Posted by Dave Buck on December 17, 2008 under Top Story | 
Hey there! Coach Dave Buck here.
Business is a game and the best way to learn is by playing. I am having a wonderful week here in Kitty Hawk, NC on my writing retreat; thoroughly enjoying the balmy ocean air. In this letter I am going to share with you one of the BIG ideas behind our new Business Academy for Professional Coaches.
You’ve heard me talk about this before – and when you look the experiential learning model it becomes very clear what an important idea this is for ANYONE teaching or training.
So the big question for you is….
Do YOU want to learn how to play and win at business?
If your answer is yes, I think you will find this very powerful.
The BIG Idea:
Business is a game
It is no secret that building a profitable business is one of the most challenging things you will ever do – and one of the most rewarding. In my opinion, business is one of the best games in town for demanding personal growth. Either you step into your greatness, or you don’t win.
With the right information and some inspiration you will succeed… WRONG
Most business programs are based on the theory that with the right information you will succeed. They tell you EVERYTHING you need to know. They share great stories. They are often quite entertaining. You get so excited. Then…
NOT MUCH HAPPENS
Why? Because information is not enough. It is important, but not enough for most people to get a business off the ground. And motivation is great but it does not last. If information was the key to success in business all the librarians and college professors would be entrepreneurial millionaires. They are not.
Business is a game – You can win!
We will show you how.
When you look at business as a game, everything changes. First of all, your approach will change dramatically because YOU already know that the only way to master a game is by PLAYING; you would not attempt to get good at basketball solely by reading a lot of basketball books would you?
The Business Academy Approach…
Since we KNOW that business is a game – rather than an exam – instead of filling you up with lots of information and ideas that you may never use we create an environment where you will learn something essential to your success and then use it right away. We know that the best way to learn a game is to observe others, practice and then play. Adding a little friendly competition also adds A LOT of juice to the learning process.
Here is how it will work…
1) Weekly 2-hour phone based training session
Each week we will have a two-hour phone meeting that will be more like a team practice and training session than a class.
- We will share wins and learning from the previous weeks game to spark your desire
- We will talk about a fundamental business theory, method or skill
- Your Coach will demonstrate the skill so that you can observe it in action
- Then we will break out into groups of two (tele-dyad) so that you can practice the skill with a colleague in a safe space. Often we will have a few more experienced coaches who will call into your tele-dyad and listen in and offer immediate feedback.
2) Play a weekly game that challenges you, engages you and teaches you
Each week you will play a game that puts your new skills and understanding into ACTION in the BIG GAME, the REAL GAME
-> YOU building your coaching business.
As you play you will accumulate points for your actions and even more points for your positive results. For example in the early phases of the game you will accumulate points for talking to people about what you do as a Coach, even more for booking an exploratory session, and even more for signing paying clients to your Coaching business.
Playing your business game each week
as a part of a team is WAAAAYYYYY
more risky, more fun AND more
effective than struggling
at home alone!
3) You will be a part of a team of four players
- The entire group will be organized into teams of four that will play together for the entire 12 week program (or season as we refer to it)
- You and your team mates will support and challenge each other to take actions, get results and accumulate points in the game each week
- Each week, one of the teams will be declared the winner and prizes will be awarded.
YES! There will be prizes.
Engaging in a friendly competition
Adds A LOT of juice to the experience
4) You will learn what it REALLY takes to win
Each week we will go deeper into the game and how to play it. You know that there is more to the game than simply taking skillful action – A LOT MORE!
- We will talk about strategies that work in the Coaching Business game
- We will explore the techniques for Super Conductivity so that you can power up your game and your results with ENERGY FLOW.
- We will talk about winning environments so that you can design your world for business success.
5) End of season review – play again or play bigger
Games have levels. And it is best when you play with other players that are at your level. Then when you master a level you should move up to play in bigger more challenging games with better players. This is how you continue to grow in mastery.
- At the end of the season we will review your financial results – the ultimate scoreboard
- If you have reached the financial results for the level you are playing, we will recommend that you move up.
- If you have not reached the financial results for the level you are playing, we will recommend that you play the game again at the same level next season
- Here is the BIG thing: You can play the game for your level as many times as you need to without paying any more.
When you purchase a Business Academy level,
you keep playing until you have mastered it
at no additional financial investment.
Next Steps…
The Business Academy is a complete environment that is designed with everything you need to win. If you have the desire to play the business game then this will be the best investment in yourself that you will ever make.
I have been a part of creating several great business building programs over the past 8 years. I am more certain about this one than anything that has come before. It is VERY exciting.
Three possibilities for next action…
|
Read about it
|
Talk about it |
Do IT! |
Posted by Dave Buck on under CoachVille Caffeine |
12/22/08 at 1PM ET
A cup of Cynthia Phelps the NY Philharmonic’s Principal Viola!
