In this episode, Meg describes a brief history of the coaching profession in comparison to other helping professions. While the fields of psychotherapy and consulting date back to the 1800’s, it wasn’t until the mid-1990’s that professional guidelines began to be established for professional coaching. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is currently the most recognized and largest non-profit coaching organization offering professional guidelines, ethics and standards in accredited training programs as well as certification for individual coaches. Meg advocates the importance of a self-governed profession to uphold the standards of the profession and to maintain high levels of credibility and integrity by those in practice.

Her guest is Sara C. Smith, MCC, CPCC who co-founded Smith Leadership with her husband Paul. She and her husband are both seasoned coaches with business expertise and unique abilities to inspire their clients and client organizations. Sara’s broad range of experience began at IBM where she worked for 30 years. She was in company sales, then moved into sales management, and then into coaching and consulting. Sara is currently on the ballot for the ICF Global Board.

Listen to the podcast where she shares her experience and knowledge.

Show Notes

* She is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) through the International Coach Federation

* She received her Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) certification from Coaches Training Institute (CTI)

* How Sara became an executive coach, consultant and professional change agent at IBM

* Her role in the IBM transformation from hardware sales to a premier services company

* She began to coach executives in the organization and began to measure the results

* The coaching culture at IBM put the development on the shoulder of the employees themselves. Find out how that worked out.

* The art of using data to get a company to invest in coaching

* Her training on emotional intelligence and executive coaching at the Center for Right Relationships

* Sarah’s recommendation for success in the coaching business

* She suggests:  If you leave the corporate world – transfer your black book from corporate to your personal black book.

Resources:

Website: www.slweb.net

Seth Godin Blog:  www.sethgodin.com/

Harvard Business Review:   https://hbr.org

Coaching that Counts Dianna and Merrill Anderson

Coaching For Performance, John Whitmore

Sara’s book:   Coach to Coach: Emotional intelligence for winning