In this TED talk, given in April 2013 at Queenstown in New Zealand,  Oonagh Harpur (Meyler Campbell Graduate 2007), talks about love and integrity in business and how, far from being a contradiction as some might think, it can work positively with direct results to the bottom line whilst promoting the well-being of employers, employees, clients and suppliers.

Watch, enjoy, learn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CObOhORvaYA&feature=youtu.be

www.oonaghharpur.com

Our friends at the The Alliance are undertaking a 100km walk in aid of Oxfam.

For more information, to donate to this very worthy cause and to read Liz Gooster’s descriptive piece about one of their practice walks in the glorious sunshine of the last bank holiday and beautiful Yorkshire countryside, please visit:

http://www.lizgooster.com/2013/05/14/oxfam-trailtrekkers-the-build-up-to-the-big-walk/#more-531

A well-earned ice cream break 15 miles into the group practice walk

4th Coaching Psychology Conference

In the spirit of continuing to bring together the growing coaching psychology community to enable sharing and learning from each other, the SGCP is delighted to announce the 4th European Coaching Psychology Conference

Details of how to submit abstracts for papers, workshops and posters, and how to register, will be announced soon

Invited Speakers include:

• Dr Diana Aguiar Vieira PhD - Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal
• Professor Stephen Palmer - Coaching Psychology Unit, City University London, UK
• Professor Sarah Corrie - Professional Development Foundation, Middlesex University, London, UK
• Dr Matthias Rosenberger - Elements and Constructs, CEO, Leipzig, Germany
• Dr Dasha Grajfoner - Centre for Business and Coaching Psychology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Professor Ole Michael Spaten -Coaching Psychology Research Unit, University of Aalborg, Denmark
• Professor David Lane - Professional Development Foundation, MiddlesexUniversity, London, UK
• Professor Emeritus Mary Watts - City University, London, UK
• Dr Almuth McDowall PhD - University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
• Dr Douglas Young - HRD Associates, Director

For reduced conference fees Join the SGCP.

Who’s tweeting what about the conference? Use #sgcpconf and see your tweets on our tweetwall

This is an event for those that are interested in or currently using coaching psychology in their practice, and those who wish to learn more about how they can benefit from coaching psychology for themselves or their organisations.

For more information visit:

http://www.sgcp.org.uk/sgcp/events/coming-events/coming-events_home.cfm

Starting Out – Building Your Coaching Business

by Ann Orton

Starting with a story:

 At the time I first shared my views about ‘building a coaching business^1’ I told this story:

I had a long conversation this morning with a potential coaching client and, at the end of the call, agreed to meet this person in four days’ time.  (Update:  at that ‘chemistry’ meeting we agreed to work together, without the client seeing other coaches first.  The individual liked my background and was particularly comfortable with our common field of university study – physics!)  I first heard about this potential opportunity when an email arrived at The Alliance² asking me to make contact with this individual.  A bit of background:  the company that initiated the request was a long term company client of The Alliance.  In 2007, Alliance coaches were invited to a complex briefing and selection process for a team of coaches to support a strengths-based development project in a major manufacturing organisation (run by an individual in our broader network of contacts, who had trained in the same Meyler Campbell Business Coach Programme we all completed).  For those chosen as potential members of the team, a ‘speed matching’ session followed.  Several Alliance coaches, including me, were chosen to work with members of a senior leadership team.  At that ‘speed matching’ one client choose to interview me because my CV showed out-of-work interests that coincided with his.  My clients achieved their goals and felt my support was valuable.  However, I have had no personal work from the client company since 2009, and other Alliance coaches had little work in the years immediately following the project.  I was put forward for coaching assignment in early 2012 but, after a positive meeting, heard that the individual had chosen the coach from another company. This latest contact came out of the blue earlier this month, when my latest CV, provided in 2012, was passed to the potential client by the HR Director.  Since then everything has moved very quickly!

