Choice, The Magazine of Professional Coaching

Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.com 

NICHE COACHING • DIFFERENTIATING • NONPROFIT COACHING & CONSULTING • ETHICS EDUCATION 

$11.50 US 

Coach or 

Consultant? 

Blending Coaching 

& Consulting 

The Value of the 

Trusted Advisor 

Coach As Consultant 

Finding common 

ground and 

opportunities 

between two 

different yet 

complementary 

professions 

VOLUME 8 • NUMBER 2 

JUNE 2010 

WWW.CHOICE-ONLINE.COM 

Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.com




22 

columns 

entrepreneur coach 19 

Dig Deeper 

When it comes to differentiating 

your coaching business, the 

deeper you dig, the better (and 

more authentically) you build 

your business 

by Michel Neray 

perspective 39 

Coach As Consultant 

Is your coaching really consulting? 

Maybe if it was, you’d be making 

a six-figure income! 

by Suzi Pomerantz 

corporate leadership 41 

Coach, Consultant, Trainer 

Wearing multiple hats for teams 

by Phillip Sandahl 

cover story 

41 

choice magazine 

VOLUME 8 NUMBER 2 

Coaching & Consulting 

Meeting client expectations with an artful blend of these 

two synergistic disciplines 

by Madeleine Homan Blanchard and Dr. Linda J. Miller 

27 Wholeness Matters 

Be consultant AND coach 

by Janet Harvey 

31 The Value of the Trusted Advisor 

How clients are moving from consulting to coaching 

By Pauline Fleming 

35 Meeting in the Middle 

Niche coaching blends the best of coaching and 

consulting 

by Gail Barker 

19 

39 

43 impact 

Meaningful Impact 

Coaching & consulting in 

the nonprofit sector 

by Miguel Bonilla 

and Bobbi Hahn 


43 

3 




departments 

4 

13 

15 

13 choice books 

Change Agent 

Managing change in the 

personal, organizational, 

societal or spiritual areas 

of life 

by Kat Knecht 

14 coaching tools 

Products Reviewed: 

• Coming Out of Hiding, 

by Suzanne Falter-Barns 

• Money Habitudes A Guide 

for Professionals Working 

with Money Related 

Issues 190 

• Effective Group Coaching 

by Jennifer J. Britton 

• Joy Cards • Releasing Blocks to Action, 

by Ann Weiser Cornell 

by Marcy Nelson-Garrison 


upfront 

5 choice thoughts 

8 choice feedback 

10 contributors 

17 sticky situations 

Issue: 

Helping a client overcome the 

“pleaser” mentality 

by Carol Adrienne, Craig Carr 

& Victoria Trabosh 

46 choice inspiration 

47 industry news 

Credentialing 

ICF continues work on 

professional standards 

by Ed Modell 

48 industry news 

Ethics Education 

In coaching, ignorance 

is definitely not bliss 

by Liora Rosen 

50 final say 

Dream Big 

12 ways to be a 21st 

Century Visionary 

by Marcia Wieder 

14 

PUBLISHER 

Garry T. Schleifer, PCC 

MANAGING EDITOR 

Janet Lees 

ART DIRECTOR 

Michele Singh 

EDITORIAL BOARD 

Carol Adrienne 

Teri-E Belf 

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Rich Fettke 

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DIRECTOR 

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Printed in the USA • June 2010 Issue. 

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choice thoughts 

From The Publisher 

O 


Over the last few months 

I have been in a financial business planning 

group, which met weekly for 12 

weeks to create and complete a business 

plan with action items for our respective 

companies. Of course mine was choice. 

My participation in this group gave me 

the opportunity to review and revise all 

of the information I have accumulated, 

learned and used over the years. One of 

the biggest learnings came in conjunction 

with Marcy Nelson-Garrison’s article 

from our last issue, “The Coach’s 

Toolbox” (March 2010, page 41). 

The article outlined the three stages of 

business growth, which really resonated 

with me. I translated those who are at 

each of the stages into “Initiators” 

(someone just starting with coach training 

and perhaps a business), “Imitators” 

(those who emulate the leaders ahead of 

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There is a clear parallel to the stages of 

business represented by our choice readership. 

Our content in the magazine, our 

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So as we move forward with choice 

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Garry T. Schleifer, PCC 

Publisher 


5 



If your 

clients 

are not 

journaling 

with you, 

you are 

coaching 

without 

insight. 

JournalEngine 

makes 

it easy. 

www.journalengine.com 

407-719-5117 

6 VOLUME 8 NUMBER 2 

choice thoughts 

From The Managing Editor 

There is no growth without 

change, and sometimes stepping 

outside your comfort zone can take 

you to new levels of success. That’s 

the message I got from this issue of 

choice. By combining the best of 

coaching and consulting, you can 

differentiate yourself and add value 

to your clients. 

Our experts have weighed in on 

the many ways coaching and consulting 

can work to take your business to 

the next level. In our opening cover 

story, Madeleine Homan Blanchard 

and Dr. Linda Miller outline how to 

meet client expectations by artfully 

blending the strengths of “close 

cousins” coaching and consulting. 

Next up, Janet Harvey looks at 

coaching and consulting through the 

lens of wholeness and uncovers a 

synergistic, win-win-win formula. 

Pauline Fleming explains why clients 

are seeking a coach-consultant 

hybrid who will support them 

through a variety of challenges. And 

in our final feature, Gail Barker outlines 

how niche coaching integrates 

the best of coaching and consulting. 

Our columns also pick up the 

theme of coaching and consulting, 

with Suzi Pomerantz giving her 

“perspective” that marketing yourself 

as a consultant can increase your 

revenue. Phillip Sandahl in “corporate 

leadership” lays the groundwork 

for wearing the multiple hats of 

coach, consultant and trainer when 

working with teams. And in our 

“impact” column, Miguel Bonilla 

and Bobbi Hahn demonstrate how 

coaching and consulting can help 

the nonprofit sector improve its 

effectiveness. In our “entrepreneur 

coach” column, Michel Neray 

explains how you can build your business 

by digging deeper into the elements 

that differentiate you from the 

rest. And of course this issue is also 

chock full of the tips, tools and experiential 

learning you’ve come to 

expect from choice. 

In short, this issue is about setting 

yourself apart by taking the best of 

coaching and consulting, combining 

them with the best you have to offer, 

and providing the very best value 

and impact to your clients. 

Perhaps Benjamin Franklin said it 

best: “Without continual growth 

and progress, such words as 

improvement, achievement and 

success have no meaning.” • 

Janet Lees, B.Journ. 

Managing Editor 





choice feedback 

OUR READERS GIVE FEEDBACK, PERSPECTIVES, CRITICISM & KUDOS 

I always read choice from cover 

to cover, and the issue on Positive 

Psychology was no exception. The 

magazine continues to bring forward 

issues and topics that are of special 

interest to the coaching community 

and help all of us make the kind of 

difference we want to make in the 

world. I was especially impressed to 

read that the ‘sticky situations’ section 

is being used as part of coaching 

training. Well deserved, well done. 

Michel Neray 

Chief Differentiation Officer 

The Essential Message 

Beautiful job on my article and 

love the title you gave it and the art – 

WOW! Thanks! 

Marcy Nelson-Garrison 

Great issue this month. I loved it 

… and I have received several emails 

already about my article. 

Patrick Williams 


I have been waiting for years for 

choice to do the eco-friendly thing and 

go back to sending your magazine in 

paper bags, not the polluting, fossilfuel-wasting 

plastic bags that are 

used now. I addressed this in a Letter 

to the Editor some years ago, got a 

favorable response, and that was the 

last I have heard of this matter. 

Laurie Rockwell 

Response from Customer Service: 

In the U.S., our magazines are mailed 

“naked;” just the issue with a postal 

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For our Canadian and international 

subscriptions we ship via DHL, and 

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consider a durable covering, to protect 

them as they travel far and wide. 

We’ve asked DHL in the past if there 

was an alternative to plastic and were 

told there was not. Our production 

manager will once again look into 

alternatives to plastic with DHL and 

we will provide an update on this 

issue. Thank you for your diligence 

and the reminder. In the meantime, 

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friendly digital edition which requires 

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Monica Lambert, CPC 

US Operations and Customer 

Service Manager 

choice, the magazine of 

professional coaching 

SEND YOUR FEEDBACK TO: LETTERS@CHOICE-ONLINE.COM 

WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! 



Do you 

have a 

GROWTH 

plan? 

CLIENT BASE 

INCOME 

IMPACT 

Compass knows how hard it is to 

build a coaching practice. We have 

developed a complete business 

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income, impact, efficiency, and results. 

Find your Compass at www.mylifecompass.com 



Departments 


Carol Adrienne, PhD, is an internationally-known 

author, intuitive counselor and life coach whose 

books have been translated into over 15 languages. 

As a master numerologist, workshop leader and life 

coach, she has helped thousands of people eliminate 

negative patterns, providing them with life-long tools 

for creating the life they want to live. 

carol22@sonic.net • www.caroladrienne.com 

Craig Carr, PCC, CPCC, has been a therapist, a Doctor 

of Chinese Medicine, and a senior faculty member 

with the Coaches Training Institute. He has co-written 

two programs for coaches and coaching clients, Life 

Lives Through You – Revealing the Code of Personal 

Change, and Danger, Sex, Magic – Living Beyond the 

Forbidden and Taboo, both delivered through his company, 

Soul-Force, Inc. Although his practice and facilitation 

varies widely, his current interest is with 

entrepreneurs, investors and executives rebounding in 

the current economy and in the process of re-building 

their life’s work. 

Craigcoach@sbcglobal.net 

www.soulforceinc.com 

Kat Knecht is a love, dating and relationship coach 

who teaches and coaches using her unique Art and 

Science of Romance course. She is also a leader for 

the Coaches Training Institute’s certification program. 

Along with her husband Curtis she is the co-owner of 

The Relationship Coaching Company. 

connect@relationshipcoaching.com 

www.relationshipcoaching.com 

Ed Modell, PCC, is a certified executive and life 

coach specializing in working with government, small 

businesses and nonprofit executives and professional 

service providers. He has held a number of roles with 

the ICF, including 2010 global ICF president-elect, 

past president of the Metro DC Chapter of ICF, chair of 

the global ICF Regulatory Committee for two years 

and co-founder of the ICF Conflict Coaching SIG. Prior 

to coaching, Modell practiced law for over 28 years at 

several major law firms in Washington, DC., specializing 

in civil litigation of large, complex cases. 

Ed@coachfederation.org 

www.coachfederation.org 

Marcy Nelson-Garrison, MA, LP, CPCC, is a product 

mentor and founder of www.coachingtoys.com, an 

online store featuring creative toys and tools for personal 

development. As a veteran traveler in the land 

of products, Marcy helps coaches, counselors and 

consultants leverage their own creativity for greater 

impact and profit. Her products include: Q? Basics, 

Open-Ended Questions for Coaching Mastery; The 

ProductPlanner and the Passion to Product home 

study program. 

marcy@coachingtoys.com 

www.ProductMentorCoaching.com 

Liora Rosen, MS, MA, founder of Proactive Coaching 

Solutions, is an executive and leadership coach partnering 

with clients to accelerate the process of their 

professional growth. She is a member of the ICF 

Ethics Committee, chair of the Ethics Education subcommittee 

and member of PCAM. Liora is the creator 

and trainer of “The ICF Code of Ethics – Your GPS for 

Coaching” global ethics-education program, presenter 

at the ICF 2009 conference and is a frequent contributor 

to Coaching World. 

Victoria Trabosh, CDC®, is an international speaker, 

trainer and facilitator with 30 years of large corporate 

and start-up business experience, in addition to 

coaching top executives worldwide. As president of 

the Itafari Foundation, a foundation for the people of 

Rwanda, she works tirelessly in helping all people 

become their personal best so that they can change 

the world. 

vicky@victoriatrabosh.com 

www.victoriatrabosh.com 

Marcia Wieder is CEO and founder of Dream University®. 

With 20 years’ coaching, training and speaking, 

Marcia is leading a “dream movement.” Author of 14 

books, she is the personal dream coach to Jack Canfield, 

stars in Beyond the Secret, and is a member of 

the Transformational Leadership Council. As past 

president of the National Association of Women Business 

Owners she was often in the White House. As a 

columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, she urged 

readers to take “The Great Dream Challenge.” Dream 

University® events include: the Dream Coach® Certification, 

Inspiring Speaker Workshop, and Create Your 

Future Now workshops. 

www.DreamUniversity.com/gift 



Columns Features 

Gail Barker, BA, CPCC, is principal of Stellar Coaching 

& Consulting, a certified professional life coach 

and an inspirational speaker. Since 2003, Gail has 

inspired her clients to live lives of ease and authenticity, 

based on the premise that “life is meant to be 

challenging, never burdensome.” Considered to be the 

“go-to expert on life balance for women leaders,” she 

is also co-author of The Control Freak’s Guide to Living 

Lightly: Manifesting a Life of Total Trust. 

gail@stellarcc.com • www.stellarcc.com 

Madeleine Homan Blanchard, BA, CMC, MCC, is a 

pioneer in the coaching profession and a leader in the 

coaching business for The Ken Blanchard Companies 

since 2000. With Linda Miller, she co-authored Coaching 

in Organizations (Wiley, 2008), Coaching Essentials for 

Leaders, a coaching skills program taught globally and a 

coaching chapter in The Ken Blanchard Companies’ 

Leading at a Higher Level. She also co-authored Leverage 

Your Best with Scott Blanchard. 

