You're at the Coaching Inn, 3D Coaching's virtual pub where we enjoy conversations with people who engage in the world of coaching. Welcome to this week's Coaching In. I'm Claire Pedrick and today my guest is Terry Belf, the world's first MCC Master Certified Coach. So when I met Terry on a podcast a few months ago, I couldn't resist but inviting her to come and share some of her journey at the Coaching In. Welcome, Terry. Thank you so much, Claire. I love being here with you.
it's great to see you. So... Your coaching journey must be very interesting. Tell us a bit about it. I found it interesting too, because you gave me that challenge and I decided to really capture the moments. think eight things came together in confluence for the beginning. And I hadn't realized that. My first exposure to a coach was in 1983. I was the director of training and development at the Harvard Community Health Plan.
I was looking for a program to bring more purposefulness to all levels in the organization, employees, management, and so on. I discovered LMI, Leadership Management Institute in Waco, Texas. And someone was assigned to me to be my coach. And I was doing my assignments, answering questions. My first official coach, a very nice, professionally trained salesperson. Something was missing for me, something deep and meaningful.
Yeah, I was creating stretch goals and yes, I was achieving them and I was, they explained to me how the brain works and everything seemed fine, but something was missing. he did a great job of cheerleading too. Whereas it worked for the company I was in, it didn't work for me for the definition of a coach. So early also, and this is the 1980s, I happened to meet someone named Julie Schneewind, who was the president of PRN, Resources and Networks, something PRN.
And she trained me and my training staff in a program called the course in self -management. Everybody sees me the course in self -management, you know, cause I was trained. It was a course in self -management. And it was about how to bring the impossible dream in alignment with the possible dream. And it really had the elements of coaching and she became my mentor. And 40 years later, she's still around doing amazing things and is my mentor.
Something happened at the Harvard plan, which which led to me being fired. And it was because I wasn't, my boss asked me to do something that was against the labor contract. Now he didn't know I had been in personnel and I was on the first bargaining team in Commonwealth, only woman. And I didn't know a lot about bargaining. So I knew this, there's something else going on here. So what happened was I asked a person that I had hired who is well known, David Allen.
the author of Getting Things Done. my goodness. Your whole audience is going to listen up now listeners. You are one degree away from somebody who knew David Allen. I was involved with the personal transformation work he did, but I also asked him to be a contractor, a consultant to teach us his productivity program. And so when I was fired, I said, David, can you recommend a counselor, career counselor for me? And he said, Terry, speak with these folks in London.
They do something different called coaching. You might wanna check it Well, I remember saying to him, you can't recommend someone in the United States for me. have to kind of London. mean, London crossed the ocean was a big deal. They didn't call it a pond then they called it an ocean. Yeah. but I trusted David though. And I called over there to a company named results unlimited. Right. And there were three partners. One of them returned my call very quickly at the moment.
I was emptying my office to leave permanently. And her name was Sally Hedges at the time. And Sally called me back at an opportune moment where I was clearing out. And as I came back, my secretary said, there's a call from London for you. I said, I'll take it. I'm going to close the door. No interruptions, please. Okay. So Sally introduced me to coaching over the phone and I was hooked and I signed up to have her coach And that was in person, of course. So I had to fly her over.
Now, Claire, I was a single parent. I had a mortgage to pay and I was paying a lot of money to fly Sally eight times back and forth. So I put her up at my house, her up at the airport and did all those things to try to save money. And during this experience, she did, she did coaching actually, because now I know what coaching is. And I had applied to two jobs and I came in number two on both of them. And I said, Sally, this doesn't feel right because I'm usually number one.
I don't get number two. I usually get the job or don't. So something's missing. She said, well, what did you do in your last job? Maybe last two jobs that really sparkles you. And I said, I talk to my staff and colleagues in my office with the door closed and we get into deep topics about life and meaningfulness and purposefulness. And that's what I love doing best. And then all of a sudden my head exploded and I said, that's what you're doing with me. I get goosebumps. I just got them again.
