by Anne Scoular

In a macabre sense it’s a sign coaching has arrived – we’re being targeted by the Revenue, I see in this weekend’s FT: “Time is running out for tutors and coaches to alert the tax man about outstanding tax bills. HMRC’s Tax Catch Up Plan, which was launched last year, gave people employed in these professions until January 6 to own up to any irregularities and until 31 March to pay any outstanding amounts. It might be too late for the first deadline, but the terms will still be better for people who own up and pay what is owed (including any penalties), according to accountancy firm Menzies. HMRC’s approach is that it is always better for taxpayers to own up rather than being found out. Those that it catches up with later may pay stiffer penalties – up to 100 per cent of the tax owed – and a criminal investigation”. (Financial Times, 24-25 March, Money section, p. 35.)

But before we get too excited about the backhanded compliment of HMRC recognising our existence – and calling us a profession, even better – the clue is in the phrase “tutors and coaches”. I assume they’re out to get people tutoring and coaching children for exams, and being paid small sums in cash. Although some of the core skills of “life” and business coaching are similar, I’ve always felt strongly that business coaching is very different. One clear reason is, if the client is the organisation, then the contracting is immediately another order of magnitude more complex: the client is not the person sitting across the table from you, it’s the organisation – and in business coaching there are often one or two or three more stakeholders involved too – the line manager, HR, L&D, another dotted line on the matrix somewhere. Now there’s another reason: our clients are organisations, hence all monies go through proper channels, and the tax hence properly paid too. (Am not for a moment suggesting coaches working in fields other than business are fiddling their books – people are usually drawn to the field for reasons of authenticity and the chance to live a slightly less mad life, and in recent years we’ve seen other cases where the Revenue get bright ideas to go hunting for alleged malfeasance and find none when they get there.) The transparent nature of the way we need to work within organisational procedures, procurement policies, etc, means decent business coaches needn’t fear the knock on the door in the middle of the night – but for many coaches, the “admin” isn’t the most fun part of the work. Times like this though, that care in getting a complex invoice just right, the money dished out to work with decent accountants, and the hassle getting all the documentation together, etc, turns out to be time and money well spent!

By Anne Scoular

Funnily enough this was the first posh Memorial Service I had been invited to – as a colonial Angloholic I had of course for years read avidly about these events, “the Great and the Good” coming together in a uniquely English unspoken combination of celebration of a life, and formal mourning after the first shock of grief for the close family has passed and they can really be present. Didn’t know the form, so asked a dear neighbour what I should wear: one must have one’s head covered she said firmly, dark tights (oh I thought, no trousers then) and although she conceded that other ladies might not, to be correct one should wear gloves – though when shaking hands “take the right one off hold it in your left and shake hands with the widow with an ungloved hand – because, tartly, ”you’re not the Queen”. And to my surprise, no coat – only permitted in deepest bitter cold it seems, and I realise with hindsight one does indeed see people on TV etc arriving at events in smart suit jackets,  un-coated, learned something. Grey is good, not deep black and did I have “something bright” for the lapel – I gestured at my usual gold dragon would this be OK, there was the tiniest flicker before she said yes of course, realised afterwards she meant diamonds.

With hindsight my neighbour is not only an older lady, but a devout and conservative Catholic, and John was none of those things and neither would his Memorial Service be. I did realise I might well be the only one in a hat but didn’t care, he changed my life, I am deeply deeply grateful to him and have lost a man I loved so sod it I was dressing up – he would have worn an equally unaccustomed tie to mine.

Because of course hat etc, was displacement activity – I was in some sort of denial about John’s death since when last I saw him, about three weeks before he died, he seemed still his old self – at home, much thinner of course, still able to talk (thank GOD my deepest fear had been, given the cruel illness he had, he might lose that – which for him, who lived by ideas and talking and sparking ideas would have been more unbearable than even all the other horrid things he bore so bravely), dressed as normal, on his sofa, his grandchildren running around playing happily – and when I left, he courteously stood up and walked me to the door. (This surface normality concealed of course ferocious courage and will on John’s part, and unceasing exhausting constant work by Sally and the incredible hospice people.)

