IIC Coaching Blog

Our Mind should be serving Consciousness

Our Mind should be serving Consciousness, but it has become, within our  five-sense realm, the master of our perception.It controls all 

When will you apply for your award?

The ECI's Coaching Achievements Awards are the most prestigious awards for coaching for success and achievement through coaching.  These awards celebrate the achievements of clients by rewarding the coach with an internationally recognised Coaching Achievement Award. 

These awards highlight the vision, the commitment, and the will to success of those who have used coaching to ensure achievement.  The coach or coaches who win this award get the international recognition that their coaching deserves

The 2009 awards are now open
- take this opportunity to apply for your award!

Barbara J. Dalpra, FECI
Accredited Fellow Coach (ECI) 
Deputy CEO (Operations, IT, Finance)
 

Want to make a success of your coaching business? Take this opportunity to benefit from your membership with the ECI - promote yourself through the International Coaching Register or as an Accredited Coach through the ECI's Coach Referral Service.

Joining the ECI is a simple process - click on this link and select the type of membership that will benefit you and your coaching business. Any questions, contact the ECI to get your answer. Barbara's biog can be found on the ECI's Volunteer page for Barbara or her coaching business details can be found on either the ICR or Coach Referral Service by using this link!

Going to the Vitality Show

Well, today I am going to the vitality show at Earls Court. Emma is running the whole show and has a team of 20 coaches coming to help her over the four days. To be honest, I am not really needed at all.  It's just that I do love going to that show, it is very exciting and vibrant.
Emma is absolutely great, she is the best operations manager I have ever worked. I am absolutely honoured and blessed to have her in our organisation.

I will be promoting the ECI heavily over the 4 days.

If you happen to be in the area please pop along to our stand and say hello, it would be lovely to see you

Coaching in a Natural Disaster

We recently experienced Bush Fires here in Melbourne, Victoria. An event so tragic that they now refer to it as Black Saturday. More than 200 people died and more than 1000 homes were lost. It affected everfything; our people, our wildlife, our landscape.

It was a spooky day to begin with. The mercury recorded 48.5 degrees and the winds were full of grit and dirt and howling. We knew that if a fire started, it would take hold fast. When conditions are that ripe it doesnt take much for a fire to start; a stray cigarette butt, a piece of broken glass that reflects the sun onto dry grass, (or 'fuel as we call it here, anything that is dry and can catch alight is referred to as fuel).

it is normal practice here to have a Fire Plan. Some wirtten plan of protecting your home. Usually the women and children will leave for a safe place to stay and the men will stay and fight the fights. Without trivalising too much, you keep your house and land as wet as you can, keep an eager eye out for stray embers, and jump and extinguish them as quickly as you can. Of course there is much more to it than that, but that gives you an idea.

When a high fire alert day occurs, homeowners have to decide whether to flee or to stay and implement their fire plans. There wasn't much warning on this day. Raging fires that travelled at over 120 kms took decisions away from people. As a friend of mine relayed, "one minute mum and i were sitting with a cup of tea and reviewing the fire plan, the next minute we were surrounded by smoke".

Here in Australia, and even more so here in Victoria, we watched events unfold on our TV screens, knowing that this disaster was happening in live time in our neighbourhood. The doom was almost tangible.

For an entire week, no one knew where to start or what to do. Everyone felt so helpless and hopeless. The immediate calls were for cash, clothing and blood, and I am happy to report that we raised over $200m (in a global financial crisis), created the biggest stockpile of clothing and bedding ever know (to this day many Second Hand Charity shops, or Opportunity Shops as they are known here, are still refusing donations because they are swamped and oversupplied) and there was more than enough blood for the needs.

But it wasn't enough.

We still wanted to do more to help.

We just didnt know what that was.

And then the biggest debate I've ever witnessed in Coaching Circles began: Should Coaches go down and coach for free? Because we all know that there is a grey line between coaching and other things like therapy - but this situation called for a clearly defined definition. Would coaching harm or hinder?

I made some calls to some leading experts. Through my association with the Global Coaching Community (GCC) an 'organism' with which ECI is fondly affiliated, I spoke to Peter Zarris, who is the Chair of the Interest Group in Coaching Psychology for the Australian Psychological Society. Peter advised that even "persons trained in trauma work" (such as counsellors, psychoterapists, emergency services, etc, would not be equipped to deal with this event. Or as he said in his own words "this is trauma to the power of 100".

