Coaching = Positive Psychology

You may be wondering what the title 'Coaching = Positive Psychology' is all about. Well, first let me ask you, what awareness do you have about Positive Psychology? Have you heard of it or experienced it? Positive psychology is a form of psychology that attempts to bring out the best things in life along with the strengths in humans to achieve their goals. It's all about human flourishing and includes positive emotion, the study of positive traits, and the study of positive institutions. Positive organizational scholarships is a field that explores aspects of Positive Psychology in the relation to organizations. This is a very useful tool both inside and outside the workplace.

I had the privilege to be introduced to this style of psychology years ago and continue to share it with my clients through coaching along with training and development programs and managing people. Coaching, to me, is about bringing out the greatness in others; that greatness being, discovering their positive traits. We are surrounded in endless, negative psychological programming that constantly focuses on the 'what's wrong with you' issues, rather than more of 'what's right about you'. So, what if you could take the 'what's right about me' approach everyday? It's a much more empowering way of being.

Dr. Martin Seligman is the author of Authentic Happiness, the Director of the Positive Psychology Centre at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of positive psychology http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx. His work entails numerous questionnaires that assist in self-discovery and have been a powerful tool that I have used personally and with clients in coaching. One of the greatest tools that is very useful in the work environment along with individually is the VIA (Value in Action) Signature Strengths Questionnaire
http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/questionnaires.aspx. This survey provides you with feedback about your top five character strengths and 19 other character strengths that you have. The core strengths are wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. The other 18 strengths are categorized under these core strengths. This questionnaire will identify your core characteristics and moral strengths of who you are. You also have choice to develop and build on the strengths that you identify with.

Dr. Martin Seligman speaks to the impact of positive psychology and that we can make our selves happy. Check out this YouTube interview with him where he talks about positive psychology and the value of using the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire.

When I coach clients and use the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire my goal is to assist clients in making their strengths real and concrete, assist the client in recognizing the value of their specific strengths, use those strengths in correlation with achieving their goals, using their strengths in ways that contribute to their own authentic happiness, applying their strengths to their life purpose, and recognizing the value of their contribution in life.

My top five strengths include: gratitude; self-control and self-regulation; honesty, authenticity, and genuineness; industry, diligence, and perseverance; and  hope, optimism, and future mindedness. I invite you to fill out the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire and share your top five strengths and what you learned about your self.

By Angela MacDonald
ATC - Adler Trained Coach
Human Resource Manager (in training)

The ROI of Coaching and Mentoring

The return on investment of coaching in the corporate world can be of great value for both you as the employee and the corporation you work for. If you're spending the majority of your time in a full-time job, it's very important to love what you do and achieve success in what you do. Coaching can contribute to your success within an organization along with many factors that an organization is attempting to measure, including quantitative and qualitative measurements. Quantitative measures include: sales, profits, productivity, retention, and promotions. Qualitative measures include: performance appraisals, communication effectiveness, job satisfaction, teamwork, and working relationships. You as an employee will play a significant role in one or many of these areas. As a manager or supervisor you will by nature be a mentor so why not do it successfully.

In my experience, I have had the pleasure of working with an experienced coach while doing my training at Adler International Learning http://www.adlerlearning.com/ and I found this to be a great motivator for me to keep moving forward, to access deeper insight, gain clarity, and achieve goals. I have also followed Jack Canfield over the years, (known primarily as the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, along with numerous other books and seminars that he contributes to society).  Jack has created valuable tools to assist others in being successful. One thing I agree with that Jack suggests is to find yourself a mentor. Having a mentor can assist you in getting from where you are to where you want to be. He talks about tips on finding a good mentor in this short YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yep10QGbDHU   

Having a mentor as a coach can impact your ROI with the company you work with and the corporation also. I found this to be a good reminder that it's time to get back on the path with a mentor for myself. What mentors have you had in your life up to now? And who would you like to have as your mentor today, moving forward? This is important to consider as a mentor will assist you in fulfilling the qualitative and quantitative measures in your company.

I took the time to watch this presentation for a refresher with Jack Canfield https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juUByGAzWVI and it was a good reminder of the valuable tools he writes about in his book The Success Principles: How to get from where you are where you want to be. I encourage you to take the time to watch it and share your thoughts afterwards. It is an hour of your time that could create change that you have been longing for. Take action now if you are seeking an ROI of coaching and mentoring. What if there's no better time than now to increase your awareness, be accountable, and take action? Is it time to get yourself a coaching mentor that will light the spark in you? So, as Nike says, 'just do it'.

By Angela MacDonald
ADT - Adler Trained Coach
HR Manager (in training)

What on earth is an archetype and how does that work in coaching?

There are two questions here. First, what on earth is an archetype? Maybe you're familiar with this term, maybe not. I know when I first heard the word years ago it intrigued me enough to go do some research and find out more. This led me down a path of training with Caroline Myss in her Sacred Contracts program, learning all about archetypes and how they play out in personal empowerment and the workplace. What if knowing your archetypes can empower you to identify the greatness that you are and achieve more goals in life? Who wants more success? Read on to find out how archetypes influence your life and how coaching can be beneficial to you.

