Dear Co-Active Coaches,

Welcome to the September edition of The Inquiry. At the top of many of our minds recently is the aftermath of hurricane Katrina here in the United States. Our hearts go out to all those who have suffered and continue to suffer as a result. I’m also increasingly aware that this disaster joins a long list of natural disasters and conflicts that bring devastation, pain and suffering throughout the globe each day and how these events also give rise to an incredible outpouring of love, support and compassion.

The coaching community is certainly a part of the outpouring of support. Individuals and groups from across the country and across the globe are coming together to provide aid in many different ways. In

response to the commitment of the members of our own Co-Active community, we’ve recently created a new community on the Co-Active Network, the Katrina Co-Active Initiative, for those who want to contribute in various ways. Read more about this new collaboration under Community.

Also in our Community section this month, we continue introducing you to the staff here at CTI. If you’ve applied for a student loan for CTI courses through SLM Financial or TERI, you may have spoken to Jennet Lee. However, administering the student loan program is only a tiny part of her role. As “ultimate particle wrangler,” Jennet gathers, tracks and organizes a multitude of details throughout CTI…always with a smile.

In CTI News this month, read about two of our newer programs, Vision Story and Come Alive!, each of which is being offered one more time in 2005.

The topic for this month’s Inquiry is Research and Return on Investment (ROI): How do you know whether coaching is working—either with individual clients or in an organizational setting? What were the results of any research you’ve done? How have you measured the ROI of bringing coaching into an organization? Our articles address these questions from a variety of perspectives. CTI faculty member Art Shirk, PCC, CPCC, shares an excerpt from his white paper on the Organizational Impact of Co-Active Coaching. Susan Jeska, RN, MBA, EdD, and Ute Kueffner, CPCC, each share their experience regarding the impact of coaching within an organization. We also have two articles from groups who have conducted research on the results of coaching—Merrill Anderson, PhD, and Dianna Anderson, MCC, from MextrixGlobal, LLC, and coaches Jan Ramsøy and Sigrid Stover Kjeldsen, from CoachConnect. Our final article by coach Amy Selwyn takes a softer look at ROI.

As always, we invite you to read the topics for upcoming issues of The Inquiry and think about sharing your insights by writing an article. And join us in celebrating our newest CPCCs.

Enjoy! Warmly, Kathy Curry, CPCC Director of Marketing

Vision Story™: Destiny by Design Second Pilot
Chicago Metropolitan Area
December 3-4, 2005

CTI’s pioneering innovations in coaching and leadership have resulted from a continual loop of piloting new cutting-edge ideas and learning from participants’ reactions and feedback. The Magic Shop enables CTI’s founders to continue to innovate and pilot new ideas. As participants in these pilots, you get to experience the latest creations of these industry visionaries and play a role in shaping our industry's future.

This latest program coming out of The Magic Shop is sure to change your life by beginning at the beginning and asking the crucial questions one often dodges asking oneself:

• “What is next for my life and how can I consciously create what I want?”
• “What do I need to leave behind in order to do that?”
• “What is the story that I tell about myself to others? What is the story that I want to tell?”

In this two-day Vision Story workshop, you will:

• Come away with an inspired and focused Vision Story that will lead to manifesting the fullest sense of who you are in your life.
• Burn through the limiting beliefs that hold you back and take the next steps beyond them to make your vision real.
• Work from a place of clarity and congruence, created by internally aligning with yourself.
• Be witnessed in community as you commit to the path you most desire to take in your life.
• Not only come away with increased fuel and motivation for yourself in moving forward but also learn how to use this tool to inspire and excite your clients.

Here’s what participants in the first pilot had to say:

“I’ve owned my deepest and longest dream! I’ve experienced the hugeness of both my feelings of fear and excitement around this dream! It has been profound.”
—Michele Balk

“I now have a specific plan with accountability for my vision. Prior to attending, it was a concept that I couldn’t seem to jumpstart.”
—Cindy Rubin

Cost:
The cost for the Vision Story™ pilot is $195.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

To register, call The Coaches Training Institute at 1-800-691-6008.

About the course creators:
Henry Kimsey-House, co-founder of CTI, is the main designer of the coaching course curriculum, including the Co-Active Leadership program. Today, Henry continues to develop and refine the CTI coaching curriculum, leveraging his creative insights and experience as an actor. He is also co-author of the industry best-seller Co-Active Coaching.

Jeff Staggs, senior partner of Business Coaching International, Inc. (BCI, Inc.), and Entrevis, is a Master Certified Coach by the International Coaches Federation and NLP Master Practitioner. He has a background in clinical psychology. A professional coach for the last 17 years, Jeff has designed and delivered individual- and group-coaching programs and team-building to Fortune 500 clients both in the United States and internationally. With his partner George Johnson, he has designed the "Better Way to Work" program for those who know there is something more for them and who want to recreate their lives and work to be more fulfilling, sustainable and successful. Jeff also designed and delivered the first coaching program to be fully integrated into an MBA program for Capella University.

