My background is negotiations, and got qualified as a mediator last May
• I'm finding my whole interest is around conflicts
• I'd love to collaborate with someone who has training skills, I'm getting hooked up with several others on collaborations
• I do a lot of foundational work with people - values, skills, directions - "panoramic vision" area of the website
• I did a certification through Career Coaches Institute, and I use this in working with people on career transition
• "Get Hired Now" program in conjunction with partners in Denver
• I can struggle with describing the outcome of each coaching activity, I try to describe that in all my services
• I want to create a pamphlet, companies seem to want something like that to hand out to people who might want coaching
• I'm looking for help on how to break into organizations, how to network with the right people