First be a coach

 I’ll assume that you really want to be a business coach – that there is something about working alongside people as they seek to become the best they can be that makes your heart sing.  If you have doubts about that (whatever your lingering questions about your level of experience and learning) stop now and do something else!  There are far too many coaches out there who do love their work and know that this passion reflects in how they are, what they do and what their clients experience and achieve.  If your commitment is there, then these coaching-related points are fundamental to successful business building:

• Be a coach ‘always’, using available opportunities both to practice, refine and demonstrate your coaching skills in every aspect of your life.  ‘Coach’ through listening, challenging, mirroring, supporting…, whatever the situation or circumstances of the people you are with.  Notice their reactions – the pause for thought, the ‘that was a great question…’, the ‘I hadn’t realised how much I use that word…’ – and recognise what you are able to bring to the conversation, however informal the coaching.
• Take every opportunity to learn about coaching, whether formally or informally, by talking to other coaches, being supervised individually or in a peer group, reading, researching, exploring related topics and taking part in CPD activities.  Learn which of these approaches best match who you are as a person and which trigger new experiences and understanding – in other words, don’t get stuck in a rut by doing all your learning in the most natural way for you, whether that is keeping your nose in a book or talking to everyone.
• Do great coaching work with your clients, whether the work is pro bono or paid, and recognise what this means about you as a coach (seek specific feedback on aspects of your skills or on the new tool you tried), your coaching interests (the people and situations that stimulate the best in you), and for your business (what they might say about the value of your coaching, who they know, what networks they are part of).
• Know where you get excited and are in flow, passionate, playing to your strengths.  Be able to describe these coaching ‘sweet spots’ and work towards refining your approach in these areas (whether with an experienced leader or a young person at the start of their career, at a defined job transition or improving in a current role, within a small entrepreneurial environment or a major corporation).

Then build your business

 While the two are intertwined (coaching and building your coaching presence as a business) my experience and personal learning suggest that there are several points to note when building your coaching business.  These apply whether you are establishing yourself as an individual coach (the way many people begin) or whether you form or join others in a coaching practice:

• Clarify your coaching offer (see above) with at least a few boundaries (sometimes it’s easier to define what assignments you would not want to accept) and don’t get distracted.  There is a tendency for any business, particularly in the early stages, to take any offers of work however vaguely related to their business intent, but ‘the grass isn’t greener …’.   Work not aligned to your offer is a distraction, may establish a view of you unrelated to your coaching skills, and may ‘trap’ you into more work of a similar kind.  For example, even if the request for training in public speaking sounds close enough to coaching and you have a good reputation in that area, you will experience competition here too, and will risk remaining tied to your past experience rather than future aspirations.  
• Take work that moves you towards your vision, is consistent with your strategy, and inspires you.  It doesn’t have to match perfectly but there should be something about the work that provides support for your future business and adds to your bank of stories, connections and recommendations
• Treat every contact (whether through previous roles, family, interests or social life) as a potential opportunity to connect, explore and learn but not to sell directly (your friends may desert you!).  Network theory suggests that immediate contacts are not necessarily a direct source of work, but that we should focus on the networks of our friends and contacts.  Remember that you are not selling but instead having interesting, enlightening conversations and planting seeds for the future. 
• Believe in yourself (as a coach you will often work with clients around self-belief – here is a chance to try it!) and be persistent and focused.  It takes time to build credibility, reposition from your previous business life and connect with people.  Your journey will parallel that of coaching clients seeking to change, so there is learning in your experience, however challenging.  The good news is that, while it may take significant time to build a fruitful relationship, relationships are often enduring. 
• Acknowledge that there will always be a balance between investment and paid days when running your own business (and the trick when successful is not to do so much of the latter that you neglect the former!).  However, this balance will be significantly towards investment at the start of your business (see my story for an example of a time consuming process to gain coaching assignments), and at times this may feel frustrating.  And your investment time will include marketing, selling, managing relationships and doing administration.  Find interim indicators of success (contacts made, discussions held) rather than measuring only on the basis of coaching assignments won.  If you are not actively making contacts, you are unconsciously expecting coaching opportunities to ‘arrive’. 
• Be generous with your coaching support.  Many coaches spend time in pro bono work, often in areas of intense personal interest.  But don’t be afraid to raise the idea of the ‘deal’ so that both sides understand this aspect of the contract.  If you want your client to promote you within their network, make this clear at the start.  Or if you want access to an event or a contribution to your favourite charity, discuss this up front.  My personal pro bono work is typically in arts organisations and with young entrepreneurs.  Clients have supported my fundraising, for example my Booby Birds skydive for Breakthrough Breast Cancer in 2011, and provided useful contacts for the future.  And remember that it is indeed a small world – the ‘six degrees of separation’ or ‘Kevin Bacon’ theory! 
• Consider ‘affiliation’ in whatever form might be helpful for you.  Depending on your personal preferences you may work extremely well alone, but for most of us (including Introverts in MBTI terms!) aspects of learning, supervision, marketing, and refining business expertise are more productive and much more fun done with others.  And there may be situations where you need to balance your strengths and weaknesses by using others or you know of a coaching assignment where it is inappropriate for you to be the coach or the ‘match’ is not the best.
• Be realistic about the time it takes to build your business.  Lead times vary from the ridiculously short to painfully long.  My story illustrates in both senses!  Research has suggested that people do not think you are ‘bugging’ them until after seven contacts so do go back to people.  And an Alliance colleague wisely says that ‘the silence is not always as quiet as you think it is!’. 
• Be professional in everything you do.  Clearly your coaching should be the focus of your efforts to demonstrate professionalism and, increasingly you will be asked about your arrangements for supervision and continuing professional development.  But whether you like it or not, or react in a similar way yourself, some people will write you off if you do not reply to a contact request within 24 hours, and others may dismiss you if your proposals are unclear, have gaps, or include typographical errors.  It is worth the effort of investment in items such as an attractive business card, coaching CV (see my story), and statement of coaching approach, as well as ‘standard’ versions of proposals, contracts and invoices which you can adjust accordingly.   Remember that something as seemingly unconnected to coaching as a VAT registration sends a message about you and creates an impression.  The same Alliance colleague says ‘prepare hard for a lucky break!’
• Learn from what doesn’t work and move on.  An aspect of coaching is to help clients build from things that go well, recognise the value of learning from ‘failure’, and be aware of limiting beliefs.  Don’t carry untrue assumptions about losing an assignment into your next business opportunity.  In my story, I asked for feedback from the L&D contact about the 2012 assignment I ‘lost’ to another coach.  I was told that the client had said that working with either coach would have been valuable.  One of the other coaches not chosen in the major project might be interested to know that the client chose me because of my interest in the arts.
• Be practical:  think through issues such as what it take to cover your costs, how cash flow will impact your ability to pay bills, what you might expect on ‘contact to sales’ conversion rates, where and how much you need to invest in priorities (for example supervision vs. premises), whether you need a website, the time and energy it takes to stay on top of your financial situation.  Remember that it takes time to receive income from the work you do, whatever your payment terms and however quickly you invoice.  You control your contractual terms, speed of invoicing and understanding of a client company’s invoicing requirements (date of submission, purchase order number), but do not control when your invoice is paid! 

