2018 Class Schedule

I'm pleased to announce my 2018 virtual course offerings!

Ethics in Coaching for Mentor Coaches - February 12 & 19, 2018
Bring ICF's Code of Ethics to life in your mentor coaching practice
6 CEUs, meets ICF's requirements for Ethics Training, small group learning

Ethics in Coaching - June 5 & 12, 2018
Bring ICF's Code of Ethics to life in your mentor coaching practice
6 CEUs, meets ICF's requirements for Ethics Training, small group learning

http://suemcleodcoaching.com/classes/ethics-in-coaching.html

Coaching Master Class - 8 sessions to deepen your understanding and practice of coaching competencies
18 Core Competency CEUs

Join the Coaching Master Class if…

• You’re renewing your current ICF credential
• You’re upgrading your credential from ACC to PCC
• You’re applying for an ICF credential as a Portfolio Applicant
• You’re a Mentor Coach
• You're coaching feels rusty, or your not confident in how you’re using your coaching skills.

Spring 2018
March 12,  April 2, April 23, May 14, June 4, June 25, July16, August 6
June18, July 9, July 30, July 27, August 27, September 17, October 8, October 29,  November 19

http://suemcleodcoaching.com/classes/master-class.html

Don't let summer prices pass you by...

Last Call for Early Bird Prices for Classes Starting in September

I love this photo of a tree in fall -
1/2 is hanging onto summer,
the other 1/2 fully embracing fall.
I can relate!

This summer seems to be slipping away - but don’t let the best prices for the Coaching Master Class ($150 discount) and Ethics in Coaching ($40 discount) pass you by. Early bird pricing expires after August 22 for classes starting in September. 

Join Ethics in Coaching  if you are ready to dive deep into how Confidentiality, Conflict of Interest and the rest of the ICF Code of Ethics apply to your coaching practice. (6 Core Competency CEUs meeting the Ethics training requirement for your ICF certification renewal.)

I've had many conversations about ethics with former clients and students. They call when they are facing a tough situation and are not sure which way to turn. Having a safe space to talk about ethical dilemmas is critical, and that’s why I’ve built a class to strengthen your ethics compass and build your community of practice. 

Ethics in Coaching meets the ICF renewal requirement, provides 6 Core Competency CEUs and, more importantly, creates meaningful conversation among experienced coaches about how to be prepared for the real-life ethical challenges we face in our coaching practices.

Join the Coaching Master Class  if you are ready to get back to basics in your understanding and practice of the coaching competencies. (18.0 Core Competency CEUs, including 3 hours of Ethics training).

There comes a time in your development as a coach when you need to get back to basics. I created the Coaching Master Class to strengthen your understanding of the Coaching Competencies and provide individualized learning and practice. Within the framework of the coaching competencies, even experienced coaches have new insights into how they can serve their clients better.

Both classes are on-line, with flexible scheduling to meet the needs of busy professionals. Classes are interactive, focused on your questions; and homework assignments are targeted to what you want to learn. Small class size and ample time for conversation allow you to learn from my experience and the experience of your classmates.

Here’s what one alumna shared about the value of her experience:

There’s something magical that happens when people get together in the learning environment you create. So, on one level, there is this ethereal feeling of camaraderie. But then there's another level where I'm getting real, practical information and help on what to do to be a better coach. My notebook is full of new questions to ask my clients. Kelly Kienzle, PCC

Register by August 22 for the Early Bird Pricing!   You can REGISTER HERE.

ANNOUNCING MY NEW WEBSITE

My website is now live!  

You can find my Blog posts there - old posts and new.  Here's a couple I've written recently that you won't want to miss:

Coaching Moves: http://suemcleodcoaching.com/blog/2017-02-26-15-56-08.html
Make it a Habit: http://suemcleodcoaching.com/blog/make-it-a-habit-1.html
Do You Have an Ethics Lifeline: http://suemcleodcoaching.com/blog/do-you-have-an-ethics-lifeline.html

If you like the Blog - you'll love my monthly newsletter -- Coaching Beyond the Edge -- subscribe in the box to the right and you'll receive my monthly musings on the coaching profession, plus invitations to learning experiences that I move your coaching beyond your learning edge.


