Mark Driscoll, lead pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, resigned a little over two weeks ago. While I feel great compassion for Driscoll and his family, I also believe his is a cautionary tale with important leadership lessons for us as coaches and our clients. In a statement released by the church’s board of [...]
Life balance. In today's 24-7 wired world, it can seem elusive. We long for healthy, balanced living, but despite our best efforts, we run from morning to night, day after day and week after week. We keep telling ourselves it will be better next week or next month. But it never is. Balanced living doesn't [...]
As an over-40 woman who attends a multi-site church located in Washington, DC whose primary demographic is single 20 and 30 something’s, I’ve had a front row seat to the huge demographic shift occurring in our churches as Millennials forge a distinctive path into the future. I’ve seen both the promise and the challenges facing [...]
“You are so much more alive,” my friend said when we met for coffee last Friday. “Walking away from the corporate world was the best thing you’ve ever done.” I couldn’t agree more. Our conversation fell near the one-year mark of my grueling decision to walk away from my corporate job and its 401(k) and [...]
The GROW (Goal, Reality Check, Options, Will) Model, a conversational structure commonly used in coaching, is a good choice for helping client achieve concrete goals. For example, the GROW model is a good choice for accomplishing practical tasks such as completing a project, eliminating debt, or developing a skill. GOAL The goal is the action or project a [...]
For the last few weeks, we’ve focused on the five core components of emotional intelligence as identified by Daniel Goleman, author of the wildly popular book, Emotional Intelligence — self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social awareness. Today we focus on the last in our series, social skills. Social awareness is about understanding what people want [...]
My church has a pastor of coaching. Really. So as part of the coaching team, I attended an ICF-aligned training event at the church office, focused on transformational conversations, asking powerful questions, and setting S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-specific) goals. One core concept stopped me cold: Coaching that transforms lives flows from coaches [...]
Empathy, or its lack, can make or break a coach’s business success. Core to emotional intelligence, empathy is the ability to identify with and understand the feelings, motivations, and viewpoints of others. Empathy, in its most basic form, simply means good “people skills.” Empathetic coaches excel at managing relationships and making connections with others. But [...]
Successful coaches share many traits, but perhaps the most important is internal motivation. Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and author who wrote the book, Emotional Intelligence, defines internal motivation in a recent article he wrote as “a variety of self-management whereby we mobilize our positive emotions to drive us toward our goals.” Internal motivation means you [...]
An article featured in the September 2014 issue of Inc. Magazine, "Inside the Mind of the Entrepreneur,” reveals groundbreaking research that shows what sets apart successful entrepreneurs from the pack. According to Gallup, who conducted the study, successful entrepreneurs scored “high” on 10 entrepreneurial talents — risk-taking, business focus, determination, delegator, knowledge seeker, creative thinker, [...]