MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI (1934-2021)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, known for his research on the experience of flow, a psychological concept he introduced in his best-selling book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial, 1990), has sadly passed away.
Csikszentmihalyi was Claremont Graduate University’s distinguished professor of psychology and management, and founder and co-director of a nonprofit research institute that studies positive psychology, the Quality of Life Research Center.
Csikszentmihalyi delivered a TEDTalk titled “Flow, the Secret to Happiness,” and has been the principal investigator on eight grants in the past 10 years, receiving funding from the Public Health Service, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Getty Trust, the Sloan Foundation, the W T Grant Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation, for a total of more than $10 million.

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ASHRIDGE HOSTS LOVE OVER FEAR

6th Relational Coaching Conference: Love Over Fear, hosted by Ashridge Centre for Coaching, 14 October 2021

by Lindsay Wittenberg

 

The Ashridge Centre for Coaching 6th Relational Coaching Conference addressed how coaches can help in the context of fractious organisations, ugly politics and immense pressures on leaders.

Keynote speaker Marina Cantacuzino MBE, founder of The Forgiveness Project (which uses restorative narratives to transform lives, supporting people to overcome unresolved grievances, and building a climate of hope and empathy), opened the morning with Forgiveness: as mysterious as love. She explored how forgiveness and humanising narratives can break cycles of conflict, transform relationships and be part of a creative and restorative dynamic. It was moving and eye-opening to hear through Cantacuzino’s vivid stories how pain is the great motivator to forgive.

David Owen’s workshop on Love and fear in professional relationships invited participants to engage with our own love and fear, and explore how both can guide the coach’s work.

Robin Shohet’s thought-provoking and humble afternoon keynote highlighted the shame in acknowledging we’re frightened, and the fear that can manifest in judgment, blame and making ourselves right – a dangerous place, which makes someone else wrong. Somewhere underneath everything, he suggested, is love – and shame blocks it. He reminded us that forgiveness means we can let go of being right.

Shame was a theme too in Simon Cavicchia’s workshop Love and power: shame and the need for balance, in which he contrasted love and will, corresponding with other contrasts: feminine and masculine, relationship and directing, I-thou and I-it. A balance is needed constantly.

Organisations tend to start, at their founding, with the positive aspects of love (compassion and relationship). As they mature, they drift into love’s negative aspects (like lack of accountability), from there into the positive aspects of will (which provides direction and gets things done), then into its negative aspects (harsh judgments and over-demanding), and back to the positive aspects of love. Shame shows up when individuals fail to deliver on the ‘will’ agenda.

For me, it was both powerful and liberating to explore the place of both fear and love in coaching, particularly at a time when our societies seem burdened by ‘difference’, separation and hostility to ‘the other’.

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11TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF COACHING PSYCHOLOGY, INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF COACHING PSYCHOLOGY (ISCP), 4-8 OCTOBER, ONLINE

Palmer: How can we maintain our ‘eco-motivation’?

A positive psychology approach underpinned by climate science and cognitive behavioural and solution focused techniques can help clients stay motivated to tackle climate change.

Maintaining ‘eco-motivation’ is difficult, with many falling prey to debilitating climate change worries, eco-anxiety and ‘eco-depression’, said Professor Stephen Palmer in his keynote as part of the Anthony Grant Lecture. Speaking at the 11th International Congress of Coaching Psychology, he welcomed the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ refusal this year to pathologise eco-distress, categorising it instead as a meaningful response to the climate and ecological emergency.

Palmer, a chartered biologist as well as psychologist, presented results from the ISCP International Centre for Coaching Psychology Research’s survey: Tackling climate change issues raised within coaching and coaching psychology practice. It showcased client concerns about climate change, including preparing for the collapse of society, overwhelming feelings of empathy for the earth, inaction by governments, impact on family life and what they can do personally to mitigate changes.

Helpful coaching techniques and frameworks include systemic approaches, mindfulness and resilience, compassion-based approaches, sustainable leadership, motivational interviewing, digging deeper into values and legacy, strengths-based and Gestalt, according to the survey.

While a third (33%) said they would bring to supervision a climate-change concern related session, another third said they wouldn’t. “I’m curious about why people wouldn’t bring such a session to supervision,” said Palmer.

Palmer also talked about some common defeating ‘eco-anxiety thoughts’ through a cognitive behavioural coaching lens, including: fortune-telling – ‘it’s going to turn out really bad’, ‘all-or-nothing thinking- ‘whatever I attempt to do…is a waste of time’ and discounting the positive – ‘my family and I are doing our best… but it’s not enough’.

