ICF North Texas is gearing up for International Coaching Week (ICW), an annual weeklong global celebration of the coaching profession. ICW 2024 is scheduled for May 13-19, 2024.
ICW offers events across the world that help educate the public about the value of working with a professional coach and raise awareness of the results and progress made through the coaching process.
This year, ICF North Texas has two opportunities to participate:
Starting this month, I will provide you with updates from your Board of Directors.
It’s always important for us to be good stewards of our resources and in April we adopted a balanced budget, even with the pressures of rising prices.
We adopted a new LINC Facilitators Guidelines document that will provide consistency and added support to our LINC Groups and our Facilitators.
The Board approved a marketing plan to reach out to over 500 coaches that have joined Global and designated ICF-North Texas as their chapter and have not yet joined. This is an exciting step for us and one that we hope will bring more coaches into our chapter. More to come!
Steve Hendon
President ICF-North Texas
ICF Credentialing Webinar Series
ICF's credentialing webinar series continues. There are four webinars left in the series. The webinars are designed to support chapters in promoting the value of ICF credentials by providing information on the credentialing process. Please consider joining the already in progress seven-part series, co-hosted by the ICF Professional Coaches, ICF Learning and Development, and ICF Credentials and Standards teams. All webinars can be accessed through the
ICF Learning Portal on the dates listed below. Recorded versions of the webinars will also be made available on the site.
• Part 4: The ICF Credentialing Exam on June 13
• Part 5: Renewing Your Credential on September 5
• Part 6: Mentor Coaching Versus Coaching Supervision on October 3
• Part 7: Giving Back Through the ICF Foundation and Ignite on November 7
Participants in the live webinars will receive CCE units automatically in their transcript. Members viewing the recordings can also earn CCE units upon completion of the learning checkpoint.
PCC & Beyond LINC Group - Now Accepting Additional Participants
Are you an experienced coach interested in continuing the development of your skills? Consider joining our cohort in the ICF-North Texas “PCC & Beyond” LINC group.
This LINC group is designed for seasoned ACC coaches and newer PCC coaches that have between 400 – 1,000 coaching hours of experience. Our LINC group goes "beyond" support for achieving PCC credentials by providing opportunities to continue our learning, enhance our skills, and increase our coaching competence.
The cohort meets virtually on the 4th Wednesday of each month at 12 noon CT, for 10 months of the year. Participants must be willing to attend at least 7 out of 10 sessions annually and will earn 1 Core CCEU per session (applicable to group mentor coaching requirements). Contact Laurie Goetz (Laurie@TalentedLeadership.com) for additional information.
Now You Know
Helpful Information for New and Not-So-New Chapter Members
The Connections Crew LINC is pleased to introduce this monthly series for new Connections Crew LINC members who cannot attend the LINC meetings but still want to gain new knowledge. Any chapter member may benefit from this information as well.
Do you know there is a new LINC group named “Connections Crew” for members in their first year as an ICF-North Texas member? There is still room for more, so you can join next month.
Topic of the Month – Learning more about ICF-North Texas
The
https://icfnt.clubexpress.com website is your place for all things ICF-North Texas. Spend some time exploring the different sections. There is so much to discover.
Under the “About” tab, you can find the names, pictures, and emails of each board member and information on Affiliate partners and ICF Global.
Pay particular attention to the “Programs” tab. It has a wealth of very helpful information. Our event calendar is in this tab and has hot links to chapter meetings, programs, LINC group meetings, and more.
Would you like to get a fuller picture of where we have come from? Check out the Newsletter tab. Of course, you can read the current newsletter, but you can also look at past issues.
One last tip for this month—access your profile and fill in your information. Under your phone number, be sure to check the box to allow text messages. We do not send many texts, but it helps us get important announcements out to you.
Volunteer for Our Chapter Report Coordinator
Are you organized, detail-oriented and looking to be more involved in the things that make ICF North Texas an award-winning chapter? Annually, we prepare a report that represents our chapter highlights and successes and we submit it to ICF Global. Our chapter has won the Distinguished Chapter award two times because of our work and our service to our members and the coaching profession. The Chapter Annual Report is the document that tells ICF Global who we are and it’s what they use to make decisions on who will win the Distinguished Chapter Award.
The Chapter Report Coordinator will assist the Secretary in gathering the appropriate information throughout the year that will be incorporated into the annual chapter report. This role allows for interaction with the Chapter Board and members with the goal to ensure that the happenings of the Chapter are gathered so that the final report can be written and delivered to ICF Global. It’s a role that you can manage on your schedule. Typically, the work begins in August and continues through the end of the year.
