Coach Training

We're here in Emeryville after the second day of the first iPEC coach certification weekend.  The weekend is three 10-hour days, so we're 2/3 of the way through!  So far, it's been really great.  I'm very happy that Donovan gets to be here with me!  It's fun sitting next to him in class, and he's definitely getting a lot out of it, too.

I have to keep reminding myself that I'm training to be a coach.  I've been participating in transformational courses for over two years now, and so I'm used to participating for my own growth and development.  This course *is* partly about my growth and development, but it's mainly training me to be a coach!  It's teaching me tools and ways of being to be an effective coach.  I'm learning the value of open-ended questions!  :)

We've done several mini-coaching sessions already within the course, starting the first day after only about three hours of training.  I doubt this will come as a terrible shock to you...I'm alright at it!  Oh, there's plenty for me to learn and practice.  And thankfully, I'm fairly intuitive when it comes to one-on-one conversations with people about what matters to them and what they want for their life.  Still, there are many techniques to really getting underneath what's going on with someone, and finding out where they want to go with their life.

Interestingly, coaching is very much about listening, and very little about talking!  In fact, one of the acronyms that was mentioned today was W.A.I.T. (Why Am I Talking?)  Coaching is also not about *fixing*, and I am definitely a natural fixer!  So the training process will give me an opportunity to talk less, listen more, and not try to fix things.  Should be an interesting ride!!

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