Competency No. 5

My Master Certified Coaching submission is finally in with the International Coaching Federation! I await my ICF assessors’ feedback on whether I pass or fail. My musings on active listening and masterful coaching since I hit “submit” this past Monday, including final indecisiveness, a solar eclipse across my birthplace in New Zealand, and a stunning reminder from the late Dr. James R Doty, an est...

I’m one week shy of finalizing my MCC application process, which began with the launch of this podcast in July 7, 2023.  This week’s episode is documentary style. No music. Just raw footage, of me documenting the many final steps, big decisions, the over thinking,  and the huge importance of staying present when working in a state of not knowing. Thanks to my many peer coaches, my clients, and fri...

Pharmaceutical executive Jill Staudacher took things harder than she thought when her middle son Dean moved out of home and seven hours away for his studies and baseball.  I’ve struggled moving my oldest son Nicholas into his dorm last week at Harvard University—now living 1070 miles from his Wisconsin base. The college transition can challenge parents—and the teens who move away. Exact data’s sca...

When Fortune 500 Chief Technology Advisor Suhail Syed learns that clients are upset, the instinct is to jump in and solve. That’s what often feels right. Something’s broken; so fix it. But as someone intent on staying calm amidst crisis, Syed finds that asking questions and listening well works best.  “It’s amazing what unfolds,” he muses. “Clients feel listened to. They get to vent. And from that...

The Harvard Mum essay project is my documentary essay series on immigrant motherhood, immigrant dreams, leadership, and all the deep lessons on staying calm and present as my oldest son joins the Harvard University class of 2029 this fall. He’s one of 3% of applicants to gain admittance and only one of a few Wisconsinites to do so. My Chapter 2 essay, the high school graduation, revealed the vast...

If you've ever had your hands in clay, you know: The experience can connect you to a deeper part of yourself--as it does with any art medium. Art unlocks. It connects us to our body. And the flow state helps us detach from our fears and a want to control, because art is so uncontrollable.  I spoke with Santa Cruz, calif.-based artist and coach Tess Mascari amidst her own flow state building s...

The International Coaching Federation’s Competency 8 asks its certified coaches to work with clients in ways that great leaders do with their team:  consider possibilities, create action plans, and explore learning. It also requires developing measurable achievements.  In a new coaching session with MCC Coach Ben Dooley, we review a strong— perhaps an excellent contender for my second recording su...

This month, the U.S. reaches historic milestones in some lovely and not so lovely ways. In my world, June 2025 brings joy and hope to 3.9 million high school graduates. Class of 2025 becomes the largest and most diverse class in history, experts say, and with historically high competition for college placement, too. My son, Nicholas, and his friends joined those millions this past Sunday at Muskeg...

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Albert Einstein, our beloved German-born physicist and mathematician, owns the delightful quote. And I find it especially timely when I’m mid-build of something big, new, risky, but beautiful.  I find when I’m imagining what’s truly possible, I love to collaborate with my inner circle (new and old). I also love to isolate. This feel...

In 2025, the ICF estimates 109,200 ICF certified coaches exist worldwide, an unprecedented milestone exceeding the 100,000 mark. Most recent 2023 data has MCC coaches at 2,203. So reasonable to expect, it’s still under 3,000.  How high am I with this long climb and summit of certifying with the International Coaching Federation as a master certified coach, an honor the international non-profit, th...

Harvard University received 53,700 applications for this incoming class of 2029. Of those, 1,950 were admitted, a 3.63% acceptance rate. My oldest of two sons, Nicholas McCullough, is one of them. He’ll play defensive tackle for the Harvard University football team, who recruited him, and he’ll study economics. As mother’s day weekend approaches, my last with him under our roof, I’m feeling what a...

“The summit is what drives us; but the climb itself is what matters” The delightful quote comes from Conrad Anker, the American rock climber, activist, author and mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest three times. Anker, known for his visionary approach towards hardship, also tackled challenging routes across the Americas, Antarctica, and the Himalayas. I’ve thought of Anker’s views on the journey...

