School of Coaching Mastery: We're Different.

Wondering if SCM is the right coaching school for you? Well, we're a bit of a maverick in the coaching industry, so don’t expect us to make all the usual claims, like…

WE’RE THE WORLD’S BIGGEST COACHING SHOOL
No, and we never intend to be.

WE’RE THE OLDEST COACHING SCHOOL
Actually, we’re probably the newest.

WE’RE THE MOST PUBLICIZED COACHING SCHOOL
No, we rely primarily on colleague referrals to attract our students.

WE HAVE A WORLD-FAMOUS FOUNDER
Not really. But she’s highly respected by many of top coaches, worldwide.

WITH THE MOST CELEBRATED FACULTY IN COACHING
Only one so far, but we do have more fantastic folks ready to step in, as we grow.

WE’LL HOLD YOUR HAND EVERY INCH OF THE WAY
Well, you WILL get lots of attention in our small classes, but we expect a high level of personal responsibility from you.

WE’RE THE CHEAPEST COACHING SCHOOL
Unfortunately, small classes and great teachers tend to cost more, but our introductory fees are VERY attractive.

YOU’RE GUARANTEED TO GET RICH IF YOU SIGN WITH US
Anyone who guarantees that is lying. Don’t sign up unless you LOVE coaching!

WE’RE ICF ACCREDITED
Nope. We’re the first and only school that prepares for IAC Certification from the ground up.

BASED ON THE COACHING COMPETENCIES
No. We’re based on the IAC Coaching Masteries. Why not use the best?

BASED ON THE COACHING PROFICIENCIES
See above.

WE TEACH EVERYTHING YOU'LL EVER WANT TO KNOW
We just teach what's most effective.

YOU CAN LEARN BY JUST LISTENING TO OUR CLASSES
Passive learning doesn't lead to mastery. Every one of our eclasses includes practice and feedback on your coaching.

WE SPONSOR INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
Ha! But we do have a few small seminars every year.

THE OWNER IS MAKING MILLIONS
NOT!

WE USE ALL THE LATEST WEB TECHNOLOGY
We use up-to-date technology that facilitates fast learning. Anything more just adds a learning curve that gets in the way.

WE USE THE LATEST COACHING TECHNOLOGY
That’s actually true.

OUR MATERIAL IS THE EASIEST
Hardly, but it is very simple.

WE HAVE THE HIGHEST STANDARDS
Possibly. We ARE doing great work.

WE’RE THE RIGHT SCHOOL FOR EVERYBODY
We do our best work with students who are talented, committed, fast-learners.

CAN A SCHOOL THIS AUDACIOUS BE RIGHT FOR YOU?
Four ways to find out: Take the “Become a Masterful Coach” eClass. Subscribe to Coaching Mastery News. Email questions to info [at] schoolofcoachingmastery [dot] com. Call +1-877-224-2780 to talk to a real person.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007 http://www.schoolofcoachingmastery.com

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: Coaching, coaching school, School of Coaching Mastery, ICF, IAC

Coach 100 at SCM

Posted by Julia Stewart

SCM Ad Hoc Advisors are asking that our Full Coach Training Program offer business, marketing & sales training for new coaches. This is a huge piece in becoming a successful coach (unless you are an in-house or affiliate coach). That's why the Coach 100 Business Success Program will be included in the FullCoach Training Program.

Coach 100 absolutely works. I just spoke to a new member who tells me that she's signed on seven new clients in the past month with it and that's not an uncommon story, BUT I plan to stick to what I know best with SCM and that's training great coaches and helping them achieve IAC Certification.

That's why I'm partnering with the top business, sales and marketing coaches to bring SCM the best training from the masters. SCM coaches have an opportunity to master the best coaching skills and develop the best business practices, because until they're making a living at it, coaching is just a hobby. Stay tuned for some exciting announcements!

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: Coach 100, SCM, sales and marketing coaches, sales training for new coaches, coach training program

Masterful Coaching: Distinct and Succinct

Posted by Julia Stewart

You know you're hearing great coaching in class when the both coach and client are so intrigued that they can't wait to set up another coaching call! It's happening a lot on the SCM Module calls. Each mastery is covered in four two-hour eClasses. Each class covers an one aspect of that Mastery with a Coaching Guide, discussion and demonstration by the instructor, followed by the coaches dividing up into triads for an hour of practice and observation, with the instructor dropping in to each triad for additional feedback. All of it is recorded for review and each Module gets its own web page with graphics for the students to follow in class.

After eight hours on a Module, they know that Mastery!