George Johnson is a CPCC and a serial entrepreneur. For 25 years, he has been starting, growing and running businesses. When he hasn’t been doing this for himself, he has been advising and coaching others on how to create their own. George has started two non-profit organizations and two consulting practices. He is the co-founder of Internet Broadcasting Systems, a thriving TV web site management company. He has been a senior vice president at United HealthCare and techies.com.

Come Alive! The Artful Play of Coaching
San Francisco Metro Area

Think of coaching at its best. You're in an intimate dance with your client, your timing is perfect, creativity sparks and insight flows effortlessly. A sense of joy, delight and ease pervades the session as you both come more and more fully alive. Masterful coaching is pure intoxicating play. This workshop is for coaches who want to tap into the joyful power of play in their lives and practices.

This three-day workshop is designed specifically for the highly skilled coach who wants to further hone his or her skills to the level of mastery.

In Come Alive! The Artful Play of Coaching, you will learn to:

• Liberate your own inherently playful nature!
• Create space for spontaneous play to naturally arise.
• “Play” with difficult material.
• Consciously create from a place of play in your daily life and coaching practice.
• Graduate from being a great coach to being a masterful coach!

What course graduates are saying about Come Alive! The Artful Play of Coaching:

“The leaders were perfect! This course really rounds out the CTI curriculum beautifully.”
—Lisa Shield, CPCC, Los Angeles, CA

“The ah-ha’s I got were immense, and the growth and learning about play was invaluable. This course should be mandatory for all coaches!”
—Marilyn Ryemon, CPCC, Agoura Hills, CA

“This workshop felt like coming home—I loved finding the inner place of ‘holding it all’ as an essential part of coaching and life.”
—Lynne Michelson, St. Louis, MO

“This course was eye opening and life changing. I thought I’d have fun (like ha ha), and, while I laughed a lot, there was a much deeper content, too, that has left me changed and in awe. I felt and feel loved in a way that had been missing. Thank you so much. Yes, yes, yes I’d recommend it!”
—Cookie Burkhalter, CPCC, Wilmington, DE

Cost:
The cost of the Come Alive! The Artful Play of Coaching course is $895.

Prerequisites:
You must be either a CPCC or currently enrolled in Certification at The Coaches Training Institute or you must be an ACC, PCC or MCC certified through the International Coach Federation.

To register, call The Coaches Training Institute at 1-800-691-6008.

Introducing CTI Staff Member Jennet Lee
Jennet Lee is the Project Administrator at CTI, though she prefers the title “Particle Wrangler,” because she spends most of her time gathering, organizing, tracking and managing the administrative particles for various areas of CTI, including the school itself, operations, human resources and the CTI coach training faculty. She also administers the student loan program and provides basic technology support to the staff. Her favorite aspect of the job is the variety—she loves knowing something about everything. (She considers herself the best at knowing how to find out answers—she may not know everything, but she does know how to find the answer!)—and feels that there is always something new on the menu. To read more about Jennet, click here.

Co-Active Network
Spearheaded by organizers Jeremy Stover and Heather Cummings, the Katrina Co-Active Initiative community on the Co-Active Network was created to provide structure for the efforts of members of the Co-Active Network who want to contribute in various ways to the victims of hurricane Katrina. The first activity of this community was a call earlier this week entitled “Being with Disaster” which was a chance for participants to expand their ability to be with disaster—for the sake of their clients and the world. Go to the Katrina Co-Active Leadership Initiative community to learn more about the resources and activities being planned.

Another new community on the Co-Active Network is the Spanish-Speaking Co-Active Coaches community. This community is a call to unite all Spanish-speaking Co-Active coaches globally. The goal is to empower and support them by sharing resources, ideas and solutions to expand Co-Activity into our communities.

The purpose of the Co-Active Network is to support every member in achieving his/her greatest vision for Co-Active coaching and leadership in the world. Each community has resources, discussions and community events. Check the full calendar on the Co-Active Network. There are an amazing array of exciting events. Also, many of the events held on the main community have been recorded on Audio Podium. The list of recorded sessions is available under the “Resources” section of the main community. Look for the topic “Audio Podiums from Network Main Event Sessions” for a full list.

Would you like to share your insight with fellow coaches?
We love to learn from our community, and sharing your thoughts with your fellow coaches is a great way to let us know what’s happening in your world. The Inquiry focuses on a specific topic each month. Topics for the next few months are:

October—New Ideas, New Thought, New Models: What new ideas/thoughts/models are you exploring? Are you intrigued by a new model or new approach that you think blends well with Co-Activity? What new ways of thinking are you incorporating into your coaching?

November—Networking: What types of networking have worked for you? Do you have tips to share on how to get the most from networking opportunities? What difference has networking made in your business?

December —Community service: How is community service a part of your coaching business? How do you include pro bono work in your business? What other ways do you incorporate community service in your professional life?

We invite you to submit articles and share your insight in The Inquiry. It is a fantastic way to increase your visibility in the coaching profession. Please send articles to newsletter@thecoaches.com. Read the detailed submission guidelines.