Carl Jung defined archetypes as a primitive mental image that is present in the collective unconscious and that they are models of people, behaviours, and personalities. Caroline Myss pioneered her work with archetypes in writing a book and creating a program titled Sacred Contracts. She described archetypes as the architects of our lives; the energy companions through whom we can learn to understand ourselves  http://www.myss.com/library/contracts/determine.asp. This YouTube interview with Caroline Myss provides some insight into her work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22rFENBwSEA .

After reading Caroline Myss's book Sacred Contracts, my soul was starving for more. So I completed two years of training with Caroline Myss and what a valuable investment that has been. Integrating archetype work into my coaching has been an easy fit and I have seen before me clients transform themselves through this form of 'self-dis-cover-y' and embrace their own power, resulting in advancement in both personal and professional realms. The psychological and emotional patterns of archetypes can lead you to profound understanding of your purpose.

The second questions is: How does this work in coaching? This form of coaching will guide you through intense self-examination, discovering the archetypes that make up your core essence, and working with them to realize your greater mission in life. It is a path of self-empowerment. In addition, you identify how your archetypes correspond with the archetypes of other people in your life which also relates to archetypes in the workplace.

Archetypes are a great tool to use in organizational development as it assists in awakening and empowering employees; it increases knowledge, skills, and motivation resulting in improved performance; it can assist in getting the best results; and it can support both the employees and the organization in achieving goals, increasing profits, being innovative, and having a great return on investment.

This diagram gives a visual of four categories that can be addressed in organizational development and including sample archetypes that can be identified, explored, and how they play out in each of these areas in the workplace. Applying this strategy to organizational development can bring out the greatness in staff and which results in greater outcome. What benefits or challenges do you see with this style of coaching approach?  What is your knowledge and/or experience with archetypes (or lack thereof)? I invite you to share in the comments section.

By Angela MacDonald
ATC - Adler Trained Coach,
HR Manager (in training)

Using Metaphors in Coaching

I met with a friend/business associate that I haven't seen in a few years as life's journey's can lead us in different directions and at different times in life, and yet catching up felt like we just saw each other a few months ago. The meeting caused me to think of the metaphor of 'a river runs through it' and how a river flows in one direction, has twists and turns in it, through many challenges, freezes over and still flows under the ice, breaks new openings, and is sometimes blocked. It may even split in different directions at some point yet further down it's pathway it reconnects in another location.

Living next to a river of that nature is influential and I've been blessed to be next to a river that I have always had a strong connection to most of my life. It was ironic that growing up I was connected to this river much further north of the city than where I live today. And yet many years later I live in an area that is right next to that same river. This river which is surrounded by nature has provided both myself and my clients with phenomenal transformation. It is our connections to certain places, people, or things that can fill our soul and provide direction, healing, insight, and clarity.

Carl Jung's work is some of which I've read, studied, and followed over the years and he was one who believed that the unconscious mind uses symbols, metaphors, and archetypes to convey meaning. The challenge for the conscious mind is to try to interpret what the unconscious mind is revealing. 

Aristotle is another influence who considered metaphors as a sign of genius, believing that someone who can make unusual connections was a person of special gifts. From that, Howard Gardner defined metaphors as the capacity to perceive a resemblance between elements from two separate domains or areas of experience and to link them together in linguistic form http://howardgardner.com/books/.

What does all this have to do with coaching? Metaphors, symbols, and archetypes can be an artful way to coach. Metaphors allow us to understand one dimension of experience in terms of another. They are a key to how we understand reality. In coaching there is the coach generated metaphor and the client generated metaphor. The coach generated metaphor is a metaphor used from the coach drawing on their own intuition and using one that may resonate with the client. The coach will use this metaphor to communicate something that is related to what the client is speaking about and assist the client in accessing greater consciousness. Whereas the client generated metaphor is something that naturally unfolds as clients will often express their feelings or situation through metaphors or may be unaware of the metaphors occurring in their life. The coach can then draw on these metaphors, reflect them back to the client and assist the client in awakening to a greater awareness and new source of power.

Metaphors in coaching can be used as pathways to greater insight about a current situation and as openings to a future that is more desired. Metaphors are helpful in assisting a client in getting out of a stuck place or a situation that is challenging them. As the metaphors says 'analysis leads to paralysis' - coaching can break through this. It assists the client in accessing their imagination and creativity which in turn allows the client to create change moving forward. Metaphors increase awareness and provide the opportunity to step into action and make change happen 'for' you instead of change happening 'to' you. 

What metaphors are you aware of in your own life? How has a metaphor assisted you in an area that you desire change? How would you like metaphors to benefit you? I invite you to share your experiences, expressions of, and uses of metaphors in your life and how they benefited you. 

Stay tuned for my next blog about using archetypes in coaching....another fascinating aspect of coaching and a topic I've studied and facilitated empowerment programs on which provide transformation and empowerment. 