We've just finished Either/Or Questions, followed by Distinctions and the Ad Hoc Advisors are jumping in to help me create SCM's own "distinctionary" for future reference! Next we're onto Zeroing In On What's Really Going On, a path of inquiry that uncovers what's important, followed by Taking It Deeper, looking at trends, dynamics and patterns.

I think I throw them sometimes, because I expect them all to fully participate and some of them are used to taking sleepy teleclasses while they read their email! This is the School of Coaching Mastery, afterall, not just another school on coaching. Of course I expect more! That's why the classes are small and we have so much practice ~ So people actually know how to coach when they get done!

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: School of Coaching Mastery, SCM, Certified Coach Training

Going Back in Time and Striking Coaching Gold

Posted by Julia Stewart

While researching "distinctions", an important coaching tool, for a recent class at the School of Coaching Mastery, I decided to go back in time and find the original Thomas Leonard Distinctionary.

Most people don't know this version exists or think that it's gone, but there's a nifty little web archive known as www.waybackmachine.org [Update: 5-2-09, WayBackMachine now lives at http://www.archive.org/index.php ] where many old pages can still be found and back in 1997, the original Distinctionary was in the public domain. It's still there in the archive, gathering dust...

So if you ever have the urge to understand the difference between "Experiencing feelings vs. Medicating" or "Fully communicate vs. Dump", a trip back in time might be just the thing ~

Go here to access The Distinctionary

Another intriguing site with its own distinctionary (There are many distinctionaries out there) is:

http://www.theinfinitegames.org/e08/

2 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: School of Coaching Mastery, coaching class, Thomas Leonard, coaching tool

What the School of Coaching Mastery is About

Posted by Julia Stewart

If you're on one of my mailing lists, you may already have heard a little about SCM's mission. As far as we know (and I've been in conversation with IAC board members and Certifiers about this) this is the first coaching school in the world designed specifically to prepare coaches for International Association of Coaching (IAC) Coach Certification.

This is significant because IAC Certification is increasingly recognized as the "Gold Standard" in coach certification. (Even, rumor has it, among ICF credentialed coaches!)

Certification isn't all we're about, of course. That's just a benchmark. It's an important one, though. Now that coaching has become ubiquitous, everyone is learning to do it and millions are benefitting, but the demand for truly masterful coaching ~ as well as an intolerance for mediocre coaching ~ among professional coaches, is soaring. That's why we're training coaches in the IAC Coaching Masteries (tm) from start to finish.

It's a pretty exciting time to be involved in this project and the support for it has already been fantastic! The timing in so many ways is just perfect.

Currently, several programs are available through the School of Coaching Mastery ala carte: Coaching Groundwork, a short introductory program for new coaches and non-coaches who want coaching skills, as well as people who are thinking about becoming professional coaches. Certified Coach Training, for coaches who are ready to learn the coaching masteries and prepare for IAC Certification, Certification Practicums, for coaches who are preparing their recordings for IAC Certification, and the Experienced Coach Program, which challenges coaches to master their business and coaching skills, while filling their practices, by coaching 100 people. The full coach training program will roll out in a few months.

Email questions or comments here: info [at] schoolofcoachingmastery [dot] com

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: School of Coaching Mastery, IAC

School of Coaching Mastery: 1st Update

Posted by Julia Stewart

The very first SCM eClass took place on Thursday, June 7th and I'm very pleased! Fantastic coaches have joined up for the first beta Module and we heard some great coaching during their practice sessions. It's clear that many of these coaches are ready to move into mastery ~ Whoopee!

Speaking of which: One of our SCM members just found out that she passed IAC Certification, the day before class started! I can't claim SCM prepared her, obviously ~ I'm just proud to be attracting coaches who have such high standards for the quality of their own work.

From talented beginners who are ready to be "thrown in the deep end" as one coach put it, to excellent veterans ~ a dynamic mix, ready to do their best work together!

Now the website is under way, with plans for 3-4 more beta Modules/courses this summer and a full program launch in the Fall. Check back to see what programs have been added. There will be some discounts for the beta programs.

In the meantime, I invite you to join the SCM Ad Hoc Advisors (it's free) and weigh in on what you most want to see in the way of coach training. Live/virtual/recorded? Teleclass or webinar? Practice or theory?

Get in on the ground floor and help design your own coach training and/or help shape the future of coaching ~ and the impact of coaching on the world! Active members of the Ad Hoc Advisors get discounts and free admission to programs and products ~ just to say "Thanks!"

Join Ad Hoc Advisors here

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007
Http://www.schoolofcoachingmastery.com
To receive regular updates on this site via email, subscribe in the upper right corner of this page.