That's, I want to do what you're doing, coaching. She said, well, you would have to go over to London because we do it in groups of three. I said, I can't do that, Sally. I have a young kid. I can't keep leaving and replacing myself with someone, you know, and that doesn't work. have to have, what, and I asked a coaching question. What would, not knowing that, what would it take for you to come to me? And she said, well, okay, we'll try it. We've never trained anyone in the States before.
So. I went through how to be a coach. And then I said after a couple of years, it's lonely here. I want more coaches in the States. Now, when I searched for coach, I found 25 hits, not counting sports. And I looked it up yesterday evening and there were something like 246 million. So it'd come a long way, baby. Yeah, now, so as you might know, from your experience, the British have delightfully rigorous standards.
consider even nowadays, you know, I've always been living in the States, I consider the Russian. Where'd that come from? British. The British schools, programs, the associations, just top of the line. And so she said to me, you can't train until you have successfully coached for five years in a And I felt driven through all of this. Honestly, Claire is like, someone said to me once in the limousine drives up, get in. I felt totally driven. I didn't question anything.
And I said, okay, five years. So at the end of five years, I asked to become a trainer of trainers and said, okay. And she sent me the manual, which had about 15 pages. Most of it with Werner Erhart's quotes. So I developed my own training manual having been in the training and development department. Okay. For me to really say I was a coach, I would have to advance to, if I may continue. Yeah, please do. To a conference I attended, I have all the dates here, in 1996.
It was the, no, it wasn't 1996, it was before that, between 1991 and 1996, it was 1992. I attended a conference that was Harrison Owens brainstorm organization transformation using open space technology. And there are about 250 people there. And I kept going around saying, hi, what do you do? I'm a coach from the Netherlands. Hello, what do you do? I'm a coach. from Australia and you, I'm a coach from the UK.
And I was like, so I put up a note as you can do an open space, let's meet in the so -and -so room at five o 'clock and see who all the coaches are. about 25 people showed up. We all looked on each other, mouth dropped, saying, my goodness. So what came out of my mouth, like I was driven, okay, I would never have said this, why don't we have a worldwide coaching symposium and pull body out. And they said, that's a great idea.
My biggest meeting I'd ever planned was 30 for my time management class. A worldwide conference? Well, the sort of side sentence on this is, since I didn't know anything about anything, we decided to do it in 1990, hold it in 1996. And I said, yeah, the other conference was 1994, because it took two years. And I didn't really look at the calendar because They asked if we could do it in the States as long as we didn't have, if they didn't have to come to New York or Chicago airports.
I said, okay, we'll do it in Atlanta. I didn't look to see that that was the Olympics time. So we had a lot, we had a lot of congestion, but we did pull out a lot of people and the conference was called the art and science of, what's art and science of coaching. There's a good title. I don't remember. Okay. That's okay. What I found out was that there were coaches in California getting started too. And they were starting an association that preceded ICF.
It was called the PPCA, personal and professional coaches association, PPCA. And they heard about me alone on the West coast. heard about East coast. I heard about them and I jumped on their board. I became the membership chair. And in that one year of our existence, I brought in 350 coaches from all around the world, because I had a lot of networks in Europe. I'm so interested, Terry, because I started coaching in 1987. 97. 87. 87.
OK. But I hadn't heard the word coach until I read an article by Thomas Leonard. And what I find extraordinary is you haven't got to the date of my first hearing about coaching yet. And two things really strike me from what you're saying. Number one is coaching was a word way before I even I thought it was even though that was what I was doing. And secondly, everything you've said so far is outrageously international in the most beautiful way. Thank you.
And I'm just very interested that by the time I found the word and found the community, it was very American. It wasn't. Yeah, there were people that didn't. Right. Well, you know, for me, the word coaching came in through Timothy Goldway, is American, but was in the UK at the time teaching tennis and the founder of the or the writer, the author. of the inner game series. And his point about the in between the hits is the most important time, because that gets into self -talk and muscle memory.
And that point became the basis for the British company Results Unlimited that did this program, two programs they did that I got certified in, the personal effectiveness program and the personal business effectiveness. program. Yeah, so the in between is the basis of our, you know, our work. So interesting. Wow. What a journey. So what's the story? There's still more journey to come because it was, we haven't got to the world's first MCC.