Madeleine.blanchard@kenblanchard.com 

www.coaching.com 

Pauline Fleming, MA, BEd, MCC, has facilitated the 

professional growth and development of leaders for 

over 15 years. She is considered a Trusted Advisor to 

businesses that want to grow their leaders, and leaders 

who want to grow their business. 

coach@ProActiveBusinessLeadership.com 

www.ProActiveBusinessLeadership.com 

Janet Harvey, MCC, is CEO of inviteCHANGE, a company 

created for those in search of meaningful 

processes for generating wholeness through coaching 

approach training programs and coaching services. 

Janet’s career spans 30 years. She embraces transformative 

coaching as a discovery process that invites 

and enlivens clients to choose beliefs and behaviors 

that generate a magnificent life experience, a consistent 

expression of a person’s core and essential self 

and a life of wholeness. 

Janet.harvey@invitechange.com 

www.invitechange.com 

Linda J. Miller, BA, MA, MCC, DHL, is a pioneer in the 

coaching profession and a leader in the coaching business 

for The Ken Blanchard Companies since 2000. With 

Madeleine Homan Blanchard, she co-authored Coaching 

in Organizations (Wiley, 2008), Coaching Essentials for 

Leaders, a coaching skills program taught globally and a 

coaching chapter in The Ken Blanchard Companies’ 

Leading at a Higher Level (FT press, 2009). Dr. Miller coauthored 

Coaching for Christian Leaders: A Practical Guide 

(Chalice Press, 2007). 

Linda.miller@kenblanchard.com 

www.coaching.com 

Miguel Bonilla, MS, MA, CC, has worked in the nonprofit 

sector for over 15 years, mostly in microenterprise program 

development, advocacy and social marketing. He is 

director of United Way of New York City’s Strengthening 

New York City Nonprofits, and has led several investments 

focused on building the capacity of nonprofits to pursue 

their mission. These programs include service grants for 

customized consulting, training and technology to develop 

the management systems of nonprofits aligned with the 

United Way of New York City’s goals. Miguel is a certified 

coach and is on the board of the Organization Development 

Network of Greater New York and most recently 

launched its first-ever OD Pro Bono Initiative. 

Bobbi Hahn, MPA, CC, is director of operations at National 

Urban Fellows, a national nonprofit based in New York 

City that provides fellowships to women and people of 

color seeking a Masters in Public Administration and a 

passion for social justice and equity in the nonprofit and 

government sectors. She has been working in the nonprofit 

sector for 10 years and is passionate about building leadership 

to strengthen the sector. 

Michel Neray, BSc, MBA, is chief differentiation officer of 

The Essential Message®, which helps companies and individuals 

to discover their true differentiation and to communicate 

it in the most compelling way. Michel certifies 

other coaches, consultants and copywriters in the Essential 

Message approach. There are now more than 17 certified 

Essential Message ‘consoachants’ in 6 countries. 

www.essentialmessage.com 

Suzi Pomerantz, BA, MA, MCC, is CEO of Innovative Leadership 

International LLC, an award-winning executive coach, 

facilitator and author with 17 years’ experience coaching leaders 

and teams in 140 organizations internationally. She was 

one of the first executive coaches to receive the MCC from the 

ICF, teaches at several top coach training schools and programs, 

serves on two advisory boards in the coaching industry, 

and authored 25 publications about coaching, ethics, and 

business development, including Seal the Deal. She founded 

the Leading Coaches’ Center and co-founded the Library of 

Professional Coaching. 

Suzi@LeadingCoachesCenter.com 

www.SuziPomerantz.com 

Phillip Sandahl, CPCC, MCC, is chief coaching officer and 

a co-founder of Team Coaching International, a global 

company with a presence in more than 20 countries, 

delivering results with a proven methodology that creates 

high performing, sustainable, inspired teams. Phil is also 

co-author of Co-Active Coaching. He has been coaching 

since 1996 and working primarily with teams since 2004. 

phillip@teamcoachinginternational.com 

www.teamcoachinginternational.com 


11 



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choice, the magazine of professional coaching 


choice books 

By Kat Knecht, PCC 


Change Agent 

Managing change in the personal, organizational, 

societal or spiritual areas of life 

Coaching and consulting are 

different processes from 

both the client and the professional’s 

point of view. What they 

share at the core, though, are clients 

who want to make a change and professionals 

ready to facilitate that 

change. Change is the bottom line. 

Change is what has potential clients 

picking up the phone. 

I have chosen to review a book that 

gives us a framework for understanding 

and enacting change, which is 

incredibly useful for both coach and 

consultant. The book, SWITCH: How To 

Change Things When Change Is Hard 

by brothers Chip and Dan Heath, uses 

the metaphor of riding an elephant 

down a path to illustrate their discoveries 

of what is involved when we 

want to make a change. 

This is a very clear and easy-tograsp 

metaphor around which the 

Heath brothers build a compelling 

and enlightening structure for managing 

change in the personal, organizational, 

societal or spiritual areas 

of our lives. Their basic concept: 

“The Rider” is our rational self: a 

few pounds of creativity, vision, selfdiscipline 

and mental clarity whose 

role is to direct the elephant down the 

desired path to a new destination. 

Surprise: what looks like resistance is 

often a lack of clarity, revealing the 

importance of crystal-clear directions. 

“The Elephant” is our emotional 

self: six tons of energy and inspiration 

that drives every change, though 

not necessarily in the direction the 

rider atop the elephant wants it to go. 

Surprise: what looks like laziness is 

often exhaustion – the rider’s control 

is precarious because the elephant is 

so powerful. Thus it’s essential we 

engage the elephant to carry us down 

the right path cooperatively. 

“The Path” is the situation and 

greater environment in which the 

desired change must happen in 

order to get the results both coach 

and consultant are hired by the 

client to get. Surprise: what looks 

like a people problem is often a situation 

problem; sometimes remarkably 

easy to solve. 

The alignment and integration of 

these three forces is the heart and 

soul of change. When we direct the 

Rider, motivate the Elephant and 

shape the Path, the change that may 

have seemed impossible becomes 

not only possible but also inevitable. 

The authors have done their homework 

and relate a mountain of evi- 

dence to support their theory. The 

evidence is delivered mostly in 

delightful stories of real-life situations 

all of us can identify with. 

One such story that gave me some 

insight is found early in the book, 

about an experiment in which a group 

of people were given bad-tasting stale 

popcorn free of charge before watching 

a movie. Some were given large 

containers, some small. At the end of 

the movie, all agreed that the popcorn 

tasted awful. They all reported that 

they had only eaten a small portion 

due to the taste. The truth, however, 

was that the people who had the large 

containers ate much more than the 

small container test group. It seems 

that having willpower and being com- 

BOOKS TO ENHANCE THE COACHING LIFESTYLE 

mitted to creating healthy habits can 

be greatly enhanced by making simple 

adjustments to our environment, like 

using smaller popcorn containers. 

Another story that piqued my interest 

highlighted a different aspect of 

change using two groups. Both 

groups were put in a room with a 

table full of radishes and fresh 

baked chocolate cookies. One group 

was instructed to only eat radishes 

while the other was allowed to eat 

as many cookies as they wished. 

After that, both groups were given 

“Helping people bring about positive change 

is at the heart of coaching.” 

an impossible puzzle to solve. The 

radish-eating group gave up very 

quickly while the chocolate chip 

cookie group stuck to the task for a 

significant amount of time. 

The authors contend that we 

humans only have a finite amount of 

resistance, which the radish eaters 

had used up. It is this limited 

amount of discipline to change, 

rather than laziness or lack of commitment, 

that can block making 

much-desired change. This information 

is excellent for both coaches 

and consultants to know. 

Helping people bring about positive 

changes in their lives is at the heart 

of coaching. Bringing about change 

easily is at the heart of this book. • 


13 


coaching tools 

CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE WAYS TO ENLIVEN AND REFRESH YOUR COACHING BUSINESS 


Money Habitudes A Guide for Professionals 

Working with Money Related Issues 190 

Money impacts everything, especially with the current economy. 

Having a way to address the beliefs our clients have around 

money can make a big difference in their success. Money 

Habitudes by Syble Solomon helps you have effective and powerful 

coaching conversations on this touchy topic. The card sort 

process gets to core money habits and attitudes and the workbook 

provides step by step guidance, worksheets and exercises 

to deepen your clients’ awareness and create specific goals. 

The six core money habitudes are: Security, Status, Selfless, 

Free Spirit, Targeted Goals, and Spontaneous. Our habitudes 

are a reflection of our personality and our upbringing, and as 

you can guess, these core beliefs are likely to show up in 

other arenas besides money. Most people are not conscious of 

their underlying money beliefs and this discovery process 

opens the door for very rich coaching conversations. 

The cards and workbook exercises can be used in individual 

work, couples coaching and workshops. The great thing about 

money habitudes is that it’s easy, hands-on, jargon-free, multisensory 

and appeals to both men and women. 

If you want to create money aha’s check out Money Habitudes! 

Effective Group Coaching 

by Jennifer J. Britton 

Group coaching is really coming into its 

own as more and more coaches discover 

the benefits of adding a group to their 

business model. It’s good for clients and 

for the coach’s bottom line. 

If you want to add group coaching to 

your business offering, Effective Group 

Coaching by Jennifer Britton is a must. It 

reflects the new industry standard and is destined to become 

a classic. Grounded in current research and best practices 

from luminaries in the coaching industry, it covers everything 

you could possibly want to know about creating, launching and 

running effective groups. It defines group coaching, talks about 

ROI, covers adult learning, group development and dynamics, 

core skills, design, delivery, systems, logistics, marketing, 

trends and even practical exercises to use in your groups. 

While it is a lot of information, it is broken up into easily 

digestible pieces. There are also lots of charts and worksheets 

as well as exercises you can use in your groups. 

An absolutely wonderful reference for both new and seasoned 

coaches. 


Coming Out of Hiding 

by Suzanne Falter-Barns 

Sometimes getting the kind of visibility that 

will leap a business forward is scary. 

Suzanne Falter-Barns’ two-CD set, Coming 

Out Of Hiding, addresses those fears and 

provides tools to stretch you beyond your 

current comfort zone. 

The instruction CD is from a live session in 

Barns’ Business Builders series. She talks 

about why we hide and the traps that keep us 

there. The guided meditation CD helps you 

get at the core rules you may have learned 

along the way that limit your success. The 

meditation is followed by a series of powerful 

affirmations, which you can listen to regularly 

or adapt and record in your own voice. 

We all want our clients to step into their 

highest potential and as Marianne 

Williamson says in her often-quoted piece 

Our Deepest Fear: “Your playing small does 

not serve the world.” This CD set is perfect 

for clients who are hesitant about stepping 

into a bigger light and it will also give you 

great material for coaching. We can also 

serve our clients by doing our own work in 

this area. Again from Marianne Williamson: 

“As we are liberated from our own fear, our 

presence automatically liberates others.” 



Joy Cards 

I have a soft spot in my heart for 

products that remind and inspire. 

This set of 30 Joy Cards from 

Lisa Allen is a delightful addition 

to that category. Each card has a 

photographic image on one side 

and a quote related to the image 

on the other. The images are artful 

and soothing, the quotes are fresh 

and interesting – not the familiar 

ones we see again and again. 

The cards have a spa feel to 

them and invite you to pause 

and breathe. Allen suggests 

choosing a card to carry with you 

for a day, propping one up on 

your keyboard or sending one off 

Releasing Blocks to Action by Ann Weiser Cornell 

Releasing Blocks to Action is a five-CD 

course grounded in a technique called 

Focusing. Blocks to action happen 

because something in you wants to 

take the action and something in you 

in a note card to a friend or a 

client. Invite workshop participants 

to choose a card as a 

takeaway or use them at an 

doesn’t. We tend to side with one part 

over the other and like any conflict this 

creates resistance. Focusing is a deep 

listening process that tunes into body 

awareness, works with the “felt sense” 

and brings great gentleness and curiosity 

to the part that doesn’t want to take 

the action. The underlying assumption 

is that all parts or voices within have 

wisdom and information to share. 

Ann Weiser Cornell is a masterful 

guide in this process. The two guided 

exercises per CD offer deeply 

intuitive, spacious, slowly unfolding 

experiences that can produce profound 

shifts in awareness. The 

By Marcy Nelson-Garrison, MA, LP, CPCC 

exhibit booth to invite a coaching 

conversation. Lots of ways to 

spread inspiration and joy with 

this sweet little deck. 

audio course covers relevant content 

about presence, qualities, myths and 

agency, and introduces four distinct 

patterns that show up: protection, 

rebellion, unfinished business and 

inner guidance. 