Angela MacDonald 

Adler Trained Coach

Human Resources Manager (in progress)

Coaching within the Workplace

As I was out walking my dog on this beautiful, sunny March day.....

Nature nurtures our creative mind.

I was pondering the thought of how coaching has become a common and useful tool and skill that is used within the workplace. And as I thought about experiences I have had over the years with coaching in the workplace, one of the common themes I keep coming across is how coaching has become a title or task that is used successfully in the workplace yet often overused, misused, and misunderstood in the workplace. So what is the definition of coaching in the workplace and it's benefits and strengths?

At the core of coaching in the workplace it is about facilitating desired change and results. Coaching is an aspect of onboarding, training and development, performance management, learning, and fulfillment within the workplace. Your coach in the workplace may be your manager or supervisor who is attempting to provide a model for you to follow; to be your mentor. Coaching in the workplace provides you with an increase in awareness, expanding your skills, identifying choices, and deepening the trust in yourself which makes change possible. In the workplace the coach works with the employee to increase awareness of self and the workplace system, to achieve the desired outcomes, to identify current reality, and to confirm what's working and what's getting in your way of success. Coaching in the workplace will address your beliefs, thoughts, and emotions along with assisting you in a new form of thinking. It guides you to see the world in a new and exciting way. These are some of the benefits and strengths of coaching in the workplace. Check out this short youtube about How Coaching Works and explains more detail on the power of coaching in changing our beliefs, thoughts, and emotions. What experience have you had with this kind of approach in the workplace?

Coaching in the workplace is about assisting the coachee to identify and commit to goals that have meaning for them and to take action steps to achieve their goals which in turn are in alignment with the companies goals. In my experience of being coached and coaching people in the workplace, it can have a large variance to the approach taken and the level of success it produces. If a manager takes on the title of 'coach' however has not had proper training and lacks awareness and skills in coaching successfully, then is this productive coaching in the workplace? Does it produce the results desired?

In my coaching training and experience, one of the best frameworks of coaching to use within the workplace is the ICA Coaching Framework. This includes addressing: Issue and Insight - identifying the issue and discover new insight; Choice and Commitment - expand on your choices and commit to the choice for moving forward; Action and Accountability - design the action steps to be taken and determine your accountability.

What are your thoughts or experience with either providing or receiving coaching in the workplace? What successes (and/or failures) have you experienced with coaching in the workplace? I welcome your feedback and sharing. 

Are you ready to take your career to the next level? Then coaching from a professionally trained coach may be the key to you achieving success. What else is possible?

Yours for greater success,
Angela MacDonald
Adler Trained Coach
Human Resources Manager (in training)

For more information about Angela MacDonald
visit www.thecentretoreallylive.com  or drop an email at info@toreallylive.com

Coaching: What is it, really?

Prior to working with a coach do you ask: ‘What is coaching, really? What do I want from coaching? Will it be worth the investment?’ These are common questions. And a collective desire for many people is to get quick and accurate results that assist you in achieving your goal, hitting your target, and getting the best return on investment. However are you getting the best coaching for you? And is it providing you with the results you desire?

Coaching seems to vary in definition, it has a wide span of arenas it’s used in, there are many different styles of training and development for coaching, and how it is applied. Through my years of experience, I have often asked ‘what is coaching, really?’

If we reference to the definition in Wikipedia it is described as: Coaching is a training or development process via which an individual is supported while achieving a specific personal or professional competence result or goal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching. It goes on to identify categories of coaching including executive coaching, personal coaching, career coaching, financial coaching, and sports coaching to mention a few.

Coaching as described by the International Coach Federation is: Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential http://www.coachfederation.org/ethics/ .

In my experience and training with the Adler International Learning – School of Professional Coaching http://www.adlerlearning.com/ , they describe coaching to be about facilitating change that will lead to desired results; facilitating movement from a current state to a more desirable future state. The goals for change fall into three key areas including performance, learning, and fulfillment. The coach works with the client to facilitate change through awareness, choice and trust in self. The coach also can assist the coachee in increasing awareness, expand their choices, and build self-trust over time. This is done through conversation, relationship, and process.

I have also trained with Access Consciousness http://www.accessconsciousness.com/ which offers pragmatic tools to change things in your life that you haven’t been able to change until now. This is another style of coaching that applies the power of being in the question and open to change, as change is constant.

A few coaching questions for you to ponder are: What makes you feel alive and excited? What inner gifts and talents do you have within that still need to be applied? What are your values? What surroundings bring out the best in you? And what style of coaching will assist you in reaching your ultimate potential?

One key is to identify what style of coaching is best suited for you to reach your targets, achieve your goals and get the best return on investment.

What’s your definition of and experience with coaching?

Follow me on the next blog to explore this ever expansive topic.

By Angela MacDonald

Adler Trained Coach

Human Resources Manager (in training)

For more information about Angela MacDonald visit www.thecentretoreallylive.com