The Chapter Report Coordinator should be familiar with Google docs and have experience with Excel. Contact Sue Shibley (
sjshibley@gmail.com) if you’d like to see an example of a report provided to Global in the past and/or to better understand this role and whether it’s right for you.
My Experience at TCC's 2024 All Texas Retreat and Conference
By Pallavi Ridout, MBA, PCC
I had the pleasure of attending the All-Texas Retreat and Conference, presented by the Texas Coaches Coalition (TCC), in New Braunfels. A month later, I am still pumped about my experience from this incredible conference!
The theme of the conference was “Aligning to Your True North: Passion – Purpose – Possibilities” and let me tell you, the TCC board did not just deliver, they “over delivered”! It was a highly inspirational event and I came back:
Energized: To play my bigger game
Fired up: To tap deeper into my coaching skills
Inspired: To take my speaking to the NEXT level!
At the beginning of the conference Cheryl Close asked us to reflect on what we wanted out of the conference. Mine was making 10 meaningful and 5 strategic connections. Can you tell “Strategic” is among my top 5 Gallup strengths😊?
In her very giving and wise way, she also said it’s okay to have JOMO – Joy of Missing Out. For a change, I enjoyed not being racked by guilt for not attending every single session. Instead, I took some time to enjoy the beautiful T Bar M campus to decompress and spend some time having deep, meaningful conversations on the porch sitting in a rocking chair.
It was amazing meeting with awe inspiring, interesting and influential ICF coaches and speakers. Here are some of my personal learnings from three of the speakers that I will carry close to my heart for years to come:
Marcia Reynolds – Our opening keynote speaker:
🧨Don’t be afraid to own who you are and bring your brand into the world of coaching
🧨You don’t have to color between the lines. Make a difference by challenging the norm
Rick Tamlyn – Our closing keynote speaker:
💪Play your bigger game
💪Embrace the inner performer within you
Sophia Casey – main stage speaker
💥Big experiential activities from the main stage means big engagement
💥Don’t be afraid to challenge your audience. They will surprise you with their group improv skills!
Some other great moments worthy of mentioning are:
Stan Ward continues to be my favorite “entertainer” and Tai Chi guru during TCC retreats. I recommend attending his morning Tai Chi sessions—they’re so calming yet so very invigorating!
Spending time at the bar can lead up to some very interesting discoveries. Always make time for the bar!
And if you are wondering, yes, I did end up making those 10 meaningful and 5 strategic connections.
I can't wait to see you at next year’s TCC retreat!
Pallavi is an ICF North Texas Chapter Member and CEO and Founder of The ELM Advisory Group.
Member Snapshot - Beverley Wright, PCC
Our Member Snapshot is an ongoing glimpse of your fellow members, giving you a great network of resources available to you and reminding you why it is so valuable to belong to ICF North Texas. This month our feature member is
Bev (Beverley) Wright, PCC, Founder and CEO of the Wright Choice Group (WCG), LLC.
Tell us about your career. For over 30 years, I worked as a leader, talent executive, coach, and “intrapreneur,” leading and growing teams and business departments at IBM. I successfully launched startups and worked across multiple areas—administration, sales, marketing, and as an executive leading talent management and development. I led my team in creating an internal coaching program that won the International Coach Federation (ICF) Prism Award in 2005 and 2009.
While at IBM, I had the opportunity to represent them in several community service organizations. As a Leadership Dallas graduate, I was introduced to a non-profit, Dallas Dinner Table, which has evolved to America's Dinner Table (
https://americasdinnertable.org). It has been a passion project based on the impact it had on me when I attended my first dinner table decades ago and viewed it as a tool to bring our people and communities together to recognize our similarities and embrace and celebrate our differences across race, culture, and our common humanity. I have served as President of the Board of America’s Dinner Table/Dallas Dinner Table for over 20 years.
I retired in 2012 and moved from an "intrapreneur" to an entrepreneur. I launched WCG and have enjoyed the journey.
Wright Choice Group (WCG) offers C Suite coaching and consulting and group and team coaching to diverse clients across multiple industries.
Two years ago, I was invited to be a member of Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches community. Marshall nominated me to the Thinkers50 List in the Coaching and Mentoring Category in 2021 and 2023, which is like the Oscars for Authors, Consultants and Coaches and based in London, England.
Certifications: I hold multiple certifications including: ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), Coaches Training Institute (CTI CPCC) Corporate Coach University Certified Coach (Now Coach University), Stakeholder Certified Coaching, Core Values Index Assessment (CVI), Purposeful Leadership Assessment (Linkage), and Advancing Women Leadership Assessment (Linkage).