Although designed for individual 

work, the course offers a clear example 

of how to use the process with 

clients. I guarantee that as you use it 

for yourself, you will want to use it 

with your clients. What a great companion 

piece to a group program that 

is focused on action and ‘how to’ 

content. However you choose to use 

it, you won’t be disappointed! • 

Links to products reviewed above are available at www.coachingtoys.com 


15 





EXPERT GUIDANCE ON CRITICAL COACHING ISSUES 

Helping a client 

overcome the 

“pleaser”mentality 

the situation 

the experts weigh in 

By Carol Adrienne, PhD 

Your brief description of his internal situation seems 

to indicate a nature that has been locked into performing. 

If he is the type who believes that his survival 

depends on doing in order to prove his worthiness, 

then he must first become aware of such tendencies. No 

doubt he’ll continue to be active and busy, but the goal is to 

make choices that bring more happiness! 

Over-busyness could serve him by feeding that drive to 

perform, so that he can feel he is being there for everyone – 

except, of course, for himself. Our culture teaches us at an 

early age that we need to be better, try harder, and take on 

more and more, at the risk of ignoring parts of ourselves 

that other parts don’t approve of. As his coach, avoid giving 

the impression that he needs to fix anything, because then 

this becomes another thing on his “to-do” list. 

Get him to associate to his body and to his feelings in 

sessions and throughout his day. Awareness of the present 

is always the first step in transformation. The body is 

a master coach – it never lies. 

It’s also important for him to become aware of his inner 

dialogue. For example, is his identity based on such beliefs 

as, “I can’t afford to lose this job,” “I have to maintain a high 

profile in the community,” “People expect a lot from me,” or 

sticky 

situations 

“ My client is a successful business person with a demanding travel schedule, extensive 

family and community obligations, and a breakneck pace. He has a “pleaser” personality 

that has left him feeling overextended and out of control. He no longer feels he is doing 

his best in any situation. How can I help him discern which activities bring real joy and 

fulfillment, and develop the self-awareness and capacity to say ‘no’ to ones that don’t? ” 

Are you grappling with a sticky situation? 

You don’t have to go it alone. Let our senior coaches give you some different perspectives to consider. 

Email your situation to: editor@choice-online.com and put “sticky situations” in the subject line. 

“I can’t let anyone down”? Is his motivation to look good? 

Does he secretly feel that he will be sidelined if he doesn’t 

show constant enthusiasm and effort? Awareness sheds 

light on the underlying internal motivations at work when he 

is in the act of saying “yes” to something. Beliefs get locked 

in during childhood and continue to seem like reality. 

It’s fine to commit to something if it’s really important to 

you, but not all things are equally important. For example, 

spending a few hours with your child in activities that you 

both enjoy is more fulfilling than heading up the parent 

teacher association, no matter how worthy that activity. 

Your client needs to begin to discover and accept who he 

is, and let go of those activities that don’t give a sense of 

authentic purpose and enjoyment. Priorities become 

apparent and change happens almost effortlessly. 

Sitting quietly for two to five minutes each morning or 

evening could help begin to bring his life into focus. Written 

to-do lists keep us on track, and allow us to be flexible 

when necessary. Suggest that he re-think multi-tasking. 

Studies show that trying to do more than one thing at a 

time is actually counter-productive. 

I’d also have him practice saying no whenever possible 

over the next few days or weeks. Suggest that he say no 

honestly, without making up phony excuses. Saying no 

when we want to say no is healthy, stress-relieving, and 

liberating. It may even help us live longer! 


17 



sticky 

situations 

By Victoria Trabosh, CDC® 

The Power of NO! One of my favorite speech and 

client topics. I believe you’ve really identified the 

issue of what is at the base of his problems. 

Learning to say no is more powerful than almost anything 

we do as business people. 

The issue of doing too much is a universal issue. It may 

look different in other parts of the world, but we’re all the 

same. Whether this issue comes up in Rwanda with 

women who are struggling to make ends meet with a 

microfinance loan and don’t know where to focus, or a 

business leader who is overwhelmed in the U.S., it comes 

down to the same point: you are always saying “no” to 

someone. If you’re overextended and out of passion for 

everything you’re doing, the “no” is too often to yourself. 

Your client is on fire; we learned in school that if 

you’re on fire you should do three things: STOP! DROP! 

AND ROLL! 

Let’s put the fire out! 

Step #1: STOP! With his permission, identify the goal 

of how he wants his life to look, what he values, and 

what activities he not only enjoys, but finds the most 

successful, profitable and emotionally fulfilling. Help him 

identify what he wants to STOP doing – with no material 

By Craig Carr, PCC 

This, I would argue, is a pattern that ranks high on 

the Top Five Most Personally Destructive Behaviors 

of All-Time List! It ranks high on a “Most 

Commonly Found” list, too! 

As a coach you will see forms of this behavior abounding 

because we work with people who are out there in 

the marketplace – they are making deals, making a living 

and building careers – and for better or worse it’s widely 

accepted that if you make someone feel good you will be 

liked and supported by them on the ladder of success. 

This is just one of the dynamics of social interaction 

that is part of a huge meta-process we all participate in. 

We play by the rules of the game but quickly forget the 

needs of the players. The problem for any individual player 

is the separation that occurs between what they do 

and “who they really are.” 

Briefly stated, when the joy someone else might feel 

from your action becomes more important than the joy you 

feel, the door opens for all sorts of unintended impact. 

In this case, the result is that your client has become 

over-extended and out of control. He still may think he can 

improve conditions by working harder and doing the same 

things he has always done. Because that is impossible, he 


effect on his overall goals. 

Step #2: DROP! Make a list of what he wants to DROP 

from his life. Shockingly, when he learns to say no to those 

things that don’t serve him, there will be no material effect 

on his life or business. The problem with ‘doing it all’ is that 

he’s not really showing up for everything he’s committed to; 

as a result, his credibility is actually lessened by being 

overextended. Dropping those extra activities for which he 

is not passionate and committed will get him back to where 

he wants to be personally and professionally. He can then 

make time for what is really important to him. 

Step #3: ROLL! Can you imagine with him what life 

he’d truly like to design? “Let’s roll” is a statement 

that’s been used to say, with determination, we’re moving 

out – we’re going to reach our goals. Let’s ROLL will 

allow him to take what he’s learned and make the life he 

wants – one in which he is most successful, most productive 

and most passionate. 

In summary, your client is every client because we all 

have the capacity to do too much. Successful people often 

forget where their pause button lies. Taking stock and 

inventory of his life (on a regular basis) will allow him to 

continue to be successful. Then today’s success will lead 

to tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities. He must then 

continue that success by never forgetting the power of no. 

risks certain outcomes: low-grade resentment is likely, if not 

outright anger. Unless he is a saint he may exhibit passive 

aggressive behavior that could even become explosive. Or, 

he may be the type who takes on depression as a way out of 

the pattern. Depression, after all, does not make others feel 

bad! It’s a perfect solution that is commonly chosen, and in 

the process he can martyr himself for the good of all! 

I may exaggerate what may become of this client, but 

offer you this context in preface to my answer about 

“what to do.” This pattern is no joke. 

I agree it is essential that your client gain awareness 

of the flawed basis of his choices. There are options, 

and as his coach I suggest you raise the perception of 

what is at stake. A chunk of your job is to show him the 

insidious nature of this pattern. As “right” as it looks to 

the world, it leaves him the dregs of his efforts and in 

the end is a losing game on so many levels. 

Finally, a return to values that link to joy and fulfillment 

will certainly be useful, but you must also ground the concept 

of wholeness in a powerful way. Resolving separation 

from Self requires commitment to a “Self-first” practice. 

Establish recognition that he is swimming upstream and 

help him feel the futility of it. This might take awhile so you 

will have to stand firm in the vision of who he can be, as 

there is likely to be resistance to such “selfish” change.• 


entrepreneur coach 


Dig Deeper 

When it comes to differentiating your coaching business, the deeper you 

dig, the better (and more authentically) you build your business 

By Michel Neray, BSc, MBA 

Imagine you are the first doctor to 

travel to a small, remote village. 

Obviously, when someone needs a 

doctor, they call you. 

Now imagine the village is increasing 

in population. With the promise of 

a ready clientele, more and more doctors 

move into the area. Suddenly 

people begin to ask themselves, 

‘which doctor should I go to?’ Now 

you have competition – and the need 

to differentiate yourself from all of 

the other doctors. 

As each specialty fills up with more 

people, it gets sliced and diced into 

finer and finer sub-specialties. That’s 

why we have doctors who specialize 

by part of the body. We have doctors 

who specialize by type of patient. We 

have doctors who focus on geographic 

regions. And we have doctors who 

work in small teams, in large corporations 

and as individual ‘freelancers.’ 

Replace ‘doctor’ with ‘coach’ in the 

example above, and you’ll see this is 

where we are in the coaching industry 

today. The days are long gone when 

you could credibly say, ‘I can coach 

anyone through anything.’ 

That’s why, if you are a life coach, 

you’re faced with the challenge of differentiating 

yourself against all the 

other life coaches. If you’re a business 

coach, you are faced with the challenge 

of differentiating yourself against 

all the other business coaches. 

Five Layers of Differentiation 

Archeologists define the different layers 

they uncover during an archeological 

dig. Each layer holds features that 

help us learn about the history of our 

civilization. 

Let me take you on a different kind 

“The days are long 

gone when you 

could credibly say, 

‘I can coach anyone 

through anything.’” 

of archeological dig. In this dig, you’ll 

discover five different layers of differentiation 

that are available to you. 

The deepest levels link directly to the 

core of who you are as a person, and 

they provide you with the greatest 

leverage as you build your business. 

Layer #1: What 

‘What’ differentiation can be best 

described by this very straight-forward 

question: Do you get better results 

than everyone else in your industry? 

What we’re looking for here are the 

generic, quantitative end results that 

everyone in your field would love to 

promise. It’s what your clients and customers 

want when all is said and done. 

Already, you can see how problematic 

this might be. Most of the work you 

do cannot be quantified, and even if it 

were quantifiable, statistics don’t readily 

exist that allow you to compare your 

performance with everyone else’s. Can 

you imagine making a claim like, ‘I 

bring my clients from a 2.4 on the happiness 

scale up to 9.8; more than any 

other coach in the world!’? 

Before you abandon this approach 

entirely, however, understand that it’s 

extremely helpful for you to identify 

what specific variables you would use 

HOW TO SUCCEED AT THE BUSINESS OF COACHING 

for ‘What’ differentiation if you could. 

Almost any communication you have 

with potential clients, either in verbal 

conversation or written on your home 

page, should relate to the end results 

your clients are paying their hardearned 

money for. Compelling testimonials 

have to be selected or 

coached out of clients with a clear 

idea of the end results you promise. 

Are you scattered all over the place 

or can you narrow down the end 

results to a few you can at least 

claim expertise in and success with? 

Once you can jot down three ‘what’ 

variables that are directly related to 

the work you do, it’s time to grab 

your shovel. 

Layer #2: Who, Where, When 

The thinking behind Who, Where and 

When differentiation goes something 

like this: If you can’t legitimately and 

credibly claim that you are the best in 

your field, how can you narrow the 

definition of your field or highlight an 

aspect of your business so that you 

can be best or unique in something? 

The most common ways you can 

do this are by digging up your who, 

where and when variables: geography/location 

(the only life coach in 


19 


entrepreneur 

coach 


Pittsville); type of customer (the only 

coach for lawyers); and stage of life 

or business (the only coach for premenopausal 

women experiencing 

‘empty-nest’ syndrome). 

Finding compelling points of difference 

using this layer of differentiation 

depends on how relevant the 

narrower definition of your field is to 

your clients and customers, and on 

how obvious the connection is 

between your claim and the end 

results you pinpointed in ‘What’ differentiation. 

Can you narrow the definition of 

what you do, where you do it, when 

you do it or who you do it for, that 

would enable you to claim a differentiating 

advantage? 

Layer #3: Upper Why 

‘Upper Why’ differentiation answers a 

key question always at the back of 

potential clients’ minds: ‘Why should 


“Most clients tell me 

the way they work is 

intuitive – they just do 

it naturally. As a result 

they never look into 

their methodology 

with any depth.” 

I believe you have the capability to do 

what you say you can do?’ 

Investment advisors, real estate 

agents, consultants, coaches and the 

full range of other independent professionals 

often use years of experience, 

client list, or credentials, e.g.: 

• ‘Fred Smith, CPP, MBA, IRC, MS 

Gold Partner, Master Certified’; 

• ‘Senior partners have over a hundred 

years’ combined experience.’ 

What do you tell your clients to 

give them more confidence that you 

can actually deliver the goods? 

Layer #4: How 

Do you have a unique approach in 

the work you do? Do you have a 

comprehensive system or discovery 

process? Is there one step of an 

established process that you do 

especially well? Or, is there a secret 

ingredient you add to a popular 

recipe that makes it even better? 

If you’re like most coaches (and 

indeed, like most people), the answer 

is a resounding, ‘I don’t know.’ In 

fact, most people tell me that the 

way they work is intuitive – they just 

do it naturally. As a result they never 

look into their own methodology with 

any depth. 

The thing is, ‘how’ you do what 

you do is as unique to you as who 

you are. No one is wired quite the 



same way you are, and no one has 

the same set of formative experiences, 

perspective or DNA. Like it 

or not, you have a unique way of 

viewing the world around you. 

Things that may seem obvious to 

you are totally ignored by others 

faced with the same challenge. 

You may pick up certain pieces of 

the puzzle that other people leave 

on the floor. 