But that’s what Memorial Services are for – to break it gently to us that this IS true. It was at the Priory Church of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell. Packed of course, but to our relief we spotted a row of Meyler Campbell friends and Daniel and I slipped in beside them. Penny to my left, Andy beyond her (bless him, came all the way from Cornwall), Sam and Ann O further along the row, Verity. And a few rows forward, I could see Oonagh and Sarah sitting beside each other, I was so pleased they each (both I knew feeling great sadness at the loss of John) would have each other for company. Others I didn’t spot in the throng emailed sadly but appreciatively afterwards. The order of St John (yes, the chivalrous medieval knights, how appropriate) did him proud. John had done a decade of strategy and coaching for them pro bono. First words from the Prelate of the Order spoke almost with wonderment at the depth of John’s listening. Then “Lord of all hopefulness”, sung by that congregation loudly and firmly. (We had it at our wedding, that helped.) Then John’s brother Robert – different and yet the same, round twinkly eyes, and reading a poem (below) which caught John in all his myriad facets to such perfection we all almost gasped. A heartfelt tribute by Dr Munji Athreya from New Delhi, about their days as lively students at Harvard, fiercely debating the great subjects of the world with constant energy and joy – but which then swept around John’s extraordinary global career. Then the Dean of London Business School. The world’s great business schools in truth seethe with vicious politics, LBS is no exception, and every single member of the audience knew it, so eyebrows were raised to see what would be said. But though delivered with reserved dignity, the Dean’s evidence personal distress at losing John, and his true respect and affection for the great man, shone through as powerfully as his listing of his great academic achievements. The hymn “He who would valiant be”, so appropriate for a man of such integrity and determination to make a difference, that it got too close to the bone – had to reach down while singing and get hankie from handbag.

Then both his sons spoke, separately. In my view, the greatest achievement of all, whatever else in life, is the raising of fine children, and the pinnacle of John and Sally’s life was there before us – even greater than his string of accolades and awards, his Himalayan first ascents, being adviser to the Governments of Japan and Peru and countless others and many of the greatest corporations, was the way these two boys spoke of their father. I lost it. Through my tears I felt a hand coming from next to me, and Penny bless her held mine while I cried. Someone said the Lord Prior of St John spoke well, well he may have, I heard a resonant booming voice and fine phrases, but I was thinking of John, and what his sons had said. Prayers. The final Hymn, “Jerusalem”, (also at our wedding) a combination of singing it as loudly and strongly and with feeling as I bloody well could, straight to John, and back to the hankie. The Blessing deeply appreciated.

After all that, although the Order paid John and the congregation the great further tribute of opening up the medieval Crypt below for us to visit, and deep lover of history though I am, it was an unusually cursory look (and hugs with an equally moved Richard who we bumped into there), as was desperate for a cup of tea. That was in a glorious hall across the road, by the arch one sees, and with the extraordinarily good little museum below also open for us – they really DID do him proud. One cup of tea went down like a vodka shot, and I wolfed a food bite. Second cup, and was fit to talk a bit, but  didn’t stay very long.

So for those many members of the community from far and wide who wanted to be there and couldn’t, rest assured Sally Robin and Nick, his brother Robert, the great Universities around the world, John’s many students admirers coachees and friends, the Order, the music, the setting, the organist, the poetry – truly, they, we, remembered him well.

Poem read by John’s brother Robert (with apologies to unknown copyright holder)

“Success” by Bessie Stanley

He has achieved success who has lived well,

laughed often and loved much;

who has gained the respect of intelligent men

and the love of little children;

who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;

who has left the world better than he found it;

who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty

or failed to express it;

who has always looked for the best in others

and given them the best he had;

whose life was an inspiration;

whose memory a benediction.

By Anne Scoular

Back in February you may remember the Christchurch earthquake which not only rocked the heart of  New Zealand but its trembles resonated within the heart of Meyler Campbell as its devastation wiped out much of NZ’s second largest city, 30,000 businesses, and dealt a deep psychological shock to the whole country and particularly the local population, still enduring “aftershocks” of 5+ – which anywhere else would count as a terrifying earthquake.  30% of the Christchurch population were left homeless. Not just NZ-born people like me, but almost all Brits, have family or friends immediately affected.

As Christchurch happened after our commitment to Ann Orton’s jump for Breast Cancer Research, we vowed that once her 20k target was met, we would see how we could possibly help Christchurch in varying ways such as ‘coaches for Christchurch’. Our initial aim is to spread awareness about the continuing plight of the citizens of Christchurch. This is Glenda’s story..