 

Support students to flourish

Coaching psychologists need to play an integral part in supporting students to flourish, said Dr Gisele Dias.

“There’s a very marked need for resilience and wellbeing to be part of the centrepiece of academic practice at university, partly because the transition to adulthood is so challenging,” she said in her keynote at the conference: Towards a coaching psychology-based space for empowerment, agency and wellbeing in higher education.

Poor mental health in the student population is increasingly prevalent, she said.

She shared a case study of a resilience and wellbeing programme at King’s College London, on campus, then virtual. The programme, Time to Thrive, was developed around Seligman’s PERMA model (Positive Emotion, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishments/Achievements), and focuses on areas such as overcoming procrastination and relaxation techniques.

Preliminary data from a randomised controlled trial and other evaluation indicates an increase in wellbeing as a result of participating.

 

Wellbeing coaching on the up

We’re seeing the rise of wellbeing coaching, partly as a result of the pandemic, said Professor Suzy Green in her keynote: Coaching for wellbeing: Updates on science and practice.

Coaching has always been about wellbeing but there now appears to be greater permission to be explicit about this being the case, said the founder and CEO of The Positivity Institute. She said: “When I first started practising as an executive coach, I wouldn’t have dared mention the word wellbeing.”

Green talked about Anthony Grant’s Wellbeing & Engagement Framework (2012) in the light of the pandemic, a four-quadrant model which also draws on the work of Corey Keyes (2007).

Rather than looking at mental health and wellbeing being on one continuum (low to high), it also looks at engagement/ goal striving (low to high.) In the top left quadrant is coasting and in the top right, flourishing. In the bottom left is distressed and disengaged, and the bottom right, distressed and functional.

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COACHING AT WORK CONFERENCE: RESILIENCE IS KEY

This year’s Coaching at Work coaching conference, held virtually on 23 November, explores Languishing to flourishing: Enhancing resilience and wellbeing during adversity.

Our sponsors include the Association for Coaching, the Academy of Executive Coaching, the Centre for Coaching, the International Academy for Professional Development, the International Society for Coaching Psychology and the National Wellbeing Service.

Speakers include Christian van Nieuwerburgh on optimising health and wellbeing through positive psychology coaching, Charmaine Roche on a call for anti-racism in coaching, Yvette Sargood on mindfulness for high-potential employees, Alister Scott on compassion in coaching, Mark McMordie on psychological safety and Kathryn Jackson (New Zealand) on lessons from coaching in adversity. Case studies include from the NHS Leadership Academy’s Charmaine Kwame, team coaching using the PERMA approach (Ivan Beaumont), and team coaching for resilience (drawing on client work, including Community Living Ajax-Pickering & Whitby) – Michelle Chambers (Canada). Bob Garvey will deliver a special keynote to honour the late Professor David Megginson.

We’ll announce the 2021 Coaching at Work Award winners at the end.

  • Programme:
  • Liz Hall’s welcome video:

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BTP WINS AWARD FOR COACHING-LED INCLUSIVE CULTURE

British Transport Police (BTP) has won an award for its coaching-centred approach to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture, which has boosted diversity in its coaching pool and seen minority background coaches coach senior staff.

BTP picked up the Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA) 2021 Award in the Best Inclusion and Diversity Programme/Initiative category, which acknowledges efforts to build a diverse and inclusive culture that permeates the workforce and/or the broader local area.

BTP’s efforts included a partnership in June 2020 with accredited International Coaching Federation coach training provider Mastering Your Power’s founder Salma Shah to deliver a pioneering pilot programme to train all coaches through a wider lens of inclusion, belonging and equity.

Following investment in further programmes, the diversity of the coaching pool has risen from 11% to 27% of coaches from under-represented groups, including Black, Asian and neurodivergent employees.

“An added bonus was that our minority coaches are now coaching senior staff. This is a ground-breaking result and in many ways more impactful than reverse mentoring – this was reverse coaching,” said BTP in its award submission.

BTP realised in early 2020 that it was facing “an uncomfortable truth…that despite its diverse talent there was a disturbing lack of diversity among its internal pool of coaches. The seismic shifts of major events such as COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests meant that our workplace would never be the same again. Retention and development of staff and officers from under-represented groups is a key strategy going forward” [awards submission].