Even if you are applying a rigid 

methodology, the way you implement 

or apply it is influenced by 

who you are as an individual. 

Another way to look at it is this: 

your ‘how’ is different from everyone 

else’s ‘how’ in at least one significant 

way. 

Exploring your unique approach 

also helps you discover which specific 

aspect of the general service 

you excel at. You may find that you 

are so good in one particular area 

that you can create an entirely new 

niche within your general category. 

Can you define your uniqueness 

to the point where you can turn 

your ‘how’ into your ‘what’? 

Layer #5: Deeper Why 

Why do you do what you do? 

Now, before you spout off the 

usual motherhood statements 

about wanting to help people, 

think carefully about the question. 

I am not asking why you decided 

to become a coach. I am asking: 

why you are so drawn to the specific 

challenge you discovered in 

the ‘How’ differentiation layer? 

If you’re like most of the coaches, 

speakers and other independent 

professionals I work with, your 

‘why’ can be traced back to a deep 

pain, challenge or shame you experienced 

in your personal life history. 

Perhaps the challenge you are 

driven to solve today is a challenge 

you faced yourself. Perhaps the 

thing you help other people overcome 

is the lesson you learned – 

the hard way. Perhaps the lesson 

you help other people learn is the 

same lesson you continue to learn 

over and over again. Perhaps you 

are driven by the shame and hurt 

that was passed down to you by 

your parents. 

The deepest layer of differentiation 

exposes the most vulnerable 

part of you. That’s what makes it 

authentic. That’s why it fuels your 

passion. 

So now, again, why do you do 

what you do? 

Look Up … Way Up! 

Now that you’ve dug your way to the 

bottom layer, look up through the 

layers above you. 

Can you redefine your what, who, 

where and when so that all the elements 

sit directly above your how 

and why? Throw away anything that 

doesn’t link directly to your core. 

You no longer need to do it all – 

you can focus on the piece that you 

do better than anyone else in the 

world. 

What makes you truly different is 

the basis of your self-confidence, 

your competitive advantage in your 

“The deepest layer of differentiation exposes 

the most vulnerable part of you. That’s 

what makes it authentic. That’s why it 

fuels your passion.” 

market, and ultimately, your success 

in life and business. 

You are now standing on the 

foundation of your authentic differentiation. 

You are standing in the 

place where you have the most passion, 

the most power and the greatest 

opportunity to make the change 

you are driven to make. 

Isn’t this what you want to be 

known for? • 


21 



Coaching 

&Consulting 

Meeting client expectations with an artful 

blend of these two synergistic disciplines 

What is the difference between consulting and 

coaching? Who does what and how? How does, 

and should, consulting work with coaching? Find 

some answers as we compare and contrast these 

two different and yet complementary professions. 



By Madeleine Homan Blanchard, BA, CMC, MCC 

and Dr. Linda J. Miller, BA, MA, MCC 

One of our mentors, Thomas Leonard, used to say, “All coaches are also 

consultants, but not all consultants are coaches.” Like many of his 

assertions, it made a lot of people mad. However, 15 years later, we 

agree that he had a good point. 

Drawing the distinction between coaching and consulting may seem like an 

academic exercise, but it has been critical in explaining the difference between 

the two disciplines to our clients who are working in organizations. They expect 

coaching to be a little bit different from consulting, but they aren’t quite sure 

what that difference is. They are hoping for more, even if they aren’t sure what 

form that might take. We have had to get extremely clear about the distinctions 

and the rules, so we can break them in ways that will be most useful for the client. 

Coaching or Consulting? 

Several years ago the opportunity arose to do two coaching sessions, as a “taste 

test” for a potentially large contract, with a powerful decision maker in a Fortune 

500 company. The stakes were high. The experience had to be a home run. At the 

beginning of the first coaching call, the client asked about the differences 

between coaching and consulting. We explained. At the end of the first coaching 

session, we asked what he thought. He responded, “I think that was at least 80 

percent consulting!” Ouch, quite a blow to an MCC’s ego. 

At the beginning of the second call, we clearly stated that the client would 

experience coaching, not consulting, at least 80 percent of the time (he was dubi- 

“ Our corporate clients expect 

their coaches to know more than 

they do about leadership and 

management.” 


Feature 

23 




&Consulting 

PURE CONSULTING 

Focusing on “me” 

Telling 

Advising 

Solving 

Knowing what’s best 

Demonstrating subject matter 

expertise 

Promoting dependence 

ous based on his previous experience). 

At the end of the second session, 

we again asked what he 

thought. This time, he responded, 

“That was definitely different; definitely 

coaching at least 80 percent of 

the time.” “Which did you prefer?” 

we asked. Without missing a beat, he 

replied, “I much preferred last 

week’s call. It was much easier for 

me. But if you were to ask me which 

call was most helpful, I have to say 

that today was because I came up 

with the answers myself.” 

We took note. This opinion is very 

much what we have experienced 

among our clients, all of whom are 

experts in their own field and respect 

expertise. Coaching is a partnering 

methodology that increases awareness 

and draws out ideas and options 


PURE COACHING 

Focusing on “you” 

Asking 

Drawing out 

Promoting Discovery 

Testing what’s best 

Demonstrating process 

expertise 

Promoting interdependence 

from the person being coached so 

that the person can move forward 

into intentional action. Consulting is 

a solution-based methodology that 

provides ideas, options and solutions, 

with the hope that the person, 

team or organization will implement 

them. Our clients, it turns out, 

require an artful blend of both. 

Expectations 

Setting expectations is important in 

both coaching and consulting. If the 

expectation is that the coach will listen, 

ask powerful questions, draw 

out ideas and options and encourage 

forward movement, the coach needs 

to stay in the role of behind-thescenes 

thought partner. In some 

cases, an experienced coach will 

know of research, a model or some 

“ Consultants who make their 

clients feel smart and valued 

will never want for work.” 

fact that they feel would be criminal 

to withhold from the client. If the 

coach switches hats when needed 

and becomes a consultant, offering 

ideas, options and solutions, it is 

incumbent upon the coach to gain 

permission, point out what they are 

doing and to go back to coaching 

after the information is shared. 

Some ways to introduce an idea or 

something helpful might be: 

• “I have an idea that I’ve seen 

work for others in your situation. 

Would it be helpful to hear it?” 

• “There are some options that 

might be appealing to you – what do 

you think?” 

• “May I share a model that might 

make it easier to analyze this situation?” 

• “There is some research that may 

interest you as we deepen this 

inquiry, if you are interested?” 

Our corporate clients expect their 

coaches to know more than they do 

about leadership and management. 

They expect to learn from their 

coaches. Although at The Ken 

Blanchard Companies, we vet our 

coaches very carefully to make sure 

they know the difference between 

coaching and consulting, we also 

expect them to have a broad and 

deep knowledge base to draw from. 

Clients love to hear about the latest 

research and make decisions based 

on the best available information 

and their own wisdom. If our coaches 

simply asked them what their 

ideas were and never added anything, 

their clients might not show 

up for another session. 

Regardless of the type of coaching, 



it’s helpful to have expertise in the 

areas of human development, personality 

and temperament preference, 

cultural differences and universal 

laws. Coaches working in the 

business and corporate arenas must 

be well versed in organizational 

development, best management and 

leadership practices, and general 

business language. Although the primary 

job of the coach is to create an 

environment for growth and evoke 

the best from the client, a corporate 

coach may be in trouble if he does 

not add consistent value with relevant 

content. 

“ Consulting and coaching are 

close cousins, and at times the 

lines definitely get crossed.” 

The consultant who does consistently 

great work and is asked to 

return again and again is probably 

doing some coaching – partnering 

with the client to create an atmosphere 

where everyone is challenged 

to bring their best, drawing out 

knowledge and wisdom when appro- 

priate. Who doesn’t love feeling 

smarter? Consultants who make 

their clients feel smart and valued 

will never want for work. 

Distinctions 

Consulting and coaching are close 

cousins, and at times the lines defi- 



&Consulting 

25 




&Consulting 

“ Both coaching and consulting 

have a place, as long as the 

coach can get back to coaching.” 

nitely get crossed. And ultimately 

who cares really? Why is this conversation 

even important? As coaches, 

we traffic in distinctions, and it is 

important to be accurate when 

describing what we do. For corporate 

and business coaches, it is 

important to understand the differ- 


ent competencies required for both. 

We know of many excellent coaches 

who have had trouble with their ICF 

credentialing exams because they use a 

blend of coaching and consulting. 

While this may be effective with 

clients, it is not helpful with the credentialing 

process. As coaches are 

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preparing for ICF exams, it’s important 

to demonstrate ‘pure’ coaching. 

When a coach has mastered ‘pure’ 

coaching, then s/he can choose to utilize 

it, or a hybrid of coaching and consulting 

when the situation requires. 

Remember the man who was 

coached and who said that he gained 

more benefit from the coaching call 

that was 80 percent coaching? He 

added at the end of the call, “I think 

the coach approach is what I need, but 

I also think I have some things to learn 

from you.” Both coaching and consulting 

have a place, as long as the coach 

knows how to get back to coaching. 


Image by digitalgecko Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.com 

By Janet Harvey, MCC 

The Top 20 Best Companies 

for Leaders1 outperformed 

the Standard & Poor’s 500 

index over a five-year period by eight 

to one. Why? The leaders in these 

companies know a secret: what others 

perceive as “soft” has very, very 

hard implications for performance. 

Wholeness matters. 

Galileo once said, “You cannot 

teach humans anything. You can 

only help them discover it within 

themselves.” Wise words that give 

us a clue about wholeness – that 

quality or state of being that is in us 

already, only we don’t choose to see, 

accept or honor it enough! When 

you, as a consultant or a coach, present 

your value proposition, what 

do you make most important? 

Consider these truths: 

• Organizations don’t buy consulting 

services. Consultant con- 

tracts are signed to gain access to 

ideas, knowledge and expertise 

which organizational leaders perceive 

will improve performance. 

Partnering and co-creation are critical 

in an increasingly complex and 

globally connected environment. 

• Organizations don’t buy coaching 

services. Coach contracts secure 

access to relationship competency 

that supports people in the organization 

to perform better, especially in 

terms of leadership, execution and 

strategic thinking. 

The bottom line for organizations, 

whether you are a consultant or a 

coach or both, is better performance. 

Specifically, your value proposition 

must deliver different results than 

organizational leaders already understand 

how to generate. Here are 

some ways each service delivers bottom 

line impact on performance. 

Consultants: 

• Contribute new knowledge and 

technical competence for creating 

organizational results; 

• Provide objective research and 

analytical assessment upon which to 

base relevant content recommendations 

for change; 



&Consulting 

Wholeness 

Matters 

Be consultant AND coach 

“ Focusing on 

the benefits 

of using 

consulting 

and coaching 

services is a 

synergistic, 

win-win-win 

formula.” 

27 




&Consulting 

wholeness (n.) from Greek, holos; whole; the quality 

or state of being whole, entire, or sound; entireness; 

totality; completeness. 

1. An unreduced or unbroken completeness or 

totality [synonym: integrity, unity] 2. A state of 

robust good health [synonym: haleness] 

human wholeness (n.) 1. A conscious state of integrating 

the mind, body and spirit. 2. A healthy love for 

the “self” and awareness of the choices to be and to 

become more. 

organizational wholeness (n.) 1. A capacity for cooperation 

and collaboration versus control and power. 

2. A mutual commitment between leadership and 

employees that enables people to contribute their 

whole selves to any experience. 3. A path to productivity, 

innovation and effectiveness created by an environment 

which fosters resilience, adaptability, acceptance 

of difference and unconditional curiosity. 

• Co-create answers and action 

plans for individuals and teams to 

create and manage knowledge as well 

as implement change. 

Coaches: 

• Focus attention on underlying 

motivation that compels people 

toward effective relationships through 

deep listening and acceptance of 

wholeness; 

• Model and impart unconditional 

curiosity that creates awareness, 

accesses hidden strengths and generates 

clarity and alignment; 

• Partner with leaders to co-create 

an environment for direct communi- 


cation, powerful questions and teamwork 

that is the source of improved 

performance. 

Partnering to address key organizational 

issues by focusing on the 

benefits of using consulting and 

coaching services is a synergistic, 

win-win-win formula. 

Consulting competence attends to 

the process of change that is relevant 

to strategic business content and 

operational execution and productivity. 

The synergy between this service 

and effective professional 

coaching is the opportunity to simultaneously 

address the human relationship 

with change. Ultimately, 

performance is about leadership and 

this is a central focus of consulting 

and coaching. 

Leaders Drive 

Performance 

The best leaders drive performance 

through the environment they create. 

Approaches that lasted for more 

than a century, focusing on control 

and causation, are quickly being recognized 

as illusions and a liability. 

What is replacing the tradition of 

predictability and repeatability? A 

call for wholeness, not perfection. 

The lens of wholeness focuses on 

building long-term value rather than 

short-term cost efficiency. Effective 

consultants bring organizational 

leaders strategic awareness about 

essential knowledge within an indus- 

“ Ultimately, performance is 

about leadership and this is a 

central focus of consulting and 

coaching.” 



try and across disciplines. This work 

supports holistic thinking, revelation 

about patterns of opportunity and 

identification of paths for leverage. 

