Being an executive coach and consultant is both rewarding and challenging. You frequently have to juggle the needs of your clients with your own need for support, encouragement, feedback and making time to reflect on your practice.

In Autumn 2010 I'll be offering this opportunity for a small group of six professional coaches to work together with a particular focus on the use of creative resources to explore your client work and coaching practice. As a result, you’ll gain an understanding of the effectiveness of right-brain approaches to effect change. You’ll also develop your ability to apply creative interventions in your coaching practice.

The group will be self-determining, and will co-create the learning and development goals. Together we will create the safe space for you to reflect and explore.

As a participant, you’ll be able to:
• Work with right-brained approaches such as cards and natural objects to explore and resolve client issues along with the familiar dialogic norms.
• Give and receive feedback on the content and process of your work
• Work with the group using creative interventions to enhance your facilitation skills
• Enjoy personal and professional support in a stimulating environment

Format

The group will meet for a programme of six sessions starting in Autumn 2010 (dates to be agreed by the group). Each day will run from 10.00am to 4.30pm in West London.

Fees will be £1200.00 + VAT payable in advance or alternatively £1320.00 + VAT payable by instalments.

To learn more and to enrol, call Alison on 020 8995 5485 or email her at alison@alisonhodge.com

I'm just getting to the chapter about practitioner research - which is particularly pertinent to me as I develop my doctoral research project in coaching supervision and which will focus on our experience in the process of supervision - so what might we notice, are we disciplined in our noticing, what blinkers hold our gaze, so what do we miss?

And what's the purpose of noticing? Or being a practitioner-researcher? Ultimately, for me it's about being more effective in the service of my client.

As I write, I'm also aware that sometimes I could spend longer writing my reflections after sessions so that I accumulate more reference experiences in my reflective log. This in turn I imagine would develop my capacity and flexibility to notice new and different elements in my client work.

So, the question that this prompts for me is whether noticing is a discipline or rather a practice and way of being?

I'm really pleased that I'm going to be facilitating a Creative Supervision Workshop that I've been invited to run on 30th July in Sydney Australia on behalf of ASCCANZ - the Association for Supervision, Coaching and Consultancy Australia and New Zealand.

The day will involve working with different creative tools such as visual imagery, natural objects and metaphorical objects where you'll be able to tap into your own creativity and then explore some of your client situations. As you may know, working with right-brained, creative approaches can be particularly powerful when you and your client may appear to be stuck or blocked, and we can discover amazing insights that were otherwise out of our conscious awareness.

If you're interested, you can contact me via my email address which is alison@alisonhodge.com or you can contact ASCCANZ at the following address: asccanz@three.com.au

The day will run from 09.30am - 4.30pm in Waverley, Sydney, NSW. I hope to see some of you there.

I've attended and run sessions at this conference for several years now and this year it's different. It's going to be staged over 3 days instead of 2 with a special day dedicated to research in the field of coaching and mentoring. This too is a first, in terms of a dedicated day for research approaches and delegates are being invited to present their current work - hopefully will help to inform the shape and design of the first EMCC European Research Conference being planned for July 2011.

It's too early in terms of my doctoral research yet for me to contribute during this day next week....but I'm encouraged to think that there may be a dedicated forum for presenting research findings in the future. I'll share more about my research project very soon.

More and more I'm finding that working this way gives people permission to gain increasing self-awareness that may otherwise be lost. So, I find that these processes of discovery are really enriching for them and for me.

I've also noticed that the more I work this way, I am opening up my own capacity to 'create' material, interventions, new approaches. Ah yes, we 'teach the things we need to learn ourselves!'. I'll report back on the conference after the weekend.

At the moment, this is necessarily a brief comment on the book, which I've only just started to explore. But I'm excited by first sightings as I have a significant birthday coming up this year which might indicate I'm on a slippery downward slope, and the idea that perhaps I can directly affect this descent is great. I'll add more here when I've read the book fully!

Well, we had a fascinating time. In the process of preparing for the event, we mused on how best to achieve our purpose and explored all sorts of activities and exercises that we might use. However, in the end, we co-created a six-step process that took people from their right-brain creative resources through to their left-brain analytical, rational side. And the end result? Sixty different and unique descriptions of what creativity meant to each of them. Wow!

For us, this was very exciting.

We worked with drawing, visual imagery, natural objects and brain-storming. We worked very quickly through each stage and it was astonishing to see therefore how quickly people suspended their resistant 'but I'm not creative' voices and engaged with the process.

Equally exciting was how they related to each other. Many in the room did not know each other, but as they worked in small groups or pairs during each exercise, we noticed an incredible level of respectful intimacy and disclosure that was inspiring. As soon as they started working with their right brains, they suspended their rational, 'critical' judgement and gave each other permission to access their imaginations. The ideas and interpretations around creativity that emerged were very exciting and, we believe, may have given them more confidence in their capacity to 'be creative'.