“Coaching was going to be one of the critical tools for supporting and making a positive impact – a crucial asset in complexities we were going to face going forward. An acknowledgement that a diverse pool of coaches wasn’t just a nice to have, it was a necessity. Our coaches needed to be representative of all our employees,” it said.

In the same award category, London Borough of Newham and Tribepad – Richmond and Wandsworth Council were both highly commended.

Other award categories included Best Workforce Transformation Initiative, won by London Borough of Hounslow, with St Helens Council highly commended, and the Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative (including mental health, and general health & Safety), won by Northumberland County Council, with Leicestershire County Council and Walsall Council highly commended.

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ROUNDTABLE ON RACISM

On 15 September, Coaching at Work hosted a landmark event at which eight professional bodies pledged to ‘stand against racism’. Liz Hall reports

 

Some of the world’s leading professional coaching bodies have publicly pledged to “stand against racism” and to continue to explore contributing and collaborating to address racism in the profession.

At a landmark event organised and hosted by Coaching at Work, representatives from eight professional coaching bodies pledged to collectively ‘stand against racism’ – not as ‘mere tokenism’ and committed to ongoing dialogue to explore how best to contribute and collaborate, including around harvesting learning and sharing best practice.

The event on 15 September was the first time the professional bodies had gathered at a roundtable on the topic of racism in coaching.

The bodies represented, who signed a shared statement of intent, were:

  • The Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS)
  • The Association for Coaching (AC – Global & UK)
  • The Association of Coaching Supervisors (AoCS)
  • The British Psychology Society Division of Coaching Psychology (BPS DoCP) – formerly the Special Group of Coaching Psychology
  • Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA)
  •  The European Mentoring and Coaching Council UK (EMCC UK)
  • The International Coaching Federation (ICF Global & UK)
  • The International Society for Coaching Psychology (ISCP)

 

In the rich and nuanced conversation, themes discussed included:

  • The importance of this landmark event, signalling that all those bodies represented collectively stand against racism in the coaching profession
  •  Unanimous agreement to continue the dialogue:

– To explore and share best practice
– Committing to further exploration and work on the issue of racism and lack of equity in coaching

Exploring how the professional bodies can contribute in this space and collaborate

  • What needs to be in place in professional body communities to help the under-represented have a voice – to be able to express themselves, and to be represented?
  • What more needs to be done so that the coaching community, including the professional bodies, becomes more representative of the societies in which coaches work?
  • Vulnerability is key, and accepting that working to address this issue includes making mistakes, saying sorry, and learning what to do differently
  • For some, the issue may be less about tackling racism than increasing equity (eg, access to food, to training and education) – context is important
  • Professional bodies will not just sit on the sidelines, they have an active role to play
  • The importance of avoiding mere tokenism, of being practical.

 

Comments from attendees included:

  • “Working to understand what it means to do more in the space of diversity, inclusion and belonging and how we encourage more under-represented people to share their thoughts and start dialogue and debate. We realised (in one professional body) we didn’t perhaps have the right mechanisms to (make it easy for people to) express themselves and represent themselves.”
  • “What more do we need to do to get better representation of coaches who are more representative of the societies in which we work?”
  • “I find it a huge challenge to put together a diverse group. As the coaching profession, we’re not very diverse, especially when I looked around UK conferences – rooms of white coaches…or on the boards of professional bodies”
  • “Equity in access to coach training is an example of a barrier because not everybody can afford it”
  • “Some coachees don’t want ethnic minority coaches”
  • “Rather than racism in my community, I see majority versus minority voice”
  • “(it’s about) making blunders, saying sorry, finding out what we can do differently….”
  • “It’s about finding a way to collaborate and be clearer on how we can inform and influence our profession. We are diverse, but are we inclusive? It’s not OK to do nothing”
  • “Great opportunity to network and share best practice across the professional bodies”
  • “What are the views of the racist? What are they wanting? What are they looking for? In a truly inclusive environment (how might we include them)?”
  • “the topic (racism) we all feel important (here) isn’t important in certain areas. In Kenya, for example, some Kenyan leaders say the priority isn’t to do with race, but (tackling) hunger: equity around food rather than ethnicity….our value (as professional bodies) is to help others navigate the complexity, and filter and prioritise, rather than mandating anything.”