So, okay, you're now the membership secretary of the PPCA. What happened next? Well, there was some political naughtiness going on and the largest coaching school at that time would hold their conferences within a week of PPCA and they would charge nothing. So were you gonna take a coaching conference for nothing or for $310, whatever the number So we went out of business. However, it wasn't nice.
And I became the mediator between the two factions, not as an official mediator, but just the way I do things and try to look at it. wrote a poem based on Abraham Lincoln's, I called it House Divided Cannot Stand, know, 10 years ago, two groups came together and I read it to the last PPCA annual meeting. And then what came out of me was we have to create a profession. We can't let this go as a hobby. It's too meaningful. And there are 200 some people in the audience and they're listening open.
I said, I know what a profession takes. I helped create the nurse practitioner from the RN registered nurse. I helped create the family practitioner from general practice. I was involved in standards and credentials and all I know what it takes and we need to do that. And the president, Jeff Reigns, looked at me and said, okay, Terry, do it. Well, I looked in the audience, I said, who's going to help? I was stormed. We ended up with 17 people on the committee who created the profession.
My role specifically was the setting up the credentials, the accreditation and continuing education and other wonderful people did competencies and ethics and things like that. So we did Now. So the two merged and we called it ICF, International Coach at that time, no coaching, Coach Federation. that's something I need to mention. Okay. I still wanted to stay involved. And I, after a year and a half, I was totally burnt out, Claire.
So I turned it over to two amazing people who continued the work. And I wanted to get involved with ethics. I always had wanted to be involved with ethics. And I was told by the person at the time, your school is too small. You know, there were others, were doing telephone coaching. was going in person and I would fly to different places in the, you you're from Chicago. Well, I'll come to you if you pay my airfare. And they would say, okay, that's expensive.
said, well, get some clients in the process and they can, then you can all share in the travel, which is what Sally did with me. I traveled all over the United States in places I wanted to go coaching in person. And when ICF came in, it was a huge organization. It used to be the graduate component of Coach University. That was called ICF. So we used their name. We agreed to do that, emerged and smoothed out the feathers as people would say. Then what happened then? They trained coaches.
I became quite global. Again, people would still fly to me for two weeks for training and the rest we would do through telephone or internet. And what was the major I just did my thing. It was always a little different from everything else. But there were seven of us that started the profession and we had a spiritual base, which I'll probably get into later. So we supported each other in getting our businesses going and How did I get to the end? the MCC.
gosh, I'm embarrassed to tell you the truth, but I'll tell you the whole truth. After all this work, after developing the credentials, the president said, why don't we grandfather about 10 people with the credential, because otherwise it'll take three years before we can get on the map. And I said to him with puppy dog eyes, Can I be the first one? And he said, of course, Terry. So I became the first MCC.
Now, as ICF got going and we're having testing and stuff, I have begged three times to be tested. And each time they say, we know you do what you're doing. We're not going to test you. We're not going to waste our time to test you. So I've never really had a test. People have watched me and observed me and gave me feedback, but I've never had a test for the MCC. So that's how I became the first.
Wow. And I did notice a little bit earlier in the story that your coaching teacher made you do your miles before she let you train. Yes. So you had done a lot of miles by the time you got given that credential. I did. And when you look at the numbers at that time, how many thousands of hours I coached, it sounds unbelievable. But I started like you 1987. I will try.
I will try not to be jealous because of course my coaching hours couldn't count as coaching because according to the ICF, the people that I had been coaching didn't know it was coaching. So I had to start again. And then when I got my MCC, I was able to put 2000 hours back in, which I'd done before I thought I was coach. But I will forgive you. I'm sorry, but if you're dead, no, no, no, it's fine. It's absolutely fine. But, you know, we're describing the evolution of something new.
And when something new is evolving, there is always going to be a bit of some of this and none of that and some of something else. What an amazing journey, but I am so struck, really struck. by the international nature of it. Because if you'd asked me to write a fantasy version of that story, it would have been very different because you hear volume from different places.