Organizational Impact of Co-Active Coaching
Arthur Shirk, PCC, CPCC, is a faculty member of The Coaches Training Institute and leader of the Co-Active Leadership Program. He has written a white paper on the Organizational Impact of Co-Active Coaching that is quite extensive and informative. Here’s a bit from the excerpt we are including in this month’s Inquiry: “Sure-fire ways to determine return on investment from dollars spent on organizational learning efforts have eluded learning and development professionals since organizations began paying close attention in the 1970s. When corporate leaders invest dollars in coaching services, coaching skill-building workshops or consulting to set up internal coaching programs, they certainly should be asking: How will I know that the benefits of coaching will surpass the financial cost? We need to be prepared to respond to that question.” Read more.

Determining the ROI of Coaching
Susan Jeska, RN, MBA, EdD, is the System Director for Executive and Leadership Development with Fairview Health Services in Minneapolis, MN. Here she shares with us a bit about her experience in coaching within the organization. She says, “At one level, coaching is an extremely sacred and private experience that should not be reviewed nor evaluated by anyone other than the client. At another level, coaching can be an organizational investment that deserves to be reviewed and evaluated by those making the investment. So, how can we preserve the integrity of the coaching experience yet determine the value of the investment?” To find out, read the article.

Better Business Results Through Coaching
Ute Kueffner, CPCC, works in the corporate university of a global software company as a program manager and coach. She has 14 years of business experience in various leadership roles. Here she tells us a bit about her experience blending coaching with business needs. “I headed a sales development program, run as a pilot in North America and Europe. It focused on enhancing negotiation effectiveness, mainly through managers applying a coaching approach with their account executives working on customer deals. The business impact we wanted to achieve was a reduced sales cycle time and an increased deal size. Business impact and the focus of the program were defined by sales executives.” Read more about what happened.

The ROI of Leadership Coaching: Three Key Insights for Value Creation
Merrill C. Anderson, PhD, is a business consulting executive, author and educator with more than 20 years of experience improving the performance of people and organizations. Dr. Anderson is currently the chief executive officer of MetrixGlobal, LLC. He has crafted an article together with his business partner Dianna Anderson, MCC, the vice president of leadership coaching for MetrixGlobal, LLC. Leadership coaching has emerged in recent years as a popular—and powerful—way to develop leadership skills. ROI studies conducted by MetrixGlobal, LLC, over the past four years clearly demonstrate that leadership coaching consistently delivers business value. The ROIs have generally been in the range of 500% to 700%. This being said, what have we really learned about how coaching delivers value? There are three key insights that we have drawn from the data. To find out what the insights are, read the article.

Can Coaching Reduce the Incidence of Stress-Related Absenteeism?
Jan Ramsøy is the co-founder of CoachConnect, Norway’s first coach brokerage firm, and is the president of the Co-Active Coaching Network in Norway. Sigrid Stover Kjeldsen is the other co-founder. Together they have written an article that sums up their findings on stress-related absenteeism. “We have seen many examples that coaching often provides a definite positive impact for the employee, team, leaders and even company owners. Now that we can attach a numerical effect to the process, we can give coaching a new face and an opportunity to reach and help even more people.” Read more about their findings.

Measuring ROI in Coaching Relationships
“Many of us believe that terms like ROI are strictly for the MBA crowd: the hard-core business people who live, breathe and actually enjoy talking about things like financial performance and indicators. Not true. In coaching, when we ask our clients to pay for our coaching services, we are asking them to invest in coaching and we are “promising” a solid return on things like greater awareness of personal values, the ability to see different perspectives, and the awareness of what fulfillment means to the client.” Amy Selwyn is a full-time strategy consultant and life coach. In addition to a private coaching practice, Amy works with organizations to help define strategies for planned change. Read more about her take on ROI within the coaching relationship.

Please join the CTI team in congratulating all of the Certified Professional Co-Active Coaches who have finished the rigorous certification program and passed their exams!

CPCCs through August 15
Liz Angel, Kei Ariga, Kristen Barrett, Andrew Compain, Andy Chapman, Susan Caporaso McBride, Lindsay Conn, Kerry Cudmore, Fernando da Silva, Bonnie Davis, Mary Diamond, Ann Dinan, Michelle Dunn, Laurie Dupar, Gwen Durand, Jeanette Eleff, Sandra Enoch, Sabine Fischer, Clare Garrity, Denise Gaylord, Anne Grethe Krane, Kathy Hay, David Hendrickson, Peggy Hoime, Mike Kelly, Tara Klemke, Orly Liebermann, Jill McCulloch, Brita McLaughlin, Leslie Meyer, Gita Munasinghe, Stephen Nose, Ken Oakley, Margaret O’Keeffe Melanie Parish, Sue Powell, Anne Rød, Debbie Riopel, Heather Scarabosio, Ellen Schuster, Rob Seidenspinner, Kim Spillane, Bonnie Thompson, Mary Tinning and Jonalyn Wallace.