 

Attendees

  • Jeannette Marshall (AC Global, and also representing AC UK)
  • Felicia Lauw (AoCS)
  • Barbara St Claire-Ostwald (APECS)
  • Jonathan Passmore (BPS DoCP)
  • Colleen Qvist (COMENSA)
  • Rachael Hanley-Browne (EMCC UK)
  • Imtiyaz Foolat (UK ICF)
  • Tracy Sinclair (ICF Global)
  • Siobhain O’Riordan (ISCP)
  • Liz Hall (editor of Coaching at Work)

 

 

A roundup of what the bodies are up to

Professional body initiatives around diversity, inclusion and belonging include:

  • AC: Podcasts from people of colour and on diversity generally; listening tour with members to find out what the key topics are to do with diversity and inclusion that they want to be addressed; starting a special interest group on neuro-diversity
  • AoCS: Plans to hold regular reflective spaces/workshops for supervisors to build awareness around the topic of diversity and inclusion
  • APECS: Working group for inclusion and diversity headed by Barbara St Claire-Ostwald which put together a positioning statement for APECS’ members and scheduled a year’s worth of webinars on inclusion and diversity in the APECS events calendar. for the entire years with diversity and inclusion webinars. Its Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group – a one-year joint venture with board members – is already coming up with interesting thoughts and initiatives
  • EMCC: Has launched a series of listening circles among its members to pilot a programme on diversity, inclusion and belonging. It’s also including more blogs on this area, and is paying closer attention to recruitment and succession planning through this lens
  • ICF: ICF Global has been exploring this topic via its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Task Force, chaired by Tracy Sinclair

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EMCC SPAIN CONGRESS

EMCC Spain held its first congress on 14-15 October, with the theme ‘Activating the minds of the future’. The speakers were Newfield Network founder and president Julio Olalla, EMCC Global founder, David Clutterbuck, Goldvarg Consulting Group president, Damian Goldvarg, EMCC Spain VP of accreditation Beatriz Valderrama and executive director of the Escuela de Mentoring, Maria Luisa de Miguel.

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Only days after releasing an updated definition of Supervision, and to coincide with the EMCC Global 4th Mentoring Conference, EMCC Global has the same for Mentoring! our website to find out more

Coaching Teams Of Teams: What, Why And How


Talent Development Expert, Qatar Foundation, Founder of CoachME, Exec/Systemic Team Coach, ICF MCC, EMCC MP & ESIA, Certified Agile Coach.

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Individual development does not always impact team-level performance, and high-performing teams do not always produce organizational-level value. Retired United States General Stanley McChrystal shares in his book Team of Teams a range of cases showing how functional silos within organizations can destabilize overall performance. In fact, an increase in the efficiency of one small part of an organizational system can actually reduce the effectiveness of the whole. Why? Synergy.

I’ve witnessed firsthand how team coaching is increasing in demand globally, both across sectors and organizational levels. That said, recently an organization asked me for a proposal for executive coaching when team coaching is what is needed. Why? Some organizations have a ways to go in understanding coaching provisions and their impact, or even knowing what they really need in terms of development for their people. High-performing individuals do not always equate to high-performing teams, and high-performing teams do not equate to high-performing organizations. Enter, stage right, not only team coaching but coaching ToT!

Systemic team coaching focuses on the needs of the wider system, keeping the requirements of internal and external stakeholders at heart as this is the organizational and, in turn, the team’s purpose. As coaching becomes ever more established in organizations, what ways can learnings from team coaching be applied to coaching ToT who are increasingly dispersed, and working across time zones? First, let’s answer a more general question.

What is a ToT or team of teams?

Communication in traditional organizational structures goes up and down through team leaders, and up and down the team leaders in the hierarchy of teams. ToT do not necessarily have a formal leader, and they tend to communicate with other teams via multiple connection points — horizontally, diagonally and vertically. ToT at their best, work to enhance value, improve the teams’ own process, perform in flow with organizational systems and improve agility.

What ways can a team coach enable ToT to work with the whole system?

Our systems require more complex and adaptive teams. To this end, team coaches can work in partnership with teams to enable them to communicate “cleaner” — meaning more openly, honestly, transparently and frankly, while maintaining compassion, empathy and democracy. These skills are beneficial to teams as they can be used when working to understand stakeholders’ needs.

