A Fireside Chat with Dr. Patrick Williams

PACA: Celebrating 10 Years of Dedicated Service

      

The Philadelphia Area Coaching Alliance invited me to be the keynote at their GALA. They kicked off a year of new community coaching events with a fabulous party! Happy 10 years PACA, and many more!

             

   

Coaching by Phone! Said Coach I Am.

With apologies and appreciation to Dr. Seuss

 

I coach by phone said Coach I am

I’m a coach, I am I am!

 

I can coach you from a beach.

I can coach you within reach.

I can coach you with bad hair.

I can coach you anywhere.

 

I can coach you internationally

I can coach you somewhat fashionably

I can coach you without borders

I can coach you without orders.

 

I could coach you from a boat.

I can coach you in a coat.

I can coach you from my car.

I can coach from near or far

 

I can coach you from my camper.

Even travel does not hamper

I can coach your every movement

I can coach toward life improvement.

I’m a coach said Coach I AM.

I’m a Coach – I AM.  I AM!

 

I can coach when you’re remote.

I can coach you and not gloat

I can coach you in my home.

I prefer to coach by phone.

 

I can coach and be real funny.

I can coach about your money

I can coach about your life

And even coach you and your wife.

 

I can coach from Pennsylvania

I can coach from Cartagena

I can coach at Beaver Creek

I can coach you week by week.

 

 

I can coach you toward new visions.

I can coach you through transitions.

I can coach you with emotion

I can coach across the ocean.

 

_{Written by, Dr. Patrick Williams}

Life Coaching: The Profession

I am proud to be one of the pioneers of the coaching industry and  to be creating coach specific training for adult learners with graduate degrees and/or experience professionals in human service capacities.

The CNN article, ‘Getting Unstuck: Does your Life need a Coach?” is one of the few accurate summaries about coaching.

As an original charter member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), I understand the importance of certification and regulation for this young industry. As the subject of the coaching profession evolves and we receive more global input, I find it reassuring to know that the Coach Approach is deceptively a simple process yet one with nuances that come with experience. I wish for everyone in all parts of our world, to have a chance to experience it. Coaching conversations empower the one being coached and allow the person doing the coaching to stay focused on what the speaker/coachee wants to say, create, and accomplish. In my lifetime, I have seen countless times how coaching has helped many lead a more purposeful life.

I am proud to be an active part of the coaching community.

Sometimes we complicate the original intent.

If you haven’t heard me mention, I am a long-term, proud member of Rotary International.

The wisdom of this 100-year old service club with millions of members worldwide is worth considering and embodying in your life and your business as a coach.

For example, The Rotary International, offers their members guidelines for conduct, they call it The Four Way Test. 

A simple list that the coaching community may use to understand and implement the ICF Standards of Ethical Conduct…an easy reminder of the intent of all the ethical guidelines of our coaching profession.
The Four Way Test of the things we say and do (Rotary International):

• Is it the TRUTH?
• Is it FAIR to all concerned?
• Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
• Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Like many things in life, we sometimes complicate the original intent. Of course, we need ethical standards and systematized procedures for our profession of coaching. And yet, using the Four Way Test provides a great shortcut and reminder that can help all of us avoid most ethical dilemmas.

I invite you to write the Four Way Test on a note card and place it near your phone or computer (along with a copy of the ICF ethical standards). Observe how these simple criteria assist in the application of coaching ethics and can greatly positively affect your coaching.

The Coaching Show Appearance

Exciting News!

Hope you can tune in today I'll be a guest on The Coaching Show

On The Internet: http://www.wsradio.com
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
11:15 AM – 12:00 PM Eastern Time

Tune in!! This is Internet radio, available from your computer.

Go to www.wsradio.com, and click the "Live Show Schedule" button at the top,
then select "Listen Live" below that. Call in and join the conversation!

(If you cannot listen Wednesday, listen anytime in the archives!
To hear archived shows, go to:
http://www.wsradio.com/internet-talk-radio.cfm/shows/The-Coaching-Show.html.)

For further information, visit www.wsradio.com.

Chapter One

Recently I contributed to a new book compiled by amazing individuals. The Philosophy and Practice of Coaching: Insights and Issues for a New Era. Edited by David B. Drake, Diane Brennan and Kim Gørtz. Be prepared, you will dog-ear and highlight many pages of this book.