On Monday 25 July, Christchurch woke to a 22cm covering of snow – the thickest blanket experienced by the city since 1992.  With the coldest July temperature since 1918, the coating settled … and the city came to a halt.  Police advised people to stay home, businesses stayed closed, and the school children – already on holiday – enjoyed a winter wonderland of glistening snow.

A snow which created slippery sidewalks, covered cracks, hid potholes, and made for a freezing trek to the nearest portaloo.  Because, yes, Christchurch is still very much a broken city with 5000 Christchurch homes now in a designated ‘red zone’ which will see those property owners receiving offers from the Government for the 2007 rateable value of their property.  The ‘purchase’ of these properties – if the offers are taken up – will cost the Government between $485m and $635m.  And while the offers are being presented as ‘options’ the ‘red zones’ will now receive ‘make safe’ only maintenance.  This ‘red zone’ area is considered unable to be re-built on for the forseeable future.

Christchurch has a population of about 376,000 – 182 died as a result of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake which hit the city at 12.51pm on 22 February 2011.  The build up to that ‘quake had been some 3,700 aftershocks since the major 7.4 magnitude ‘quake on 4 September 2010.  Now with the demolition of some 430 buildings either in progress or in the pipeline, the city still has 1800 portaloos on the streets – and Civil Defence has delivered some 41,000 chemical toilets – and the aftershock total (since September 2010) sits at some 8,000 …

Christchurch is the main centre of the province of Canterbury – well-known for being one-eyed in its support of it’s provincial rugby team and …. for being staunch.  So, on Monday 25 July, as the magic faded, the people of Christchurch – and in particular those of us in the ‘quakes hardest hit areas on the east – pulled out our shovels again.  But this time we shovelled something which was light and clean.  And we revelled in how easy the job was compared to the previous two or three times we have done this since September 2010 – when what we shovelled was a filthy grey silt which is dusty and gritty when dry, and heavy and cement-like when wet … liquifaction – a sort of physical manifestation of the underground energy of the earthquake which erupts like mini-volcanoes in backyards, under houses, and on streets … and in the worst-hit areas flowing along the streets like a river … and, with extensive damage to the city’s drainage and sewerage infrastructure, very possibly contaminated.

I hope that pulling back the curtains to such a wonderful site of clean white show glistening under a brilliant clear blue sky on a wonderful Christchurch morning held a little magic for everyone on Monday 25 July.  That for one brief moment, those still living in the ‘red zone’, or those in the ‘orange zone’ (still awaiting a decision from the Government as to whether their properties will be deemed ok for rebuilding/repair), and those in the ‘green zone’ (given the go ahead to begin their repairs) were able to escape briefly from the stress that has been inevitable in the city since that fateful morning in September 2010 when life in the ‘Garden City’ – designed so stoically to remind its English settlers of home – changed forever.

By Meyler Campbell

From time to time we get asked if we could support researchers by approaching our community for help. This latest request comes from a PhD student at the University of Bedfordshire researching practitioner’s perceptions of the boundaries between counselling and coaching. The research aims to gain a greater understanding of newly-trained coaches’ awareness and application of the boundaries between coaching and counselling.

If you would like to help there is an online survey and the option of being interviewed by her. Please see the details below:

The study is in two parts. The first part of the study involves completing a simple questionnaire about the similarities and differences between coaching and counselling. The questionnaire takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete and can be accessed online at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WDK29QD/thecoachingpsychologist

The second part of the study entails semi-structured interviews with newly qualified coaches, to gain an in-depth understanding of their beliefs and attitudes towards implementing the boundary between coaching and counselling with clients. The interviews will take up to 30 minutes.

If you are interested in being interviewed for the second part of the study, or would like further details about the research, please contact  sarah.baker@beds.ac.uk directly.

(Please note that whilst we are delighted to help where we can Meyler Campbell takes no responsibility for the use of the survey, the results, the publication, the Researcher or Bedfordshire University). If you chose to help it would be your own personal engagement with the researcher and not the responsibility nor the engagement of Meyler Campbell).

By Anne Scoular

By Anne Scoular

I’ve been a bit shaky (sorry no pun intended but that word keeps coming out) about Christchurch since the February quake. The first big  one (September 2010) didn’t affect me too much, I thought it a miracle no-one was killed, tragic that the beautiful city I loved as I grew up – so English, in places so exquisitely beautiful – was so damaged, but consoled myself thinking Christchurch, New Zealand’s most stylish city (the only one with style in my jaded view of NZ architecture – all beauty of line and form seems to be concentrated in that one elegant town) would eventually build something fresh and inspiring to replace it.

