Reflections of a participant in Level One Organisational Coach Training – Part 1

Jane Faure-Brac is a broadcast journalist, formerly at the BBC, and now living and working in Canberra, Australia. Jane is also a graduate of IECL’s Coach Education, Level One Certification course, and being a journalist, Jane wanted to share her journey in undertaking the course. The following is part one of three blogs. We hope you find them just as insightful and enjoyable as we did.

Day One: How’s your algebra?

Being taken out of the mundane daily grind for three days in a row was a treat in itself. And to be learning again – and with a group of enthusiastic participants – created a joy and energy that I found stimulating, uplifting and enriching.

I first had an inkling of how much I would enjoy the course when I forced myself to carve out some time to do the pre-course reading and online activities. This was typically achieved in my only quiet time: between 9pm and midnight. Despite this, I found just the process of reading about something new really opened up my mind and took me somewhere else.

The real bonus of doing Level One was an entree into the coaching community and the types of people that inhabit and work in it. I found that these people were, without exception, motivated by altruism; the desire to help people and it was refreshing and nurturing to be in this environment.

IECL’s Level One Certification coaching training was the perfect balance between theory and practice and throughout there was a beauty in the language used and the style of teaching. 

The day after the course I got a chance to put into practice one of the first things we did ” to define coaching to the uninitiated ” when my next-door neighbor asked me what the course was about. Spouting my definition of coaching, I found what IECL say to be true: people usually think coaching involves giving advice and solving problems. The stunning truth is that the counterpart already has all the answers; it’s the coach’s role to simply help draw them out. You’ll have to attend the course to learn how.

Now to the “algebra”.

IECL expands on Tim Gallwey’s p = P-i formula in Level One Certification. I hadn’t seen it before, and this performance formula encapsulates the mindset essential to a successful coach. In this formula, p equals performance and the large P equals Potential. Add the minus i and you’ve got “performance equals potential minus interference” (that which gets in the way of us expressing our full potential, in the workplace). This gives you a clue about the coach’s mindset. A coach assumes that the ‘potential’ is there…we just need to work out what’s ‘interfering’ with that.

There were some really fun exercises learning and practicing questioning and it was astonishing to see the power of a well-fashioned question unlock a great deal for a person.

The latter part of day one focused on goal-setting, which for me, felt like a crucial part of coaching. I found this was what actually shifted the inertia and set the forward momentum to achieve real and lasting change.

Bring it on!

Jane Faure-Brac

This is part one of a three part blog series. We hope that you enjoyed part one of Jane’s journey to becoming a Level One certified coach through IECL. To continue with Jane’s coaching journey, you can read part two. Enjoy!