Competency No. 5

Menopause has more than 34 symptoms recognized by the medical community and around 100 symptoms that women experience. And yet menopause, which impacts 75% of women, remains largely undiscussed and unplanned for.  In this episode of Competency No. 5, on staying present as we coach, lead, and live, we speak with Simon Salt, a British author based in Florida and newly certified Menopause Coach, whos...

If you've coached some hours, you've possibly noticed our clients can (at times) become combative, biased, and/or lay down something in front of us which invites our judgment. (Coaches still judge. Of course we do. All of us do. It's part of the human condition.) We bring back to the show Dr. Marcia Reynolds to unpack those moments and how we can A/maintain our presence and let the...

We sit down with former studio executive on films from Die Hard 5 to The Wolverine, Steven Puri, who learned how to inspire a broad range of teams through this creative work.  He's now sharing tips and techniques to help leaders and teams perform at their best and does so as a speaker, serial entrepreneur, and CEO of the Sukha Company, a productivity app which helps stop burnout before it sta...

We sit down with Louise Berger, a British occupational therapist specializing in sleep, to hear about the deep work she's doing for the UK's National Health Service on a large sleep study for sleep deprived Brits. (She's the founder and lead of the NHS Insomnia Clinic and a sleep coach with BetterUp.) Given that maintaining presence and staying calm amidst mayhem, ambiguity, and lif...

Note to our listeners: We took the Competency No 5 show outside of my studio this episode, and with that encountered technical difficulties. Hopefully this won't detract from an otherwise powerful conversation about navigating change, adversity, and maintaining hope, courage, and presence along the way.  Nicole Francois, a Wisconsin-based friend, sales leader, and fitness model, has had her s...

Brisbane, Australia based leadership coach Zsofia Juhasz, MCC acheived a herculean feat: Certifying as a Master Certified Coach instead of renewing her PCC. She had the hours and the focus amidst Covid-19. Within a year of stating her intent to herself, she passed her performance evaluation on her first submission.  We hear of Coach Zsofia's journey from HR to coaching, from Hungary to Austra...

We ask Leadership Coach Jennifer Maxson when and how she knew to build her own coaching business, how to stay connected with our clients, and why and how the International Coaching Federation's Proficiency exam despaired us both (and we still passed.) You can find Jennifer Maxson & Associates here and find Coach Jennifer on LinkedIn here.  Your show host, Debbi Gardiner McCullough, is a c...

I can’t remember a time where people didn’t confide in me. Every time, it felt like an honor. I was super young when I first noticed the pattern, which began before I was aged five, in New Zealand, and has continued to this day, even inspiring my later-in-life career as a communications coach. My first memories of people sharing their all with me come from visiting my dad’s farm a year after his d...

In a new favorite episode, we asked Master Certified Coach trainer and author, Dr. Marcia Reynolds: how do we coach the person, not the problem? And why business leaders ought to join coaches in this highly-rewarding and joyous activity.  We met with Marcia a week after her second edition of "Coach the Person, Not the Problem" became a bestseller on Amazon.  Marcia shares her love for ta...

Dr. Matt Barney is a true scientist practitioner and an entrepreneur in the field of measurement and analysis. His most recent tool, the TruMind.ai Leader and Coach Assessment, he feels supremely hopeful about, because it helps coaches help their clients see and note their progress, something that's otherwise hard to quantify and measure.  "Reviews tell us that most coaching outcomes are...

I certified as a Master Certified Coach two weeks ago, ending a two-year long odyssey in mindfulness, active listening, and perfectionistic goal setting. Feels amazing finally reaching that top 4% of ICF certified Master Certified Coaches.  This week's episode reads from my Substack post on this victory and especially the growth I felt with my comfort with silence. I stayed comfortably silent...

Leadership coach Amy Krymkowski fell in love with coaching through her work in HR. After observing a coach in action, she found the approach so spacious and like nothing else. "I was in awe with how much progress and awareness came from listening, silence, and creating space through inquiry," she says.  She declared coaching as her primary profession, certified, and joined an outplacemen...

Last Friday, January 16, I heard from the assessors at the International Coaching Federation that I passed their famously difficult and evasive Master Certified Coaching Performance Evaluation.  I've still the Coach Knowledge Assessment (CKA), a four-hour exam to go, before I get to join the 4% of MCC coaches globally, a rare group of around 2,240 coaches within 56,000 ICF credential-holders...

When Karen Canham struggled with anorexia, her body felt numb. In fact, she couldn't access her body mentally at all, because the eating disorder stemmed from trauma.  Through therapy and recovery, she came out the other side, learned yoga, how to regulate, and reconnect with her body after years of disconnection. Yoga taught her presence. Breath taught her patience.  And after years in the c...

In our final episode for 2025, First Year Harvard student Nicholas McCullough shares how he maintained presence, calm, stoicism, and all those great things amidst a pressured first semester at Harvard University as a footballer and Economics student. He and other student athletes averaged 65+ hour weeks.  In this interview, Nicholas (my oldest son) shares the power of camaraderie with his fellow H...

A simple daily flow of coaching questions helps me feel happier, but also more focused, ambitious, and committed to my work and life goals.  My goals typically seem to come true, in part of this vital practice grounded in maintaining presence in the wake of not knowing. And slowing down long enough to see all that's going great, right now, without wanting nor needing to change a thing.  You c...

When customer operations manager Jeanette Bernard lost her husband Matt four years ago, the flippant comments from others on her need to rebound fast upset her as much as the grief.  “People would say: You’ll be back out there in a couple of months. You’ll be fine,” she recalls of awful comments at her husband’s funeral. “I was so mad. I will never forget Matt. Nor does he want me to.” Now four ye...

Chapter 5 of the Harvard Mum essay project documents the truer reality of Harvard life now 2.5 months have passed, the pressure has raised, and athletes and scholars (like my son) must juggle robust commitments to their sport and studies.  There's also the inevitable pressure of being an eighteen-nineteen year-old student, often far from home, and admitted into the world's most revered u...

The holidays can stretch too many of us bringing heightened stress and surface-level conversations, even with those we love. Paris, France-based Coach Marie-Louise Pereira knows how to bring coaching skills and Competency No 5 (maintaining presence) into our daily flow and to our relationships with those we love.  In a lovely conversation with a dear friend and peer coach, we unpack how we use our...

It's the annual review season and the final quarterly review for those on the quarterly system. I hear rumblings from many I coach who feel stretched too thin, burdened with too many projects, and exposed to failure more than they'd like. If the task becomes writing on our work, all that went well, and how things emerged as we'd hoped, ought we also address what flopped?  I say: Yes...

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...