July 2012 Newsletter

Coaching Out of the Box®                                  Newsletter

July 2012 Edition 

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Out of the Box: Coaching Topic of the Month

Action Planning: A key to getting things done!

We all do it. Some may call it action planning, others may call it strategizing. Regardless, it is something we do on a daily basis to accomplish our tasks and goals or to get from Point A to Point B.

Think about it.

If you like to write out your grocery list in the order that the items appear in the store, you are action planning in order to ensure that you get everything you need. OR  

If you schedule your day from appointments to downtime, you too are action planning in order to make the most of your day.

As a matter of fact, action planning and implementation is one of the key elements in coaching. It helps our coachees to stay on target and to take forward movement. It takes a discovery-type conversation to the next level. Any time we can put a new awareness to use, we are not only growing, but we are increasing our success rates.  

To learn more about action planning and how to effectively use it with your team or your clients, please join us for 5/5/5 Coaching Skills Training Program™ beginning September 26th.

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 Team Talk 

by Amy Ruppert, MCC,
Chief Learning Officer

One of the things that makes a coaching exchange unique is that there is, and always will be, a request for taking action by the coach to the coachee. Without this, it's just an interesting conversation.  

Seventeen years ago, when I began my coaching practice, I realized the best way to grow my business, which happen to be doing something no one had ever heard of or had any experience with, was to coach as many people in impromptu exchanges as often as I could so they would become evangelists for coaching. One of the first people I tried this with was a good friend who had become a brainstorming and downloading partner with me in my previous business. We'd often have lunch or get together for drinks and spend hours exchanging ideas for each other's business and download problems we were having with our businesses. It was always very stimulating and interesting as we both understood one another's world and the ideas flowed fast and furiously. But as interesting and stimulating as the conversation was, very little stuck when it came down to actually doing something about it because there was always something missing from those conversations.

When I began getting a few coaching skills under my belt, I went out for lunch with this friend. No sooner had we sat down when he fired right into some of the challenges he was having with a couple of his employees. I listened for a few minutes and then asked him if we could do something different. "Sure, what?" he asked. I asked him if it would be OK if I coached him around this instead of us having our usual kind of conversation. A smirk crossed his face and he said, "OK, I guess so - whatever that means." And I replied, "It means that we're going to do more than exchange ideas. I'm going to ask you a lot of questions to get at YOUR best ideas. I may ask some tough questions that may not be the most comfortable, but I believe they'll help you get some new understanding about what is really going on and some hidden wisdom you may not have tapped into yet. And then, I'm going to ask you to take action and we're going to work together to help you plan out the best actions to take that are going to have the biggest impact on what you want to accomplish." "Go for it" he said, with that smirk still on his face.

By the end of our coaching exchange (and lunch) he not only walked away with a solution to the challenge he was facing with these two employees, but a full plan on how to develop these two and other employees, into emerging leaders as his business grew. We outlined an entire set of standards that defined what a strong leader would look like in his company and the steps employees could take to be recognized as a leader. In the end, I made a request of him to take bold action around being a leader who created an environment for others leaders to grow. Up until that moment when I challenged him with that request, most of his energy was spent on coming up with day to day solutions and putting out fires. That request made him realize he had to rise above the role of firefighter and become the visionary for his company. He accepted the request and the action plan was created.  

Today, seventeen years later, his business has grown way beyond what he could have ever imagined and he has had his own coach ever since. And his company has embraced a coaching culture and thrives because of it. He still likes to reminisce about that lunch and what a difference that action plan made for him and his business. If that request that challenged him and the action plan had never been made, and we had not drilled into the details of planning out what he would DO moving forward with timelines, measurables and benchmarks for success, it would have just been another one of our interesting and very stimulating conversations that would have most likely been left at the table of that restaurant.

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Looking to take your coaching to the next level? Wanting to bring the coaching conversation to your organization?

We have quite a few training events getting under way beginning in September that you won't want to miss! To obtain a copy of our calendar of events, please click here  or if you would prefer to view it online, you can do so here!

REFINE YOUR COACHING SKILLS BY COACHING OTHERS AND HEARING OTHERS COACH IN A VIRTUAL CLASSROOM.