Why coaching? The role I loved for my last 12 years at IBM was Talent Management & Development Executive for Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto Canada. It was where I discovered coaching as a profession. During our employment development process, I shared my interest in exploring coaching formally to see if it could make a positive impact on our sales center business. My manager, Barbara, quickly agreed to pay for my training. The "coaching pilot" was successful for coaching individual leaders, sales teams and even peer coaching over time.
Based on the success of the pilot, corporate headquarters created a pod of 30 IBM’ers globally and paid for us to enter Coaches Training Institute (CTI). We eventually created a formal Coaching Community of Practice in IBM. This all started in the late 1990s before internal coaching was recognized as it is today. Eventually Sharon Coleman and I were invited to present our story to the Dallas chapter of SHRM. Sharon Coleman, Jim Miller, and I were asked to speak at the ICF Global Conference in the first ever internal coach’s education track.
I loved my work and colleagues at IBM where I learned so much about leadership and gained the skills to coach leaders to be more effective and build stronger teams.
What is your area of focus (niche)? Corporate Executives and Team / Group coaching (formal people leaders). I primarily focus on leadership from mid-level (VP) through C-Suite. I am currently increasing my focus on coaching corporate teams or groups with a new coaching portal that a current client is testing. I am coaching the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and last year they added a leadership development team of 10 that are comprised of their top leaders to be the feeder group to the SLT over time. We are in our third year of me being their "company coach" as they call me.
We work both virtually and in person. I enjoy working with leaders at all levels and partnering with them to create healthy work cultures that harness the Return on People (ROP) to achieve business goals while attracting and retaining great talent. Attraction and retention of top talent is becoming a major challenge with the younger generations in the workplace with different expectations from their work and careers than past generations.
What is your favorite client story? My favorite client story is one of the first external clients I coached while I still had my corporate job. I coached external clients three evenings a week between 7:00 and 9:00 PM. A leader was referred to me by a friend who was the HR executive for an international hotel chain. The first night that we met via teleconference, the client said that he knew why they wanted him to work with me, so I asked him to share what he thought. He said that he was dealing with the poor performance of one of his employees and the employee resigned and gave his name as the reason he was leaving. He said the employee made him a scapegoat as he left the job. I asked him if he thought it was possible to deal with poor performance or even termination without it being acrimonious? He replied that he didn’t think so. I said let's start there.
He was also a self-proclaimed workaholic with a wife and a two-year-old daughter that was usually asleep when he got home. He set a goal of being home three nights during the work week before his daughter was asleep. It only took once for him to see his daughter waiting for him at the door. Her excitement started his transformation to changing his priorities and his leadership style. His daughter, who was two when we started, is in her first year at Baylor University and studying to be a doctor. He and his wife also have a 12-year-old son who is doing great in school. To date, he has probably made the biggest transformation and has become a friend for life.
He went on to be earmarked as the "future of the company" with multiple promotions to being a sought-after board member. They recently moved to Austin for a new leadership role for my client. He is sought after by his peers for advice on how he creates such successful teams. He says that he remembers me telling him that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care, and he has never forgotten that. I am grateful for his friendship and that of many of my other clients. That is why I love coaching when you get the privilege of supporting clients to achieve their professional and personal goals.
Why ICF-North Texas? ICF-North Texas played a major part in my growth as a coach and a business owner. I was on the board of ICF-North Texas as VP of Membership for two terms and President in 2008. In 2022, I received the ICF-North Texas Distinguished Service Award.
In my early journey to become a coach, ICF was touted to be the best place to meet and learn from stellar coaches. I attended over ten years of global conferences and immediately joined the local North Texas Chapter. The members were welcoming and supportive. I was an internal coach then which was much rarer than now. I still gain a lot from our ICF-North Texas community and want to contribute to the development to the next generation of coaches.
I was also a member of the first ICF Global Foundation Board, invited to join by Ginger Cockerham who was a great mentor to me and encouraged me to apply for our first Prism Award which we won. She contributed a lot to the field of coaching and me. I also was one of six globally to receive the inaugural ICF Global Circle of Distinction (COD) Award in 2018 along with Judy Feld. ICF-North Texas was well represented. A new award has recently replaced the COD award.
I look forward to the monthly meeting of the Digital Marketing LINC. I am technically challenged and gain so much from the knowledge sharing on technology to support our businesses. It is also another opportunity to get to know others that I might not interact with in the monthly chapter meetings.
What else can you share? The main thing I want to share is that coaching is a great profession and that coaches in general are very supportive of each other. Network, network, network with the members and ask for what you need. Get involved and offer your skills to the chapter. It is the best way to get to know others more deeply and to keep our chapter growing. We are one of the most active chapters because of the leadership pipeline that continues to infuse new ideas and energy in every administration.
Bev with Marshall Goldsmith
Bev in convertible in 2012