Thanks to my partners - Savi Brant of FairPriceStudio who built the site, my husband Ed Green who provided technical, editing, and moral support, and Sharon Lipovsky of Point Road Studio - my writing and marketing coach.

Do you have an Ethics Lifeline?

Who do you reach out to when the waters get a little rough in your one-on-one with coaching clients?

I received a call from a former student and colleague the other day. She was facing a challenge with a coaching client and needed help thinking through how to handle it. The challenge had to do with Ethics - which is not unusual when I receive these types of calls.  I think she had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done, but it wasn’t straightforward and she felt that there were risks in all directions. It was ambiguous (maybe something was amiss, or maybe not), it involved her client and others in the organization, and the worst-case scenario was serious enough that ignoring it wasn’t an option. It was helpful for her to talk it through, and she came away with a plan and the conviction that taking action was the right thing to do.

In my Coaching Master Class, we talk about Ethics first, and spend more time on it than the other competencies. In my initial class design, I put Ethics at the beginning because I thought it was a topic that we would discuss without much pre-work, as a way to “warm up” before hitting our stride with real coaching topics.

After 10 cohorts, I now see that putting Ethics first was a great decision - it is a real coaching topic. 

In listening to the ethical situations the students bring to the class, I see that Ethics is an undercurrent in our relationships with our clients and their sponsoring organizations.  They can arise right at the beginning or at any time during the engagement. They impact the services we offer and how we build our businesses, especially if we offer more than coaching.  Whenever they come up, they can knock us off center and disrupt the coaching engagement.

Talking about Ethics proactively – that is, before we need to make some of those difficult choices - is important. Many of the Coaching Master Class students have been grateful for that opportunity and have made specific changes to their coaching agreements and initial conversations with clients and sponsors. They are ready to handle some common ethical challenges before they become a problem.

Through the conversations, students also realize the value of getting different perspectives and hearing the experiences of their peers. We talk about having a “lifeline” - someone to call to help when you're facing a challenge. Your lifeline won’t have the answer, but will listen, ask questions, notice emotions that might be getting in your way, challenge your assumptions, and refer you back to the Code of Ethics and your coaching agreements for guidance. Your lifeline is a coach, really, to help you do what needs to be done to stay aligned with your ethical code.

The coach who called me had been through those conversations in the Coaching Master Class and had done some research on ethics in coaching relationships. She had the advantage of that proactive thinking, and had the phone number of her lifeline ready.

From teaching the Coaching Master Class, I’ve learned that it’s important that we stop and talk about Ethics periodically, to check in on the ethical challenges that are cropping up in your real-world experiences. The conversations remind us of what’s expected when we face these challenges, and prepare us for when they do occur.

Find your ethics lifeline in the Coaching Master Class!

Learn More Here

What will you Start, Stop and Continue to Become a Better Coach?

 Awareness - that window into what’s working and what’s not - is the foundation for change. 

The coaching profession values learning. In fact, coaching is all about learning. Our clients learn about themselves and how they relate to the world. They learn new approaches to their challenges, either through new attitudes or behaviors. They learn to be more aware of the world around them and what’s happening inside of them.

It makes sense that coaches should be continuing their own learning, increasing their awareness and learning new approaches to their coaching and their relationships with clients.

Many consultants, facilitators, and coaches I know use the START/STOP/CONTINUE model to define how the future should be different than the past. They ask “What do you know to do that you want to START doing in the future? What are you doing now that doesn’t work that you want to STOP? What is still working that you want to CONTINUE?”

I think it’s useful to use this model when thinking about your own learning and how to improve your coaching.

What do you know about your coaching that is working well? How can you CONTINUE to do these things with confidence?