And the outcome of the debate here was that the best thing that us coaches could do was nothing. Now for a group of people that are usually known for their passion for helping others, this was probably the most difficult thing anyone could have asked us to do. To do nothing. To stand back.

Peter's advice was that in one or two years time, we may be able to get to the fringes and start coaching there. Like for example, the person in the township who was away at the time, didnt lose their home and only lost people that they 'knew of from around the town'. Or maybe to coach the therapist whose job it was to prepare the investigators for the commission into the disaster.

In terms of coaching the victims and volunteers of this disaster, our time  may never come! And that is the hardest thing to deal with. To know the power of coaching. To know the power of transformation. But to accept that Trauma is holding the cards in this situation, is very difficult to come to terms with.

The true test of coaches who want to give will be to see who will coach for free in 2 years time, to the people on the fringes who become ready for coaching, long after the event has stopped being reported on a regular basis.

And as I am constantly taught by the Universe on my journey; Giving Back is the art of giving what is needed when it is needed. Not choosing what and when I want to give.

Sally Parrish

Head of Australasia, ECI

Coaching Achievements Award - have you applied?

The ECI's Coaching Achievements Awards are the most prestigious awards for coaching for success and achievement through coaching.  These awards celebrate the achievements of clients by rewarding the coach with an internationally recognised Coaching Achievement Award.  These awards highlight the vision, the commitment, and the will to success of those who have used coaching to ensure achievement.  The coach or coaches who win this award get the international recognition that their coaching deserves

The 2009 awards are now open
- take this opportunity to apply for your award!

Barbara J. Dalpra, FECI
Accredited Fellow Coach (ECI) 
Deputy CEO (Operations, IT, Finance)
 

Want to make a success of your coaching business? Take this opportunity to benefit from your membership with the ECI - promote yourself through the International Coaching Register or as an Accredited Coach through the ECI's Coach Referral Service.

Joining the ECI is a simple process - click on this link and select the type of membership that will benefit you and your coaching business. Any questions, contact the ECI to get your answer. Barbara's biog can be found on the ECI's Volunteer page for Barbara or her coaching business details can be found on either the ICR or Coach Referral Service by using this link!

Introduction to coaching seminar

March 9th, 2009

I did an introduction to coaching seminar in London on Saturday.  And I have to say that I still get as much enjoyment out of delivering this seminar now  as I did 10 years ago when we started. The satisfaction of seeing people change and being impacted in a positive way by coaching is almost indescribable.

to see people leave the room at the end of the day feeling happy, energetic, empowered and enlivened is just a most wonderful feeling. I really am so fortunate to work in an industry that I love

We all went out last night !

Everyone from our office went out last night to play bingo !! I had never played bingo in my life before, neither had most of the others. I have to say we all had a really enjoyable time. I think we were probably a bit noisier than most of the regulars were used to, but they didn't seem to mind. Tracy won £15. the rest of us just had a great time.

I am getting ready today to go to London, I am running an introduction to coaching event and will also be promoting the EC I. very heavily.

we are also getting ready to go to the one life show at Olympia next week. we are expecting over 20,000 people to attend and have in excess of 20 coaches lined up to deliver free coaching sessions to the public.  I am really looking forward to it.  It went incredibly well last year and the year before. we will have a lot of the ECI information with us

Snow everywhere !

Well, what a surprise this morning !.  Woke up to find everywhere covered with a white and deep blanket of snow.  All of the local schools have been closed, so my children are enjoying a day off.  My poor wife :-()  some of the staff were not able to make it into work today.  Roads closed etc. it is lovely to look out over the harbour and see everything covered in snow.  It's very unusual for Weymouth, we don't normally get it here.

At least I should be able to get on with quite a bit of work today in the office, without too many interruptions.  Our newsletter went out last night, and I can see that there have been many many e-mail replies to many of the offers. Today I will have to plan my next trips to Poland and Romania and am looking forward to meeting the ECI country heads.

Emma, my second-in-command, has organised a night out tonight for everyone in the office.  Apparently we are all going to play bingo!! I haven't played bingo about 20 years.  I think I'm going to make a complete fool of myself ??

Fortune favours the prepared mind

In life it is very easy to get carried away with our work and our career, yet it is important to realise that we should spend as much time on our own personal development as we do working at our job.  Remember, leaders are readers and leaders are writers.  Time spent studying and working on yourself is always time well spent.

Here at last !

Thank goodness, at long last I am now able to write my blog. Not that I have anything interesting to say

Gerard