 Recognise that building your coaching business is a new venture and / or transition which would be a perfect topic for coaching: use it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself and to experience the support that coaching provides!

Resources:

• Reference¹: Meyler Campbell Faculty Clinic on 27 February 2013 with Anne Scoular, part of the CPD programme available to graduates of and participants in the Meyler Campbell Business Coach Programme
• Reference²: Alliance Coaching Limited, www.alliancecoaching.co.uk
• McMahon, G & Oglethorpe, A. (2013), Coaching at Work magazine, Volume 8 Issues 1&2, articles on How to Set Up and Develop a Successful Coaching Practice
• MC Business Coach Programme materials (on flow, strengths, T8)
• MC CPD Programme,  www.meylercampbell.com/news/events.html
• Rogers, J. (2006), Developing a Coaching Business, Open University Press / McGraw Hill: Maidenhead, UK
• Scoular, P.A. (2011), Business Coaching, Financial Times Prentice Hall / Pearson: Harlow, UK

by Liz Gooster (MC11) with Sarah Fenwick (MC06)

Intensive care represents the knife edge between life and death and extreme illnesses require cutting edge research to provide solutions. Despite intensive care being one of the most sophisticated areas of hospital care, hypoxia – lack of oxygen reaching the body’s vital organs – is a common problem for patients in an intensive care unit. Approximately 80% of people in intensive care suffer hypoxia and until this can be controlled they can’t be treated effectively. For both scientific and ethical reasons it’s difficult to conduct research on critical care patients. In response to this, Xtreme Everest, a not-for-profit organisation led by doctors and scientists from UinversityCollegeLondonHospital, University of Southampton and DukeUniversity in the US, is conducting an innovative research project which uses the shortage of oxygen experienced at high altitudes to simulate the hypoxia that affects people in intensive care.

Along with fellow Meyler Campbell graduate Sarah Fenwick, whose brainchild this adventure was, I am participating in this research. What this means is that we’re going on a charity trek to Everest Base Camp in March and are volunteering as research subjects – what I like to call ‘donating our bodies to medical research’. As part of our contribution to the project we get lots of medical tests done on us – we’ve already had the first set done in London and there will be three more rounds in Nepal, in the field labs that will be very impressively built and run by the scientific team. The logistics of this are mind-boggling – and I am very amused by the fact that they will be setting up exercise bikes in Base Camp so we can pedal on them, breathe into masks and have our oxygen use measured!