What do you know about your coaching that is just not working – for you or the client? How can you STOP doing those things in the future?

And where do you feel you have deficiencies? It could be things that you know you should be doing, but aren’t. Or you’re facing situations or clients that you’re not sure how to handle, and need new skills or approaches to feel more capable.  What do you need to START to handle these better?

Before you answer these questions, take a minute to reflect. Do you know  enough about your coaching to make good decisions about what to START/STOP/CONTINUE?

From my experience, it’s hard for coaches, on their own, to objectively view their own coaching. They have questions, rather than clarity about whether what they are doing is working. So they are unsure whether to STOP or CONTINUE.

Their clients are happy and telling them the coaching is great, and they don’t have another way to tell is something is missing. It’s hard to START something to fill a gap when they’re not even aware of the gap.

Awareness, that window into what’s working and what’s not, is the foundation for change. Equally important is a model of coaching that sets a standard of what’s effective. Looking at your coaching (with an learners eye) against a model (that you believe in), you can start to understand what you can Start/Stop/Continue to become a better coach. 

It’s further complicated when you consider that how well you coach depends on what you do and how you “be” while you’re coaching. Your technique might be fine, but your “being” might affect your ability to listen to and hear your client’s emotions or energy. Or you might have a connected and supportive way of “being”, but forget to challenging your client, or holding them accountable. 

When was the last time you honestly reflected on your coaching against what you were taught? When was the last time you recorded a coaching session and listened carefully to see if you are using all of the coaching competencies? When was the last time someone you respected as an experienced coach listened to your coaching and gave you feedback?

Isn’t it time you made a serious commitment to START/STOP/CONTINUE for the sake of you coaching and your clients?

The Coaching Master Class provides a safe space to examine your coaching and to learn what other masterful coaches do. Learn more here

What???

Here are two of my favorite commercials:

Where's the Fence? (Hyundai football commercial)  and What? How? (Whirlpool Washer/Dryer commercial).

I'm not endorsing either company, just acknowledging their clever use of Questions in their ads.

“What do you notice about your questions?”

It’s a simple question, really. We ask the students in the Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program to observe their questions and reflect on what they notice.

Hundreds of student coaches have written this paper over the years. I read through another batch just this morning, and was – again – delighted and inspired by what the students learn. 

We assign this paper because it’s important for coaches to be aware of the questions they ask, the questions they avoid, and how the context impacts their questioning.  This awareness is a foundation for moving into being thoughtful and artful in using questions in coaching conversations.

But the real learning is much deeper, varied, nuanced, and personal.  This learning often comes as a surprise. The student becomes aware that how he/she asks questions is a reflection of how he/she sees the world and his/her place in it. And the “world” is their relationships, their role in workplace power dynamics, or their own master self-assessments, fundamental fears, deep passions. Their patterns of asking questions grow out of a lifetime of past experiences, culture and family relationships, and years of professional training.

To move into coaching is to leave behind one view of the world and embody another, in which you are someone who loves questions; who is confident asking questions that feel too probing and too personal; who can draw out deeper insight and meaning with just a question. 

What are you noticing about your questions?

How Does a Coach Listen?

Creativity and finding new paths requires listening to what is and imagining what could be...

T-Shirt seen on the streets of Bath, Maine Summer 2015

“Active Listening” is a familiar term. In general, it describes listening that requires effort by the listener to be attentive, use body language to communicate that attentiveness, and restate or summarize what is heard and understood.

This type of listening is important for coaches. But is being actively attentive enough to help our clients find new perspective and awareness, to break out of their current reality to see future possibilities? What does active listening mean for coaches?

The ICF defines Active Listening as “The ability to focus completely on what the client is saying and is not saying, to understand the meaning of what is said in the context of the client's desires, and to support client self-expression.”