I'm sure there are masses of books written about this approach and probably the best known is William Isaacs 'Dialogue' (1999)

Certainly my experience has been that the coaches who come to work with me are extremely mindful that they are practising effectively and in the best interests of their clients. At the same time, I don't think we've established a clear set of guidelines for supervisors in the event that we are faced with a coach with whom we have concern over their efficacy and standard of work.

Certainly in my own supervision, I have a belief that if I am missing something or I'm not being effective, then my supervisor will draw my attention to that aspect of my practice which is not 'adequate' or needs improvement.

I'm aware too that as a supervisor, I am seeking to explore my client's coaching practice in such a way that we consider fresh and different ways to enable them to develop. So far, I've not found myself wondering if the coach is bringing the profession into disrepute because of poor practice......I imagine I will cross this bridge all in good time.

And in the meantime, as coaches become more confident to engage in reflective practice and be held to account for their work, then the 'normative' task of supervision, as distinct from the 'formative' and 'restorative' aspects (Proctor) will be explicitly acknowledged.

I'm facilitating a number of Ethical Awareness Workshops on behalf of the EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council) during the next few months. These evening workshops give professional coaches an opportunity to explore ethical dilemmas and with the help of the Code of Ethics they can consider the diverse choices and decisions available when dealing with 'tricky' issues.

Events are open to non-members and you can get more details from http://www.emccouncil.org/uk/public/calendar_of_events/index.html
Cost ranges from £30.00-£45.00 per person per session.

Using exercises from tai ji, we explored the process of just standing, just gently moving and just walking, both alone and with others in a single file. Taking time to slow down, notice what is happening in our bodies, how our minds wander and how this can throw us off balance, were some of the elements that we explored. People acknowledged how difficult they found trying to stay in step behind someone else and we pondered on the reasons for that. We acknowledged how comfortable it is to ‘walk in our own way’ and of course this raised a question of how this might impact on our client relationships.

Some participants already have some form of meditation practice and they found applying this to walking gave them a new perspective and in fact seems a possible approach to offer coaching clients. Others noticed that one or other side of their bodies used more energy and can distract their focus – so, we pondered how this may impact on their emotional and mental attention. Indeed, it may make no difference at all, but merely the fact of bringing this into awareness raised people’s interest. We enjoyed working largely in silence and moving physically rather than sitting, and either thinking and/or in dialogue.

And I continue to marvel at how this practice enables me to notice when I am in touch with and attending to what is happening in the present moment as distinct from reflecting on what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. As my teacher suggests: the only reality is now!

However, with fellow facilitators from the AC Co-Coaching Forums in London, we jointly ran an open learning event last night. For me it was the first time that I actively and overtly shared my tai ji and meditation practice with colleagues as I facilitated a couple of short sessions doing walking meditations.

I have been working with my teacher, Ad Brugman, for 15 years now (see Touching Stillness calendar in the What's On Section of my web site). Through the practice, I have really appreciated how developing my mindfulness has informed how I work with my clients, particularly in terms of being present. And when my attention wanders, as it inevitably can, I have learnt how to 'bring myself back'!

I chose to share walking meditation last night because for me it is a very powerful informant of what's happening within me. I find that when my attention wanders during this practice, my steps wobble, my balance is unsteady. For me, I find there is a strong connection between this and what may be happening at a mental or emotional level too. So, by attending to my physical balance, I may bring 'the rest of me' into balance at a literal and metaphorical level.

I enjoyed the evening and especially how everyone responded with curiosity and appreciation of how powerful the work can be. Maybe I'll do it again as facilitator, and maybe too I'll just stay with the practice and appreciate how it supports me and subsequently those around me.

The other aspect of the approach that I like is the acknowledgement that transformational and lasting change does not necessarily happen quickly or easily. Just adopting new behaviours does not allow for us to come to terms instantly with how these differences may represent a new sense of our own identity and how we want to be in the world.

It's available at www.amazon.co.uk

Would you like to find new ways when either you or your client feels 'stuck'?

These are just two things that you will gain by engaging in a 12 month programme of creative supervision with me, starting in Spring 2010.

The group will be small - six coaches.
We'll have six 'short' days of coaching supervision in West London.

This will be an opportunity to enjoy personal and professional support, working with right-brained approaches on coaching issues and your practice, and give and receive feedback and reflect on the content and process of your work.

For more information, give me a ring on 020 8995 5485.

It's not enough to presume that other consultants will want to work on a project with me just because it's guaranteed work, particularly and even in the current climate. There's a lot more at stake.

I've been revisiting Stephen Covey 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' and his chapter on 'Interdependence'. Here he talks of establishing the Emotional Bank Account when engaging a team in a new project.

To build up the bank account we need trust, respect, listening, and time spent in getting to know and understand each other and our respective values.

I realise that while I am fastidious about 'contracting' I have found myself drifting on occasion from his underpinning philosophy of a co-created "Win/Win outcome or No Deal" agreement.