One in five people in the UK will end up in intensive care at some point in their lives, and 40% of these will die: startling statistics indeed. So the results of the research project will be put to very good use in understanding how to help improve people’s oxygen levels and get better outcomes from their care. You can see more details about all the science stuff, which is fascinating, at http://www.xtreme-everest.co.uk/

As well as our bodies, the other part of our contribution is in fundraising. We are funding the expenses of the trip ourselves, and on top of this are looking to raise as much money as possible to further the research efforts of Xtreme Everest, who are running the project. If you would like to donate to support this research, Xtreme Everest, Sarah and myself would be extremely grateful. You can make a donation on my Just Giving page at http://www.justgiving.com/Liz-Gooster or on Sarah’s at http://www.justgiving.com/Sarah-FenwickXE2

Thank you for your interest!

by Liz Gooster (MC11)

Inspiring. Uplifting. Humbling. Just a few words that spring to mind as I think about the 2012 Precious Awards, held at London’s Waldorf Hotel on November 24. And as inspiring woman after woman (with one man sprinkled into the mix) took to the stage to claim their awards, most eyes in the room prickled with emotion more than once. From established senior women, such as Charlene White, presenter and journalist for ITV News and ITV London, who won the Woman in Public Life award and Nadia Jones, support manager for the London Youth Support Trust, who was crowned Mentor of the Year, to young women who have already achieved a phenomenal amount, such as Amie Samba, named Young Entrepreneur of the year for Fun Run Startz, the event was a veritable storybook of striving, success, and celebration.

The Alliance sponsored the start-up business of the year award with the prize of a coaching programme to support the winner in developing their business and in achieving a success that’s meaningful to them. This is in close alignment with one of the principles behind the Awards: that it’s not just about one afternoon (wonderful though that may be!), but about the continued support of the finalists. We wanted to help in this support and Ruth Sack and I were delighted to be at the event, in a room dancing with energy, enthusiasm and pride, to present the prize. After our very own Oscar moment, the worthy winner was revealed as Lenique Louis. Lenique is a jeweller who works from a studio in Holborn, handcrafting unique rings using the ancient, and now rarely-practiced, technique of hand carved wax. She perfected her craft with the oldest jewellers in the world, the Queen’s Jewellers Garrard and Stephen Webster and in The Alliance we are thrilled that we are going to be working with her.

One of the things that characterises how we work in The Alliance is that we love to dream dreams – and then think creatively about the next steps to making them come true. One of our recent dreams has been to work with small businesses, to help them develop and grow and be at their side to help, challenge and encourage them as they achieve the fantastic things they’re aiming for. So being involved with the Precious Awards is a bit of a dream come true for us. We hope that in working with Lenique, we’ll be able to help her make some of her own dreams come true, being there for her as she takes her next steps to future business success.

The Precious Awards themselves are the brainchild of Foluke Akinlose and 2012 is the sixth year they’ve been held. At the core of the Awards is a deep commitment to giving a platform to women of colour in business and leadership and to celebrating success in all areas of life. Foluke is a very modest and unassuming person, but she has achieved an immense amount herself. She has brought so much to the black female community, both with these prestigious business Awards and the work she does with her online magazine, Precious, which she founded in 1999 because there were no digital platforms for women of colour. The Precious Awards have garnered much support from the wider business and political community. Nick Clegg describes them as ‘a fantastic event that has recognised the achievements of some of the brightest and most inspirational Black and Asian women in society’ and Foluke was deservedly honoured with an MBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours list for her devoted work, and

It was an honour to be involved in such an event: a very precious day indeed.

Liz Gooster is an Executive Coach with The Alliance and Editor-at-Large for leading business publisher Kogan Page. You can read her blogs at www.lizgooster.com, where this blog first appeared,  and http://goosterontheloose.wordpress.com/ and follow her on twitter at @bizclasscoach and @publishingcynic.

The First Lady has come a long way, and she hasn’t finished yet

What do the next four years hold for Michelle Obama, who is more popular than her husband? She is hugely popular – even more popular with the American public than her husband is, according to some polls. She’s widely admired and she’s seen as a strong character. But what do the next four years hold for Michelle Obama, now her husband has been elected for a second term?

Read the full article at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/9661527/The-First-Lady-has-come-a-long-way-and-she-hasnt-finished-yet.html

Follow the link below to see the latest newsletter from S J Associates.

http://blog.sjassociates.org/2012/10/the-latest-edition-of-ambitions-is-out.html

Professor Mary Watts, chair of the BPS Special Group in Coaching Psychology, would like to invite you to the BPS Special Group in Coaching Psychology Annual Conference, which this year is being held in Birmingham from 6-7 November 2012.