And the grandfather word I find very interesting because I know Thomas Leonard, because I heard him speak of it in London in the very early 90s. He liked to call himself the grandfather of coaching. Who is that? Thomas Leonard. yes, we talked about that. again, I'm going to be honest. We met early on when I did the search and he said, why don't you take my program? I said, I can't because then, you know, I'm trying to get my own brand and I can't say, and I certainly have studied it.
I can't do that, but thank you very much. He started calling himself the father of coaching. So, and I listened to a tape series, he produced 10 tapes on himself coaching as demonstrations. And I analyzed it from a coaching point of view and about 30 % of it was coaching. The rest was consulting in the financial area. The benefit of our younger listeners, you can look up on Wikipedia what a tape is.
Well, immediately, Claire, I jumped on the title of the grandmother of coaching because who comes before the father, the grandmother. Yeah. I started spreading the word grandmother and everyone calls me the grandmother of coaching. Wow. Yeah. But he made a major contribution. Yes. Yes. Yes. When I went to get my first business license, first of all, I was thrilled that on the application, this would have been 80s, 89.
You had to have worked in whatever you're doing for six months before you were allowed to even apply. I applied and it's head coaching is one of the professions and I checked it and I turned it over to the lady and she looked at me and she said with eyebrows raised, honey, you ain't no football coach. Then I went to a lawyer and I said, I can't sign up as a coach because it doesn't exist yet.
She said, well, Terry, an hour, the way I would advise you is it needs to be in the mass media three times for in the definition you have in order to count. Then we can make a case. Thomas Leonard was one of those because he got into the Newsweek article himself. Was it Newsweek? Time, Newsweek. Newsweek, sitting on the lounge chair with his son. So that made a big difference. And also I didn't get approved for accreditation, even though I had set up the program.
I was the only program that did one -on -one and that hadn't been built into it. I didn't even realize that it was only for groups. So all the criteria had to do with groups. So I had to make a big case for the fact that one -on -one coaching is legitimate before I could get our program accredited. Wow. Wow, what an extraordinary journey. So, and the Circle of Distinction Award blew me away. I have never gotten an award for anything. I'm in the back seat. I'm not crazy about fame.
I do what I do. And when people were saying apply, apply, apply, someone said, I'll apply for you and you can edit it. And I was beyond. belief that I got in on the first group circle distinction. Well done. That's my journey. Well, thank you. Are you going to write this somewhere, Terry, because it's a story that needs to be heard. That's why I said I documented my thoughts so that I might do that.
I do have in mind just a simple thing like what a life in the day of an MCC coach, something like that. But I went through a day, what's my pattern, my routine. But this is interesting. Okay. I think it's very interesting and I think that global coaches need to hear that actually it was it was born out of a global bunch of people who came together. Because you haven't described anything that matches what I kind of assumed thought, imagined, and I've been around coaching since 1987.
So by Yeah, by the time I heard the noise, the noise said we are American. So I love the idea that there was some stuff before that. Not that I have anything against Americans, of course. Yeah, yeah. Many people think that the US created coaching. Yeah, yeah. Because that was what Thomas did. I don't know if he did global coaching to tell the truth. I have no idea. But see, my parents were Europeans. I've always felt a bit more European than American.
And I have friends there and colleagues and yeah. Yeah. So now, What's coaching for now? Okay. in gathering my thoughts, I wasn't going to write down anything, but I got so inspired. So I did three quick examples. When, when we started, big question is, what is a coach? And I remember once I was okay. And the question now is who is your coach? But I do remember my networking meeting when I had to say, you know, what do you do? I'm a coach. the bus company.
Cause there's a bus company called coach. said, and I, what came out was, well, I am kind of like a bus because I take people from where they are to where they want to go. You know, you're familiar with Cinderella's coach. said, yeah. said, well, think about it. It takes you towards your dreams. So I feel like, yes, that's what a coach is an easy way to explain it. So that's one big thing about what's known. Let's see. We've gone from generic coaching when we started to specialized areas.
I mean, there are legitimate people calling themselves gardening coaches or dog sitting coaches. And there are many specializations. Even ICF now has gone into team coaching and business development series. Everything that we, who began it, had it in our programs, ICF is doing. Listeners, there was a look then just for the benefit of our audio viewers, our audio listeners. I is rolled. External coaches. And then we got into internal coaching and a mix now.
