Dear Co-Active Coaches,

Happy New Year! The beginning of the year is a time for new dreams and a fresh start. What’s your new dream for this year?

If you’re an experienced coach and part of your dream for this new year is to expand your coaching skills and tap back into the CTI energy, check out Come Alive! The Artful Play of Coaching. This three-day course is the brainchild of CTI co-founder Henry Kimsey-House and play expert Gwen Gordon, and is being offered twice in 2006. Read more under CTI News.

In the Community section this month, we continue our introductions of CTI staff with a profile of Admissions

Advisor Debra Martin. Warm, inviting, funny and wise, Debra (along with her fellow admissions advisors) welcomes prospective students into the CTI community. Those of us who have the privilege of working in the office with her also get to enjoy her fantastic chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

We are thrilled this month to have an abundance of articles on the topic of assessments. What assessment tools do you use in your coaching business? How do you use them? When do you use them? CTI course leader Phil Sandahl, CPCC, shares information on an instrument for assessing the team as a system. CPCCs Mary Jo Hazard, Hal Hendrix and Andrea Sigetich and coach Vicky Jo Varner share their experiences with various assessment instruments for individuals. They provide an educational look at how assessment instruments can inform your coaching.

We love hearing the voices of our community and 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!

On a final note, the new year/new dream idea is particularly relevant for me as we begin 2006. At the end of January, I’ll be leaving my role as Director of Marketing at CTI, which makes this month’s Inquiry my last in this role. To all of you who have contributed to this newsletter over the past two years—those who have submitted articles, those who have called or written to give me feedback, the folks at Claire Communications who make it beautiful each month, and of course, my assistant Heidi who edits articles, proofreads, maintains the database and so much more—I extend a huge “Thank You!”

These years at CTI have been a true gift—it’s an incredible place to work, with a wonderful, creative, fun group of people. I’m not sure yet the exact form my new dream is taking but I know it involves a shift out of the corporate role and back to my practices as both a coach and psychotherapist. I’ve loved connecting with you through this newsletter each month and look forward to staying in touch through the Co-Active Network and the coaching community. Keep dreaming!

Enjoy! Warmly, Kathy Curry, CPCC Director of Marketing

CTI News

Revitalize Your Coaching Skills in 2006!

It’s always good to plug back in to the original current from time to time to charge up your coaching skills. CTI offers a great way to do that during 2006—and straight from the source no less! “Come Alive! The Artful Play of Coaching” was created by one of our founders, Henry Kimsey-House, and his partner in play, Gwen Gordon. Both highly skilled coaches, their partnership is particularly apropos for the course content, as Henry has a long-standing history in the acting profession, and Gwen currently teaches play, both at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology and at Holy Names University. The three-day course was created especially for the coach who has been certified and is looking to go from being a great coach to being a masterful one.

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. It is designed to provide you with the basic theory and skills needed to liberate the play inherent within you, your clients, and in any situation.

In this course, you will learn to:

• Bring your whole being into your coaching.
• Hear and respond to the deepest (often unspoken) need in the moment.
• Get centered so that you are completely present for your client.
• Provide the support that makes play possible.
• Instigate play when it is absent.
• Play with the obstacles to play.
• Evolve your own life through play.
• Widen and deepen your playground so that everything can become playable.

“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!” says Marilyn Ryemon, CPCC, who participated in the pilot run of the program.

“Come Alive! The Artful Play of Coaching” will only be offered twice this year, so be sure to sign up now to assure your place. The course will be offered on both coasts in 2006—in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area from April 21-22, 2006, and in the San Francisco Metropolitan Area on September 22-23, 2006. The rate is $695 for those who register before February 15 for the Washington, D.C., course, and by July 28 for the San Francisco course. The full fee is $895. You must either be 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 be eligible for the course. To register, call The Coaches Training Institute at 1-800-691-6008. Come out and play!

The creators of this program will be hosting a call on the Co-Active Network next month you won’t want to miss:

Calendar Event: The Artful Play of Coaching

Event Title: The Artful Play of Coaching
Date: February 21, 2006
Start Time: 10 a.m. Pacific
End Time: 11 a.m. Pacific
Description: Join Gwen Gordon and Henry Kimsey-House, creators of CTI's "Come Alive" course for this exciting call. Explore how to unleash the pure joy, creativity and spontaneous brilliance of unbridled free play in your coaching. Developing mastery has never been this much fun! Bridgeline information will be posted approximately one week prior to the event date.

Community

Introducing CTI Staff Member Debra Martin
Debra Martin is one of our lovely admissions advisors here at CTI. She just joined us full-time as an advisor for both CTI courses and also for Leadership, leaving her dental assistant job of the previous 25 years. Welcome aboard full-time, Debra! Debra was born on August 28, 1953, in Oakland—a true Bay Area native. She’s a “Friday’s child—loving and giving,” and anyone who knows Debra knows this is absolutely true! To learn more about the rich personality behind the lovely and comforting phone voice, click here.

Co-Active Network
The Co-Active Network continues to grow, with nearly 6,000 members in the Main Community and more than 40 niche and geographic communities. The conversations continue to be vibrant, alive and informative. The newest community on the Network in January is the MF3 Coaching: The Masculine, Feminine, Third Way Coaching Niche. This niche holds that re-claiming our ever-evolving masculine and feminine energies is a pathway to wholeness. There is also a new geographic community—Louisville, KY, has joined us!

The purpose of the 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 listed there.

We’re thrilled this month to have presenter David Matthew Prior, CPCC, MCC. He is Co-Chair of the International Coach Federation (ICF) Ethics & Standards Committee and serves as a Vice President on the ICF Board of Directors. He’ll talk about the challenges that exist for coaches to distinguish themselves as belonging to a true profession, given the rapid growth and accelerated public interest in coaching worldwide. At this writing, there are still a few spaces available. Click here to register.