Creating an environment of wholeness 

focuses upon developing the people 

who will sustain an organization in 

any economic or competitive landscape. 

Effective coaches facilitate 

leader awareness of blind spots and 

limiting beliefs that exhaust energy 

and hinder innate creativity. 

Performance Focus 

Consider how your contract for services 

transforms when you focus on 

the performance an organization 

delivers as a result of investing in 

your services. Here is an example to 

consider. Dick Brass, a vice president 

for Microsoft from 1997 to 

2004, wrote a New York Times op-ed 

piece on February 4, 2010, about 

internal competition. “When competition 

becomes uncontrolled and 

destructive it creates a dysfunctional 

corporate culture in which big established 

groups are allowed to prey 

upon emerging teams, belittle their 

efforts, compete unfairly against 

them for resources and over time 

hector them out of existence.” 

So many things are right at 

Microsoft and yet 10 years after the 

early prototypes they had in devel- 

opment were squashed, Apple and 

Amazon are the market makers for 

e-books and tablet computing. 

What if your value proposition 

delivered these benefits? 

• Eliminate paralyzing competitive 

conflict inside the organization 

by improving leadership clarity, 

engagement and strategic alignment. 

• Catalyze solution thinking and 

generate customer-responsive change 

by combining technical and emotional/interpersonal 

competence in leaders 

at every level. 

• Foster sustainable customer focus 

by creating cultural norms for high 

accountability and commitment to 

delivery customer results. 

The Internet shrinks geographic 

distance and social media technology 

is dissolving communication barriers. 

Combined, these two factors 

alone make “new ideas” almost 

impossible to safeguard from competitive 

forces. With effective consulting 

and coaching, organizational 

leaders adopt resilience for faster 

responsiveness, allowing for adaptation 

at the speed of change, and 

often initiating the pace. 

What people deliver makes the difference 

between successful performance 

and business failure. Workplace 

environments that reward impact and 

positive influence on an organization’s 

customers are winning in the market. 

The synergy of consulting and coaching 

services powerfully focused on 

what people deliver will generate 

game-changing results. Why? 

Performance = Energy 

The absolute belief in and full acceptance 

of each person’s unique whole- 

ness is an act of freedom. Consider 

for a moment how much energy individuals 

expend each day wondering 

how they compare, measure up or 

advance over another in a given relationship 

or situation. What is available 

when we free up that energy? 

Belief in, and acceptance of, each 

other’s human wholeness access idle 

energy and allow two important 

leadership alternatives: 

1. Confident expression of self, unencumbered 

by self-conscious censoring 

so that bold curiosity, imagination 

and creativity are available; 

2. Deep listening and complete 

presence with another so that connection 

and engagement is more complete. 

If we took wholeness seriously, 

“We’d include more of what was 

involved – and more of who was 

involved – in any situation we were 

dealing with. We’d try to consider 

anything that might be relevant, and 

we’d make sure all stakeholders were 

involved. Ideally, we’d include any- 



&Consulting 

“ The lens of wholeness focuses on building long-term 

value rather than short-term cost efficiency.” 

29 





&Consulting 

“ The synergy of consulting and 

coaching services powerfully 

focused on what people 

deliver will generate gamechanging 

results.” 

thing and anyone related to the situation 

– as much as we could tolerate. Of 

course we all have our limits, but we’d 

continually stretch our ability to embrace 

more and more reality – more and more 

viewpoints and approaches and diversity 

and nuance and complexity. We’d want to 

get a sense of the whole picture – or as 

close to it as we could get.” 2 

The old adage, “the whole is greater 

than the sum of the parts” applies inside 

organizations and has the potential to 

generate exponential improvement. 

Dan Pink’s latest book, Drive, The 

Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, 

outlines three requirements in the organizational 

environment for intrinsic 

motivation to flourish. Employees must: 

1. Have choice about what they do 

and with whom they do it; 

2. Desire mastery of tasks and 

skills that matter to them; 

3. See the work as contributing to a 

greater purpose. 

As the research in this book points 

out, these factors are delivering 

results. Leaders who create environments 

with these elements will release 

the individual energy wasted on internal 

competition and self-interest, and 

bring more of each person into collaboration 

and team activities. Wholeness 

is another synergistic, win-win-win for- 

mula that consultants and coaches are 

well suited to support. 

Be Synergistic 

What do we learn from the Top 20 Best 

Companies for Leaders? The myriad of 

factors that are driving a change in fundamental 

business performance principles 

create tremendous opportunities 

for the synergy of consulting and 

coaching. Here are the elements to 

consider as you refine your value 

proposition in the marketplace. 

Cultures inside the Top 20 Best 

Companies for Leaders are: 

• Big, complex and global; global issues 

are important and a pool of successors 

for mission critical roles is paramount. 

• Modern, fun, learning-oriented 

workplaces; moving between functions 

is extremely common; people are 

expected to lead regardless of position 

authority; emotions are openly discussed 

in the workplace. 

• Collaboration is the path to innovation; 

employees are encouraged to take 

new approaches to solving problems; if 

you see a problem or opportunity you 

are allowed to address it. 

Take wholeness seriously and win! 

1 Hay Group/Bloomberg Business Week 2009 Best 

Companies for Leadership Study 

2 The Co-Intelligence Institute; www.co-intelligence.org 



By Pauline Fleming, MCC 

When it comes to purchasing 

– from buying 

new software to selecting 

the right executive coach – value 

has become the driving factor in corporate, 

business and consumer decision-making. 

Because managers and employees 

are expected to produce improved 

results with fewer resources, buyers 

are seeking cross-functionality, significant 

return-on-investment, flexibility, 

and reliability. 

Thus, the trend is that more and 

more clients want coaches to be “the 

source for resources.” For example, a 

key decision-maker mentions a challenge 

their organization is having in 

a regular conversation. You happen 

to have a special report that addresses 

this specific challenge. You ask if 

they would be interested in receiving 

this special report. They are 

The Value 

of theTrusted 

Advisor 

How clients are moving from 

consulting to coaching 

grateful, and mention they have a 

meeting with the senior leadership 

team where they will speak about it. 

Your preparedness with contentrich 

resources pays off. 

Another example of being the 

source for resources is when a decision-maker 

is in need of candidates for 

a vacant position and asks you if you 

know anyone. Remember to always 

share more than one option and this 

way the choice and outcomes remain 

the client’s (three is a solid number 

of choices when referring or sharing). 

By providing numerous products, 

resources, articles and contacts, 

the client’s relationship with you as a 

coach becomes less about bottom-line 

numbers and more about you being an 

invaluable source of expertise. 

Take a coach approach and ask, 

“What challenges might I be able to 

support you with outside of our regular 

coaching relationship?” Then 

watch what comes your way. 

Value = Many Hats 

A coach empowers clients to discover 

their own solutions and design a 

strategy, then helps the client manage 

accountability. A consultant typically 

is expected to provide specific recommendations 

for solutions, actively 

assist in the design and implementation 

of a strategy, and possibly produce 

the result on behalf of the 

client. More and more, clients are 

seeking a coach-consultant hybrid. 

In addition to the traditional oneon-one 

access, clients want access to 

one go-to person who will support 

them through a variety of challenges. 

At the same time, the client appreciates 

owning their solutions, having a 

sounding board, implementing the 

action plan themselves without the 

implementation success leaving with 

the expert. This incredible opportunity 

allows you, the coach, to honor 

your commitment to the coach 

approach, yet still grow long-term 



&Consulting 

31 




&Consulting 

relationships with your favorite 

clients. Hear what the client is asking 

for (like a retreat, workshop, 

motivational day and so on), and 

then put a coaching framework 

around it by providing a process 

rather than an event. 

Value is the key factor for most 

buyers, and a coach with specific 

expertise may have an advantage 


today. Because of their expertise, the 

client may view them as a more 

viable resource. However, while 

background is important in fieldfocused 

coaching assignments, the 

“ More and more, clients are seeking a 

coach-consultant hybrid.” 

generalist can still compete. As you 

learn about your client’s challenges, 

identify the ones for which you feel a 

particular passion. Consider the 

solutions to these challenges and 

frame them in questions and action 

ideas. An excellent tactic is to use a 

case study format. This allows you to 

demonstrate your competency to go 

deep and wide with a client, while 

saving clients from the hassle of having 

to find multiple experts to help 

them navigate through their manylayered 

challenges. 

Rather than being known for only 

one service, you become a solution 

to multiple problems for the HR 

department. And, as you deliver 

results for the HR department, your 

name is then passed along to other 

managers as their coach of choice. 

Dedicated to my friend Kim George 



Value = Trust 

Strong relationships are the new currency. 

People are buying from those 

they trust and they are moving away 

from solving things on their own. 

This means there is still business out 

there—decision makers are giving it 

to those who deliver value. Deliver 

on your promises and consider providing 

packages with “loyalty pricing” 

when they send you more than 

one client. This creates a deposit into 

their “trust bank account”. Research 

has shown that the best results come 

from a combination of internal and 

external coaching. Focus on your 

most important relationships and 

put emphasis on how you can support 

their internal mandates. 

The corporate environment is 

hungry to find someone who will 

truly listen! Polish your coaching 

competencies and you are on your 

way to being their trusted advisor. 

Something to remember is that your 

coaching skill-set is just one tool in 

your toolbox. During the course of 

your business you may find yourself 

working with clients from numerous 

industries and fields, in addition to 

specializing in a specific area like 

sales, or employee recognition programs. 

As you accumulate these 

experiences, you gain a collection of 

best practices. Turn this knowledge 

into tangible resources, coaching 

themes, tele-seminar programs, and 

downloadable resources. You will 

soon become known as the expert. 

You will be elevated from coach to 

trusted advisor because you have 

knowledge, wisdom and resources in 

the areas that are most important to 

your clients. 

Using your core coaching competencies 

as a foundation, carve out the 

niches in which you have experience 

and assets. While I don’t focus on a 

specific industry, the blending of 

business boost camps, leadership 

communication, assessments and 

employee engagement practices 

“ Clients want access to one 

go-to person who will support 

them through a variety of 

challenges.” 

have led to relationships that extend 

over many years. It’s to the point 

where one of my clients has written 

me into their business plan as both 

their coach and a member of their 

advisory board! 

What led to this role was the conscious 

choice to develop more tools 

than just coaching skills and applying 

a coach approach. Coupled with taking 

care of important relationships 

and being the “source for resources,” 

my clients have made me their go-to 

person. We’ve built significant trust 

and this is especially important in 

today’s business environment. 

(Special note: although clients may 

see you as their trusted advisor, it is 

not because you give them advice; it 

is because of the comfort you provide 

in helping them select and act 

on their own ideas). 

Value = Variety 

Leadership forums are the client’s 

new jargon for what is actually group 

coaching. Make sure you use your 

client’s language and offer variety – 

individual and group coaching, 

workshop facilitation, speaking, 

product development, subject-specific 

coaching. Each one can be a 

door-opener. And once inside you’ll 

be able to educate the client on the 

value of using your other services, 

especially after documenting results 

from the initial activity. 

In re-casting your practice like this 

you may find that you’ll enjoy this 

profession even more. Client relationships 

transform into business 

friendships. Get clear on the qualities 

of your ideal clients and go create 

those trusted advisor relationships. 

And, by the way, I do all of this 

with a coaching business model that 

is offered mainly over the phone, 

three days per week, three weeks per 

month. So, you don’t even need to be 

physically present to become a 

Trusted Advisor! Isn’t this a great 

profession?! Make sure you know 

your best business model and align 

your offerings with this framework. 

You may soon discover that you have 

over 95 percent repeat and referral 

business. 



&Consulting 

33 





By Gail Barker, BA, CPCC 

For as long as I have been a member 

of the coaching profession 

– just over seven years now – 

and to my knowledge for many years 

preceding that, there has been a debate 

about how coaching and consulting 

can co-exist in the business world. 

Depending on who is behind the query, 

sometimes the question that arises is 

about the fundamental difference 

between these modalities. Sometimes, 

the question simply assumes an inherent 

difference and is therefore more about 

how they can co-exist as part of the cultural 

fabric known as “helping professions.” 

Always, however, the overriding 

question is how coaching and consulting 

might support each other in the everyday 

world. Is there room for both? 

Looking at the coaching and consulting 

industries as they currently exist it would 

appear that the short answer is “yes.” 

The longer answer is not only can coach- 

Meeting in 

theMiddle 

Niche coaching blends the best of 

coaching and consulting 

ing and consulting support each other, 

they absolutely do support each other. 

The Coach/Consultant 

Continuum 

In order to understand how coaching 

and consulting come together, it is 

important to first realize that these two 

service modalities exist as part of a continuum, 

with consulting at one end, and 

pure coaching at the other. 

Consulting, according to the definition 

provided by businessdictionary.com, is 

“the providing of expert knowledge to a 

third party for a fee.” In other words, in a 

consulting capacity, a professional is 

being hired for a very specific area of 

expertise, with the assumption and 

understanding that he or she will impart 

concrete tools and strategies based on 

this expertise, in order to fix or at least 

enhance already existing infrastructures. 