For Anna Damsma, maintaining presence was not much on her radar when working as a consultant. Work was more about pouring in excellent advice and building profits.  But when later training to become a coach with the prestigious Co-active Coach Training Institute, Anna, based in the Amsterdam area, discovered three levels of listening existed. And level three listening—a universal level of listenin...

I’ve not mused about my certification efforts with the International Coaching Federation as a master certified coach for a good while. Much has happened, and not happened since my January update. Here’s where we’re at. To certify as an MCC coach, coaches must submit for thorough evaluation two recorded coaching calls of at least 25 minutes in length. These conversations must resemble pure coaching...

Amidst world chaos, uncertainty, and a lunar eclipse, I felt a guided meditation from my Wisconsin prairie would make a nice gift for my dear listeners this week.  Thank you to Dotun Ayeni for the lovely edits and to Positive Intelligence, CEO Shirzad Chamine for the meditation.  Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, coaching, and training via my website , or find me a...

We’ve a rare treat this week in sharing a coaching call in its entirety, with my client’s blessing and encouragement. The topic? Staying calm and grounded as we grow our business and dreams—a timely topic for entrepreneurs and anyone wanting to create positive life and career change. This often starts within ourselves, our relationship with time, and looking (with blameless discernment) at the flo...

Experts at the World Health Organization estimate around 4% of the global population experience an anxiety disorder. The National Alliance on Mental Illness finds anxiety the most common mental health concern in the U.S. with 19.1% with anxiety, over 40 million adults.  Victoria Torno, based in the Philippines, decided a fresh approach to her own anxiety. (Anxiety affects 12.5 million Filipinos, a...

San Diego based technology project leader Limei Wang loved the Lunar New Years from her past. Growing up in a small rural village in Northern China, the incoming lunar year brought the best food, clothing, and gatherings for the year.  Little sleep punctuated the festivities, which lasted all week. Children received beautifully, hand-stitched clothing made just for them and red envelopes of money....

Over the last year, I’ve listened to 35 different coaching calls I’ve conducted and recorded with a quest to submit one recording (a beautiful recording) to the International Coaching Federation (ICF). I’ve created a self-imposed deadline of Lunar New Year, January 29, Wednesday . (I know my critical mind. With no deadline, my Avoider and Stickler saboteurs will prevail.)  If you’ve followed this...

Our Competency No 5 podcast has focused much on how to stay calm and present when we coach, lead, and live our lives. For coaches, part of that calm ties to making a living from our coaching, which requires marketing ourselves to our prospective clients. I’m no expert; but I have built a prosperous coaching business in a relatively short time from putting one piece of fresh content “out there” onc...

I muse and mentor some more with MCC Coach Ben Dooley this week, getting deeper into the nitty-gritty on how to lock in, stay fully present with our coachee. We address the inevitable blunder of speaking over—so hard not to in a 45-minute session, ways to rebound earlier, and wonder: how much does this matter? We also tackle an age-old adage almost every coach in training hears as they master acti...

How to choose which recorded coaching call to submit to the International Coaching Federation to certify at the Master Certified level still perplexes me. And after all this excellent mentoring, I’m feeling more conscious of where I’m falling out of mastery as I coach. Does any perfect coaching call exist? And assuming not, how much margin of error does the ICF allow?  These questions I posed to M...

Pharma sales executive, Jill Staudacher, appreciates the value of pharmaceutical medicines. She also finds value in natural medicine, especially now as we approach cold and flu season here in North America. (Echinacea, honey, vitamin d and vitamin C can boost our immunity really well.) In our lovely interview, we hear of homeopathic remedies and foods which can help boost our immunity and calm us...

I’ve often bristled with the International Coaching Federation’s rule to establish (clearly—and in multiple ways) the topic and hopes for the coachee (our client) in every coaching call. Why? Because when you’re locked in and connected, the coaching conversation (in the real world vs. the ICF world) unfolds. Even asking the coachee to establish the topic or confirm it can feel prosaic, inserted, o...

About 900,000 Americans retired in the first five months of 2024, part of a “silver tsunami” of those reaching retirement age. My father-in-law Nick McCullough is one who retired a few years back, and in beautiful ways returning to the land just outside of Ruth Mississippi where he grew up. The cotton farm of his youth is now his retirement land where he lives with his Cajun wife, Crystall, my Ame...