Life Coaching Blog - Articles

Creating Positive Change

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:25:32 -0800

by Laurie Cameron

It's that time again ...have you made your New Year's Resolutions? Or are you like many well-intentioned people who have decided it's a losing battle and not worth the aggravation?

New Year's Resolutions are always filled with good intentions and hope for a better life this year than we had last year. But what happens when February rolls around and our good intentions have become a source of frustration and self-recrimination? There are many reasons why resolutions don't stick. See if any of these feel familiar:

Too big or too unrealistic; they create a sense of "Overwhelm-Induced Inertia."
Floating Resolutions; they're not attached to your vision.
Externally motivated; they're what someone else thinks you should do or want.
There's no detailed plan or strategy to reach them, they're all talk and no action; or your plan is too broad and not specific enough. Lack of motivation or follow-through.
Too rigid or absolute.

If you want to create positive change in your life, here are some strategies to help you increase your chances for success:

Choose a resolution that feels manageable, yet still challenges you.
Be sure your resolution or goal is clearly attached to your vision; achieving it will take you toward your vision rather than away from it.
Be clear that your resolution is something YOU want.
Have a plan that not only defines the major steps over time, but also the small, individual action steps you can take on a daily basis.
Create some system of accountability; enlist the help of a Buddy who is as motivated as you are.
As you work your plan, allow the process to evolve and be refined.

Step up and resolve to make it a powerful and fulfilling 2008!

Laurie Cameron is a Coach, Speaker, and Catalyst. She is a CTA Mentor Coach for the Certified Coach Program and author of the Sage and Scholar's Guide to Coaching Singles.

Coach Training Alliance introduces The Business of Coaching series.

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:03:08 -0800

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The Co-Creative Garden

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:54:00 -0800

by Sue Brundege

The co-creative relationship is the cornerstone of masterful coaching. Sometimes, however, this concept is difficult for new coaches or prospective clients to fully grasp. In explaining the co-creative relationship I like to use a gardening metaphor.

Together, you and your client are responsible for growing a garden of possibility and change. You both have specific roles as “gardening partners.” Your client chooses the seed or plant (the agenda) that they want to cultivate during each session. You as coach provide the gardening tools—listening deeply, acknowledging, asking powerful questions, responding intuitively, and providing observations and feedback. The soil in which you both work is the fertile ground of the co-creative coaching relationship. You are each active participants in designing the overall landscape of the garden.

Germinate and Grow
In each session, coach and client focus on planting just one seed, or tending to a single plant (clarifying the agenda). You then work together to till and fertilize the soil; remove weeds; and thin crowded seedlings. This can be likened, correspondingly, to engaging in powerful and intuitive conversation; challenging negative thoughts; and narrowing down to specific action steps. All these activities help the client’s seeds to germinate and grow into strong healthy plants.

Coaching, like gardening, takes time and patience. A coachable moment may suddenly appear when you least expect it, like a tender shoot poking through the soil. Other times a client’s seed may sprout more slowly. The power of silence in a coaching session can give that seed time to incubate, absorb nutrients, and grow at its own pace.

And finally, the presence of sunlight, rain, birds, earthworms, and other garden helpers represent the vast resources and experience both coach and client can draw upon and bring into the coaching relationship. Together, over time, both partners nurture the client’s tender seeds of possibility into healthy plants of positive change, in a co-creative garden.

Sue Brundege is a Mentor Coach and Trainer for CTA. In her practice she works with mid-career professionals who long to find the work they're meant to do. Learn more about the Co-Creative Relationship in the Coach Training Accelerator.

Are You Coaching Prosperity?

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:50:22 -0800

by Rhonda Hess

We aim to coach our clients to an expansive life full of joy, opportunity and wealth. But, have you tapped into the most dynamic source of that – prosperity? For any niche, coaching around prosperity has its time, place and long lasting value.

