Final day of conference. Over breakfast I am checking in with my friend Nonna from Finland and we are both sitting there with the aha of realizing how much knowledge we have accumulated through our years as coaches and how eager to learn we yet remain. In conversations at a conference like this we met both the coaches who makes us see “that would have been me ten years ago, things have actually happened” and the ones who send us “there’s where I want to be in ten years”. Love that mix and to fully accepting and sharing move around in it. It is so interesting to listen to the newest ones, coming into a different place I did, where coaching is now widely accepted and established and yet I was in no way a global pioneer. Had an interesting conversation with an Indian coach today on the challenges of establishing coaching in India. People there are used to go to a guru for answers but to be vulnerable and see a coach and tell them your problems so that you can work on them, that is something completely different. As session was about to start, we agreed to stay in touch and continue that conversation. Am so looking forward to hearing more about that.
Fist session today was a de-conferencing collaboration exercise where we in groups of three got room to speak about a challenge we are now facing and to support each other in brainstorming solutions and find a path ahead. After a few days of intense input I find it very helpful to have that moment together and start settling your mind around how to use all the new and combine it with what you are coming home to ensures it doesn’t end up as notes in a drawer and that’s it. Funnily enough the team around me suggested going to a retreat as one solution to clear my mind and suddenly the fog lifted and I realized I am not going to retreats, I want to create them as part of my new offers to customers and clients. Hourly sessions are good enough but I would also love to offer some deep work possibilities, knowing the effect of stepping out of ordinary life for a couple of days. My squad decided to keep in touch which means I know have a woman on Channel Islands and one in California who will eagerly check in on me in a few months to see how my plan is working out and I am equally curious about what their new thoughts will create in their lives. Creating accountability to ourselves while adding on to our network.
Closing keynote was Luvvi Ajayi (maybe the pod-people among you now her, I had never heard of her before but really liked her. She calls herself a professional troublemaker but I do believe she is one of the kindest troublemakers I have ever heard. She asks of us to be our best. Nothing less, And to speak the truth. Speak up and speak the truth as you see it, and doing so, do it thoughtfully and with kindness.
How easy it sounds, and how hard it is. When you are sitting there in that meeting where somebody had a really bad idea and nobody dares say something. How hard is it not to say “I think you are wrong here, that is not true”. Tips she shared to help do it was to do it by simply asking questions. You don’t have to attack, you can simply ask questions like “have you thought of x?” or “what do you think about Y in this context?” Usually when our ideas aren’t all that good it is because we have not thought them through properly and if no-one speaks up group goes into decision making on a non-explored thought. How solid is that?
Luvvie gave her three questions to ask yourself before speaking up:
- Do I mean it?
- Can I defend it?
- Do I say it thoughtfully or with love?
And then don’t spend time asking yourself how to overcome fear. You won’t Luvvie says, it is part of being human. Just do it anyway.
As conference comes to an end Magda and Jean-Francois, CEO and chair of ICF, shares some news to keep an eye on. There are changes coming up in the way we organize our federation. International coach federation will from 1 January 2020 be international coaching federation and in this federation of coaching, not coaches, there will be several semi-independent entities. They will have their own boards and still very clearly be parts of the head organization. The entities are:
· Coach practitioners
· ICF Foundation
· Thought leadership
· Coaching in organizations
· Certification of coaches
· Accreditation of training programs
A huge work has also been done on revising our ethical guidelines and our core competencies. I will surely stay tuned to see what that means by mid-November when they are released.
As conference ended it was an amazing autumn afternoon outside. Walking the streets of Prague alone, pondering my take-aways and settling my thoughts have been a lovely de-conferencing of myself. Now I only have a few articles to write and some follow up e-mails promised and noted during conference days. So glad I was wise enough to give myself some space here before throwing myself back in ordinary day to day hassle. That is something I have learned through my different conferences. Giving myself some thinking space after all the input makes the investment pay off so much more. Good on me!
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