When I looked at the existing content, I realized that over the past few years I have expanded my concern to include both global and personal leadership perspectives along with our current Leader Coach focus.  For example, from a global perspective, I am engaged with the leaders of several small nonprofits working in the poorest countries of the world.  On the personal side, I am involved with a colleague facilitating individual leadership development using story to explore limiting beliefs.

This broader vision has unfolded gradually as these things often do, in my case through becoming inspired at a conference, attending a university program, writing, speaking, and now practicing from this new worldview.  TCP’s current work in coaching and developing leaders is ongoing and exciting.  However, it doesn’t include the larger context of my own emerging direction.   As the leader of the organization, I want to include our evolution and present offerings but embed them within a more expansive framework of opportunities.

It was not until I began working with the web designer that the extent of this shift became clear.  He asked some powerful coaching questions about who I was and how I wanted TCP to be portrayed publicly, not only on the website but linked to other social media.  He asked for the headings that would shape the main pages of the site.   What were the main themes of our story and how would they be represented and arranged to reflect who we are now?  I pondered these questions for several days while I worked with a collection of about 25 post-it notes each titled with an aspect of our current and emerging work.  I found the process a very challenging inquiry and invite every leader to try it, something akin to writing a corporate job description.

One of the hallmarks of leadership is the ability to authentically express who we are to others, whether it is a website, a blog, a speech, or a simple email.  Kevin Cashman actually defines leadership as “authentic self-expression that adds value”.   Clear and consistent communication generates trust and loyalty.  How often do we consider who we are as leaders and how we can best communicate about ourselves and our organizations in a way that adds value?   It was certainly time for me to take stock – you can judge the results at www.thecoachingproject.com.  It’s a work in progress and I continue to ask the questions:  Is this mirror a true reflection of who we are now?  Does it portray clearly how we want to be perceived in the world?

The first step is a backward one, to reflect on the elements that make up your life and decide what to hold onto or let go of and what new dimensions you would add.  It becomes a bit of a personal strategic plan for your best life.  Although you can purchase card decks that are either professional or personal in focus, you can also just sit down with a pad of sticky notes as I did and create your own so they represent you exactly as you are and wish to be.

Here are the instructions:

1.  Sit in a quiet place with a pad of post-it notes and a pen.  Be still for a few moments as you think about your life right now.  When you are ready, write down all the aspects of your life you can think of, each one on a separate note.

2.  Don’t forget the non-work aspects of your life – your friends and family, sports and recreation, fitness and health, travel, reading and hobbies you enjoy, even though you may not spend a lot of time on them.  Include everything that is part of your life.

3.  Spread your notes out on a large table or the floor so you can see them all at once, preferably in a place you can leave them for a few days.  Take a good look at what you’ve got.  You may want to add a few or change the headings as you look at the total picture.

4.  Begin to look for themes in the headlines you’ve written.  Your family might be a theme category, for example.  Arrange the notes into piles under no more than 5 or 6 themes.  The title of each theme may be one of your notes or a category you create to capture a set of activities.  The categories don’t need to be an activity – Meaning in Life may be one of your categories for example, and under it you might put the notes you created around volunteer work, spending time with elders, or travel abroad.

5.  Work on your themes over a period of days.  It’s best to arrange them to suit you and then leave them for a few hours or a day and come back to them to see what you feel about them.  As you work, consider eliminating the activities that don’t fit your values or purpose at the moment, and add any you feel are missing from your picture.  Play with the titles of your categories until you feel they express the person you want to be now.

6.  It’s a good idea to review your categories with a partner or close friend to give you an opportunity to talk about your choices and get feedback from someone who knows you.  Depending on the degree of change you anticipate from your current roles and activities, you may also want to test your choices for feasibility and timing.  If you’re going to do more reading, you can build that into your day.  If you’re renovating your home or changing jobs, that may take more discussion.

7.  Finally, look at the plans or activities that are different than who you are and what you do now.  For each new or changed commitment, make a “what by when” statement.  For example, “I will get to the gym 3 times a week for a 30 minute workout.”  You may have more than one activity (or perhaps passivity if one of your categories is Stress Reduction) associated with a new direction; just be sure they are SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely).

As adults, we continue to develop through life, very often without noticing the changes taking place.  Every few years, it is important to revisit who we have become and to make any changes necessary to living our best life.  Whether you are updating your website, writing your resume, or considering a change in some aspect of your life, this exercise will be of great benefit.

As the 8th in the series of What Wants to Happen? retreats, the Spring 2012 workshop will focus on the Power of Play to free us from our often self-imposed stresses and restrictions.  A perfect retreat for anyone anticipating a significant change, in the midst of a life or work transition, or simply struggling with making change stick.

Join us on Bowen Island just off the coast of Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia from April 26 – 29, 2012 for 4 days of fun, reflection, conversation and action planning using play stories as the catalyst for confronting the immunity you have built up to making the changes you want in some area of your life.

Having a clear picture of our life’s story, including our play history, is a solid position from which to make choices for the future. The same can be said for career and business stories, as these areas are ripe for testing our continuing ability to evolve. This workshop offers the opportunity for a new path.

As adults, our inability or unwillingness to engage in play limits our ability to live life fully. We have found in our retreat work that an individual’s personal “play history” is a determining factor in growth, development, effectiveness, and level of consciousness. How might your relationship with play be keeping you from living your best life? What themes emerge when you look objectively at your play history? What change, if you made it, would change everything?

Facilitated by Dan Petersen, a life and story coach, and Susan Wright, TCP’s President, the retreat will guide you through the creation and reframing of your current story.  A maximum of 12 participants will share the process and continue to support each other through group calls following the workshop.

Details are included in the attachment.  Please give us a call to discuss your participation.

