Day 233 - Woohoo, all assessments are in

What a day, what a day. Just before writing this blog, I hit the send button on my last assessment submissions for ICA, the peer client assessments. What a great feeling it is to have everything submitted. Just need to wait and see whether my research paper is ok to see whether I graduate in June.

The thing that’s been great this week has been reading the various feedback from the peer clients on their experience of the coaching process. While you’re going through the coaching, you can see signs of the client moving forward, but are never sure what it was that made that happen. These feedback forms provided that opportunity.

There was lots of positive feedback, but there were two things that stood out for me most. One was the statement that I conducted the sessions in a way that was both professional and personable. Something I strived to do. The other feedback was that I managed to avoid giving people answers or advice, but always asked the right questions to make people come to the action themselves.

I think back to October last year when I debated with a number of coaches whether I should put myself under time pressure to target a June graduation. I’m so pleased I did, the feeling is great….

Day 228 - Another one bites the dust

Another week has gone by with some assessments submitted. I’ve now completed all but the supervised coaching (of which I have my last session on Tuesday) and I’m on my way to graduation. This week I had positive confirmation back on my blog self assessment, as well as my written exam (98%). I sent through my Research Paper to ICA on Tuesday and am waiting to hear back, but it will be a couple of weeks I think.

 

It’s been a funny week this week. I had to get on a call with my boss on Wednesday morning at 6am and was told that a colleague of mine had resigned, so he wanted to combine our roles together and promote me. One of the key reasons mentioned was my way with people and the support and development I give my staff. 

 

Since starting ICA, I’ve found myself taking more and more of a coaching approach with my team. Both towards their current work, but also with where they want to go with their careers. I guess it is by showing this level and interest and support, that people come to trust you and see you as a sounding board. And that is what coaching is all about.

 

Till next week..

Day 219 - The end is in sight

Another week has gone by with another successful Supervised coaching session, as well as some good Peer Client sessions. With only 3 weeks to go before all the assessments are due, this week has been about the final preparations and validation of the outstanding assessments.

The two main ones are the research paper and the written exam. Both are things that have been on my list for a while, but I’ve just not got round to doing. While on holiday with the family last week, I spent a couple of evenings working on the documents and found it very easy to progress them. Both are around 80% now and I just need the final motivation and push to complete them, which I plan to do this weekend.

As I’ve coached a couple of other ICA students this week, it has made me question again in my mind exactly what I’m going to be doing with my certification when I get it. Will I use it as the springboard to start my own Coaching business, or just take it as another tool in my toolbox that will help me be even better at supporting people in the workplace.

For now, I’m just going to enjoy the journey across the finish line…

Day 204 - Nearing the end

No blog entries for the last couple of weeks as I’ve been traveling for work.

Progress towards graduation continues, with the completion of the Business Building classes, a number of good peer coaching sessions and a mail from ICA giving me a pass for my Power Tool. All in all, another good week.

This week I need to focus on some CoP classes as I’ve still got 5 I need to do for graduation. As a family, we go on vacation this coming Sunday and that is when I’ll take my research paper and written exam to complete them.

No real learnings to share this week, just a celebration of further advancement to graduation…

Day 187 - Staying focused

This week required me to do 3 back to back coaching sessions on Wednesday night, after a tiring few days at work, and it really put my focus to test. During Paul Litwack’s CoP class on Thursday, we talked about our coaching heads up display, and focus is certainly on my one.

On Thursday night, I had one of my regular coaching sessions with a peer client. The previous weeks session hadn’t gone that well, with the client not getting a lot out of the session, so I was a little apprehensive about this one. What happened though, created one of those ‘punch the air’ moments for me. The work done in the previous weeks laid the foundation for the client to not only clearly be able to articulate his vision of the future, but also come up with a high level action plan to achieve the goal that we can use over the coming weeks to move him forward.

So, what’s the learning for me this week, it’s to have the faith in the model and the process I’ve developed. More importantly, accept that not every session will be a ‘killer’ session and just because a client doesn’t feel that they got as much out of a session as normal, doesn’t mean there isn’t progress.

Have faith in yourself….

Day 181 - Another assessment done

This week was another interesting week for me with a balance of lot’s of problems at work that took up too much time (technical issues) and a great week of coaching sessions and ICA work.

During the week I finalised my Awareness vs Acceptance Power Tool and submitted it to ICA for assessment. I had my Oral Exam during my Supervised coaching session and was rated as Competent (so a pass) and had 5 peer coaching sessions, ending on Friday with a session where he visualised his future, 20 years from now. It was amazing the intricate detail that he could describe, from the size of his office to the view out of his window. Next we’ll work on the action plan towards that goal (in slightly smaller steps than 20 years of course).

Have a great week ahead.

Day 175 - Having balance

This week has been all about balance for me. Finding the right time to both do my work, complete ICA activities, put together my coaching tools and having some time to just relax.

Having a Global job, it means I tend to spend a lot of evenings on phone calls. In the previous couple of months, I’ve let that dominate my time and, even if I only had a one hour call, would spend the whole evening working.I didn’t want to go to the extent of scheduling all the other activities in my calender, so instead, just applied some mental discipline in the last week. The benefits were great. I prioritised my task list and assigned evenings to Coaching related work, to normal work and also allocated myself time to just relax and watch my favourite TV show.

The result, I’ve finished my Power Tool, have put together a couple of my other Coaching tools for my business and watched the shows I wanted to. I even managed to avoid doing any work (of either kind) at the weekend.

So, what balance do you have right now?…….

Day 166 - A successful week (personally)

This week was a really interesting one for me. On the work front, there have been a lot of challenges and changes, many of which have been getting me down. It wasn’t until Thursday night that I reminded myself of the book FISH! and one of the topics it talks about “Choose your attitude”. I had been in a constant state of frustration (bordering anger) and it wasn’t helping anyone, or really making me feel better. I changed at that moment.

On the personal front however, it’s been a great week. My first Supervised Coaching session went really well, I’ve had a number of peer coaching sessions this week, all going well and I have completed the first draft of my Power Tool for our evaluations. All in all a very good week.

Till next week….

Day 158 - Supervised Coach

Well, next week begins the big one, when the Supervised Coaching sessions start. Even though I’m already underway with coaching the various peer clients I need to for graduation, there is definitely mixed emotions about the Supervised sessions starting on Tuesday (for us in Australia anyway).

I’m lucky enough to be with a great group of coaches who I know will be very supportive of each other. On top of that, our Supervising coach is Karen, who has a wonderful and energetic style about her. I’ve been in two minds about the preparation for the sessions. Should I ’swot up’ a little on the various learnings through ICA or just let the sessions happen naturally (I’m leaning to the latter).

This last week has been a good one with a number of coaching sessions and meeting two new ICA students for the first time, Heather and Pradeep. I also had my last ‘official’ coaching session with my Peer Coach, Viv Hudson. She has been of great help for me over the last 12 sessions and is an exceptional coach (which will be reflected in the testimonial I’ll be writing for her).

I’ve continued to struggle a little with getting focused on the other ICA graduation requirements, but know it just comes from a lack of planning and blocking out the time to do the work. That will change this coming week.

Good luck to everyone starting Supervised Coaching this week. Everyone will do great….

Day 149 - Holiday slowdown

Hi all and Happy New Year.

I know the holiday’s ended a while ago, but here in Australia the kids are off till next week and the summer weather has made it harder to get back into things.

This Christmas was probably one of the first ones in many years where I managed to just switch off and relax. Unfortunately, that was not just from work, but also my ICA study’s. I had planned to get so many things done during our trip to Europe, but didn’t do much.

The great thing for me though is that I didn’t do what I would normally do and kick myself for it. I really believe it is the awareness that the ICA course is providing me and encouraging us to look at things from different perspectives. In this case, the world didn’t fall apart because I didn’t get everything done (and reality is, I still do quite a bit).

Now that I’m back and in the saddle (thanks to the always expert guidance of my peer coach, Viv), I’m motivated and focused on not only completing ICA in time for June graduation, but have a clear vision of what that leads to next.

Best wishes to all.