How do you enter the territory to coach clients toward greater prosperity? One of the most common entry points is to detect scarcity thinking, which slows the flow of prosperity down to a trickle.

Within each of us lives a loud gremlin – a naysayer that wants to keep us small, scared and under tight control. His secret weapon is scarcity-based thinking, steeped in feelings of neediness, lack and fear. It's all a sham. Like the great and terrible Oz behind the curtain, this part is just a small, bumbling fool.

Reframing to the Positive
Rather than heed the naysayer, put him in a bright corner where he can be easily seen for what he is and learn his tricks. Support your clients to recognize the naysayer in their language and shift self-talk from scarcity to prosperity thinking.

Reframe this... To this
I don't want . . . I want . . . (or) I intend . . .
I can't afford . . . I choose . . .
I'm struggling with . . . My opportunity now is . . .
What if I can't . . . I envision . . .

The Universal Law of Attraction states that like attracts like. Prosperity thinking attracts more of what we want. Self-deprecating language and scarcity thoughts set up negatively charged energy that attracts what we don't want.

Detecting scarcity thinking is just one of the many ways to enter the territory of coaching your clients (or yourself) to greater prosperity.

Rhonda Hess is a Mentor Coach and author of Working Websites for Coaches. Learn more about Coaching Prosperity and attract more of what you want!

Believing You Can

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:54:06 -0700

A young man fell asleep during math class. He woke up as the bell rang, looked at the blackboard, and copied down the two problems that were there. He assumed they were the homework for the night. He went home and labored the rest of the afternoon and into the evening knowing if he didn't complete the work he would surely fail the class.

He couldn't figure out either one but he kept trying for the rest of the week. Finally, he got the answer to one and brought it to class. The teacher was absolutely stunned. The boy feared he had done too little, too late. It turned out the problem he solved was supposedly unsolvable.

Power Commanders
How did he do it? He was able to do what was thought to be impossible because he believed it was possible. He not only believed it was possible, he believed that if he didn't solve it he would fail the class. Had he known the problem was unsolvable he could never have done it.

Beliefs are the commanders of our brain.When we believe something is true, we literally go into the state of its being true. Handled effectively, beliefs can be the most powerful forces for creating good in our lives.

The Birth of Excellence
Beliefs control our destiny: The belief we have in ourselves... the belief we have in our clients.. the belief others have in us. The birth of excellence begins with the awareness that our beliefs are a choice.

Beliefs are the compass and map that guide us to our goals. Believe you can do something -OR- believe you can't and you'll be right every time.

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Make It the Client's Idea

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:27:12 -0700

There will be times when you are called upon, by your client, to deliver great advice. Your client looks to you to be the strong mentor who has been in the shoes in which they are now walking.

This is such a tempting situation. You know exactly what needs to be done and what needs to be said to remedy the problem. You can't wait to share your brilliant ideas.

Resist!
Resist the urge give advice, first. Notice the times when you had a sound idea and good advice only to find the person you shared it with never did anything about it. Even if you know the answer, let your client say it. Give them time to work with a situation first before you automatically jump in. Even if you plant the seed for a great plan, let your client 'come up with the idea.'

Once a person verbalizes an idea, it begins to take shape in their minds and becomes real. It is the savvy coach who lets solutions come out of the client's mouth. You just may discover how quick they are to move on it.

Just an idea.

Coaching the Wellness Revolution

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:56:06 -0700

by David Krueger MD
Executive Mentor Coach

Wellness is currently a $500 billion industry and just getting started. It is about how simple choices profoundly affect our lives. Wellness integrates mind, body and spirit with a balanced flow of energy. It is an ongoing process of choices that become the stories of our lives.

Proactive or Reactive?
Sickness is reactive: people react to a specific condition or ailment. Products and services treat the symptoms of a disease or attempt to eliminate the disease.

Wellness is proactive: people seek activity, products, and services to feel healthier, reduce the effects of aging, look better, and prevent illness. Wellness is characterized by problem avoidance and prevention.