At the other end of the continuum, 

pure coaching offers a different flavor 

of service to its clients. The International 

Coach Federation (coachfederation.org) 

defines coaching as “partnering with 

clients in a thought-provoking and creative 

process that inspires them to maximize 

their personal and professional 

potential.” In other words, in its purest 

form, coaching does not require the service 

provider to have an area of expertise; 

if you look closely at the two definitions 



&Consulting 

“ A consultant is expected to do the 

work and share their expertise to 

solve an issue for the client.” 

35 





&Consulting 

“ For many clients, niche coaching 

provides the ideal blend of freedom 

to find their own answers 

within a framework of desired 

expertise.” 

you will see that the keywords of note are: 

• coaching focuses on “partnering,” 

as opposed to “expert” which is found 

in the consulting definition; 

• coaching strives to be “thought-provoking 

and creative” as opposed to structured 

and dictated which is implied by 

the words “providing … knowledge” in 

the consulting definition; 

• coaching seeks to “ inspire and maximize 

potential,” as opposed to the 

implied mandating which can be found 

in a consultative arrangement. 

Thus, a coach acts as a supportive 

partner, witness and champion, asking 

the questions that need to be asked in 

order for the client to reach his or her 

own answers and thereby create, on 

their own and of their own volition, the 

change they are looking for. A consultant, 

on the other hand, is expected to 

do the work and share their expertise 

to solve an issue for the client. 

Niche Coaching 

We’ve established that consulting and 

pure coaching exist at either end of a continuum, 

so what is it that exists in the 

middle? If pure coaching is at one 

extreme, and consulting at the other, 

what emerges in the space between? 

Enter niche coaching. When a coach 

declares a niche, he or she essentially 

announces to the world that their coaching 

is based on some level of expertise in 

that specific area. Whether the expertise 

is life-based, the result of education or 

previous work-experience is irrelevant. 

Specialized coaches declare publicly that 

there is specific expertise which sets 

them apart from those who practice a 

more generalized approach to coaching. 

A “weight-loss coach” suggests to those 

who read those words that he or she has 

knowledge specifically related to weight 

loss that is of value. A “leadership coach” 

announces to the world that he or she has 

expertise to offer to leaders who may 

choose to work with him or her. When 

you claim a niche, you must be prepared 

to provide the implied expertise – even if 

it’s within a coaching framework – to 

those clients who choose to hire you. 

In short, niche coaching is where the 

best of coaching and consulting come 

together. 

When a client enters into an agreement 

with a niche coach, as opposed to 

a consultant or a pure coach, they are 

definitely looking for a certain amount 

of expertise, and they are simultaneously 

looking for a less directive 

approach. They are looking to access 

their own strategies and answers, and 




&Consulting 

yet they want to do so with the support 

of specific knowledge and insight. They 

want to be able to pick the coach’s brain, 

to have access to their information, and 

at the same time they know they’ll have 

the freedom and latitude to modify that 

expertise so that it actually works for 

them as an individual. In other words, 

niche coaching clients can take the 

packaged strategy, pull it apart, and then 

put it back together in a way that feels 

right for them. While consulting isn’t 

necessarily in opposition to this sort of 

tweaking, consulting clients can often 

feel a certain requirement to implement 

strategies as presented, given that 

they’re paying specifically for the expertise 

in question. 

Coaching & Consulting 

When it comes right down to it, there is 

a place for both coaching and consulting 

in the business world. While in their 

purest forms these modalities exist at 

opposite ends of a continuum, there is a 

place where they come together, namely 

in the form of niche coaching. For many 

clients, niche coaching provides the 

ideal blend of freedom to find their own 

answers within a framework of desired 

expertise. While many love the notion 

that everyone has their own answers and 

needs to simply access them, having an 

expert answer provided as a starting 

point can jumpstart what can otherwise 

be an arduous and time-consuming 

process. For those who want to invest 

the time, pure coaching is a wonderful 

tool. For others who stand in a perspective 

where time is of the essence, cutting 

straight to consulting is the way to go. 

And for those who want the best of both 

worlds, niche coaching is where it’s at. • 

The choice 

Village 

is coming! 

Look for your 

invitation 

to visit soon! 


37 



A CHILD’S WISH IS WAITING. HELP IT TAKE FLIGHT. 

Every 40 minutes, the Make-A-Wish Foundation ® grants the wish of a child with a life-threatening 

medical condition. Last year, nearly 65 percent of all wishes granted involved travel — to visit family, go to an 

exotic destination or meet a hero. Give their wishes flight by donating 

your frequent flier miles and hotel reward points at wish.org/miles. 



By Suzi Pomerantz, BA, MA, MCC 

Coach As 

Consultant 

Is your coaching really consulting? Maybe if it 

was, you’d be making a six-figure income! 

Check your contracts, coaches! 

Does your contract include language referencing the 

descriptors of a coach as “guide” or “trusted advisor,” or 

is the term “consultant” anywhere in your document? If 

so, you could be open to an ethics violation from the 

International Coach Federation (ICF). 

In an ethics ruling against a seasoned MCC within 

the last five years, the Independent Review Board of 

the ICF’s Ethics Committee ruled a coaching agreement 

to be “unclear with reference to the nature of 

coaching” when the coach in question had the following 

language in her contract: “Coach agrees to serve 

as guide, advisor, and consultant in the areas identified 

by the client.” The ICF ruled that such language 

in the coaching agreement, regardless of the fact that 

it was referencing services performed in an organizational 

context, “is not in alignment with the ICF definition 

of coaching or the ICF Core Coaching 

Competencies.” 

“Consulting, in the big leagues 

anyway, is about excellence.” 

Bravo to the ICF for putting a stake in the ground around 

the differentiation between coaching and consulting. 

Beware to the coaches who want to make a living! 

Is Coaching Part of Consulting? 

When talking to executives and leaders, I often 

describe my work as “directive coaching” based on my 

philosophy that the corporations in which I coach 

leaders and teams don’t actually pay big bucks for me 

to come in only asking questions. The ICF and several 

coach training schools will have you think that pure 

coaching is when the coach only asks questions, and 


perspective 

that anything other than asking questions constitutes 

consulting. This could be the biggest disservice perpetrated 

against new and under-utilized coaches by 

the industry into which they are attempting to grow 

their coaching businesses. If a coach is interested in 

breaking into or expanding his or her business into 

executive or leadership coaching, it will help tremendously 

in the sales process to hold coaching in the 

broader context of consulting. 

In my 17 years in the business, I’ve seen a lot of 

efforts to distinguish between coaching and consulting. 

There was an article early on in a 2004 issue of 

the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations 

(Volume 2, Number 3, p.8: “The Ethics of Coaching”) 

where authors Bergquist and Grenier did a wonderful 

job of comparing the three Cs of coaching, consulting 

and counseling. I understand the dangers of 

co-mingling coaching and counseling, and there have 

been some legal cases in the U.S. accusing coaches of 

practicing therapy without a license. I get that; psychology 

is a highly regulated profession requiring 

serious training and coaches who tread on counseling 

space risk causing real harm to people with needs 

best addressed by therapy or medication. But why the 

big push to separate coaching from consulting? 

39 



perspective 

Buyers & Business 

Development 

Not intending to be controversial, I 

define coaching as part of the larger 

umbrella of consulting, particularly 

when it is performed in an organizational 

context. As a coach whose 

subject matter domain is leadership 

and business development, I work 

primarily in organizations with 

leaders and teams. In that context, 

the buyers are familiar with consultants 

and the value of the results 

they produce for the company. 

When selling coaching services 

into organizations, the coach will be 

viewed by the buyer as a consultant. 

If it doesn’t matter to our buyers 

that there be a distinction between 

coaches and consultants, why do we 

care? Decision-makers in companies 

are comfortable with buying 

consulting. There’s a precedent for 

buying consulting, and often when 

they buy coaching, the expense 

appears in their internal systems as 

consulting. It’s how they think of us 

anyway, so why do we need to assert 

our “non-consultant-ness”? 

On the other side of the equation, 

I am not advocating for coaches to 

become true consultants and 

advice-givers. That opens up the 

whole conversation about liability 

insurance. Consultants (especially 

those involved in finance, construction, 

legal matters, etc.) need liability 

insurance because their advice 

could cause their clients to experience 

financial losses, damage, etc. 

Consultants carry expensive Errors 

and Omissions insurance for that 

very reason. As coaches, we do not 

give advice; however, if we begin to 


think of ourselves under the larger 

umbrella of consulting, we may need 

to consider the same sort of protection 

for our businesses, especially if 

we engage in both coaching and consulting 

solutions for our clients. 

I’d argue that it is a benefit to 

those of us who coach in businesses 

to be lumped together with the 

broader consulting world, for the 

“Consultants are 

accountable to bring 

answers. Coaches 

bring questions.” 

sake of credibility. Consultants get 

results in an organizational context. 

They are smart problem solvers 

with subject matter expertise. 

Think McKinsey. Think Accenture. 

Think Deloitte. Consulting, in the 

big leagues anyway, is about excellence. 

The branding is powerful. 

The dollars are enormous. We, as 

coaches, could use that to our 

advantage in the sales process. 

Marketing Yourself 

As Consultant 

Many coaches are not comfortable 

being a consultant. Consultants are 

accountable to bring answers. Coaches 

bring questions. Consultants 

have to know and be subject matter 

experts. Coaches uncover more when 

they come from not knowing; from 

genuine curiosity and wondering. 

Consultants bring, for comparison’s 

sake, benchmarks of the 

solutions of other companies and 

leaders with similar problems. 

Coaches hold up a metaphorical mirror 

so that the companies and leaders 

can learn from their own successes 

and experiences. Consultants hunt 

for problems to solve. Coaches seek 

strengths to build on. We can keep 

going with the differences. 

But think about your business 

development efforts for a minute. 

Are you not a subject matter expert 

on the subject of coaching? Are you 

not seeking the problem or challenge 

your prospective buyer is facing to 

determine if coaching is an appropriate 

intervention? Are you not bringing 

“benchmarks” of results your 

coaching has created for others 

facing similar situations as your 

prospective buyer? Doesn’t that 

make you a consultant in the process 

of getting someone to buy your 

coaching services? 

If you’re not comfortable being a 

consultant in your coaching business, 

try it in your sales process. It 

will make all the difference in your 

revenue results. • 



By Phillip Sandahl, CPCC, MCC 

Coach, Consultant, Trainer 

Wearing multiple hats for teams 

Here’s the scene. You’re there in 

a conference room with a team. You 

just noticed something. The team 

noticed that you noticed. Now the 

team is staring at you, waiting for a 

comment, a question, or a direction 

to follow. In that moment you have 

to decide what hat you’re wearing: 

coach, consultant or in some cases, 

trainer. The team doesn’t care. All 

they want are better results. You 

have that goal in mind of course. 

You were hired to help the team get 

better results. But you also have a 

broader context: a more resourceful 

team. It’s this underlying developmental 

objective that gives rise to 

the multiple hats and hat selection. 

At one level, all coaching includes 

self development: learning, change, 

growth. With teams it is especially 

acute because most team members 

lack a basic understanding of what 

is required for effective team performance. 

I say this based on my 

own experience working with teams 

over the last five years and a review 

of hundreds of team assessments. 

The data confirm the experience 

and it is not surprising. Even though 

organizations continue to put more 

emphasis on the team as the means 

for achieving work results, there 

is little focus on the development 

of team skills and competencies. 

Organizations have not yet made 

the shift from individual performer 

to team performance. 

There is a fundamental lack of 

team know-how on teams. It starts 

with the basics. Here’s an example: 

“Teams are counting on you to have the 

means to get them where they want to go.” 

the need to have explicit team 

agreements. All teams have team 

agreements. Mostly they are unspoken 

agreements, un-negotiated, and 

“Selecting which 

hat to wear in the 

moment is art, not 

science.” 

embedded in the culture of the 

team or organization. You can see 

those unspoken agreements in the 

behavior of the team. Everyone 

abides by them. 

Coach Hat 

As a coach, I can share my observation, 

or as we might say, “articulate 

corporate leadership 

what’s going on,” and then ask the 

perfectly obvious coaching question, 

“How’s that working for you?” 

and the follow up, “If you wanted it 

to be different, what would that 

look like?” 

Consultant Hat 

Sometimes, as a team consultant I 

need to go a step farther. There are 

certain ground conditions that need 

to be in place in order for teams to 

work together effectively. Some of 

those ground conditions include 

clear team agreements, a process for 

updating or revising those agreements, 

and a back-up agreement for 

when the team doesn’t live up to its 

agreements, because that will surely 

happen. 

Trainer Hat 

There are also times working with a 

team that we need to set aside time 


41 




corporate leadership 

to train the team in creating those 

team agreements. During that 

process it’s likely I will shift roles 

from trainer to coach to facilitator 

– all in a brief period of time. The 

training is necessary in order for 

the team to get better results in 

the short term, and learn to be a 

more effective and more resourceful 

team for the future. These are 

also skills and competencies the 

team then takes to every other 

team they are on. 

Distinctions 

The same hat sorting situations 

come up in relation to other team 

basics including alignment around 

team purpose, team accountability, 

communication, disagreement or 

conflict, and team diversity. 

It’s important to remember 

that teams are focused on results. 

They are under pressure to perform 

and have limited patience. 

