President's Letter for February 2014

Take the 2014 Core Competency Challenge!

Q. What do you get when you cross an ICF Core Competency and the ICF Chicago Chapter Meetings?
A. A plethora of Applied Coaching!

Applied coaching is the integration and use of coaching competencies, skills and practices, designed to be used within the coaching relationship, to enhance one’s effectiveness and competence in other areas of one’s personal and/or professional work and life. (Admittedly this is my own definition.)

ICFC provides programming designed to support you in engaging both virtually and in-person, in small and large group settings, with a diverse population of new and experienced coaches, in applying each of these competencies over the course of a year’s time. And Continuing Coach Education Units (CCEUs) are available to support your credential pathway as well! (Check out our ICFC Calendar <http://icf-chicago.org/calendar.cfm>for times and locations! The list of what Core Competency is the theme for each month can be found on the Core Competency Call <http://icf-chicago.org/meetings-events.cfm?id=66>  webpage.)

We started the year in January with the Core Competency of Active Listening. At our January Chapter Meeting, Denise Hedges showed how Active Listening can be used to help us authentically grow our coaching clientele.

By the way, for those of you who attended that meeting…did you follow through on the next steps you identified for yourself at the end of the meeting? Take a moment and see if there is any further application you want to make from your learning. 

February’s Core Competency is Powerful Questioning! We are fortunate to have master coach, Therese Kienast, MCC, with us as our speaker at our February 10^th Chapter Meeting to challenge us to new perspectives on how to navigate that subtle and sometimes awkward place between asking powerful questions and skillfully using direct communication (telling the hard truth).

To prep for this meeting, consider how often you hold back saying what you would consider the hard truth. What is the impact for you personally and professionally when you hold back? 

Here’s where the challenge comes in…why not make one of your 2014 professional development goals to grow your mastery of the 11 ICF Core Competencies this year? As a coaching community, the impact would be exponential.

Will you take the 2014 Core Competency Challenge?  (Here is a link to the 11 Core Competencies for your reference.)

With Joy,
Wendy Balman, CPCC, ACC
ICFC President

 

**We have 1 more opening for an ICFC Membership Committee Chair; contact Betty Terrell at membership@icf-chicago.org with your interest. Get in on the ground floor of this vital team!