But the February 2011 one was shocking – brutal, cruel, the eastern half of the city uninhabitable, the central business district smashed to smithereens, and most horrific of all, 181 people killed – including many young foreign students whose inconsolable parents must have thought they had sent their child to the safest place on earth. Only a few days later here in London was the launch of my book, ‘The Financial Times Guide to Business Coaching’, which I had pushed myself right to the edge of exhaustion to write while also continuing to run the business, which is my ‘baby’ representing my distilled thinking after almost 20 years in the profession, and which, thanks to Claire and Debbie’s thoughtful organising, was launched at a fabulously glamorous party (for photos, see http://meylercampbell.com/pdfs/BookLaunch.pdf ).

But the smiling faces of the audience turned puzzled during my speech, then to compassionate understanding, when I said despite it all on that happiest of days I was also carrying deep sadness. Christchurch – everyone else had been horrified too.

But the point about an earthquake, as one survivor said bitterly in contrast to the ghastly Queensland floods of the same time, is it keeps happening. After a few days the floodwaters recede, and you can get on with trying to get your life back together again. Almost unbearable as you survey the destruction of your world – but at least the waves don’t keep crashing over, and over, and over you. In Christchurch, they do. Yesterday (14 June) alone there were 28 quakes in 24 hours. “Aftershocks” they’re called. But I was talking to my friend Glenda, who said in the latest big one two days ago, she ran outdoors, threw herself on the grass in the middle of the garden, but even there lying prone, kept being thrown from side to side. Every time she tried to stand the earth would buckle savagely and she would be thrown off her feet again. Eventually after several petrifying minutes, she went back indoors to look for the family pets. She put the bird in his cage on the centre of the lawn – but then she said, with resigned familiarity with a whole new world and vocabulary “the liquifaction started coming up” – bad quakes liquify the ground, water, sewage pipes and their contents and all, and the whole brown mess is forced up above the ground within minutes of the quake – so she ran to save the bird from drowning on the lawn, and put bird and cage in her car – the strongest steel container around, but also crushed all over the city this week, thankfully not Glenda’s this time, plus the dog, and drove around craters and fissures in the road, through instant gridlock, to her children’s school. She said when she got within half a mile of the school, it was the same sight all over again – abandoned cars, mothers just getting out and running desperately to the school gates. When she got the kids “home”, she took advantage of their father arriving the same minute (divorced parents – doubles and trebles the anxiety) and said brightly to the children, why don’t you go straight off with Daddy: she wanted to protect the kids from seeing what was inside. Then she went indoors on her own and started clearing up, for the twentieth or more time. Her daughter’s wardrobe had toppled over. The things that had been on the piano were behind the sofa on the other side of the room, the microwave had smashed on the floor halfway across the kitchen – “you wouldn’t have wanted to be in there when it was happening”.

So she spends the next day shovelling the stinking liquefaction off the driveway again, rights the furniture, cries over more broken possessions, adds the microwave to the insurance claim (“the insurance companies aren’t going to survive”) and carries on. On little sleep – the shakes happen every few hours during the night.

How is the city coping? If you Google “Christchurch Press” (the local newspaper – which is producing brilliant reporting – lucid, accurate, laconically unsensationalist, up-to-the minute – despite their own building having been destroyed somewhere back there in the series of quakes) you read, along with the dry facts, tear-making stories of pitching in and supporting neighbours and strangers, daily acts of unassuming heroism. Are New Zealanders exceptional? Is Christchurch peopled by stoics with exceptional psychological resilience? I have always been interested in the psychology of the ‘spirit of the Blitz’, in all its complexity. Right now it’s too raw, I can’t look on my dear friends and cousins and the myriad actions of brave strangers, as lab rats. But archaeologists, anthropologists and psychologists all pay keen attention to “natural experiments” – things which happen real time and where careful scientific observation can yield unexpected flashes of insight into hitherto unknown human capability. Not yet, but soon I’m going to be interested in the spirit of Christchurch.