They are counting on you to have 

the means to get them where they 

want to go. They are not making 

the distinction between coaching, 

consulting and training. And yet it 

is useful for the team to know that 

I will be interacting with them in 

these different ways and the purpose 

of each. In the early process of 

designing the relationship between 

myself and the team, I will cover 

these distinctions. 

“Choosing which 

hat to wear 

requires tuning 

into the entity that 

is the team.” 

• As a coach I help access the 

knowledge, wisdom and experience 

that already exist on the 

team. 

• As a team consultant I have 

expertise in the subject of team 

effectiveness. 

• As a trainer I am equipped 

with processes to assist teams in 

acquiring the skills to be more 

effective team members and create 

more effective teams. 

In my role I draw on all three 

areas, as needed, in service of the 

team. 

Which Hat? 

Selecting which hat to wear in the 

moment is art, not science. It 

requires tuning into the entity 

that is the team to help fulfill both 

the short-term needs of the team, 

and the developmental needs for 

this team and its members. • 



By Miguel Bonilla, MS, MA, CC and Bobbi Hahn, MPA, CC 

Meaningful 

Impact 

Coaching & consulting in the nonprofit sector 

Over the past several years, we’ve been working to 

provide coaching and consulting to local nonprofits. At 

the same time, we became certified coaches ourselves 

and learned more about the coaching field. What has 

become clear is that consulting has a long history and 

presence in the nonprofit sector, but a lot of evidence 

now supports the increased effectiveness of coaching to 

produce the desired results within the sector. 

In this article, we will show why coaches should consider 

the nonprofit sector as a viable means of expanding 

their coaching clientele and how that differs from 

consulting in the nonprofit sector. We’ll explain how 

these approaches differ, what some of the critical needs 

are, and how coaches can position themselves to have 

maximum impact. 

Why Nonprofits? 

There are over 1.5 million nonprofits in the U.S. alone, 

accounting for over eight percent of all wages and salaries. 

In some cities, like New York, they account for 14 percent 

“A lot of evidence now supports 

the increased effectiveness 

of coaching to produce the 

desired results within the 

nonprofit sector.” 

of the labor force. Nonprofits are seven percent of the 

GDP. This is significantly higher than the utilities industry 

at 2.3 percent, the construction industry at 5.1 percent 

and the financial industry including banks, insurance companies 

and financial services firms, at just 5.6 percent. 1 

As interest in social issues continues to rise, the number 

of nonprofits has also increased. Between 1995 and 2005, 

the number of organizations registered with the IRS grew 

by more than 27 percent. More than one hundred new 

nonprofit organizations file with the IRS every day. 2 

Although the nonprofit sector constitutes a large 

portion of the labor market, nonprofits have had a difficult 

time communicating what they do. Most people 

think the nonprofit sector is made up of poorly paid, 

altruistic community organizers, folding flyers in a 

church basement. These nonprofits exist and provide 

critical services to needy communities, but the sector 

has also produced many organizations that are business 

savvy and complex. Most hospitals and universities, for 

example, are nonprofits and function more like corporations. 

They invest heavily in professional development, 

they depend on fees for services for their income, 

and they have staff in the thousands. The majority of 

nonprofits, however, are those in the middle: those that 

have been around for more than three years, have a staff 

of at least five people, are reasonably stable but have a 

need to strengthen their human capital. 

Private vs. Nonprofit 

It is clear that the nonprofit sector continues to grow, 

but similar to the the IT industry in the mid-’90s, there 

is little understanding of how nonprofits actually function 

and the challenges they face. What is certain is that 

nonprofits are battling fierce funding and political environments 

that would make Enron execs cry for mercy. 

Here are some leadership and organizational challenges 

nonprofits face: 


impact 

43 



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impact 

• Founder’s Syndrome. Nonprofits 

are small businesses and 

share the same isolation and undercapitalization 

issues as other small 

businesses. Yet the lack of a profit 

motive keeps many leaders from 

letting go of familiar routines and 

relationships in favor of a clear 

strategy or vision. 

• Various Stakeholders. Nonprofit 

leaders manage several complex 

and demanding relationships. 

Leaders must make sure their board 

is engaged, their funders know who 

they are, their staff is focused and 

producing and their vendors paid. 

Without a profit motive, relationships 

to stakeholders can be the 

source of great stress. Something as 

ridiculous as waiting three months 

to get board approval for a new fax 

machine may seem absurd and 

counterproductive in the private 

sector, but can be quite common in 

the nonprofit sector. 

• Mission Creep. When leading 

a values-based business like a nonprofit, 

leaders can stray away from 

the original purpose. The funding 

environment can be very lean and 

leaders may elect to expand their 

scope of work simply because the 

opportunity exists. Nonprofits are 

driven to demonstrate impact and 

if they begin to work outside their 

core mission, they risk spreading 

themselves too thin and losing 

credibility with their funders and 

their constituents. 

• Inconsistent Funding. Nonprofit 

funding is often made up of 

many small grants; each funder 

creates its own unique funding 

categories, criteria, processes and 

payment schedule. Nonprofits, on 

the other hand, must continue to 

operate with little confidence of 

when and how much money may be 

coming into the organization – a 

cash flow challenge that plagues 

even the best nonprofits. 3 

Identifying Needs 

A recent study on coaching and 

consulting revealed the following: 

✔ Coaching and consulting 

together is most effective. A consultant 

qualified to deliver both 

one-on-one executive coaching 

with organizational consulting is 

well positioned to effectively assist 

nonprofits. Executive coaching is 

more useful when informed by a 

comprehensive understanding of 

the needs and challenges of a particular 

organization. In addition, a 

consultant-coach may be better 

equipped to clarify the roles and 

expectations of the consultant, 

staff and the board. 

✔ Mid-sized organizations benefit 

most. Organizations that have moved 

beyond adolescence seem to be more 

ready to receive consulting or coaching 

intervention. Smaller organizations 

in an early lifecycle stage of 

development tend to focus on basic 

management skills and do not achieve 

transformational change. Mid-sized 

organizations with senior leadership 

positions are better able to undertake 

organizational change, such as 

shifting the executive director’s role 

to a more external focus and establishing 

a structure of shared leadership 

with senior staff and the board. 

✔ Coaching can help founders of 

mid-sized groups to let go. In organizations 

with fewer people, senior 

staff were often unavailable to 

assume some of the executive director’s 

day-to-day organizational opera- 



tions and management responsibilities. 

Midcareer executive directors 

(with about 10 to 20 years of professional 

nonprofit experience) tended to 

embrace and experience change more 

easily than grantees later in their 

careers, especially those nearing retirement. 

Coaching and consulting were 

particularly timely for first-time executive 

directors and those who were promoted 

to this position from within 

their organizations. 

✔ Coaches can help leaders make 

sense of a complex organizational situation. 

Coaches helped nonprofit 

leaders enhance their awareness of 

assumptions and helped to separate 

what is within their control and 

responsibility, as well as what is 

innate in the nonprofit system. 

choice services 

Center for Right Relationship 

phone: (866) 435-5939 USA 

email: info@centerforrightrelationship.com 

www.CenterForRightRelationship.com 

Frame of Mind Coaching 

phone: (416) 747-6900 Canada 

www.frameofmindcoaching.com 

MHS Inc. – Emotional Intelligence 

phone: (800) 456-3003 Canada 

email: Leiki.luud@mhs.com 

www.mhs.com/ei 

inviteCHANGE (formerly ACT) 

phone: (425) 778-3505 USA 

email: bev@coachtraining.com 

www.coachtraining.com 

choice services provides resources and services 

from choice Magazine advertisers and sponsors. 

For a listing consideration, please submit your 

item to: advertising@choice-online.com and 

indicate “choice services” in the subject line. 

(Send corrections or updates to the same 

address.) 

Positioning To Nonprofits 

Here is one approach if you are considering 

working within the nonprofit 

sector: 

✔ Join a nonprofit association or 

begin to network among nonprofit 

leaders. 

✔ Offer a free training or offer pro 

bono assistance. 

✔ When you secure an engagement, 

begin by consulting but introduce 

coaching by utilizing coaching 

language and methodology in your 

work. 

✔ Demonstrate the difference 

between traditional consulting and 

your unique approach by moving 

from an abstract plan to one more 

focused on the execution of change 

rather than a prescription for change. 

Coaching Organizations 

International Coach Federation (ICF) 

phone: (888) 423-3131 USA 

email: icfoffice@coachfederation.org 


Coach Training and Development 

Dream University 

phone: (415) 381-5564 USA 

www.dreamuniversity.com 

Resources and Services 

choice-coach 

phone: (416) 925-6643 Canada 

email: garry@choice-coach.com 

www.choice-coach.com 

The Coaches Console 

phone: (540) 314-8005 USA 

email: kate@coachesconsole.com 

www.CoachesConsole.com 

Coaching Into Greatness 

The Abundance Intelligence Institute® 

phone: (413) 782-2394 USA 

email: kim@coachingintogreatness.com 

www.coachingintogreatness.com 

Coaching Toys Inc. 

phone: (612) 822-8720 USA 

email: info@coachingtoys.com 

www.coachingtoys.com 

✔ Leave the engagement with a 

plan to return. Too often real change 

cannot occur because there is not an 

implementation plan over a longer 

period of time. 

Though the nonprofit sector may 

present unique challenges, with 

preparation and persistence, helping 

the nonprofit create a meaningful 

impact will be worth the time 

and effort. • 

1 Nonprofit Contribution to GDP Enormous 

Released: 9/25/2007 5:40 PM EDT 

Source: Johns Hopkins University 

2 Nonprofit Career Guide, Fieldstone 

Alliance, http://www.nonprofitcareerguide. 

org/fact_sheet-scope.php 

3 Out of Philanthropy’s Funding Maze, June 

2008 REDF 


impact 

The Comeback Coach 

email: info@comebackcoach.com 

Compass Life and Business Designs 

Phone: (866) 341-8618 USA 

Email: customerservice@mylifecompass.com 

www.mylifecompass.com/choice 

Points of You 

Phone: +972-9-7677476 Isreal 

Email: feel@thecoachingame.com 

www.thecoachingame.com 

The International Journal of Coaching in 

Organizations, a publication of 

Professional Coaching Publications, Inc. 

phone: (708) 771-9176 USA 

email: john@ijco.info 

www.ijco.info, www.pcpionline.com 

The Library of Professional Coaching 

phone: (416) 925-6643 USA 

email: 

owners@thelibraryofprofessionalcoaching.com 

www.LibraryOfProfessionalCoaching.com 

On the Mark Branding 

phone: (310) 274-5542 USA 

email: info@OntheMarkBranding.com 

www.OntheMarkBranding.com 

45 



choice inspiration 


Go confidently in 

the direction of 

your dreams! 

Live the life you’ve 

imagined. 

As you simplify 

your life, the laws 

of the universe will 

be simpler. 

Henry David Thoreau 



industry 

news WHAT’S 

By Ed Modell, PCC 

2010 ICF President-Elect 

Credentialing 

ICF continues work on professional standards 

If you’re like many coaches, 

you’ve been following the conversation 

around the International 

Coach Federation (ICF) Credentialing 

program that started late last year. 

Proposed changes to the system 

gathered a wide variety of comments 

from coaches around the world – 

ranging from joyful support to much 

less enthusiastic feedback. There 

certainly wasn’t a lack of passion 

when it came to discussing proposed 

changes to a system that has been 

around for quite some time. 

The credentialing program has 

seen tremendous growth over the 

last few years. Over 6,000 coaches 

from around the world currently hold 

one of three ICF credentials, and 

incoming credential applications 

have increased by 12 percent from 

2007 to 2009. Certainly the ICF 

owes it to credential holders, coaches 

working towards a credential and 

the public-at-large to make sure the 

program continues to be highly credible 

and respected as the global standard 

for professional coaching. 

Over 10 years ago, a group of 

visionary coaches and educators 

came together to create the ICF Credentialing 

program. Since its inception, 

the program has provided 

coaches with a means of achieving 

professional status and ensuring 

their ongoing education and commitment 

to staying current with knowledge 

and practice. 

Since 2007, the ICF has been 

involved in discussions and research 

around enhancing its individual credentialing 

program – building on the foun- 

GOING ON IN THE COACHING WORLD 

“Over 6,000 coaches 

from around the 

world currently 

hold one of three 

ICF credentials, and 

incoming credential 

applications have 

increased by 12 

percent.” 

dation that the system’s originators 

created – to ensure that ICF Credentials 

maintain their global consistency 

and fairness, and are administered in 

a timely fashion worldwide. 

Late last year, the ICF Board of 

Directors presented to ICF members 

and credential holders, as well as 

other stakeholders, a proposed 

schema for the next stage of the ICF 

Credentialing program. This schema 

was developed with the assistance of 

a committed group of ICF member volunteers, 

stakeholders, testing experts 

with nearly 50 years’ experience as 

providers of valid and legally-defensible 

certification examinations and ICF 

staff members. Additionally, the 

responses of over 2,000 coaches to a 

2008 survey supported this work. 

Following the sharing of proposed 

program changes, an open comment 

period commenced during which time 

stakeholders were encouraged to 

share their feedback and ask questions 

about the proposed schema. 

Based on the input received, the ICF 

Board elected to suspend the 

schema as presented and continue 

with the current system – allowing for 

more research and discussion to be 

conducted around potential changes 

to the program. 