What a treat to have such an accomplished artist from one of the worlds most prestigious orchestra’s for our next show. There are so many things to talk about. Including…
> How Coaching has been a part of her life?
> The power of friendly competition between musicians?
> What is it like to travel the world practicing your craft?
> How do you continue to pursue mastery when you are already at the top of your field?
Cynthia’s Bio
Principal
The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair
Cynthia Phelps is the NY Philharmonic’s Principal Viola (The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair). Her solo appearances with the Orchestra have included performances on the 2006 Tour of Italy, sponsored by Generali, and the 1999 premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Two Paths, which the Orchestra commissioned for her and Philharmonic Associate Principal Viola Rebecca Young. Other solo engagements have included the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao. Ms. Phelps performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Boston Chamber Music Society, and Bargemusic. She has toured internationally with the Zukerman and Friends Ensemble; appeared with The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Guarneri, American, Brentano, and Prague string quartets; and has given recitals in the music capitals of Europe and the U.S. Her honors include the Pro Musicis International Award and first prize in the Lionel Tertis International Viola and Washington International String competitions. Her most recent recording is a solo CD on Cala Records. Ms. Phelps has performed on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, NPR, Radio France, and RAI in Italy.
Posted by admin on December 15, 2008 under CoachVille Caffeine |
While Dave’s away, Terri gets to play! And she does so in style with her guest today, Ruth Ann Harnisch!
Ruth Ann Harnisch is President of The Harnisch Family Foundation, which has given grants to hundreds of not-for-profit organizations since its founding in 1998. She is a proponent of creative philanthropy whose unusual charitable investments have landed her on Oprah and the Today show. Ruth Ann encourages people to discover the thrill of giving money, time, skills, ideas and other assets to the causes they care about, and shares their stories on www.thrillionaires.org.
Ruth Ann is a “recovering journalist.” Starting out as a teen deejay in her native Buffalo, NY, she spent three decades in media work, including Emmy-nominated television reporting and anchoring at the CBS-TV affiliate in Nashville, TN, a daily talk-radio program on WLAC-AM, and 17 years as a columnist for the Nashville Banner.
After retiring from her journalism career, she chaired the board of More Than Money, a national nonprofit assisting top wealth-holders to put their money where their values are. That organization’s coaching program inspired Ruth Ann to learn about the emerging field of professional coaching. She joined the International Coach Federation and the International Association of Coaches. She served on the Board of Governors of the IAC as well as the board of the Thomas J. Leonard Foundation. She became a Co-Founder of The Foundation of Coaching in order to create the independent resource for coaching information she had sought nearly a decade ago. Ruth Ann served on the board of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Society of Professional Journalists (of which she has been a member for over 30 years).
She is a member of the Women Donors Network, the International Women’s Forum, Rachel’s Network, the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences, the Radio and Television News Directors Association, American Women in Radio and Television, the Buffalo Broadcasters Association, and is a lifetime member of the Broadcasters Foundation.
Ruth Ann is an IAC certified professional coach. In her pro bono practice, Ruth Ann has been a thinking partner to authors, scientists, executives, performers, and other dynamic individuals.
Posted by Dave Buck on December 5, 2008 under CoachVille Caffeine |
Hey there! Coach Dave Buck here.
Next on CV Caffeine a cup of Coach Lise Janelle.
Coach Lise is a CV Graduate School of Coaching coach with a bustling practice in Toronto. She has a hybrid practice of in-person and phone-based clients.
Lise has written a wonderful new book called: Conversation With the Heart. The ideas in this book are the foundation of how she coaches her clients, how she has built a thriving practice AND how she lives her life – always a good thing when those three are aligned!
Super Conductivity Coaching Method – a fruitful collaboration
Lise and I collaborated to create the powerful Super Conductivity Coaching Method TM featured in our Inner Awareness Coaching program.
Sooo…. we are offering a great holiday special where you can get several copies of the book as gifts AND the course for a great price. (so when your clients and friends start reading the book, you’ll know how to Coach them based on what they are learning – very cool!)
See the “Holiday Special” Below
AND…
In case you haven’t heard, our new weekly show
Caffeine at Night - The Pursuit of Human Greatness
will continue (Monday) 9 PM ET
Topic: Winning the Business Game in 2009
A “Conversation With The Heart”
A Perfect Gift for Clients, Colleagues
and Friends This Holiday Season
CoachVille Caffeine
A Weekly Boost for Your Coaching Possibilities!
Monday 12/8/08 at 1 PM ET
Conversation With The Heart
with Coach Lise Janelle DC
Coach Lise is a CoachVille Coach who has a wonderful new book – “Conversation With The Heart” – that will make a great holiday gift for anyone on your list – especially yourself!