So that's one one thing that's different now. Attention is paid to the quality of the workplace and purposefulness now. Six Sigma organizations have an employee wellbeing. Now we started it with that. We started with more wellbeing. And then when, in my experience, the largest groups that came into our profession were the consultants and the therapists. They brought it more to the productivity, the external And now being is coming back in.
But in Europe, I have found, not in the other kind, as I know, in my experience in Europe, I have found that being doesn't need to be separated out as a category. It's just part of the whole. So whereas in our program, we have a wellbeing game and you monitor your wellbeing, my first few experiences in Spain and Italy, to be specific, our folks don't need that. That was interesting. But in business now, it's coming in. It's a big deal.
Well, for me, from in -person to phone to Zoom, and not me yet, to AI, artificial intelligence. But for Thomas, would have been phone. I don't know actually I had a conversation with the person who took over about in -person and it was not appreciated in the way that I did. Okay. There's something there about, about connectability, isn't there?
So I started in person and then when I discovered what coaching was and was at a season in my life where I had very young Because I'd been trained on the phone, I did coach on the phone for quite a long time. And what's very interesting now is yesterday I was training a group online how to work on the phone. because we're so used to visual stimulation. Somebody had come in on a program that I was running and they'd come in without a camera because of where they were in the world.
And when they were speaking, I closed my eyes because that's my way of listening when I can't see. And somebody picked it up and we had a really, really interesting conversation about how to coach on the phone. And if you'll, if I can tell you a funny story. So when I did my MCC recording that even then, so I did my MCC 12 years ago, 13 years ago, even then it was still phone. wasn't video. So it was either in person or was phone.
was on the phone and they, so I had my eyes closed and they said something like, I feel like I'm dancing on ice. And I asked them a question about dancing on ice. And as I did it, I found myself standing on one leg and putting my arms out as though I was dancing on ice because without video, you can do what you like. And my quest, the quality of my questions came from standing on one leg and wobbling.
And I was laughing with somebody just the other day about how there are some things you can't do video or in person that you can do on the phone because you'd never You just said to me, feel like I'm dancing on ice. Although I use movement a lot in coaching, I'm not going to go, just excuse me while I stand on one leg and wobble. I'd be on the ground, on the ice.
My, one of my, my first master sun coach trainer, the highest level you can get in our, in our group, did phone, preferred phone coaching. And she said, when she trained us how to do it, she said, just to let you know, I pace. furiously, I pace, I talk with my hands as if that's the way I work. And then I feel really connected. I hired a phone coach to coach me so could get the experience and it was wonderful. But honestly, since I've lost so much hearing, I have to lip read.
So I can't close my eyes. Yeah. Because it doesn't make sense. But I know of that process wish I could have expressed it in this lifetime, but we'll go to the next. let's see. Can I ask you question before we move on? Sure. Of course. As you've been telling your story in this conversation, what new insights have you had? What insights have I had? that I'm a bit too humble. When I look back, I don't believe it was me.
I'm speaking about these things as an observer, except for one or two of the pieces I shared, like the honey, you ain't no football coach. But other than that, most of them, I don't feel like it was me. can't believe I've done all that and I've actually made an impact on a profession. Little old me, that's one big insight. And how many cycles of ups and downs the profession has had. I'm weathered to them, is that the expression? It's like, here's another cycle.
Whereas other people get all up in arms. It's like, here we go again, because that's what organizations do. They're like people that have cycles. So I'm aware of that. What new insights? That brought me to one sentence when I was working with my coach and was thinking about getting into coaching. She said to me, you'll have to change your name. It's not professional to have that hyphen E. And I tried, I tried, my pen would not do that. It kept going.
Now it's the biggest gift I can think for marketing because at the beginning when we got started, Terry Luperter, who now is the president of New Field Network, Julio Olaya's program. She was Terry, but people knew that there were two Terrys in the same. Right. So they said, are you the one with the funny spell of the name? Yes. So it worked. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. How interesting. I'm just very curious that the first time I ever heard of you was a few months ago when you hosted me on podcast.