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: School of Coaching Mastery, SCM, IAC

Top Ten Worst Reasons to Become a Coach

Posted by Julia Stewart

People ask me every week to help them become coaches. I always want to know their real reasons for joining this fantastic profession, because over the years, I’ve seen a lot of coaches who had a miserable time building their businesses. Very often those coaches had fallen prey to one of the following misconceptions about coaching (which are frequently perpetrated by coaching schools – even the ones that are accredited.)

Top Ten Worst Reasons to Become a Coach:

1. You’ve been coaching all your life and now you want to get paid for it.
2. You want to make lots of money.
3. You lost money on your last business and you think you won’t have to invest much money to set up a coaching business.
4. Coaching sounds easy.
5. You’ve heard that coaching is one of the fastest growing businesses in the 21st Century and you want to get in on it.
6. You’ve been in an accident or have been diagnosed with a debilitating disease and you think coaching will be physically easier than anything else you could do.
7. You just lost your job and you need to make money fast
8. You’re an author, consultant or online marketer and you’ve heard coaching is the way to boost your profits.
9. You’re broke and you’ve heard you can charge hundreds of dollars per month per client for just talking on the phone.
10. You’re a ____________ (hairdresser, bartender, lawyer - fill in the blank with whatever you currently do), so coaching should come easy to you, because you talk to people all day, anyway.

You may have noticed a trend here: People who go into coaching because it sounds like easy money almost always get burned. Do it because you love it or do it because you’re called to it. Anything else is a lousy reason.

Here are the top ten clean* reasons I became a coach:

1. Coaching supports my spirituality
2. Coaching supports my love of people
3. I like doing what I’m good at
4. Coaching supports my personal evolution
5. Coaching supports my love of learning
6. I get to work with cool people
7. I get to be creative everyday
8. Coaching supports my personal development
9. I love Thomas Leonard’s work
10. Zero commute (Okay, this last one is just a side benefit!)

*The term, "clean" is taken from the environmentalists. Clean energy is fuel that does little or no damage to the environment. Think: wind power vs. fossil fuel. Less damage makes it less costly. A clean reason is one that eats up less of your personal energy ~ or even gives you energy. A great example is my #1 clean reason, above. If you pursue a career you hate, because you think it will make you a lot of money, that's a pretty costly reason.

I’m a happy successful coach, not because my work is easy or because I make miraculous amounts of money, but because I love what I do so much that it has become my play.

Make a list of your own reasons for becoming a coach. If they sound anything like the ten worst reasons, either find cleaner reasons that genuinely inspire you, or find a profession that you really love.

As your father always said, “Someday you’ll thank me!”

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007
www.yourlifepart2.com

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: life coach, Coaching, become a coach, Coaches, life coach training, reasons to become a coach

School of Coaching Mastery

Posted by Julia Stewart

Okay, there it is. The new School of Coaching Mastery logo. Putting it out here on my blog is an announcement of sorts. SCM has been a kind of brain child for several months. Maybe longer. I think it was gestating for a couple of years, while I was saying, "I don't want to start another coaching school, there are too many out there, already."

I didn't choose SCM though, it chose me.

For about a year now, people have been coming to me from all over the world saying, "I think I might want to become a coach. How can I find out? Where should I train? Can you help me?" I felt at a loss, because most of the schools I have direct knowledge of, where I trained and where I taught, I have reservations about and I can't recommend the ones I don't know about. I did have programs to offer, like the beginner-skills Coaching Groundwork and the client-attraction Experienced Coach Program, but these people were looking for more than just a program.

Other beginner coaches would ask to join the Seven Secrets of Certificatio n, which is really for intermediate coaches who are preparing for IAC Certification via coaching mastery. That can work, but sometimes the coach really needs more tools, first.

I've got too many programs with too many gaps between them. That confuses people.

What if I shaped it all into one school? What if that school prepared coaches for IAC certification (and beyond) from the very beginning? Hmmm...

That's the certification that I believe in and that's the only approach to coach training that makes sense to me. Most coach training schools base their training on coaching models that were developed in the 90's. Coaching has already evolved way past that.

Other schools are a little too commercial for my taste and/or they're based on values that aren't that useful for solving 21st Century problems.

Maybe the world really does need another coaching school.

If I weave together the programs I already have and fill in the gaps, I can create that school fairly easily. That's inspiring ~ maybe I've really been designing this school all along.

What would the ideal coaching school look like to me? That question has become a fun toy to play with. Time to invite others to play, as well. Over the next four months, I will be meeting with advisers, colleagues, clients and students to get their input on what kind of coaching school the world really needs, as of 2007, and where this school may need to grow in the future.