The book begins with her personal journey into the heart; where thoughts, feelings and actions are aligned for success and fulfillment. And continues with stories of what she has learned while guiding hundreds of students and clients on the same journey over 17 years as a spiritual teacher and Coach
This book is like a Fodor’s guide
for your journey to the land of
heart-guided success and fulfillment.
Take it along and your journey will come alive while you’ll experience myriad little places you never would have known about if you didn’t have it in hand. Not sure you want to take that journey yet? If you’re like me, reading a Fodor’s always makes me want to go there – this book will do the same. Read it and enjoy the ride.
You know I always want to know about the method that the Coach is using! So on the show we will talk about how to reconnect to your heart, which is the conduit to your soul and the only means you have to experience joy, love and a feeling of true success.
Coach Lise has a core method that includes:
-
resolve unconscious blocks that unknowingly break your connection to your heart
-
find the perfection in the events of your life and
-
use male and female principles – yin and yang – to activate your power to manifest an amazing life.
We’ll also talk about how her book is popular among success-oriented woman ready to explore female energy.
And among men ready to expand their power and wisdom by understanding love.
Visit www.conversationwiththeheart.com
and pick up a few copies today!
Holiday Special -
Conversation With The Heart +
Super Conductivity Coaching
We really want you to read this book! And we know that when you do, you will want to learn the coaching method that goes with it. So we have put together a holiday special package.
When you buy 4 books for $80…
You get a 5th book fr*e PLUS
The Super Conductivity Coaching eCourse included
(price $149) so… $249 value for $80!
When you buy 8 books for $160…
You get 2 books fr*e (10 total) PLUS
The Super Conductivity Coaching teleclass with Coach Dave included!
(price $495) so… $695 value for $160!
In this 6-week course you will learn and practice the Super Conductivity Coaching method and experience a significant boost in your coaching capabilities. The class runs from Feb. 17th 2009 -> March 24th 2009.
May and October classes are also available.
Again…
$249 for 5 books and eCourse for $80 OR
$695 for 10 books and teleclass for just $160!
And you’ll have holiday gifts for your clients and friends covered!
The one-week only holiday special
starts on Monday 12/8/08 and runs through Monday 12/15/08
Visit CoachVille.com on Monday 12/8/08 for all the details.
Posted by Dave Buck on December 3, 2008 under | DAVE BUCK |
Hey there! Coach Dave Buck here.
At the ICF Conference this year I attended several live coaching demonstrations. Overall the Conference was very good. The theme of coaching and social responsibility was compelling and well-timed. The coaching demo’s in my opinion were just OK and left me wondering what was missing.
Now, I always give LOTS of credit to anyone who coaches in public. It is one of the most challenging things I have ever done. There is always this little tug of war between where you want to go in the conversation and what might be too personal to reveal in front of a couple hundred new friends.
At the same time, what occurred to me was that
the dynamic between
support and challenge
was WAAAYYYY off.
In this case there was TONS of support and almost NO challenge. While it feels nice at the time, it often leaves the player feeling a little empty. (and the observers too!)
The important thing is this… support and challenge is dynamic. This means that in the pursuit of greatness the player needs both support and challenge from their Coach. And the Coach has to read the players’ situation – what the universe and their game is providing them – recognize the dynamic and then provide was is missing or most needed in the moment.
So in the demo, the player was really comfortable in their situation so the Coach needed to provide challenge. The Coach did not provide this and this is why the session went flat.
While walking back to the hotel my mind started flowing with a model to explain what coaching is all about and the key dynamics that can make a coaching session AND relationship so powerful.
This is what I came up with:
1) Invitation to R&D Call
Before I get into explaining some of these ideas, remember this is a new model so it is barely half-baked! To that point, YOU are invited to a special R&D call on Monday evening Dec. 8 2008 at 8 PM ET to talk about it and help improve it and flesh it out.
This R&D call is open to ALL CV members;
Click here for immediate access to the bridge #
Not a CV Member yet? It’s easy, fast and fr*e :
details here (and you get lot’s of cool coaching stuff)
2) The Diagram
The Venn diagram has three components:
A) The 3 Pursuits (eg. Human Greatness)
B) The Key Dynamic for each pursuit (eg. support / challenge)
C) The 3 by products of these pursuits (eg. Mastery)
3) Human Greatness – Support / Challenge
This is the primary pursuit of coaching and where all coaching begins: with the desire to do something – or as I would say: “Play your game better, and win on your own terms”.
Most people who hire a Coach begin with an achievement in mind. This is a great place to start AND human greatness is more than achievement.
Human Greatness means going beyond
personal achievement or playing a great game
for your own benefit and into playing so well
that you uplift the entire game
and everyone who plays it.
Another way of describing this is the distinction between what your player is doing and who your player is becoming. Greatness requires both doing and becoming.