It was an honor to read Sir John Whitmore’s testimonial. “This is an important book for many reasons. The opening chapter sets coaching in its psychological context perfectly. The theoretical history and underpinning of different forms of coaching, and the case study examples, provide a rich cornucopia for the coach. It is a book to which I can and will refer often as it is so relevant to so much.” Sir John Whitmore, Executive Chairman, Performance Consultants International

In my chapter entitled, The Life Coach Operating System: Foundations in Psychology, I share how quality professional coach training is founded on the best attributes of humanistic psychology, positive psychology and integral psychology. Coaches now have one source that studies a variety of communication tools that will help them empower their clients.

The Coach Approach

Without submitting a formal definition, I’ve been asked to describe what I mean by the ‘Coach Approach’.

If asked to repeat it, my words may differ but the meaning is always the same… so here it goes…

The Coach Approach is when someone, through an inquiry by another person has the chance to think a way they’ve never thought before; speak a way they’ve never spoken before and dream a way they have never dreamt before, and to say it all out loud to someone who really cares to listen. That can be exceptionally enlightening

That is how I see the coach approach to be at this moment in time.

It is deceptively simple process and I wish for everyone to have a chance to experience it.

In a downturned economy, how do non-profits navigate funding?

With an abundant amount of countries struggling to live in areas of war zones, underdeveloped systems and devastation from natural disasters, the need for non-profit services is on the rise. However high the demand for services are, how do non-profits secure funding in an economy that is exacerbated by high costs and budget constraints?

               

As founder and leader of, Coaching the Global Village, the economy is a powerful influence to the organization meeting its goals.  Like our ‘for-profit’ businesses, our entrepreneurial skills are called upon more in a downturned economy.

CGV’s purpose is to use coaching to create innovative solutions to pressing global challenges.  CGV partners with Non Government Organizations, (NGOs) to incorporate professional coaching skills into their work to reach target outcomes. CGV has designed a training curriculum to bring the “coach approach” to NGOs to enhance their ability to draw out the wisdom and motivation of their constituents, employees and ultimately the countries that they serve.  In 2008, we successfully completed three pilot training programs with wonderful organizations.

While many non-profits are vying for the same money and time, I am very grateful for the generosity of our funders. Without the initial grant from the foundation of Coaching and the Ruth Harnish family foundation, CGV would not be this far along in living my original vision.

As any young non-profit builds its visibility, there are concerns that our troubled economy will compel corporations and individuals to be less mindful of those in need. As coaches we know the value of the ‘coach approach’ but remain cognitive that in a downturned economy, non-profits must make sure their services (or better know as their ‘hero-behavior’) is in line with their financial resources.

At CGV, we are diligently building unique collaborations with other organizations that will keep our mission active and alive. To learn more about our work at CGV, please visit www.coachingtheglobalvillage.org.

For profit or not, how are you preparing for this economy?

Coach your clients to increase their awareness of their personal interface with the environment.

Coaching, as a profession is very "green."

Most coaching involves assisting clients to de-clutter their lives - everything that impacts their personal ecology, both the visible and invisible. Our coaching conversations can even expand into how our clients and their companies are reducing their waste, and identify inefficient use of resources that can definitely impact profits and progress.

As an industry, since most coaching is done by telephone, think of how many "office visits" we are saving and car miles that are reduced - thereby saving lots of electricity and gasoline while reducing pollution.

Although I recognize face-to-face contact is important in coaching and marketing your business, but even that reduces the environmental impact because much of marketing can be done electronically; and networking in most instances is done locally.

And, best of all, coach training at the Institute for Life Coach Training,(both basic and advanced) is done over the phone, allowing people to switch from commuting to work each day to an exciting profession where they can live green each and every day!

Retirement Coaching –The Next Niche is Here

Looking for your niche?
A frequently sought after question of professional coaches.

As I predicted in my first edition of, Therapist as Life Coach, the need for retirement coaching is imminent.

Well coaches, it’s here!

In January, the Baby Boomer Generation just cashed their first social security check with hundreds more to follow in the next 20 years. Wikipedia defines the Generation as a, “North American-English term used to describe a person who was born between 1946 and 1964,” a generation known for its innovativeness.  The Boomers have witnessed the coming of many major events in their formative years (Sputnik, Beatle Invasion and Martin’s Dream) that there is no doubt retirement will be a pioneering age for this group as well.

We are living longer, well into our golden years. Coaching is indeed a tool to help us transition into the second part of their lives. The coaching model is a perfect fit for busy, active Boomers and the generations to follow.

Let’s all try to share the gift of coaching with each other.