The Need for Wellness Coaching
In studies of coronary bypass patients—when their lives are at risk unless they adopt healthier lifestyles—only one in nine is able to change their habits by themselves. Other findings:

70% of health-care costs stem from preventable diseases.
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Stress undermines work productivity in 9 of 10 companies.
(Industrial Society Survey)
70-80% of physician visits are stress related.
(US Public Health Survey)
Obesity, diabetes, and heart disease have reached epidemic proportions—almost all are preventable.
(American Medical Association)
Every dollar invested in worksite wellness yields 300-600% return through reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, and decreased health-related costs. (Partnership for Prevention National Coalition)

People don’t need more advice about vitamins, supplements, how-to exercise, or 1700 calorie diets. They need a clear, specific, step-wise program for change and an informed guide to help them.

Shouldn't that guide be you? Become knowledgeable about integrating mind, body and spirit and you're well on your way to guiding your clients to wellness.

David Krueger MD was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and is now CEO of MentorPath™, an executive coaching firm helping professionals write the next chapter of their life. You can join Dr. Krueger in Coaching the Wellness Revolution. See below...

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Coaching Outside the Box

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:40:07 -0700

by David Krueger MD
Executive Mentor Coach

Ben Fletcher at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom devised a study to get people to break their usual habits. Each day the subjects picked a different option from poles of contrasting behaviors -- lively/quiet, introvert/extrovert, reactive/proactive -- and behaved according to this assignment.

So an introverted person, for example, would act as an extrovert for an entire day. Additionally, twice weekly, they had to stretch to behave in a way outside their usual life pattern – eating or reading something they would never have done.

What do you think was the biggest change in the group?

The remarkable finding was that after four months, the subjects had lost an average of eleven pounds. And six months later, almost all had kept the weight off; some continued to lose weight. This was not a diet, but a study focusing on change and its impact.

The Underlying Principle
Requiring people to change routine behavior makes them actually think about decisions rather than habitually choosing a default mode without consideration. In having to actually process decisions actively, they exercised their choice and decision-making abilities, extending to other choices such as what to eat, and what not to. Once becoming aware of actively making choices, they could decide what’s in their best interest.

“The box” most of us are in is the result of programming and conditioning. And it is self-created in adulthood. Recognizing yourself as the author, the creator of your story challenges an assumed model and leads to the deeper question, “How do I create something else instead?” And, “What will the ‘something else’ be?” Coach outside the box and watch your clients flourish!

David Krueger MD is is CEO of MentorPath, an executive coaching firm tailored to the needs of professionals, and author of The Sage and Scholar's Guide to Coaching Professionals.

Coaching a Winning Career

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:44:13 -0700

by Deborah Brown-Volkman

Do you have clients struggling with their careers?

There are times in all of our careers when we are at a crossroads. Some of us actively seek our next step, while others wait for the next step to come to them. If you believe you can have a career that brings you excitement and fulfillment, then you will have that.

Coach Your Clients to a Career They Love
Walk your clients through these five simple steps:

1. Describe What You Want
You cannot get what you want until you can describe what it is. What do you see yourself doing if there were no perceived obstacles in your way? Give yourself the freedom to brainstorm and the answers you are seeking will come.

2. Explore Your Options
What did you learn from Step 1? Take your realizations and turn them into real career choices. Begin researching and using contacts you know today, or people you haven’t met yet, to help you.

3. Create Your Game Plan
Take what you gathered from the exploratory process and put these steps into your calendar.

a) What I want.
b) When I will get what I want.
c) The actions I will take to get there.

4. Implement Your Plan
Keep the momentum going. Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals.
Persistence and forward movement is what will help you reach your goal.

5. Reach Your Goal
You made it! Applaud yourself for your hard work and effort. Congratulations on discovering you can handle anything that comes your way.