The essential dynamic is support and challenge. Human greatness is only arises in the face of challenges. AND challenges are only overcome with lots of support.
The biggest job of a Coach is to keep your player just outside of their comfort zone where they are facing challenges and overcoming them with your support and the support of others.
As I mentioned earlier, the Coach must constantly monitor the players situation to know when to support and when to challenge and this can change from one to the other in the middle of a session.
Human greatness is such a beautiful and moving thing to behold. Life is sweet. And as more people have a Coach in their life inspiring them in the pursuit of greatness – it will be even sweeter.
We call our method for this Coaching pursuit the Play Better Coaching Method TM
4) Flow State – Electrical / Magnetic Energy
The state of flow is Holy Grail of playing and Coaching; the place of fluidity and grace where the desired results occur as the natural byproduct of full self- expression. You are resourceful, resilient and responding to the moment. Ahhhh. In any challenging and worthwhile game these moments happen once in a while and they are made precious by lots of other moments of where the flow is blocked and there is the experience of struggle.
A simple formula: Skill X Flow = Results
An essential purpose of Coaching is to help your player experience more flow more often. We do this by providing them with awareness to notice when they are out of the flow and tools to get them back into it.
The thing that is flowing is energy in the form of thoughts, feelings and actions.
Flow happens when your thoughts,
feelings and actions are aligned
on a clear intention and there are
no blocks or leaks.
The essential dynamic is the balance of electrical and magnetic energy.
Electrical energy is what you are sending out into the universe to power up your intentions.
Magnetic energy is what attracts things toward you.
Other common ways of describing this dynamic are male and female energy or Yin and Yang.
As a Coach you help your player expand their awareness of both electrical and magnetic energy to keep them both flowing and balanced. Often they are more focused on one or the other.
The experience of flow is such a delight that all of the moments when it is NOT flowing pale in comparison. We cherish those moments and then we keep playing so that we can experience it again and again.
We call our method for this pursuit the Superconductivity Coaching Method TM
5) Personal Evolution – Inner / Outer Environmental Design
Personal evolution is the “Big Picture” pursuit of the coaching industry.
Our ultimate purpose as a community
is to forward humanity one person at a time.
It is a extremely compelling and passion sparking notion. This is what Thomas was playing for every day in everything he created for the Coaching community.
This pursuit speaks to the interconnectedness of all things. We know that humans are both adapting to the world around them AND creating the world around them as a reflection of who they are.
As a Coach we help our players find their place in the world. Then we help them design there place in the world so that the environment pulls them toward the vision of who they wish to become.
Other ways of describing this pursuit are conscious evolution and transformation.
The key dynamic is the interplay between our inner and outer environments.�
The inner environment is made up of your values, beliefs, emotions, character and ideas.�
The outer environment is made up of people, places and things.
Both the inner and outer environments occur in patterns and can be designed using pattern language. A theory originally developed by Architect / Philosopher Christopher Alexander.
One of our coaching mantras is: the Environment ALWAYS wins
(so its best to have it on your team!) As a Coach you help your player become highly aware of the obvious truth: What we can do is a function of our environments AND who we become is a function of our environments. With this truth as a backdrop they begin to notice that everything around them matters. Everything within them matters.
Most people are more focused on either the inner or the outer environments so as a Coach you help them see they are interconnected and restore a balanced focus. The beauty of the interconnectedness of all things brings a deep feeling of peace that can quickly restore our energy for playing the games of our lives.
We call our method for this pursuit the Pattern Language Coaching Method and we make great use of Thomas’ nine environments of YOU.
6) Mastery
When you combine the pursuit of human greatness with the pursuit of the flow state you get the experience of Mastery. A Coach is always aware of helping the player become more masterful with the skills and strategies of the game
7) Awareness
When you combine the pursuit of the flow state through energy awareness with the pursuit of personal evolution through environmental awareness what you get is expanded awareness. The more you are aware of, the better you will play in any game.
Sustainability
When you combine the pursuit of human greatness with the pursuit of personal evolution you get sustainability; where the player stays connected to the world and continues to play at a high level.
9) How would you use this model?
This is a question that we will discuss on the R&D call!
I have used it to create a context for the Coach Training in the Center for Coaching Mastery. You can use it as a guideline for your ongoing learning as a Professional Coach. Make sure you continue to expand your capabilities in each of these three pursuits. There are so many wonderful training programs available today, this model may give you a spark for where you want to explore next.
I have also been using it as sort of a dashboard to guide me in my coaching sessions. There are so many things to be aware of while you are coaching! This diagram gives me a signal of where my attention is most needed.
What do you see?
REMEMBER! This is a new model and would love to hear your thoughts about it. What would you change? How would you explain some of these ideas?
Share a comment!