To me, a coach listens beyond and around what the client is sharing, tuning into patterns of thought; topics skipped over or avoided; shifts in emotions, tone or energy; charged words, phrases or metaphors; incongruities between words, emotions, and body. The coach also listens to her own experience of the client, noticing her own shifts in energy, focus, and the curious questions that bubble up inside her.   Listening in this way allows us to find paths to explore that the client may not have seen on their own.

Our listening creates the space for our client to talk, reflect, and explore. It impacts the quality of our questions and observations.  It sets the direction we use to guide the coaching conversation.

What is your understanding of “Active Listening” for coaches? If you were observing a coach, how would you know the quality of their listening? How do you know if you are listening at your best?

Upcoming Events:

I will be a speaker at the March 14  ICF New England, Maine Affiliate event in Portland. You can register through the events page on ICFNE website - ICFNE.org.

The Coaches Master Class starts at the end of January and again in March. Email me if you're interested in joining this small group learning experience.

I offer Mentor Coaching to meet your credential requirements, tune-up your coaching, and prepare for the Coach Knowledge Exam for ICF. We'll design a program that works for you!

A Safe an Courageous Space for Coaches

This lace shawl was made possible by my friend and knitting expert (Cheryl) who steps in to help with any of my challenges. She creates a safe and courageous space on my journey to knitting mastery!

In my coach training with CTI, I remember learning the "new" idea of creating a safe and courageous space for our clients. I immediately realized that the “space” in my workplace was neither safe nor courageous. Not that is was dangerous, mind you. But it was an environment where you didn’t want to rock the boat too much and you certainly couldn’t show any weakness or uncertainty.  Moving up in the organization required a great deal of either courage or naiveté, because you were on your own to figure out how to do the new job, without ever admitting to uncertainties or asking too many questions.

Many gatherings of coaches feel that way to me, too. They are a places to put your best foot forward, to talk about how much work you have, mention the high-profile clients you’re working with (with permission, of course), and retell stories of your coaching triumphs.  I find myself holding back from these conversations, because the conversation I really want to have includes revealing the challenges and struggles we’re having as coaches.  

I want a safe and courageous space to talk about our coaching.

The Coaching Master Class (formerly the PCC Master Class) is such a space. Students who’ve completed the program have appreciated the level of honesty they can bring as they share their personal challenges. They’ve found a space of non-judgement and exploration. And they challenge themselves and each other to address those challenges head-on by practicing new coaching moves with their clients.

Class highlights

• Small class size (maximum of 5 students)
• 17.5 Core Competency CEUs, 0.5 Resource Development CEUs
• 8 tele-classes for lecture and discussion
• Homework assignments to deepen your learning
• $1,300.00 class fee

New classes are start 5 times per year. Email me - suemcleod9@gmail.com - if you’re interested in participating or attending an Orientation Session

Orientation Session Schedule:

• Tuesday January 12, 11:30am - 12:30pm
• Wednesday January 12, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
• Monday, March 7,  11:30am - 12:30pm
• Wednesday, March 22, 7:00pm - 8:00pm

PCC Master Class - Summer 2015 - Watch your coaching grow this summer!

Spring has finally arrived in Maine and the gardens are planted. Now we watch, weed, and water to support the new growth that will soon (we hope!) be reaching towards the sun.

If you’re ready to spend some time this summer watering, weeding, and watching your coaching grow, consider joining my PCC Master Class. It’s perfect for ACC’s reaching towards becoming a PCC.  It’s also perfect for PCC’s reaching to be more mindful and masterful in their coaching.

Join the PCC Master Class to

• Dig into the ICF expectations of a masterful PCC level coach
• Turn over and examine your own coaching in a confidential and supportive group of peers
• Weed out the bad habits you’ve been tolerating
• Sow the seeds for being the best coach you can be

  The PCC Master Class is

• Small classes with experienced coaches
• Six 90-minute tele-classes over 6 months
• Flexible scheduling
• ICF approved for 9 core-competency CEUs
• $900 class fee

Call or email now to reserve your place for the Summer 2015 class.