Deborah Brown-Volkman is the President of Surpass Your Dreams, Inc. a successful career and mentor coaching company since 1998. She is the creator of the Career Escape Program™ and author of The Sage and Scholar's Guide to Coaching Career Transitions.

Emotional Intelligence In Your Practice

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:53:37 -0700

by Laura Belsten, PhD, MCC

Chances are you’re familiar with emotional intelligence. It burst on the international scene in the 1995 with the publication of Daniel Goleman’s bestselling book (Emotional Intelligence), and has become the fastest-growing area of life and executive coaching today.

Coaches who offer emotional intelligence coaching:

distinguish themselves from other coaches;
help their clients accelerate their success and achieve bigger goals;
gain a reputation for outstanding coaching and exceptional results;
expand their coaching practices significantly;
reap substantially higher financial benefits by offering more comprehensive, higher-level services.

As coaches, we see again and again that it’s not how book smart our clients are that makes the difference; it’s how people smart they are.

Emotional intelligence is about becoming aware of our own emotions, in the moment, and the emotions of others, and using that information to manage ourselves and our relationships with others. Emotional intelligence coaching offers a comprehensive set of coaching skills and tools that provide a natural extension to life, executive and corporate coaching.

While cognitive intelligence (measured as IQ) is set at birth, research shows that emotional intelligence (measured as EQ) can be learned. What’s more, the research shows the best way to enhance emotional intelligence is to work with a coach.

Coaching tools are now available to support coaches in coaching emotional intelligence. Furthermore, EI can be measured, making it possible for coaches to help their clients identify their strengths and vulnerabilities, and pull together a comprehensive coaching program and development plan that will lead to accelerated client success in life and work.

I strongly encourage you to incorporate emotional intelligence coaching into your practice. You will be impressed with the positive results it produces for your clients (and for yourself!).

Dr. Laura Belsten is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) and a national leader in the field of Emotional Intelligence. She is certified in three national EI assessment instruments and author of The Sage and Scholar's Guide to Coaching Emotional Intelligence.

Crisis in the Boardroom: Not Enough Coaches

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:03:51 -0700

by A. Drayton Boylston, Executive Coach

As I talk with coaches from all over the world, the most consistent comment I hear is, "Where can I find great clients for my practice."

Crisis Management
What does your practice look like? Do you have high paying executive clients? Do you wish you had? Do you wonder why you don't?

Most every coach I know wants executives as clients and for good reason:

Executives pay well ($350-1000+ an hour- yes, that much!)
Executive coaching impacts many lives (the trickle-down factor)
Executive coaching engagements last longer (average 14 months)

What's Not to Like?
According to the U.S. Department of Labor there are over 30 million upper managers and executives in the United States alone. 30 million! Do you think there are enough clients out there to fill up all of our coaching practices?

I hear many self-imposed hurdles from coaches. "I don't have business experience, I don't speak their language, I don't have the same schooling they do," and so on.

Confidence is High
What it boils down to is confidence. If you have confidence in the work you do and the positive impact you have on lives, then you can coach executives. They are no different than your other clients except for the fact that they pay better and last longer.

Carpe diem!

A. Drayton Boylston is one of the top Executive Mentor Coaches in the country.
He is a speaker, trainer, and the author of Coming UnScrooged! Drayton is facilitating
an Executive Coach training course for CTA starting September 5th. See Below...

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Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:21:01 -0700

One of the biggest challenges of being self-employed is actually being alone in your business. You are alone with your thoughts for the majority of time and, sometimes, to your own detriment.

You can change your life by changing your thoughts. Here's what we mean: Everything in this world once started with a single thought. Look around you right now. Everything in the room-including this computer screen-was once just a thought in someone's head.

Our Thoughts Create
Endowed with this gift, we are able to mold our own lives and create our destiny. Our lives today are the direct result of our past and present thoughts, feelings, words, emotions, and desires. Any time we don't like something in our lives, we can acknowledge that our past thoughts might have had something to do with this.

