In early 2020, I had a ‘pinch me, am I dreaming?’ moment: I realised that everything I wanted in my coaching practice had been manifesting for over a year.  This was a surreal experience, seeing ‘success’ in the rear-view mirror without realising that this had become my new normal.  This got me wondering: how did I get here?

What is success anyway?   I’d written a detailed vision statement when I started coaching and it was all now happening, albeit in surprising ways that I had no...

The International Coach Federation’s (ICF) core competencies are its ‘crown jewels’ – and they are now even better! 

Following a rigorous, 24-month coaching practice analysis, the ICF announced an updated ICF Coaching Core Competency Model in November 2019.  Additionally, a new ICF Code of Ethics came into effect in January 2020.

If you want to coach under the ICF banner, then you need to be familiar with the updated ICF Core Competency Model and Code of Ethics.  If you are not y...

‘Flying is easy; it’s take-off and landing that are difficult.’ (Anon)

I’ve been an ICF-registered mentor-coach for 4 years, supporting other coaches to gain their ICF credentials.  I’ve noticed some common patterns in the recorded sessions I critique and I share my observations here to help new coaches improve.

With reference to the flying quote, one way to consider a coaching session is in 3 phases: take-off, in-flight, and landing.  Let’s look at each of these.

TAKE-OFF

I...

Before starting my coaching Diploma, I mapped out what I needed to do to earn the ACC (Associate Certified Coach) credential from the ICF.  The criteria are set out clearly on the ICF website: https://coachfederation.org/icf-credential  I built my log of coaching hours and set out to meet all the criteria required by the ICF so that I could apply for ACC at the earliest opportunity.  As it happened, I had everything in place on completion of the Animas Diploma.  My ACC certificate arrived i...

BUSINESS PLAN FOR COACHES: ADVENTURE, INTUITION, TRUST

Further to my recent posts on Start-up for Coaches and Personal Branding for Coaches, few self-employed coaches have a business plan.  We all keep putting it off; frankly, most of us would rather go to the dentist!  A conventional business plan can be helpful however it’s my experience that the energy and commitment in the coach is more important for business success than the coach’s written plan.  If your business comes from your ...

PERSONAL BRANDING FOR COACHES: MOTIVATION, VALUES, INTENTIONS
Further to my recent post [‘Business Start-up for coaches: Labels; Niche; Style'], I’ve been reflecting on how coaches establish their personal brand. New coaches can get hung up on the trappings of branding, such as business name, logo, strap line and so on. These are important, yet superficial. What’s more important is the experience your prospects and clients have when engaging with you. In my view, the key to creating a b...

In recent sessions with start-up coaches, I’ve noticed some common issues around how coaches describe themselves and present themselves to the market place.  Here is my suggestion, which may be helpful for new coaches launching their practice.

There are 3 related issues: what labels you give yourself, the niche you are aiming at and your coaching style.  Let’s look at each of these in turn.

LABELS. 

This needs to be clear and simple so people who are looking for the service you offe...

During a coaching session yesterday, I was asked what I thought coaching was. The session was recorded (with mutual consent) and the client transcribed my answer and emailed it back to me later. I share it here as it feels appropriate.
For context my coaching style is 'Transpersonal': working with the client's values, energy, vitality and spirit in an intuitive way. I coach for business, career, wellness and cancer and I'm drawn to coaching with the client's shadow side, which I've previou...

As I prepare for my talk on 'Wellness Coaching' to the Salisbury Coaching Circle on 25 October, I thought I'd write a poem about wellness. The talk is based on a chapter I've contributed to the inaugural book by the Cancer Coaching Community due publication in 2019. Heather Nichols (my wife) has also contributed a poem, which I include here.

Here are the 2 poems: 'I Want to be Well' and 'Un-wellness Poem'

I want to be Well

When someone says, ‘I want to be well’,
do we reach for a pill or...

I find myself drawn to my client’s shadow side. What is the client’s shadow?  It’s their dark side, the place inside they don’t want to look at, that’s often been suppressed for many years, unacknowledged but hanging over them and casting a shadow over their life.  The shadow holds powerful emotions that are hard to live with, such as guilt, grief, shame and fear – is it any wonder that people don’t want to go there?  And yet the unresolved shadow always follows them, holding ...

In early 2016, I was dissatisfied with my business.  I wanted to ‘make the boat go faster’, have more clients, grow my revenues and make progress towards my goals.  Business seemed to have flat-lined and I needed to do something to kick start growth. I’d done lots of business training previously so I was wary of signing up for another programme – I knew I was the problem so it was as much about my attitude and motivation as a lack of knowledge. After a conversation with Tom at Dent (a...

CCC (Cancer Coaching Community) is a new community of UK based coaches who wish to work with those affected by cancer: patients, relatives and friends.  The majority of our coaches have direct personal experience of cancer.  It’s early days for CCC however the plan is to soft launch on World Cancer Day on 04 February 2017, followed by an in-person launch event in London on 04 April 2017.

CCC would like to send invitations to its launch events to anyone who may be interested in learning mor...

If you are a leader, do you sometimes feel like an imposter?  If you are a business owner, do you sometimes feel incongruent, that you are not always fully aligned with your business?  If you answered ‘yes’ you are not alone - many leaders experience these doubts so how can we be more authentic as leaders?

There are hundreds of books on leadership but leadership is difficult to define and describe: it’s intangible yet we all know when we are being well led - and we also know when we are ...

Delighted to announce that our Founder Ross Nichols is featured in the prestigious IoD publication, 'The Growing Business Handbook' (16th Edition).  Ross said, "I was thrilled to be invited to contribute a chapter on coaching and mentoring to this IoD Handbook on business growth."  For further information, contact Ross Nichols by email: info@transitiontransformers.co.uk or call 020 8720 6762

For the Associate Certified Coach (ACC)™ credential with the International Coach Federation (ICF), there are 3 options:
1.  Complete an accredited coach training programme (the ACTP path)
2.  Attend 60 + accredited coach specific training hours (the ACSTH Path)
3.  Attend 60+ non-accredited coach specific training hours (the Portfolio Path)

I took option 2, the ACSTH path.  For the ACSTH path, you require:

·         60 + accredited coach specific training hours (ACSTH).  I achieved this by c...

A new coaching circle and NLP group is to start meeting in Salisbury.  All coaches, coach mentors/supervisors, NLP practitioners and anyone interested in finding out more about coaching and NLP are welcome.

Founder Ross Nichols explained that meetings will take place once a month in the evening for about 2 hours.  The first hour will be a discussion on a coaching, NLP or business topic, followed by coaching triads (coach, client, observer) rotating after 15 minutes, then reconvene and wash-u...