Event Title: Complaints About Coaches
Date: January 18, 2006
Start Time: 9 a.m. Pacific
End Time: 10 a.m. Pacific

You also won’t want to miss Leza Danly, MCC and founder of Lucid Living, as she leads  a provocative discussion about the power of emotions. During the 90-minute discussion, you’ll explore the role of emotions in creating the life you want. At this writing, there are still a few spaces available. Click here to register.

Event Title: Leza Danly on Dynamic Emotions
Date: January 25, 2006
Start Time: 9:30 a.m. Pacific
End Time: 11 a.m. Pacific

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:

February—Coaching Relationships: What types of relationships do you coach? What have the challenges been for you in doing relationship coaching? What have you learned—about yourself, about coaching relationships?

March—Passive Income for Coaches: How have you created passive income streams? What worked; what didn’t? What suggestions do you have for coaches who want to develop passive income.

April—Visioning: What impact has visioning had with your clients/yourself? What visioning tools do you use? What structures do you use to keep the vision alive?

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.

Articles

Assessing the Team as a System and How to Assess the Assessments
“Coaching a team is different than coaching individuals, and the difference goes well beyond the added complexity of numbers,” writes Phil Sandahl, CPCC, MCC, co-author of the Co-Active Coaching book and a senior faculty member for CTI. “The coach is working with a dynamic system with a life of its own that is greater than the working of the individual parts. This systems approach is at the heart of CTI’s Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching curriculum, and the Stellar Team Diagnostic is built on an ORSC foundation. The theoretical background and interventions from ORSC are complemented by a practical team performance model, assessment tool and development support from Team Diagnostic. The two team resources are an ideal, synergistic match.” Read more about assessing teams here. Phil has also written a very useful article on assessing the assessments themselves, which can be very useful when deciding which tools are most appropriate for your clients. Read more here.

Assessments and Coaching and Using the MBTI™ in Coaching
“I've been utilizing personality type models for more than a decade for personal growth and relationship counseling. Luckily, I was taught from the beginning to adopt a ‘coach approach’ when working with instrument results, and my CTI training amplified my effectiveness. Since then, I have evolved a ‘hybrid’ approach to coaching. I begin by guiding my clients through a Self-Discovery Process® and allow that to naturally lead us deeper into the coaching relationship.”  Vicky Jo Varner, otherwise known as “The Type Fairy,” writes here about the different kinds of assessments she uses with clients, and also writes specifically about the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator in a separate article. She is qualified and certified to use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator™ and the Interstrength Methodology, and uses various other tools for self-discovery in her coaching practice.

Assessments: Tools for Developing Leaders
Hal Hendrix, CPCC, combines 30 years of experience in the corporate world with coaching and psychology to create a unique and effective business advisory practice. In this article, Hal says, “The cornerstone of my practice as an executive/corporate coach is the development of leaders at all levels within organizations. While the key to success is the relationship I build with the client, I use assessment tools extensively. People are meant to be led, not managed. Therefore, the focus is on leadership behavior and the impact that this behavior has on others.”

Play to Their Strengths
“The StrengthsFinder® presented in Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, is the instrument I use for helping clients assess their strengths. StrengthsFinder is rich and deep and helps create a language around strengths not replicated in the few other instruments that exist. I’ve used the StrengthsFinder for three years and still marvel at the deep acknowledgement clients give themselves when they understand their strengths as innate, unique and intriguing gifts. Even clients who believe they know their strengths are surprised to discover they actually know the behaviors they excel at—not the underlying strength.”  Andrea Sigetich, MCC, CPCC, is a corporate escapee who has been coaching organizational leaders since 1997. In this article, she shares her insight about an assessment tool that she has found very valuable in her coaching practice.

Assessments: Stereotyping or Self-Discovering?
Mary Jo Hazard, MS, CPCC, PCC, has been using assessments in her life and her work since the mid 1980s and is a huge advocate of them and their value in coaching. This article describes her four preferred assessments and their benefits: “Some naysayers dismiss the value of assessments: ‘No one’s gonna stereotype me!’ or ‘I’m unique, how can they put me in a box with a bunch of letters to describe me?’ I see them as a way to better understand ourselves so we can learn to live and work with others whose preferences may be very different from our own. Once we see more clearly, we can choose how to be proactive and how to respond to life. It’s all about awareness and choice.”

Celebration

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 December 15
Simone Alz, Kei Ariga, Giorgio Barone, Mary Ellen Brew, Shannan Brown, Stephanie Chick, David Chinsky, Janet Cloos, Kate Copelstone, Rusty Dawson, Kathryn Dillon, Robin Rundle Drake, Pierre Driessen, Margaret Dunn, Jan Dunlop, Tarah Evans, Marilyn Fahrner, Jacqueline Lesser Faust, Tamasin Foote, Pemma Fox, Gail Franko, Clare Gallagher, Cathy Gillespie, Birgitte Hauge, Peter Hijgenaar, Jette Hordum, Pam Horner, Rebecca Hourston, Mollee Johnston, Hilde Jordfald, Julie Kosey, Monica Magnetti, Eric Mugele, Viktoria Munroe, Susan Norton, Marianne Oftedahl, Dan O’Neil, Leto Papadopoulos, Dian Patterson, Linda Pittman, Liz Servis, Beverly Keaton Smith, Eva Soerung, JoAnna Stange, Marcee Stiltner, Jeremy Stover, William Tweedley,  Caird Urquhart, Steve Vaccaro, Mia Vanstraelen, An Vergauwen, Karine Watne, Sarah Weber, Stephan Wiedner, Lori Woodhouse and Frank Wu.