Sue McLeod

suemcleod9@gmail.com

(207) 751-1689

Coach, Are you an Innocent Bystander? or a Passive Enabler?

You know that feeling when you're coaching. Your client is doing what they always do. Maybe they talk a lot and never really get to the point. Maybe they "I don't know" a lot and deflect all invitations to explore new paths. And, since you've been here before, you let them do what they do, feeling powerless and "skill-less" to change the course of the conversation.

You're an innocent bystander to your client.

Innocent because it's not your fault (it's the client's fault). Bystander because you're on the sidelines watching and listening, and being a little bit of a victim, too.

This term came to me in a PCC Master Class session I was leading on Establishing the Coaching Agreement. We were discussing challenges with clients who are difficult to pin down, who can't seem to focus on what they want from the coaching, who only want to talk about what's already happened, and who never come to the coaching session with a topic in mind.

Listening to these stories led me to reflect on my own coaching. Of course, I have clients like this, too.  With reflection, I had an epiphany - I've been taking the role of "innocent bystander" with clients who don't come to the session with a clear topic, ready for coaching.

I'm now reframing.

When I pull back from the coaching conversation and blame the client, I'm not really "innocent". In fact, you could say I'm guilty. Guilty of not being a full partner, of not owning my responsibility to lead the coaching session to be a purposeful conversation.

I'm also not a bystander! My presence and actions with my client have an impact, always! By letting them ramble on, I'm enabling them to continue their default patterns of thinking, reinforcing their stories and assessments of how life is for them, and accepting the lack of focus and forward movement this is probably not working for them in other parts of their life.

From "innocent bystander" to "guilty enabler" - there's a powerful reframe! It's a wake-up call for me and I'm mindful now as I work with clients, students and colleagues to return to the core of coaching - my role is to be a partner, to support the client to "do/be what they don't want to do/be, in order to have the life they want." which mean I sometimes have to do what I don't want to do, or say what I don't want to say.

Another PCC Master Class is starting this summer. Won't you join me for a deep dive into your coaching?

Setting Goals: It's Complicated

In coaching, we work with our clients to set goals and find ways to have new results in their lives.  At the March ICFNE Maine Affiliate program "Beyond Goals", I got an insight into just how complex and nuanced that can be.

The ICFNE Maine Affiliate program in March was a facilitated discussion based on the book Beyond Goals: Effective Strategies for Coaching and Mentoring by by Susan David and David Clutterbuck.

This interactive session gave me a lot to think about, as I realized the limitations of my own preferences and practices, and how they might also limit my clients.

I left with more questions than answers:

·      Are stretch goals motivating or overwhelming?

·      Am I motivated by moving towards a positive result or avoiding a negative result?

·      Are specific and measurable goals focused and results oriented or too narrow to make a real difference?

·      Are simple and obvious goals just good common sense or a way to avoid exploring and understanding nuanced options?

·      Are goals always useful in an increasing complex world?

·      Are goals set by others more or less motivating than goals we set for ourselves?

In letting these questions roll around in my head for a few weeks, I realize that having more distinctions around goals and how they work for others would help me in all of the roles I play.

·      As an individual, are there options for goal setting that I should have in my tool kit, that aren’t my normal and familiar way?

·      As a leader, how can I expand my awareness and practice to use different approaches with different people and groups?

·      As a coach, how can I partner with clients so they are the best they can be at setting and achieving goals?

·      As a coach trainer and mentor, how do I teach and assess a coach’s ability to partner with their clients?

A big part of the awareness from this program is that my own preferences for goals creates a powerful bias in how I act and how I judge others.  With that awareness comes the desire to pull together a diverse set of people to explore this with me - to get “up close and personal” with different perspectives, motivations, and practices.

These are questions that I will be bringing to my own participation in the next PCC Master Class.

This winter I set a goal for myself. To photograph and share the biggest snow bank I could find here in Maine.  Here's the winning entry. 

 That's my 6ft 2in tall husband standing next to our Suburban in a parking lot in Camden, ME.