Taking that further, ToT need to recognize what information needs to be shared with other teams. This noticing and subsequent action and accountability are beneficial for the collective purpose. They can be enhanced by team coaches working with teams to practice powerful questioning that allows them to probe deeper, understand various perspectives and sift for what is really important. Such “skill drills” grow the team’s capacity to coach each other as team members. Furthermore, team coaching activities such as stakeholder mapping and identifying the influence and interest of stakeholders enable the team to see their place in the whole. Addressing the current accountability at the team level and what the ToT and the whole system need it to be, as well as creating a road map or transition plan toward the desired experience, are also highly beneficial.

In what ways can team coaches enable ToT to work on trust?

Patrick Lencioni in his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team sees trust, part of psychological safety, as paramount to effective teaming. Without trust, performance is not at its optimum. Team coaches can work with ToT by inviting them to share at a personal level, and team level, the timeline of the team (and organization) so they can connect with the history and their part in the whole. They can also support ToT in creating team-level values aligned to organizational values and observe meetings to provide non-judgemental feedback on the way the team (or teams) work together.

This article has merely touched on the importance of coaching ToT and ways that team coaches can work with them to support synergy for the whole system. The team’s process, physical proximity and recognition of strengths and development areas are all important too. Coaching ToT is both an under-researched area and a hot topic. I believe coaching ToT is needed now and for the future.

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?

JOINT PRESS RELEASE: ROUNDTABLE ON RACISM IN COACHING – For immediate release – 28 September 2021

1ST PROFESSIONAL BODY ROUNDTABLE ON RACISM IN COACHING HELD ON 15 SEPTEMBER,
HOSTED BY COACHING AT WORK

PROFESSIONAL COACHING BODIES AGREE:
“WE STAND AGAINST RACISM” AND COMMIT TO FURTHER DIALOGUE AROUND COLLABORATION

 

This is a joint press release issued by:

  • Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS)
  • Association for Coaching (AC Global & UK)
  • Association of Coaching Supervisors (AoCS)
  • British Psychology Society Division of Coaching Psychology (BPS DoCP)
  • Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA)
  • Coaching at Work magazine
  • European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC UK)
  • International Coaching Federation (ICF Global & UK)
  • International Society for Coaching Psychology (ISCP)

 

At a landmark event organized and hosted by Coaching at Work on 15 September, representatives from eight professional coaching bodies came together for the first time at a roundtable on the topic of racism in coaching. The representatives pledged their commitment to collectively “stand against racism”, and committed to ongoing dialogue to explore how best to contribute and collaborate including around harvesting learning and sharing best practice.

 

The statement of intent set out in this press release is shared by the following bodies:

  • Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS)
  • Association for Coaching (AC Global & UK)
  • Association of Coaching Supervisors (AoCS)
  • British Psychology Society Division of Coaching Psychology (BPS DoCP)
  • Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA)
  • European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC UK)
  • International Coaching Federation (ICF Global & UK)
  • International Society for Coaching Psychology (ISCP)

 

All attending agreed that “we stand against racism” but that this stance needs to be more than mere ‘tokenism.’ There was agreement to continue exploring together, with the date for the next roundtable to be agreed shortly.

 

Attendees were:

  • Jeannette Marshall (AC Global, and also representing AC UK)
  • Felicia Lauw (AoCS)
  • Barbara St.Claire-Ostwald (APECS)
  • Jonathan Passmore (BPS DoCP)
  • Colleen Qvist (COMENSA)
  • Rachael Hanley-Browne (EMCC UK)
  • Imtiyaz Foulat (UK ICF)
  • Tracy Sinclair (ICF Global)
  • Siobhain O’Riordan (ISCP)
  • Liz Hall (editor of Coaching at Work).

In the hugely rich and nuanced conversation, themes discussed included:

  • The importance of this landmark event, signaling that all those bodies represented collectively ‘stand against racism’ in the coaching profession
  • Unanimous agreement to continue the dialogue:
    – To explore and share best practice
    – Committing to further exploration and work on the issue of racism and lack of equity in coaching
    – Exploring how the professional bodies can contribute in this space and collaborate
  • What needs to be in place in professional body communities to help under-represented have a voice- to be able to express themselves, and to be represented?
  • What more needs to be done so that the coaching community, including the professional bodies, becomes more representative of the societies in which coaches work?
  • Vulnerability is key, and accepting that working to address this issue includes making mistakes, saying sorry, and learning what to do differently
  • For some, the issue may be less about tackling racism than increasing equity (e.g. access to food, to training and education)- context is important
  • Professional bodies will not just sit on the sidelines, they have an active role to play
  • The importance of avoiding mere tokenism, of being practical

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