Once we understand that we have created everything in our life, good and bad, we realize that we also have the power to change anything in our life by merely changing our thoughts.

Thought Is Energy
When we think a thought, it is projected into the universe at a certain rate of vibration. (Hang in there, this gets a little esoteric). Thoughts are also magnetic and attract energy of the same vibration. This is the universal 'Law of Attraction'. Chose your thoughts well. 'Like attracts like.'

In 1937, Napoleon Hill stated in his famous book, Think and Grow Rich, that 'thoughts are things' and that 'whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he will achieve.' You are an achiever. Think well and you will grow rich.

"Think and Grow Rich for Coaches" is now being discussed in the The CTA Life Coaching Book Club. New chapters are posted weekly. Join the discussion!

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Coaching for Real

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:29:00 -0700

The best thing you can do for your coaching practice is to treat it with a healthy dose of respect. This means—if you're serious—treat your business like a business, not like a hobby.

Hobbies are wonderful things, they are the happy events and interests that add meaning and joy to your life. Most people work hard all week just to support outside interests and hobbies. It is important to have your hobbies. Keep them, enjoy them, and have them sustain you.

Your coaching practice is also meant to be enjoyed, yet, it will sustain you in other ways. Being a coach and living the coaches lifestyle can be tremendously rewarding and enjoyable.

Here is the difference:

A hobby is something you do when it is convenient. A business is something you do even when it's not.

Do the work required to grow your coaching business. Respect your practice and it will provide for you many times over. Your business success is just another reward beyond the fun, growth and joy that a hobby brings.

Expanding Your Coaching Vision

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 09:19:36 -0700

by David Herdlinger

Many coaches are fixated on the one-to-one coaching model. They provide coaching services exclusively to individual clients.

If you’re one of those coaches, that’s fine. You’re making a positive contribution to people’s lives. But you may be missing some opportunities to make an even greater positive impact on people and organizations, and greater income for yourself. I’d like to challenge you in this brief article to expand your vision of coaching to include “coaching corporate teams.”

Coaching corporate teams in concept is similar to coaching individuals. Instead of finding an individual who wants improvement, you find an organization. Then you deliver your services to teams of individuals within the organization.

In some one-to-one coaching situations, the organization’s supervisors, managers, and leaders can thwart your client’s progress. If your client and your client’s boss speak different languages and are heading in different directions, the coaching process can be inefficient at best, and possibly even ineffective.

The Team Approach
When all of the interrelated individuals are gathered as a team in the same coaching sessions, the personal intentions and purposes of the participants become unified. Their goals come into alignment with the goals of the department and the organization. Communications and performance improve, and corporate profits increase.

In order to spot opportunities for corporate coaching, you may need to look beyond the need that is originally presented. I strongly encourage you to incorporate team coaching into your practice. You will be impressed with the positive results it produces for your client organizations, and the financial benefits it produces for you.

David Herdlinger is an attorney and former judge He now coaches teams in the corporate market and is the author of The Sage and Scholar's Guide to Coaching Corporate Teams.

Attracting the Success You Deserve

Bill@CoachTrainingAlliance.com (CTA Admin) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:35:10 -0700

A sure fire way to attract success is to Add Value to every key relationship in your life. The trick is to go beyond everyone's expectations and to do it in ways that are relatively inexpensive to you or ways that cost you nothing.

In business, for instance, when you add value to your clients you make them feel like there's no one better to do business with than you. In your personal life, when you add value to people close to you--or those you want close to you--you make them glad they are near you and keep them interested in staying close.

Example:
We can look to nature for a perfect example. Think about bees. They go from flower to flower collecting raw materials to produce their product. Essentially they are in the honey making business. Their career is working to support themselves and the rest of their family in the hive. But they also create a by-product. They add value to the rest of the world by pollinating.

What are you doing to pollinate your world?
When you're looking to promote yourself or to create a good buzz for your business, remember the bees. Add value to your world. Your reward will be choice.