What will it look like? I don't really know yet, but I'm thinking small classes and targeted training with a lot of practice coaching from the very beginning ~ a "boutique" approach. Gifted coaches learn fast, when given the opportunity and attention they need.

I'm also thinking the trainers should be genuine experts with a real gift for coaching and teaching. (Right now, that would just be me ~ sorry ~ but perhaps not for long.) So many coaching schools are staffed by students or recent graduates of their own programs. Sometimes the instructors aren't even paid. That's just not good enough. You need excellence to teach excellence. This ideal school will be staffed by a well-rounded assortment of expert coach/trainers.

I think the program needs to be flexible, so coaches can get what they need, without being tied down to unnecessary requirements. That just instills a culture of mediocrity and cynicism and isn't useful in a world that needs inspired leaders who can stay ahead of constant change.

Live training? Teleclasses? Webinars? Practicums? MP3's? Video? Probably all of these ~ and whatever else works best, as well.

In the meantime, I will continue offering the programs I do have, while I design what is next. And I'll get to work on the new website, while keeping an SCM web presence at www.yourlifepart2.com.

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: coach training, School of Coaching Mastery, Coaching Groundwork, coaching schools, IAC, coach training school

Virginia Tech: A Dumb Question Might Have Saved Lives

Posted by Julia Stewart

An article in this morning's New York Times about the massacre earlier this week at Virginia Tech reminded me of the importance of not making assumptions.

The article explains that the reason campus investigators didn't lock down VT campus after the first two shootings - a move that might have saved thirty lives - is that they were following up on a lead that suggested the murderer was the boyfriend of one of the victims.

It was a good lead, or so it seemed. However, during a two-hour pause in the shootings, while investigators interrogated the boyfriend, the real murderer, Cho Seung-Hui, was chaining doors and taking other measures in preparation for more carnage.

The investigators made a reasonable choice. As Col. W. Steven Flaherty, the superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said, “There was certainly no evidence or no reason to think that there was anyone else at that particular point in time.”

And I'm not here to blame or criticize them. They did the best they could. The outcome however, is far from what anyone would have wanted.

You want smart professionals doing a job like this. Most of us try to be smart professionals in our own jobs. Nobody wants to be stupid. But a couple of dumb questions might have made an enormous difference here.

As quoted in the Times, authorities “made the right decisions based on the best information that they had available at the time.” That's what all of us do, right?

Professors and students on campus had been nervous about the killer's behavior long before he acted, but as one professor said, "little could be done."

These are smart reasonable people and they all did their best. But when reasonable choices don't get the job done, that's sometimes a sign that it's time to think differently.

And of course, it's easy to to point out what they should have done, now that we have the benefit of hindsight, but there IS a way to think differently in the moment and that's worth talking about, because it can lead to very different outcomes.

It's to refuse to make assumptions, which can sometimes lead us to unreasonable, even dumb questions like, "What if the boyfriend isn't the killer?" or "What if there is a second shooter?"

Again, I'm not here to criticize anyone. This blog is written for coaches and I'm just using this story as a powerful example of what can happen when people do the right, reasonable thing and still get awful results. It's why it's the coach's job to ask dumb questions - seriously.

I'm defining a dumb question as one that is so obvious, people may not be asking it.

I'm definitely NOT suggesting that the investigators should have hired a coach to help them. And I'm also not suggesting that they didn't think about those questions. I bet they did. But for whatever reason, at the time, those questions didn't seem reasonable. I bet they wished they'd taken them more seriously.

My heart goes out to the investigators. They are probably suffering as much as anyone over this tragedy, so I apologize if this article sounds at all harsh.

At every stage of human life, people learn to make assumptions about situations and people as a tool for survival. As human life has gotten more complex and is moving far faster though, this tool has become a big liability in many cases.

For instance, if you live in a tribal culture, making assumptions about people based on their appearance, makes sense. People who look different from members of your tribe may very well be less trustworthy towards you than members of your own group. In a pluralistic society though, judgements based on appearance can be tragic. This is an assumption that has used up its usefulness.

However, reasonable people still make assumptions everyday. I'm assuming right now, that when I click "publish", this article will be uploaded to my blog. Otherwise, I might as well quit typing.

That's why it's the coach's job to listen for assumptions that may pose problems to our clients and challenge them.

"Are we certain we have the right suspect?"

The answer to a question like this is often, "No, but..." It's our job to take a hard look at those "buts". They're the cause for the assumptions!

In this situation, the considerations may have included: "We're pretty sure we have the right guy and shutting down the campus would inconvenience a lot of people and cost a lot of money and we'll be criticized if we take action and are wrong."

