Preface
The spark was ignited at the 2012 Santa Fe Conversations. More than three years ago, a small group of experienced and dedicated professional coaches came together in Santa Fe, New Mexico to discuss the future of coaching. In front of a glowing fire, there were many glowing conversations – that led to the formation of our Board of Directors, a new quarterly publication called Future of Coaching [a digital magazine located inside the Library of Professional Coaching (LPC)], and several other initiatives that are in various stages of development. It also led to a decision regarding LPC’s celebration of its 500th published document, and our rapid growth towards the vision of a massive, robust, online, open-access resource for the entire coaching community.
With so many valuable contributions to the LPC’s growing collection, our colleagues at the Santa Fe meeting wanted a way to access the best of the best…in essence, to further curate the curation that is the LPC. Thus, we decided to publish this compilation of LPC’s best, and our intention is to make this an annual publication. This very special publication is available exclusively to our patrons, benefactors and sponsors – those women and men who have provided the financial support and good will to keep the LPC going and growing.
You might wonder how the articles in Curated: 2015 were chosen. It was a difficult selection process. Many people have contributed articles to LPC (more than 200 authors at last count) and many more people are accessing the documents we have placed in LPC (usually more than 1,000 page views per week). The selection process began by dividing the LPC documents into five categories: (1) coaching concepts, (2) coaching tools, (3) coaching support concepts, (4) marketing of coaching services and (5) case studies. We then used the following criteria for the initial sort: (1) popularity (the document has been frequently viewed and/or downloaded), (2) diversity (of perspective and background) and (3) length (some short and some long).
We have also restricted the number of documents from any one author (including the two of us!!).The documents in the first and third category tend to be a bit longer (usually 5-10 pages), while most of the tools and marketing documents are short (2-5 pages). We initially selected 10-15 documents for each category (except Case Study, which we treated differently). We then invited colleagues from the Santa Fe meeting to be reviewers of documents in one of the first four categories (we have already picked two documents for the case study category) and their input determined the final selection included in this compilation.
What you have now downloaded is the outcome of this selection process—the best of LPC. We have kept the five categories (each constituting a section of the book) and have included essays of different lengths, addressing different topics and offering diverse perspectives regarding professional coaching and the concepts that provide a foundation for or source of new ideas for this exciting human service field. We hope that you enjoy and find many insights in the documents we have provided, and we thank you for your ongoing support of the Library of Professional Coaching.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
SECTION ONE: COACHING CONCEPTS
Why Coaching Works [Bill Burtch] Page 10
Philosophical Foundations of Coaching: Ontology [Bergquist and Eggen] Page 13
No! An Ontological Perspective [Berlonghi] Page 24
Soliciting the Pre-Mortem and Riding the Change Curve [Bergquist] Page 30
Lew Stern Interview: Research on Professional Coaching [Carrier] Page 41
SECTION TWO: COACHING TOOLS
Book of Universal Wisdom [Smith] Page 62
The Clearness Process: A Coaching Tool [Bergquist and Mura] Page 68
Address Your Stress: Simple Techniques to Try [Michael] Page 73
10 Goal-Getting Mind-steps [Pomerantz] Page 79
How to Create an Attitude of Gratitude [Brusman] Page 82
The Career Pivot [Michael] Page 87
SECTION THREE: MARKETING OF COACHING SERVICES
Authentic Branding [Pomerantz] Page 93
Authentic Marketing vs. Self Promotion [Rao] Page 95
Mental Positioning: Critical Mindsets for Success in Sales [Pomerantz] Page 97
SECTION FOUR: CONCEPTS SUPPORTING PROFESSIONAL COACHING SERVICES
Avalon and Glastonbury: The Merlin Factor [Smith] Page 100
Evolutionary Change and Organizational Innovation [Bergquist] Page 104
The Social and Cultural Characteristics of Generational Age Groups [Quehl] Page 114
Positivity (Happiness) in the Workplace and Organizational Change [Weitz] Page 124
The Overview Effect and the Camelot Effect [White] Page 145
Leading Women from the Ballroom to the Boardroom [Naidoo] Page 150
Personality Disorders and the Workplace [Weitz] Page 154
SECTION FIVE: CASE STUDIES
The Memory of Flight [Doron] Page 175
Edie Seashore: On Coaching [Siminovitch] Page 179
Energy as a Way of Life [Smith] Page 204
BIOGRAPHIES
Authors
Co-Editors