Barnabas File

One of the biggest challenges of training coaches is helping them get over the idea that they are problem solvers.  Summit Coach Training participants usually come from the people development professions—clergy, counselors, consultants, not-for profit leaders.  The are used to people coming to them seeking answers.  These helpers usually feel compelled to give them answers!   The real goal of coaching is working a client to discover and use their skills and experience to solve their own challenges.  The key to good coaching is not the “what” of problem solving but the “who” of the client as problem solver.   Ultimately, coaching seeks to be a transformative process for the client emphasizing not “what” the client does but “who” the client is.  A good coach walks alongside the client as they discover new ways of thinking and engaging based on how they process and act.  A good coach does this in several ways.   Fir...

In our   Introduction to Coaching   class at Summit Coach Training, we invite participants to write their “elevator speech” on who they are or want to be as a coach.    If you don’t know the term, an elevator speech is a clear, brief message or “commercial” about you. It is something that you could share on a short elevator ride with another occupant. My elevator speech as a coach is, “I help individuals discover their growing edge and to live into it.”   What’s a “growing edge”? Your growing edge is the boundary between your present status, role, or self-concept and the demarcation point to possibilities beyond that present reality.  It is a choice to move beyond the status quo to something new.  I believe that one’s willingness to address their growing edge comes out of one or more the following characteristics and questions.   Curiosity— “How can I learn more about this topic.”  Something has attracted my attention, an...

“The strongest organizations are learning organizations.     Their structures and systems make the development of people the everyday default, which makes them agile, resilient, and impactful.”—Eduardo Briceno,   The Performance Paradox   I’ll be honest.  When I received this book, I jumped over the first section on individual growth and went right to the section on applying the principles in teams and organizations.  I have long been an admirer of Carol Dweck’s work on mindset, so I wanted to see how author Eduardo Briceno applied the concept to organizations.  I was not disappointed.     Briceno provides helpful insights on developing a growth-oriented mindset in organizations based on interviews, research, and personal experience.  One key idea is great leaders are great learners.  Unless the leader is forward-leaning and oriented toward personal growth and development, she or he cannot expect to lea...

Positive psychology developed out of the work of Martin Seligman in the 1970s and 1980s.  One person describes positive psychology as  “the scientific study of what makes life most worth living.” Rather than studying the pathology of those who have problems coping with everyday life, those involved in positive psychology look at how individuals not only cope but prosper.” In recent years,  positive organizational psychology has evolved to study what both elevates and challenges employees and their companies. It proposes that we ask questions about what goes right, what gives life, what inspires and what is experienced as good, in addition to what is problematic and difficult in organizations.  This type of research addresses topics such as hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. Of course, an organization that is characterized by the elements of positive psychology are its leaders.  One research project identified these four char...

In  The Medici Effect ,  Frans Johansson  describes how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory.  One of my areas of interest is leadership.  I found long ago that both behavioral and organizational psychology can provide fresh understanding about how individuals lead others and what influences a person to follow a leader. In recent years, the field of positive psychology has provided new insights into the characteristics that make an effective leader. Research based books like Grit by Amanda Duckworth, Mindset by Carol Dweck, and Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson highlight concepts and practices that can help a person to become a thriving leader. Although often found in the “Self-Help” section of a bookstore, these books are based on rigorous research. As I use this books in seminary classes, a third dimension is brought to bear--theological reflection. Since the ...