That last reason is huge and it stops most of us from taking courageous action. These reasons don't hold up though, if we compare them to human lives in danger.

That's why it's so important for coaches to catch our clients when they are making fateful assumptions and be willing to ask the right question and follow up with more questions until a real solution is found. Anything less can be awful.

It's also our job not to let our clients wriggle out of looking at the truth. Fear of being wrong is powerful and most people won't look at it without someone there who gently, firmly and without judgment, holds them to it. That's when clients make huge shifts. It's also when coaches earn their fees.

Our clients don't want to be wrong and often they can't afford to look stupid. It's our job to risk being wrong, unreasonable and even dumb for their benefit. We can't be too curious, too doubtful nor too nosy. That's our job.

Sometimes the smartest thing we can do is to be dumb.

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: Coaching, Coaches, coaching clients, curiosity, questions

Are You Worth More Than a Latte?

Posted by Julia Stewart

I coach incredible people. Most of them don't know how great they are until they've coached with me, but all of them are amazing and once I've unleashed them, there's no stopping what they can accomplish!

We frequently have conversations about about money. How much should they charge their clients? How do they ask their boss for a raise? I have these conversations with my coach, too.

There's a big difference between how much you think you can get and how much you really want. And I'm not just talking about money.

Play a game with me, ok? Imagine you can charge (get paid) any amount of money you want. How much would that be? Now imagine you live in a country that taxes 100% of your income (Yes, I know you'd move away as fast as you can. Just bear with me.) Would you still charge the same amount?

Let's say, in this make-believe country, all your needs are magically taken care of. You get to live an awesome life, no matter what you get paid. And you never hold your money in your hot little hand, cuz it's all taxed. (Kind of like socialism, if it actually worked)

Now how much would you charge for what you do? Nothing, you say? Minimum wage? A million dollars? What's the difference, right?

Now wait a minute. You and the people you work with would relate to you and your work - as they do in the real world - a little differently, depending on how much you're paid. I'm not talking about status, roles, or power here.

Let's say you charge the equivalent of a Starbucks latte per hour. How are you going to show up for your work? Would that be an excuse to coast? And how much would other people expect from you? How much effort would they put into working with you? About as much as it would take to say, "Tall Decaf Latte, please." That's my guess.

Would you enjoy your work, then? Remember, nobody would bust you if you fooled around most of the day, but if you did, you wouldn't be providing much value to others. Would that excite you?

Let's say you charge $1000 per hour. How would you show up differently, now that you're not just working for latte money, anymore? Would your butt be on the line? (As Mattison would say)

Would you expect more from yourself? Would others expect more? Would your clients expect more of themselves? Would they work harder to get $1000 worth of value?

Would the people who want to work with you be different? I bet they would!

How much more exciting would that be? How much less mediocrity would you and everyone around you tolerate?

Most of us charge what we think is reasonable (which is another way of saying: What we think people will pay us) and then we work at a level that we think is reasonable (which is about as mediocre as everyone else) and that's not very inspiring.

What if we charged what we really want to charge and did our very best to earn it? Wouldn't that be a whole different game? And wouldn't it be a little more exciting?

I once heard Donald Trump say (I'm paraphrasing here) "There's no limit to what people will pay for the very best. Not second best. The very best."

Never mind how much money The Donald has. Don't you think he has more fun playing that really big game? Do you think he wishes he were more like everyone else?

And what about Starbucks? I remember when (OMG, I must be getting old with that line!) it was outrageous to pay more than a dollar for take-out coffee, but it usually tasted awful. Now $5 for a latte at Starbucks is a bit of a treat.

All it took to get us to pay five times as much was for the owners of Starbucks to have a greater vision of what a take-out cup of coffee could be. And now we're happy to pay more! How reasonable is that?

I propose that we're all worth much more than we're settling for and that the only thing stopping us is our "obligation" to be reasonable. I see people charging what they really want and having fun stepping up to the challenge and I see a lot more people charging what is reasonable and plugging along being less than they could be.

It's just a choice. What do you want to be worth?

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2007
www.yourlifepart2.com

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Coaching Blog

School of Coaching Mastery: We're Different.

Coach 100 at SCM

Masterful Coaching: Distinct and Succinct

Going Back in Time and Striking Coaching Gold

What the School of Coaching Mastery is About

School of Coaching Mastery: 1st Update

Top Ten Worst Reasons to Become a Coach

School of Coaching Mastery

Virginia Tech: A Dumb Question Might Have Saved Lives

Are You Worth More Than a Latte?

Subscribe for FREE: Learn About Coaching

Follow Us

The Coaching Blog

Latest Posts

Most Popular Posts

Browse by Tag

Posts by Month