Coaching School Results Newsletter

Volume 2. Issue 9

SEPTEMBER 2006

A Full Opportunity

Three sets of ideas merge into an important realization about life coaching by Coaching School Results. The ideas are taken from Time magazine Katrina reflections, Judith Bardwick’s Danger in the Comfort Zone, and Alan Down’s Secrets of an Executive Coach.

First, Time Magazine reported in its August 28th issue that in spite of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating wake-up to preparedness, Americans continue to be “die-hard optimists, literally. It is part of what makes the country great – and vincible.” In spite of the fact that 91% of Americans live in places of moderate-to-high risk of [natural disaster] only 16% of those who had personally experienced a natural disaster or public emergency said they were “very well prepared” for the next one. Eric Holdman, director of emergency management for Seattle’s King County has observed a four-stage denial platform:

1. It won’t happen.
2. If it does happen, it won’t happen to me.
3. If it does happen to me, it won’t be that bad.
4. If it happens to me and it’s bad, there’s nothing I can do to stop it anyway.

Second, Judith Bardwick’s Comfort Zone warned about the lack of productivity in a business when fear dominates the workplace and, just as significantly, when a sense of entitlement lulls a business into the dangerous comfort zone. The optimum zone is the “earning” zone, which occurs when there are challenging but attainable expectations.

Alan Downs asserts in his “Secrets” that an executive coach is most effective with an executive experiencing a crisis. A crisis exists, in his terms, when there is a painful void between what one wants and his/her current experience. He describes states of crises as latent, inflamed, suppressed and resolved. The effective coach will support an individual’s journey through these four states of crises. Down’s approach is a deficit model. That is, the client has some deficiency inhibiting the attainment of what s/he wants and the coach leads the client to “the fix”.

CSR does not advocate a deficit model as Downs does. The client isn’t deficient. CSR believes “people act from positive intention” and “leaders have the ability to solve their own problems”. In short, s/he has the brilliance to create their dream life. CSR is all about seizing opportunities! Life, as professional development, isn’t an event; it is a process. Each day is filled with opportunities ignored or recognized, lost or seized, mourned or celebrated. With a CSR coach a client is assured constant confrontation with life: a full opportunity, earning zone process from which the client seizes and celebrates dreams that come true!

By Dave Winans, Board Member

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES