May 30, 2023

Academic Coach #135: Culum Walsh - Trusting your clients

38 minutes

Culum Walsh is an Academic Life Coach and the Resident Director at Western Colorado University. Culum was a classroom teacher for 21 years until a surfing trip in Costa Rica changed the course of his career trajectory. In the episode, Culum shares the biggest challenges facing teenagers and young adults today as well as provides valuable information about how we learn, how we think, and how we study best in order to maximize our performance. There are many practical takeaways for coaches, teachers, and parents to help us all implicitly "trust" our clients and what to do next when your student responds by saying "I don't know." Culum shares his new Conflict Management conversation technique and so much more.

Check out some of the highlights below;

1.40: Worst coaching moment: Remember that the client is the 'driver' of the session.

3.50: Best coaching moment: Let your own agenda float by. Trust your client. Ask your client/student:

"What do you think about that?"

9.10: Sliding Doors: When teaching was no longer as creative and fun as it used to be - time to learn how to surf in Costa Rica!

12.41: What makes a Great Coach? ("Trusting the client!")

Assume trust from day 1 with your client.

14.30: What degree do you trust (your marketing person) to represent who you are and what you do on a scale of 1 to 10?

Be careful of the lone-wolf syndrome as a solopreneur

19.02: Biggest challenges for teenagers - having meaningful and satisfying relationships with peers and adults. Young adults - are really struggling with these negative narratives about themselves. Our minds make up things that are not true.

21.30: Biggest challenges for university students who are struggling with their grades - Knowing what kind of a learner they are, what kind of thinker they are and knowing the answer to how should you be studying! Academia comes to us via one of these three ways (code this information and watch how much easier it is to structure your thinking) - it is either:

1) Facts or information

2) Reasons that things happen

3) Processes, steps on how to do things

Or some combination

23.08: What study environment works best for you?

Complete silence?

In your room (the noise from the hallways)

The library, the grille where there is some ambient noise?

27.00: How do you handle the response: "I don't know."

"That's a great place to start, take your time."

Parents: Instead of "How was your day?" They respond: "Good." Ask: What was good? Is now a good time to talk about your day? What was the best part of your day?"

Top tip: "How is your life going?"

32.00: Conflict Management Protocol: If a student requests a room change, a meditation process happens, and the conversation goes something like this;

Each person writes down their complaints (without the other person interrupting)

Write down the new set of agreements

How do you gracefully and respectfully call each other in when the agreement gets broken? For example, what time should we have this conversation and when should we not have this conversation?

36.23: What makes a great leader?

It's declaring oneself a leader!

The Coaching Podcast is sponsored by The Sampson Agency - a talent entertainment and sports management company owned and operated by Tina Samara.

Visit: www.thesampsonagency.com or email: [email protected]

To learn more about becoming a workplace coach or advancing your coaching skills, visit: www.opendoorcoachingusa.com or email: [email protected]

About Culum Walsh

Culum Walsh is a retired classroom teacher of 21 years. He was a private Academic Life Coach for students, 6th grade through graduate school for 6 years, and he is currently the Resident Director of the Escalante Complex at Western Colorado University. He manages about 275 first-year residents. He has 8 Resident Advisors whom he trains in leadership, program development, and conflict management. He also provides academic life coaching for first-year students who are struggling. Culum earned his BA in Spanish in 1990 and his MA in Teaching Foreign Languages in 1997. He is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the ICF. He is fully bi-literate in Spanish and English, and he coaches and trains in both languages. In his free time, he loves to lift weights, swim, cycle, ski, and paddleboard. He currently lives in Gunnison, Colorado.

Connect with Culum below.

Website: https://western.edu/people/culum-walsh/

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