Coach Express

By Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland
(CEO)

One of the reasons that coaching is such an interesting field is that it draws from a wide range of theories, philosophies and disciplines to create a unique professional practice. If coaching were a plant, it would be an exotic, variegated hybrid! Coaching is more than just the sum of its parts, however. While coaching has a theoretical history in adult learning theory, psychology, management theory, sociology and spirituality, it has also operated as a unique field for over 30 years now. Throughout that time, has developed its own theoretical framework.

At ICA we believe that coaching is its own unique field and should be studied as such. We think that, while coaches may bring skills and ideas with them from former fields and professions, no one field or profession has any greater claim to expertise in coaching than another. Having said that, however, as part of your understanding of coaching, it is useful to know a bit about its history and the theories it shares with other fields and disciplines.

Over the next few weeks I will be highlighting the theories that we believe inform coaching. To begin lets look at Adult Learning Theory.

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By Robyn Logan
(Strategy Director)

In a recent article in the Mc Kinsey Quarterly, Richard Rumelt (Professor of Strategy at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management) refers to Steve Jobs as a “strategic entrepreneur”. He quotes Jobs as answering a detailed question about his long term strategy with “I am going to wait for the next big thing.” Interestingly, Jobs didn’t go into a long explanation about competitive positioning or long term vision, he was simply waiting until the right moment for that predatory leap, which for him was Pixar and then, in an even bigger way, the iPod.

According to Rumelt, that very predatory approach of leaping through the window of opportunity and staying focused on those big wins — not on maintenance activities — is what distinguishes a real entrepreneurial strategy.

Rumelt’s article is excellent and it got me thinking about the concept of strategy. As a former Strategic Planner I spent many hours assisting organizations to develop and document their corporate strategy. Very few of these organizations were engaging in what I would call “real strategy. Strategy is a bit like trust, or even love – you know when you have it and you know when you see it, but it’s hard to teach someone else how to do it.

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ICA is committed to building a connected community of ICA coaches all over the world.

The ICA Scholarship Program, managed by Dennis Griffin, provides opportunities for students to not only access coach training, but contribute to the international growth of ICA by promoting our coach training programs to their local networks.
Dennis says “…one of the many things that sets ICA apart from the other coach training companies is our commitment to providing coach training programs right across the globe. This helps our students build friendships and networks all around the world, and provides a unique multi-cultural training environment that I believe is un-paralleled”.

In July 2007, a record 17 students enrolled in ICA Coach Training Scholarships.

–> Apply for an ICA Scholarship

In July 2007, a record 17 students enrolled in ICA Coach Training Scholarships, from the following countries:

• France
• Isle of Man
• Switzerland
• Portugal
• Singapore
• China
• Germany
• Israel
• Korea
• Netherlands
• South Africa

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