Mastery
By Noel Posus
Hello everyone!
Today, Giovanna D'Alessio MCC, current ICF President posted a blog and sent out a newsletter about the proposed ICF Credential Enhancements.
It's a fantastic post, answers most (if not all) of the questions floating around the world as to what's happening, not happening and could happen.
You can read the message here.
Congratulations to Giovanna and the Board for their efforts on this and for being open to the feedback from a wide range of views.
There are lots of professional bodies representing the coaching industry, in lots of different ways, focused on various fields within coaching and which provide a wide spectrum of services to their members and the community.
I belong to four of these as I get something different from each one - based on how I invest myself in the relationship with the organisation.
So, for this week's newsletter I thought I would provide a simple structure for all coaches to consider in terms of managing their own professional development regardless of which professional body(ies) you may be associated with.
It's also likely many of you reading this would have seen this structure from me before.
Mastery of Self
This is about you! What do you want to achieve that's personal to you? What are your strengths and how are you using them to their greatest potential? Where do you need to improve and what are you doing about that? Do you feel you have a sense of balance in the various areas of your life? What are your fears? What are your joys? How are you giving to you, so that you can continue to give to others?
Mastery of Coaching
How confident are you as a coach? What are the areas of knowledge, skill and behaviour that are working well for you and your clients? What isn't and requires attention? What are you doing about that? What feedback are you getting from your clients and how are you exploring/implementing that? What's next to learn and what will you do with that new knowledge and how will it best serve your clients?
Mastery of Business
This is our business/career. How well are you managing your business/career? How are you going with the basics? What new areas of knowledge, skill and behaviour do you need to pick up? How comfortable are you with the concept that coaching (for most of us) is a commercial venture as much as an areas of passion and purpose? Have you "come out" as a coach yet? How well have you put your profile out there to the world and your target market so that they can find you when they need you? (There's so much more I could include here, but I'll leave it with just this handful of questions.)
Mastery of Industry
How aware are you of what's happening in the various corners of our industry? How up on the latest research are you? How involved in your coaching community are you? How much do you want to be? Do you understand what's happening in the market, the media and with your competition/colleagues? How aware are you of how things happening in the industry have an impact on you, your business and your clients or potential clients? How important is it to you to know these things?
And since many of us like to focus on one area more than another from time to time, may I also suggest that you look for ways to challenge yourself to invest equal energy across the structure - 25% of your efforts to each mastery. This way, you'll ensure you're not leaving something unattended to for the various reasons we can make those choices.
Reprinted with the permission of the author, Noel Posus - Coach of the Year 2008/2009 awarded from the Australia New Zealand Institute of Coaching .
Director and Master Coach - www.askacoach.com
