Coach Express

By Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland
CEO, ICA

Last year I was invited to lecture in the School of Management at Victoria University. It has been a wonderful learning experience, I have enjoyed being around people who are filled with enthusiasm and energy. Most of my students are in their early twenties and it is a real thrill to be able to see how these people, who will be our future, think and learn.

I must confess to initially thinking that they would be open and non judgemental, like new blossoms emerging from a flower, unstained or tainted.

However what I learnt is that new generations seem to be making all the same mistakes as those before them. Part of the assessment requirement for these students is to work on team projects. I was quite surprised to see that when the first little hiccup occurred, in their teams, they immediately went into ‘blame’ mode. (more…)

By Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland
CEO, ICA

Learning + Action

Conducting a performance appraisal is one task managers would often prefer not to do. For some managers, performance appraisals are times when you need to highlight all the errors of the employee and have that ‘heart to heart’ conversation about how they need to ‘lift their game’.  It is rarely seen as a time for the manager to learn more about the employee and their role in the company.

A few years ago I decided to change the performance management system at ICA. We moved to a system of learning management. When the time came to perform the usual appraisal we created a learning appraisal. We spent time with each employee, found out what they had learnt and praised them for everything they had learnt. We then took the learning process a step further and asked each employee to identify what they would need to learn to be able to support ICA in achieving their goals.

What we learnt as managers was that our employees had some extraordinary ways in which they could grow themselves and ICA. For them it was all about leveraging. They wanted to know as much about ICA’s goals and direction as possible so they could see how they could best leverage growth. They knew their skills and capabilities much better than we did and could see areas that they were passionate about and wanted to take leadership in.

We are about to complete another learning appraisal period and it is a time I look forward to all year. It is a time of excitement, acknowledgement and learning. For me it compares so nicely with coaching. I see coaching as learning plus action. A learning appraisal at ICA is just that: learning + action- and it leaves employees feeling empowered, energetic and passionate about themselves and their jobs.

What more could you ask for?

A belligerent samurai, an old Japanese tale goes, once challenged a Zen master to explain the concept of heaven and hell. But the monk replied with scorn, “You’re nothing but a lout - I can’t waste my time with the likes of you!”

His very honour attacked, the samurai flew into a rage and, pulling his sword from is scabbard, yelled, “I could kill you for you impertinence.”
“That,” the monk calmly replied, “is hell.”
Startled at seeing the truth in what the master pointed out about the fury that had him in his grip, the samurai calmed down, sheathed his sword, and bowed thanking the monk for the insight.
“And that,” said the monk,”is heaven.”
(pg 46, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, 1995)

My thoughts of late have been drawn to the way in which we react to different things in our life and the consequences our reactions can have. Reacting to a particular situation requires us to look deep within ourselves and to understand the triggers that have caused such a reaction. One our our Power Tools at ICA have supported me in my coaching to work really effectively with my clients to understand the difference between reacting and responding. Reacting is that flood of emotion that pours in when certain triggers ignite our fire, so to speak. We leap out and react in a range of ways that can be highly emotional. (more…)

By Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland
CEO, ICA

Last year Robyn Logan and I headed to Greater China to explore the coach training market. We had received many stories prior to going to China about what it would be like, what to expect etc. As it transpired, many of these anecdotes were based on stereotypes and unsuccessful business outcomes.

Since our return from China and Hong Kong I have been involved in a separate research project that seeks to evaluate the Return on Investment (ROI) in the coaching process. One particular model identifies four areas in which to evaluate a coaching program: Reaction - Learning - Behavior - Results

I wondered what would happen if I applied the model of ROI to our China trip. When I used this measure I found that we had a highly successful trip with a very large ROI. Here are the questions I asked myself:

Whilst in China we met some amazing people. We learnt a great deal about the generosity and warmth of the many coaches we met. We also learnt that no matter what country you are from, core coaching principles are the same everywhere. We intuitively knew this anyway because ICA is an international school with students from over 40 countries - but this trip confirmed it for us.

The connections we made continue today and we are working towards establishing ICA in China and Hong Kong. So many people shared our vision of coaching in China and share our enthusiasm as we set the processes in place.

This experience, so far, has been highly stimulating and enjoyable. We look forward to bringing you more news in future issues of our newsletter.

Responding vs Reacting ™
By Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland
CEO
ICA

A belligerent samurai, an old Japanese tale goes, once challenged a Zen master to explain the concept of heaven and hell. But the monk replied with scorn, “You’re nothing but a lout - I can’t waste my time with the likes of you!”
His very honour attacked, the samurai flew into a rage and, pulling his sword from is scabbard, yelled, “I could kill you for you impertinence.”
“That,” the monk calmly replied, “is hell.”
Startled at seeing the truth in what the master pointed out about the fury that had him in his grip, the samurai calmed down, sheathed his sword, and bowed thanking the monk for the insight.
“And that,” said the monk,”is heaven.”
pg 46, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, 1995

My thoughts of late have been drawn to the way in which we react to different things in our life and the consequences our reactions can have. Reacting to a particular situation requires us to look deep within ourselves and to understand the triggers that have caused such a reaction. One our our Power Tools at ICA have supported me in my coaching to work really effectively with my clients to understand the difference between reacting and responding. Reacting is that flood of emotion that pours in when certain triggers ignite our fire, so to speak. We leap out and react in a range of ways that can be highly emotional.

I remember a situation once where a government body asked me to come in and work with two employees to resolve a conflict between them. I first began by speaking separately to each employee and I was amazed at what I heard. These two employees sat side by side at work and some time ago had a misunderstanding that was never clarified. They continued to work together, never clarifying their misunderstandings, but rather choosing to believe them as truths going forward. As a result they decided to react to each other by not speaking but rather sending any communication via email. Yes they physically sat side by side in an open space office. From that day forward they reacted to any communication from one another.

I found this such an extraordinary story, in that their misunderstanding had left them both with identical feelings, feelings of resentment and exclusion. So each piece of communication they received from one another was met with resentment and exclusion. They both were incredibly stressed and this was starting to effect their health.

So for these two people their emotional triggers that bought about such reactions stemmed from a moment in history, an important moment none the less for each of them.

Working from a place of responding, instead of reacting, is so much more powerful. When we respond to a situation, we can openly express how we feel, discuss the issues objectively and move forward in a very proactive, empowering way. This is different from dumping our emotions when reacting to talking about how we feel when responding. It also makes the process less personal. We are not attacking the receiver of the message but rather working with them to ensure the communication channels are clear and open, checking in every now and again to ensure our message is understood or grasped.

As the Zen master explained above, we can either choose to live in heaven or hell. Living in heaven is all about respecting and valuing those around us and having a goal that is about always aiming to project what you yourself want to receive.

By Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland
CEO
ICAIt seems that we are increasingly surrounded by stories of devastation and destruction. We have all by now read so many stories about the atrocities that surround us each day. Currently people in the US are trying to come to terms with Hurricane Katrina. At the same time a plane crashed in Indonesia and many other disasters continue to occur. I started to think about what is happening in our world. What energy forces are at play? How as one person can I come to terms with my own sense of feeling helpless and unable to support people in times of a disaster?

I have read many newsletters and websites where coaches are offering their services. This is extraordinary! Other charities are raising funds and people are coming together everywhere.

But for me what a greater world it would be if we lived everyday by our responses to disasters. Wouldn’t it be amazing to always be generous, to come together in support at any opportunity and to release positive energy from our lives everyday?

Lets commit to world peace and give every day of our lives.

By Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland
CEO
ICAIn our last newsletter I wrote about a conference I attended in Sydney Australia. To follow on my thoughts from the last article I wanted to write about Peter Senge’s notion of System Thinking and how this relates to the world of coaching.

Systems thinking is based on system dynamics; it is highly conceptual; it provides ways of understanding practical business issues; it looks at systems in terms of particular types of cycles (archetypes); and it includes explicit system modeling of complex issues.

“Systems thinking is a conceptual framework, a body of knowledge and tools that has been developed over the past fifty years, to make the full patterns clearer, and to help us see how to change them effectively.

Also, The essence of the discipline of systems thinking lies in a shift of mind:

• seeing interrelationships rather than linear cause-effect chains, and
• seeing processes of change rather than snapshots

The practice of systems thinking starts with understanding a simple concept called “feedback” that shows how actions can reinforce or counteract (balance) each other. It builds to learning to recognize types of “structures” that recur again and again: the arms race is a generic or archetypal pattern of escalation, at its heart no different from turf warfare between two street gangs, the demise of a marriage, or the advertising battles of two consumer goods companies fighting for market share. Eventually, systems thinking forms a rich language for describing a vast array of interrelationships and patterns of change. Ultimately, it simplifies life by helping us to see the deeper patterns lying behind the events and the details. ” Senge, Peter. 1992 The Fifth Discipline, Random House, Australia.

Systems Archetypes are basic and understandable cycles that systems go through. So how do we apply this thought process to coaching? With the focus being on the system and interrelationships it allows us in coaching to work through issues that our clients are experiencing and to get them to look at all the components of the system rather than just the area they may have identified or the problem they have found. It’s about looking at the big picture, the deeper picture. Once we see all the interconnected components we can then move away from the problem and start and identify the cause and effect of it. It also supports us to look at a situation from a distance, with greater objectivity. Through doing this we are less likely to continue to ‘bandaid’ problems but rather work to the core of the issues.