And I'm a little bit angry inside that the noisy names over that, because we've been around in the coaching profession, you've only been around a little bit longer than I have. But then the names that have made the most noise may not be the people who did the most work. Except for Sir John Whitmore. Okay, whom I had the pleasure of meeting. Yeah. And connecting a whole lot with. Yeah. Yeah. There are some who've made a lot of noise through contribution and have, and Timothy Galway again.
Yeah. Yeah. That is not the way life is right now. It is. It is. I'm not a noisy person. Yeah. When it comes to ethics, I get noisy. then we have things like, the hardest thing for people when they graduated was to get clients, even though we have a very robust marketing program and it works. Okay. But now we have the platforms. Yeah. That's a big change. Makes it easier for people to see themselves as a coach. collaboration and partnership.
have become very big as a theme in the culture profession. And of course, the focus on DEIJB inclusivity and diversity. Diversity. Diversity, right. So yes, systemic oppression. One new one, I attended a seminar What's the largest? country in Latin America begins with Brazil. Wow. Okay. So I attended an ICF chapter by Zoom in Brazil, and it was about care for the caretaker. And it was giving a program about how we have to take care of ourselves in order to continue to do the service we're doing.
And it really hit me hard that I'm so glad this is becoming a thread now. Yeah, so coaching supervision is is very well established in Europe and is becoming a thing in America, isn't it now slowly, slowly? Right. And that's way ahead in Europe way ahead and far better, if I can say. It's really interesting. So the new book, we got the we got the typesetting scripts yesterday for the new book. But it's called The Human Behind the Coach. Now I'm forgetting everything.
It's called The Human Behind the Coach. one of the things that we realized when we started pulling it together was that there's something about the work that goes on for inside our internal work. And there's also something about what happens in the space between us in a coaching session. And when we were finalizing about four drafts ago, like you do, I realized that half the book is about coaching supervision. And the other half of the book is about mentor coaching.
And I turned to my colleague who's Italian. And I said, I wonder whether this way of describing it is going to help coaches who don't understand supervision understand it in a different way. So we'll see. Yeah. You know, the, what was the second point you just made? The inside stuff. So what goes on for us inside and how we deal with our inside stuff versus what happens in the room? When I train someone and we go through the marketing stuff and they say, how much should I charge?
Now what Sally did, cause I'm naive. I said to Sally, how much should I charge? And she got her conversion from pounds to U .S. and she told me 1600 16 hour program, five months. And I went, okay. I mean, I didn't even question it. I just, she knows what she's talking about. However, people would say, what am going to charge? I can't charge that much. And I would say, you're not just getting paid for coaching.
You're getting paid for all the personal growth and development work you've done in your life coming to fore in the form of coaching. So think about how much you're worth, you'll quadruple it instantly. And that helps. That helps. Yeah. And that's still an issue, it, with new coaches, which is how much do I charge is an ongoing thing.
One of the issues now that has not been resolved by ICF, and I couldn't resolve it, so I went to them for help, is since I'm global, there are some economies that cannot afford the US rate or even the European and do we charge them differently? We're offering the same services, but do we charge them differently? And how do we not discriminate? What kind of data do we need to make it a valid choice?
And also that applies for standards of appraisal because I mentored someone for the MCC and he selected a recording and it wasn't MCC because in India there is a hierarchy. That's his norm, his culture. And he coached that, even though he'd been trained that you cannot be on the pedestal, you have to be a And it passed. And I asked ICF about this. I change, know, tell me, should I change my standards for different cultures and norms? They said, we don't know, we're talking about it.
I think this is, I've done it already three times in a big request and there's still no resolution. And there may not be a resolution. No, but I'm really so excited to hear your comment about fees because I have such a huge ethical dilemma when coaches say my fee is my fee. And I can remember a coach in Malawi making contact with me. And I said, let's talk. And she said, how much I really want to work with you, how much do you charge? And I said, well, how much do you charge for coaching?
So she told me, so I gave her a number that in her context was fair. that technically wasn't fair in our context, but you know, what's not fair? That's a huge ethical issue, isn't it? So I said to her, this is how much I'll charge. And she said, I thought I was going to sell, have to sell my car to be able to work with you and get a coaching credential. That is wrong. I'm sorry. That really, so she sells her car. so that she can pay me so that I can buy a more expensive car? I think not.