By Anne Scoular

I was chuffed to bits to learn this afternoon that Mary Watts, Business Coach Graduate (BC 2009) and former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of City University, London, has been made Professor Emeritus in Psychology at City. I sometimes get cross that so much is given to so few – the network of “fat cats” who seem to keep having the plums of life heaped upon them even when they have done little, or worse, have made massive errors costing shareholders and even the taxpayer millions of pounds and personal grief – but this thankfully is one of those cases that lifts the spirits: the system sometimes does get it right! Mary has worked her fingers to the bone for years, decades actually, quietly, behind the scenes, never seeking out any personal glory but just getting on and doing what needs to be done – complex detailed thoughtful planning here, unruffling feathers there, smoothing out systems and processes all over the place, patiently bringing together groups and sectors which had hitherto been hissing at each other.

In case this sounds unspectacular, Mary has also planned and pulled off several major strategic miracles: in earlier years she was the driving force behind both counselling psychology and health psychology getting their act together as forces in their respective professions, and it’s no accident that the first time I met her, she was on the podium as the host and Chair of the Inaugural Meeting of the Special Group in Coaching Psychology of the British Psychological Society on 15 December 2004. There was many a large ego metaphorically stomping around the room that day, and much anxiety by individuals and factions about what directions could or should be taken, but Mary steered it all adroitly to a highly productive conclusion. Indeed, I regard her as one of the most important founding figures in coaching psychology in this country. She doesn’t make as much noise as some of the others, but she sure as hell makes things happen. Mary’s a master of the art of the painstaking behind-the-scenes hard work, careful thinking, and above all skilful leadership management and coaching, which is so utterly indispensable to any major change, yet so seldom seen and even more seldom properly rewarded. This time it has, congratulations Mary, I am SO pleased!

PS – she’s also a stunning teacher, as those who attended our Psychology Distilled event on behaviourist approaches to coaching in March, where Mary was Guest Lecturer, will attest – so even if she needs an extra star on her badge next time (!) I hope we can still lure her back!!

By Anne Scoular, Faculty Member

In pursuit of our goal of thought leadership, and radically upping the flows of practical, evidence-based information to the Meyler Campbell community, Linda Woolston, Business Coach Programme Graduate and coach with The Alliance, is to represent us all at The 1st International Congress of Coaching Psychology (Southern Hemisphere) 26/27 May 2011. Linda will be writing a blog on what she picks up, so community members can access the latest tips, research and updates in virtually real time! For more on Linda see www.alliancecoaching.co.uk/linda-woolston.html.

For information about the conference please go to http://www.coachingpsychologycongress.org/.

By  Anne Scoular, Faculty Member

On 11 June faculty member Ann Orton will sky dive from a plane at 10,000ft to raise £20,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, at the behest of her former Business Coach Programme student, Catherine Devitt, now HR Director for Breakthrough. Meyler Campbell is supporting Ann in this brave adventure.

If you would like to support Ann please go to her fundraising page.

By Anne Scoular, Managing Director and Faculty Member

Welcome to the Meyler Campbell community blog, written by all the members of the community – Faculty, present participants on our Programmes and Alumni alike! The aim is to accelerate sharing the huge amount of knowledge, news, updates and sheer talent and fun within this extraordinary worldwide group of people. Coming up: we’ve asked Linda Woolston, who is a Graduate of the Business Coach Programme (BC04) and member of successful coaching business, The Alliance (see www.alliancecoaching.co.uk) to go to South Africa to represent us at ‘The 1^st International Congress of Coaching Psychology (Southern Hemisphere) 26/27 May 2011. Linda will be blogging all the latest news from there in late May. And in September, we’re hoping that Sascha Proudlove (BC11) of leading private equity firm Blackstone (and who is relocating over summer back to Blackstone USA) will represent the community at Carol Kauffman’s Harvard Coaching Conference. So a stream of updates distilling all the latest research and practice from around the world, is heading your way!

But the best things of all will of course be the completely unexpected, the serendipitous… Speaking of which, did we mention the usually super-elegant Faculty Member Ann Orton, jumping out of a plane in June to raise £20,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer? Updates coming on her jump preparations, and also the many fundraising events happening in the next month to support her. And once we’ve hit that target, there are many in the community with links to Christchurch, who share our concern to help following the devastating earthquake – Japan is almost unimaginable, but perhaps also has more vast resources to cope, whereas New Zealand is a small country – so we could make a real difference; Watch out for the Coaches for Christchurch campaign coming soon.

We hope you like the blog, and we really look forward to what will no doubt be a series of lively debates and exchanges!

Warm regards,

Anne Scoular,
Managing Director, Meyler Campbell