Next program starts Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 10am - 11:30am Pacific/ 1pm to 2:30pm Eastern for eight (8) consecutive Tuesdays

 Click here for more details on Coaching Skills Practicum

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LEARN HIGHLY EFFECTIVE COACHING SKILLS THAT MAKE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT IN YOUR WORK.

To bring this training to your group or organization and to obtain more information please click here (must have a minimum of ten people).

Questions? Contact us at Info@CoachingOutoftheBox.com or call us at: 1.888.422.6224.

Click here for more details on 5/5/5 Coaching Skills Training Program™  

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Coaching Fundamentals™

LEARN THE CORE COACHING COMPETENCIES TAUGHT TO PROFESSIONAL CERTIFIED COACHES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

Next program starts Wednesday, September 26, 2012, 8:00am - 9:30am Pacific/11am to 12:30pm Eastern for ten (10) consecutive Wednesdays

Click here for more details on Coaching Fundamentals™  

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FOR COACHES WHO ARE RESPONDING TO THE NEED OF LEADERS TO QUICKLY & EASILY ACQUIRE COACHING SKILLS!

Next program starts Tuesdays, October 2, 2012, 2:00pm - 3:30pm Pacific/5:00pm to 6:30pm Eastern for eight (8) consecutive Tuesdays  

Payment Options Now Available

 

Click here for more details on Train the Trainer Program™ 

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It's All the Buzz 

This program(Coaching Fundamentals™ Program) really solidified the importance of coaching for me and it heightened my awareness of how I can use coaching in a busy healthcare setting. I really feel as though this program took my beginner coaching skills to the next level and this program is so well put together that it just made it seem easy! I loved it!

Amanda Dalgetty
Nurse Educator
BC Children's Hospital

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In The Trainer Spotlight:
Marc Bowles

It is our pleasure to shine the spotlight on this month's 5/5/5 Coaching Skills Training Program™ Licensed Trainer in the spotlight is  Marc Bowles.  

Coaching Out of the Box®:What have you been up to coaching-wise since you participated in a  Coaching Out of the Box® training?

 Marc:So much has changed since my first session of exploring Coaching Out of the Box®.  I remember participating in Alison's very first session of Coaching Out of the Box® and how that weekend added another layer to my desire to be a better coach and how introducing coaching to organizations can be done.  Since that day I have facilitated sessions to Educational Institutions, business organizations and have introduced COOTB to coaching colleagues and clients.  Many of whom have been inspired by the results that they too are becoming educated in coaching.  Coaching has become the backbone of all my facilitation and speaking work and it's magic has enhanced the value of every session.  Most recently I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to share Coaching Out of the Box® with LINGOs, an international Not for Profit organization, and co-lead sessions with other Coaching Out of the Box® Trainers to leaders around the globe. A truly humbling experience, yet so rewarding. As coaching grows so does the desire to improve, learn and share more with everyone I meet. It has been a "Game Changer" for my career and the careers of those I am fortunate to work with.  

Coaching Out of the Box®:How are you using what you have learned? 

 Marc :  I know it's cliché, yet the more I facilitate and share Coaching Out of the Box®the more it becomes who I am and the less I know which is fantastic as I am passionate about learning more about coaching and the impact it brings to those that embrace it. Just sharing Coaching Out of the Box® has given me more confidence and a way to share stories about coaching and step into opportunities I may not have thought possible. The opportunities show up in my relationships with family, my colleagues and in every aspect of any facilitation and speaking. Using Coaching Out of the Box® has given me the tool to help create change in how organizations communicate.

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Licensed Trainers Website Listing

There's a section on our web site where all of our Licensed Trainers are listed. If you have completed your certification through Coaching Out of the Box® and would like to have your profile listed on our website please complete the following information and send it in a separate email to listing@coachingoutofthebox.com or dotty@coachingoutofthebox.com :

Name (first and last):

Certifications (initials behind your name):

Province/State:

Country:

Bio (max 300 words):

Web site:

Email address:

Phone number:

If you wish to include a photograph with your listing, please send it as an attachment to your email. Do not paste your picture into a word document as we are unable to process them.

For Licensed Trainers that are already listed on the website but would like to update your information please email Dotty Sperring with all the details, at listing@coachingoutofthebox.com or dotty@coachingoutofthebox.com.

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