And it's a conversation that I've tried to have over time, which is very difficult to have actually, because you're right, because you don't want to be patronizing. But equally, you don't want to say, well, actually, I charge this much and you're going to pay it if you want to work with me. Because then that just becomes everybody's got the same kind of economic capacity. So thank you for saying that, Terry. You're welcome.
And I know that ICF's strategy for the near future is to get into India and Africa. So let's see if maybe there's some kind of resolution that comes out of that. Yeah. And there's the cultural thing and there's also the financial thing. And what's the cultural thing in in a global marketplace. Yeah, I'm delighted to say I've just been mentoring an aspiring MCC in India who got it. But you have to choose who you coach for the recording, of course. Well, what of what? A conversation?
Okay. One of the things that's very important to me, Claire, has always been from the beginning is purposefulness. And in our group, we often talk about what is the purpose, and we read a lot about in research, what is the purpose of coaching? Why is it on the planet now? Yeah. Okay. And I came up with four answers. One is one that I said from the beginning, coaching is just an excuse for an authentic conversation. You know, and that's, that gets me to two, which is it's, it's healing.
It's healing people and people still, that's what the therapeutic profession does. I said, well, mental health and therapy take bad things and make them smaller. Coaching takes good things and make them bigger. we're both needed. We're on a continuum. Now that's a generalization because I do know therapies like brief therapy does it like coaching and I do know coaching that doesn't like therapy. But as a general, that's a good differentiation to use in the public.
Okay. So we are in the healing profession. The third was again, Julio Olaya from the New Field Network at a keynote in the DC chapter years ago said, and this is also, it didn't work in India because they come back from a different. heritage, different lineage, but for the other parts of the world it works. The church, if you go back to the 1400s, 1500s, the church was responsible for the internal being of the person. Might even say still now.
And then the 1400s, 1500s was the time when the scientists started to commit. So they were focused on the external. And so that's been the case for a long time. Coaching has the potential to bring those two together into a more whole perspective, internal and external. Nice. I like that. I wrote any. ICF has done something that has many layers of exploration. They've changed it from International Coach Federation, is us representing us as a membership organization where we have a say.
to a coaching association, which has to do with the process, which means secondarily is that we are members in the organization. So I was quite shocked. I'll give you one example. was in the, I think it was the town hall, two of the six family organizations were having a town hall together. And someone said something about, where do we go to find out? And everybody looked and I said, how about P, the family called PC, the professional coaches. The board chair is the only one we vote for now.
No one else gets voted in by members. The global board head. picks everybody, no more voting. So people said, what's the piece, even people from the people we hire as employees, the association international, which has hundreds of employees that help us manage our growth and budgets. We started hiring them in 2007. They've got hundreds now and even they didn't know that the PC was the way to go. So we need more visibility for those who want to know, most don't want to know, just I'll coach.
I don't want to know anything about politics or how we're organized, but I care about that. I care a lot about that. I miss, we had a meeting with people that we needed to meet with. And I said, I used to have a voice in this organization and I was proud of my voice. I don't have a voice anymore because I don't know where to go. And that's something that I leave you with for this topic, what's the purpose of coaching?
We've gone from coach to coaching and it's changed dramatically our association. And as you're talking, there's something for me about the system of coaching and the systems that we work with about you represent part of the story and the history. And to move into the future, there's something about how do we respect our story as a profession. And I am so grateful, Terry Ebell. that you've been willing to come and talk about that.
And let's share this recording far and wide, because it will be really great for people just to get a bit of a sense of what the story has been this far as we think about our story ongoing. I have to put this sentence in. It is my story, and it comes from my perspective with a large range of experiences and years, but it is still my story. certainly the story. Yes. Everybody know that. Yeah. Absolutely.
It's your story and it's your story of the profession's history and other stories will also be available. They say that in advertising in British TV. The stories are available. Thank you, Terry Ebell for coming to the coaching in. What an absolute delight. Pleasure having a conversation with you about things that are so important to me. Thank you. Well, thank you. And thank you, everyone, for listening. Take care. Bye bye.
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