On 6th November there are several Master Classes (Mary is leading one on leadership) and on 7th November there is a selection of lectures, workshops and poster presentations. Everyone who wishes to attend is very welcome.

The link for registering is www.bps.org.uk/sgcp2012.

The theme of the event is Putting coaching psychology into practice: an evidence based approach. The event is perfectly suited to coaching psychologists, psychologists who coach, and coaches who apply psychology eager to hear the latest evidence coming from the field of coaching psychology. The conference workshops and presentations will be covering four themes: academic research, practitioner experience, self knowledge & reflection, and the coaching context & environment.

Mary says: “It would be wonderful to have a vibrant group of attendees, some with psychology backgrounds and others with diverse coaching and related backgrounds.”

For more information please see  BCP SGCP Conference flier

by Liz Gooster (MC11)

The chance to see the incomparable Nancy Kline in action for a second time in a Meyler Campbell fishbowl demonstration was one I’d been anticipating for some time. She didn’t disappoint. It’s almost impossible to describe what goes on whenNancysits in front of someone, gently asks them what they think, or feel, or want to say – and then listens. She listens powerfully, empathetically, unjudgementally. She doesn’t interrupt, and the client knows she won’t. This knowledge seems to liberate the client’s thoughts so that they dance in the air, even with a room full of people watching, entranced.

The momentum of a ‘thinking partnership’, which is what Nancy calls her coaching sessions, comes from an initial invitation from the coach: ‘What would you like to think about, and what are your thoughts?’. The client talks, until they are ready to stop. The coach then asks: ‘What more do you think, or feel, or want to say?’. The question is repeated until the client is absolutely done. Nancy has a profound belief in the power of her question to ‘ignite the human mind’. The question has been formulated and refined over many years of practice and observation and seeing her deliver it, with a still, calm, grounded trust in her client’s ability to reach their own awareness and solutions, it’s hard to conceive of a reason why it wouldn’t work. As Nancy puts it, the words of the question are the same each time – and in the fishbowl, she asked it eight times – but it’s not the same question. The tone, modulation and emphasis all vary, and neither is the person answering it each time the same, because they’ve changed, however imperceptibly, since the last time they were asked it. By the time the client really has nothing more they want to say, they have often achieved their objective for the session. If not, there is a set of further, precisely structured questions the coach can ask that nearly always lead to a satisfying close for the client.

I asked the ‘fish’ about his experience afterwards. He said he’d felt as though the audience had disappeared, leaving only him and Nancy in the room. He’d felt a deep sense of safety and was very aware of her presence. The repetition of the question had been a powerful challenge to him, and had really stimulated his thinking. The session had been a public demonstration – a fishbowl – ofNancy’s ‘thinking partnership’ in action, yet for the client/fish, it had been a real issue, and the coaching an authentic experience, one which left him with genuine insights and benefits. For the audience, it was a privileged chance to witness the positive impact of engaged attention, a natural, unforced focus on a person which visibly releases confident thinking on the part of the client.Nancy’s silence has a quivering resonance about it which, in a bizarre way, is almost audible. Her listening, at the same time relaxed and laser-sharp, evokes open reflection and deliberation in her client, drawing out leaps of clarity, recognition and decision.

The Q&A session after the demonstration itself was another goldmine of beautiful insight. Asked why she didn’t interrupt, allowing the client to cover and recover the same ground even where the ‘answer’ might be clear to her, Nancy gave the glorious reply: ‘I wouldn’t dare to presume that whatever I would say was more valuable than what the client might have thought if I hadn’t said it.’ She referred to micro-moments in the coach-client dynamic, those tiny specks of time where you might be tempted to jump in and share the benefit of your ‘wisdom’, but you don’t, because what the client might think next is more important. This is the challenge and excitement of Nancy’s approach. It’s a simple methodology, but not an easy one. Nancy does it with what appears like consummate ease, the sign of a true expert. To witness her do it is a life-enhancing experience. Being her client, being given more time to think in such a powerful communion of minds, must be transformational.

Liz Gooster is an Executive Coach with The Alliance and Editor-at-Large for leading business publisher Kogan Page. You can read her blogs at www.lizgooster.com, where this blog first appeared,  and http://goosterontheloose.wordpress.com/ and follow her on twitter at @bizclasscoach and @publishingcynic.