During the Board’s January 2010 

meeting, the Board reaffirmed its 

commitment to shaping the future of 

coaching credentialing by enhancing 

the current ICF system and took time 

to clarify the strategic purpose of the 

ICF Credentialing program. 

The Board agreed that the threefold 

purpose of the program was to: 

1) Protect and serve consumers of 

coaching services, 

2) Measure and certify competence 

of individuals, and 

3) Inspire pursuit of continuous 

development. 

…continued on page 48 


47 


industry 

news 


continued from page 47… 

Following this determination, the 

Board charged the global ICF Credentialing 

and Program Accreditation 

Committee with developing a plan of 

action to be presented to the Board 

during its March 2010 meeting. This 

plan of action was to be aligned to 

the above three-fold program purpose 

and with the direction to include key 

stakeholders to ensure co-creation. 

The Committee was tasked to 

make sure its plan touched on a 

number of areas, including: 

• The number of credentials the 

enhanced system should offer; 

“The ICF Board has 

already committed 

to maintaining the 

existing three-tier 

credentialing system 

at least until 

January 2012.” 

• Methods used to differentiate 

between different levels should the 

ICF retain a three-tier credentialing 

system; 

• Qualifications of credential applicants 

(training and/or experience 

hours); 

• Written and oral exam requirements; 

and possible assessor compensation. 

I encourage readers to visit the ICF 

blog at Coachfederation.org/blog for 

more information around this request 

to the Committee. 

The Credentialing and Program 

Accreditation Committee worked diligently 

following the Board’s January 

meeting to prepare a detailed work 

plan that involved reviewing and 


researching a number of key areas as 

well as a timeframe with major milestones. 

The Board reviewed this plan 

during its March meeting and 

approved the work proposal. 

The Committee’s plan outlines a 

multitude of discrete tasks to be carried 

out, and currently the timeline 

for this work stretches out for the 

next few years. This timeline could, 

however, be compressed or expanded 

depending on various decisions 

made along the way. 

Regardless of how the timeline 

evolves during this project, the ICF 

Board has already committed to 

maintaining the existing three-tier 

credentialing system at least until 

January 2012. This does not mean 

that the three-tier system will disappear 

in January 2012 – only that anyone 

planning to apply for one of the 

existing credentials can rely on the 

stability of the existing system 

through that time. 

The Credentialing and Program 

Accreditation Committee will lead the 

efforts outlined in the project plan, 

but will also outreach and create several 

workgroups to include key stakeholders 

such as credentialed 

coaches, assessors, and others to 

carry out the work and ensure co-creation 

of potential system enhancements. 

To ensure diversity on 

workgroups, members will represent 

multiple geographic regions, credential 

levels, coaching experience, etc. 

The ICF looks forward to sharing 

more information as this work progresses. 

If you are interested in how 

the ICF Credentialing program continues 

to evolve, I encourage you to 

look for more updates around this 

work to be included in ICF member 

and credential holder communications, 

in the Coaching World newsletter 

and on the ICF blog. 

Ethics 

Education 

In coaching, ignorance is 

definitely not bliss 

By Liora Rosen, MS, MA 

“The ICF’s core values of 

Integrity, Excellence, Collaboration 

and Respect all 

meld into one within the Code of 

Ethics.” So starts the newly launched 

Ethics Education chapter training program. 

As coaches, we like to think we 

already have those four values covered: 

we behave with integrity, we 

encourage our clients to excel, we collaborate, 

we’re respectful. Our ethical 

bar is already high … we’re coaches! 

True as that may seem, there’s more 

to ethical coaching than acting with 

integrity; you also need to know what to 

do in a coaching dilemma, know your 

guidelines, parameters, etc. The ethics 

training program is intended to highlight 

things you may not realize you needed 

to know. It is intended to be your coaching 

GPS – your navigator for when you 

need it, so it helps if you know how it 

works. Have you rolled your eyes yet? I 

know, you’re probably thinking, ‘yeah 

right!’ Truth is, I’ve been cautioned that 

not everyone gets as excited about 

ethics as I do (been there, saw that), 

but hear me out and keep reading 

because the reaction to the training program 

has so far been the opposite to 

what you are probably expecting. 

As far as I know, it has always been 

the goal of the Ethics Education subcommittee 

to expand the knowledge of 

ICF members regarding updates to the 

Code of Ethics – sometimes successfully, 

sometimes not (I get it! Not everyone 

gets tingly over this), and vying for 

your attention at the International Conference 

once a year really only goes so 

far. As a matter of fact, in an ICF survey 

coaches ranked ethics dead last 



as their topic of interest. 

So why the crazy agenda to provide 

ethics training to all ICF members 

(almost 17,000 in case you’re wondering)? 

The answer has much to do with 

ICF’s past as it does with its future. 

Since it first came into existence in 

1995, ICF’s membership has grown 

exponentially. Original counts range 

from 50-200, then in year five there 

“The ethics training 

program is intended 

to highlight things 

you may not realize 

you needed to know.” 

were about 2,000 members, in year 

10 around 8,000 members and now in 

our 15th year there are almost 17,000 

members from 90 countries. Complaints 

started coming into the ICF in 

2001 as the process for the Ethical 

Conduct Review was being organized 

and finally approved by the Board in 

2002; we now stand at a total of 28 

complaints (a small number that takes 

up many volunteer hours). 

Most of the complaints have come 

from North America and whether that 

is because we are litigious by nature 

or just more aware of the ECR process 

is hard for me to say; it’s probably a 

combination of the two. Here’s what 

I’ve heard researching for this article: 

• More coaches are now aware of 

their rights, responsibilities and possible 

courses of intervention, so coachto-coach 

complaints are on the rise. 

• Many people outside North America 

are not as familiar with the process 

“Building coaching partnerships that are 

based on integrity is a basic foundation of 

professionalism.” 

and so do not utilize it as often. 

• Coaches not fully aware of what 

they need to know in order to protect 

themselves now find themselves facing 

a complaint allegation. 

• Personally, I’d add the numbers factor. 

As membership grows globally, it is 

natural that people should reach out to 

our organization to intervene on their 

behalf and provide remedies; after all, 

we are a self-regulating profession. 

All of these statements point me in 

the same direction: the number of complaints 

will continue to increase. That 

said, we should not just sit back and let 

the numbers dictate the direction we’re 

going in. We should be proactive in living 

to our aspirational goals of doing good 

and helping to create a better world; 

hence the ambitious agenda to provide 

training to all. 

Building coaching partnerships that 

are based on integrity is a basic foundation 

of professionalism. Ethics isn’t 

law; it’s a choice, but choice can only 

guide you in the realms you know. For 

the realms you don’t know, there’s the 

code. It guides you into unknown territory. 

For example, the code says you 

must have clear agreements with your 

clients and sponsors but never specifies 

that it has to be in writing; so is a 

verbal agreement good enough? Well, 

yes, until things go bad and then only 

what’s been written on paper can clarify 

a “he said, she said” scenario. So 

although the code doesn’t specify that 

agreements HAVE to be in writing, the 

training program will make that perfectly 

clear … for your protection, it should 

be in writing. There are lots of other 

goodies in there for you to discover. 

The Ethics Education program is out 

there – for YOU! So you can be a better 

coach and help keep the number of com- 


industry 

news 

plaints down the right way. The program is 

packed with important information; it’s 

interactive, fun, and vital for your coaching. 

That’s it! That’s my pitch. Email your 

chapter leader and find out when training 

is coming your way; find out what 

you don’t know. I don’t just mean newbie 

coaches; I mean you experienced 

MCCs as well (yes, there really were 

some of you who didn’t know what you 

needed to know – that’s what the program 

is for). And if, after you’ve attended 

the training, you think it’s been 

worthless, call me. I want to hear your 

comments. 

As always, the Ethics committee values 

your feedback and welcomes any 

comments or questions you may have 

(email icfethics@coachfederation.org). 

For now, happy learning! • 

ICF Latin American 

Coaching Conference 2010 

July 15-17, 2010 

Lima, Peru 

www.icfperu.org 

ICF Asia Pacific Coaching 

Conference 2010 

September 1-3, 2010 

Singapore 

www.apcc2010.com 

2010 ICF Annual 

International Conference 

October 27-30, 2010 

Fort Worth Convention Center, 

Fort Worth, Texas, USA 


2011 ICF Annual International 

Conference 

December 7-10, 2011 

Mandalay Bay, 

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 


49 

Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, Save These Dates! www.choice-online.com


finalsay 

Dream Big 

12 ways to be a 21st Century Visionary 

By Marcia Wieder 

Over 20 years ago, when I 

began to write and speak 

about achieving our dreams, 

I had a big vision. It was (and still is) 

to change the way we think and 

speak about our dreams. Instead of 

it being a nice idea that you might 

(someday) explore, a dream is something 

that matters to you and that 

you fully intend to achieve. 

As expected, life brought the unexpected 

and with it many challenges. 

We could justifiably look at the economy, 

the lack of heath care, war, education 

and many other areas and 

declare that this is no time to dream. 

Many would say it’s a time to focus 

more on what is, than on our dreams. 

And yet, without our dreams, and 

this new definition of dreams, nothing 

changes. Since living in unusual 

times requires that we think, act and 

are different, here is my call to action. 

I invite you step up and out as a 

21st Century Visionary. A visionary 

has a big dream, shares it, and 

inspires others to join them. Here are 

additional qualities for you to consider. 

You are a 21st Century Visionary if: 

1. You are comfortable with uncertainty, 

the place where true creation 

occurs. You know we were created to 

create and you allow the time and 

space for this to occur. 

2. You have extraordinary faith. 

You are able to act on what’s important 

to you even without assurance 

and guarantees. You can walk on 

faith without knowing the strategy or 

even clear next steps. 

3. You know that the secret to 

enlightenment is to relax. As we 

relax, our ego (with its agenda, fears 


SHARING THOUGHTS AND WISDOM TOWARD BETTER COACHING 

and doubts) can slip away and we 

are left with our essential self, 

essence or soul. 

4. You practice getting empty, so 

you can hear the voice of the Divine 

and/or feel this presence. You often 

create ritual and sacred space as a 

way to invite this in. 

5. You can consciously drop into a 

deeper place of wisdom, knowing 

and truth; you can ideate/dream 

and speak from this place. 

6. You are aware that miracles happen 

in their own time and you are able 

to wait rather than asserting your will 

or effort too soon. You trust the 

process enough to let it unfold. 

7. You are receptive and know that 

“give and take” is not the same as 

“give and receive” and that giving 

and receiving need to be done in balance. 

You practice restraint, allowing 

space for the space where true creation 

and original thought happen. 

8. You do not live primarily as a 

problem solver, but more as a creative 

force. You are aware that it is 

more powerful to move toward what 

you want than away from what you 

don’t want, yet you know that both 

creation and destruction serve. 

9. You have a conscious relationship 

with the silent witness; the part that 

can see many points of view, all sides 

and new perspectives. You are a big 

dreamer with great imagination and a 

willingness to traverse new terrain. 

10. You are collaborative rather 

than hierarchal. You have the 

courage, clarity and commitment to 

share dreams and ideas, empowering 

others to take ownership. 

11. You are crucial to the Dream 

Movement’s ultimate dream, which 

is to make the world a better place. 

You know that with one single highly 

intentional step, the world can and 

has changed. 

12. You have tremendous integrity. 

Beyond keeping your agreements 

with yourself and others, you answer 

to a higher Source. You have a purpose, 

mission, vision, calling and 

dreams in many areas of life. 

Here is my commitment to being a 

21st Century Visionary. My purpose 

is to believe. My mission is to help 

others believe in themselves and 

their dreams. My vision is to lead a 

Dream Movement in order to make 

the world a better place. My calling 

is to help us remember who we are 

and why we’re here. 

What’s your purpose, mission, 

vision and calling? How are you living 

as a 21st Century Visionary? 

What qualities or values would you 

add to this list? • 



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Here’s what we’re working on to keep 

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September 2010 (V8N3) 

Aligning Performance & Potential 

Why do people underperform to their potential? Why do corporations and organizations 

underperform to their potential? How does coaching help activate people and create 

environments where everyone in an organization can contribute all of who they are? Join 

us as we explore how to realize more of your personal and business potential. 

Article Deadline: June 14, 2010 • Ad Close: July 21, 2010 • Mails: September 2010 

December 2010 (V8N4) 

Success Stories: 

Efficacy and Impact of Coaching 

Where have we made a difference in the world? How are we measuring impact? Where do 

we still have room to grow and explore? Come along as we move beyond ROI to measure, 

celebrate and share the results of coaching. 

Article Deadline: September 10, 2010 • Ad Close: October 19, 2010 • Mails: December 2010 

March 2011 (V9N1) 

Coaching DNA 

What forms the DNA of coaching? What are the pieces that knit it all together? Is it 

ontology? Psychology? NLP? Neuro-science? Appreciative inquiry? What is the body of 

knowledge that makes coaching a profession? Our experts make the case for what is at 

the heart of coaching. 

Article Deadline: December 15, 2010 • Ad Close: January 21, 2011 • Mails: March 2011 

Updated June 2010, Subject to Change

Choice, The Magazine of Professional Coaching

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