Sometimes revolutionary changes take place without us really paying attention. For me, this has happened with online education. A major transition has taken place over the past few years away from traditional classroom and face-to-face leadership training and development. The reasons are easy to see: lowered budgets for attending leadership development programs, fewer in-house resources to deliver the content, and generally less time and capacity to fit into the fixed schedules face-to-face learning requires. Enter online education, which has seen exponential growth over the last decade with insiders predicting the trend will continue and expand over the next. SRI International just completed a 12 year study from 1996 to 2008 and found participants engaged in some or all of their education online actually outperformed those using traditional classroom instruction. “The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing – it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.

Traditional universities are now clamoring to add online curriculum to their degree and non-degree programs, and online universities including doctoral programs have experienced tremendous growth. Private firms offering leadership development are moving to webinars, audio and video programming, and coach-supported learning modules as part of their services, and TCP is one of them. Social networking contributes to the viral marketing of interesting new offerings that are then evaluated by program participants in public domains for others to see. Education is becoming transparent, cheap and accessible, at least in the developed world. Google for example has decided they need no additional content – it’s all there and growing continuously.

Wow, that’s a revolution! Which begs the question, how do leaders and their organizations now choose from the wide array of development alternatives, and what makes online learning most effective? In my experience and from what I’ve researched, here are some of the benefits and best practices so far:

• Asynchronous Access: One of the primary benefits to leaders of online education is that it can be accessed on their own time and with their favourite technology. Some listen to podcasts while working out, others access audio/video material through their mobile devices while on the go, still others spend a couple of hours in the evenings after the kids are in bed. The best practice here is to be creative in finding your own grooves, the way you work most effectively and flexibly to take advantage of the material. Most learning programs require reading, reflecting and posting responses within a limited timeframe. This structure can be helpful in keeping on track and preparing for the interactive aspects like a call or coaching session.
• Learning by Doing: Most online education is designed to incorporate the new awareness or skills into your daily life and work. There are often assignments where you apply the content and share your learning with others. You can of course ‘fudge’ this aspect and probably no one will know or care, but you will be shortchanging yourself and your outcomes if you do. When time is short and you must choose where to put your energy, step into the friction. In other words, do what seems the most difficult rather than the least – that’s where you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck.
• Technical Innovation: If you’re going to take the time to learn something new, be sure you get the most variety, complexity, challenge and support possible. Some online programs are simply reading and listening on your own, and perhaps asking a question or making a comment in a distance format – hard to see the transformative potential in that. Rather, look for a learning platform that includes audiovisual content, workbook support for making sense of it, a chat room to share your views with other learners, and a clearly structured process that moves you along within a given timeframe so you can see your accomplishment. Best practice is to have a coach guide the learning process and provide challenge and support as needed through routine calls and online contributions.
• Built-in Discipline: A more sophisticated platform has other benefits for the learner and the organization as well. Using a structured agenda over a series of weeks means your individual contributions to the learning community are time and date stamped – each time you log on, or don’t, your coach and fellow learners know it. You can’t just sit at the back of the room, work on your blackberry and get credit for attending. Not only your level of participation but the quality of your reflection is evaluated by the group in your posts. For the organization sponsoring the program, this ongoing assessment provides an immediate ROI on investment. For the learner, it provides a structured discipline to motivate performance.
• Learning in Community: There are times when being face-to-face is the best way to learn, particularly when personal behaviour is the subject matter. We need to practice in front of fellow learners and get feedback about how we show up and how we might be more effective. Online communities have many advantages and can become very strong teams. However, best practice here is to have some ability to connect in person from time to time. The combination of online and onsite learning is most powerful. Even a learning partner makes a significant difference, someone in your area with whom you can periodically share experience. Peer learning groups are also influential in sustaining commitment and embedding the learning into your organizational context and culture. It also just makes learning more fun. The truth about traditional classroom education, that it’s all about what happens after the event, is also true of online learning – we need a variety of communities to make it stick.

David Gibson, TCP Associate

We are very excited about our new online program which takes our two-day workshop and translates it into online content with expanded support and coaching. For those who have attended a workshop and want a refresher, or those who are new to a group who have already attended the workshop, the online program is ideal. And for busy managers and executives who are looking for improved coaching skills, the program provides a way to upgrade leadership capacity in a “learning by doing” format without the necessity of being away from the office.

The uniqueness of our offering is that it combines video, guided workbook, and professional coach support in an integrated online format that facilitates learning and practice. The coaching program and its underlying approach have been successfully implemented in a wide variety of organizations for over a decade. The philosophy and research is contained in Leadership Alchemy: The Magic of the Leader Coach. We believe this level of credibility and experience is not available elsewhere. See for yourself by clicking on this link: www.tcpleadercoach.com. You will be able to view the site as a guest and watch introductory videos.

Our sophisticated online platform applies the best practices in distance education including:

• Access to the learning modules on your own time
• A complete workbook guide to aid understanding and application
• A series of videos discussing the content and demonstrating practice, also available as audio for loading onto mobile devices
• A coach-facilitated series of teleconferences with a learning group supported by an online forum for posting questions and comments.

Learning groups participate in 6 bi-weekly calls over 3 months, structured around the Leader Coach^® framework of Building Trust, Building Awareness, and Building the Future. Time required is roughly the same as attending a 2-day program, with time between calls and assignments to practice in your own work setting and with a learning partner. You will be asked to create a learning plan at the beginning of the program and to update it when you are finished based on your new skills. A Becoming a Leader Coach^® certificate is awarded for successful completion of the program.

The program pricing is designed to be scalable to large populations so that a consistent coaching culture is created in your work group and/or organization. Prices range from $300 to $500 per person for groups of 6 to 12 participants. Arrangements can also be made for individual access and for licensing at the organizational level. Please call for more details.