Episode 124: Supporting Aspiring Coaches: Transformative Well-Being and Professional Growth with guest, Terri Hase

Coach Terri Hase, an esteemed figure in the coaching education landscape, offers a wealth of insights in this illuminating episode. Aspiring coaches face a myriad of challenges, from personal transformation to professional hurdles, and Terry sheds light on how vital support systems are in navigating these complexities. Her article, "Aspiring Coaches Need Support," serves as a foundation for our conversation, where we explore the nuanced journey of coach trainees and underscore the need for holistic well-being.

The path to becoming a coach can redefine one's sense of self and relationships. We explore how integrity and personal responsibility are crucial for new coaches as they adapt to their evolving roles. Thoughtful, customized training conversations can help tackle individual belief barriers, ensuring that students remain engaged and committed to their coaching journey. The emotional weight of disengagement and unfinished paths is also addressed, highlighting the importance of having a support network, including peer coaches or mentors, to foster continuous development.

Looking ahead, we champion a paradigm shift towards prioritizing coach well-being. Attending conferences and engaging in face-to-face interactions are not just beneficial but essential for personal and professional growth. Moving beyond traditional success metrics, we advocate for a focus on work-life balance and mental health, recognizing coaching as a lifelong calling. This episode calls on everyone to reflect on their personal well-being, ensuring they sustain fulfillment in this transformative profession.

Watch the full interview by clicking here.

Find the full article here.

Learn more about Terri here.

Terri would like to gift all listeners a 20% discount on membership to the Global Coaches Coalition., our for-coaches-by-coaches community. Currently during the Grand Opening the monthly membership is only $9.00USD but for listeners Terri would like to offer an exclusive discount code (CHOICE20) for an automatic 20% off for the lifetime of the membership. Simply enter the code during check out of the current monthly membership: http://www.coachcoalition.org  CHOICE20 

Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/

Chapters

• 0:08 Coaching Education and Well-Being Support
• 10:11 Building Community and Support in Coaching
• 19:57 The Future of Coach Well-Being
• 30:10 Podcast Subscription and Digital Issue Sign-Up

Transcript

Garry Schleifer: 0:08

Welcome to Beyond the Page, the official podcast of choice, the magazine of professional coaching, where we bring you amazing insights and in-depth features that you just won't find anywhere else. I'm your host, Garry Schleifer, and I'm excited to expand your learning as we dive into the latest articles, have a chat with the brilliant author behind them and uncover the learnings that are transforming the coaching world. Yes, there she is. Join our vibrant community of coaching professionals as we explore groundbreaking ideas, share expert tips and techniques and make a real change in our clients' lives. This is your go-to resource people listening For all things coaching. Let's dive in. In today's episode, I'm speaking with Coach Terry Hayes, who is the author of an article in our latest issue Coaching Education In Flux - The Ongoing Evolution of a dynamic field. Her article is entitled Aspiring Coaches Need Support - The Future of Coaching Education is the Well-Being of the Coach Trainee. I love it. Just rereading it this morning. Terri Hase, BCC, IAC-MC. What's that, Terri? IAC-MC?

Terri Hase: 1:23

Oh, International Association of Coaching - Master Coach.

Garry Schleifer: 1:26

Lovely. She began her coaching career in 2001 and hasn't looked back. She maintains a private practice, freelance instructs for coach training companies around the world and is the Director of Education at Impact Coaching Academy. Her teaching, mentoring and coaching skills are best described as iron fist in a velvet glove, with a sense of humor that keeps things light. She has mastered simplifying the complex, untangling the tangled, unsticking the stuck and finding creative ways to offer support. Terri, thank you so much for joining us today.

Terri Hase: 2:01

My pleasure, as always. You know you're talking and all I want to do is, like you know, background dancing.

Garry Schleifer: 2:08

Some people actually watch the video of this so feel free, I love it. You know, when I read this I thought, wow, you describe yours as kind of along. Your description kind of matches along with me. I say I coach with rigorous compassion, I hug you and kick you in the ass at the same time. So it's kind of like, yeah, and, and it's so perfectly describes you. I've known you for years and that's gee, I love it, love it, love it. So, first of all, again rereading the article, the issue was about Coaching Education In Flux. So of course, the subscriber might say, oh, we're going to find out more about the coaching education, the training, and you went way over there and it was fabulous because it brought me back. So what inspired you to write this article at this time?

Terri Hase: 3:04

So, having been a coach educator now for a little more than a decade and constantly in my day-to-day, that part of my practice is up close and personal with coach trainees. I watch how they react, how they respond and the questions they ask, and so it's very fresh for me all the time. It's very fresh for me what their experience, what they're going through, is and it just always keeps me on my toes and reminds me of what I went through. I've worked across multiple coach training organizations now and I just keep seeing the same things over and over again and it's how glorious and wonderful and fantastic coach training is and how confronting it can be. So it's definitely a key, central part to everything I experience in the work that I do.

Garry Schleifer: 3:54

Yeah, you said a key word about um and I forgot the word, but the intention was, or the concept was about training and it takes me back and first of all, let me say this was something I wasn't aware of. T he amount of people that quit because it got too real. How you describe it in the article and I remember back then and I think I had preparation because the precursor to my coach training education was landmark education and we had all the forum and they talked to you clearly about re-entry. You're not going to be the same person. Be careful of your language, be careful making changes immediately. Like they really emphasize that.

Garry Schleifer: 4:44

For me, what I heard was they really emphasize the re-entry. So I guess, when the coach training came along and the same sort of thing came up, they never spoke about it that way, but I saw the writing on the wall, if you will, and I realized I was gonna come into some form of re-entry that was different than when I went in. So, all to say, I wasn't really aware of it and I'm pretty sure most of my class made it through.

Terri Hase: 5:16

Well, so I was taking training back in 2001, 2002. And so it was into 2003. So that's when my training was happening, and I think that there were so many people that were just so excited to be part of the conversation, to be part of the development of where the industry was just kind of budding through that we didn't know yet. We didn't know yet what was required because not enough people had paved that path. And so it was quite shocking.

Terri Hase: 5:52

And even if they embraced and loved and adored the coach training, what happened is the closer they got to the end of the coach training, the business building, right, and so they're getting closer to that, and then they're facing all their own fears about business building. Who am I? I don't want to be a business builder, I don't want to market, I don't want to be a car salesman, blah, blah, blah. And so it was almost like that was a stop gap, like well, if I don't graduate, if I don't finish, if I don't take the final, then there's no expectation for me to go build the business. So I don't have to face that stuff. And I still see that periodically today with people who get all the way through a coach training program and they get right up to the like the last course or the last few sessions, or quizzes and freeze.

Garry Schleifer: 6:41

So what do you do about this stuff that comes up for students? How can we help them?

Terri Hase: 6:49

And then this is you know.

Terri Hase: 6:50

Of course, my intention behind writing the article was to inspire other coach training organizations to rethink what they're doing, but also to help the students know that if this is happening to you a) totally normal and you're amongst great company, but that you also have to step up and do something about it, because if you don't, literally your future is at risk with whether you become a professional coach or don't, and whether you're successful at it and all those types of things.

Terri Hase: 7:19

But the intent is that we, both sides of the coin, are actively working towards greater clarity, greater connection and a lot more conversation about the well-being of the coach trainee and then how that coach trainee faces their own stuff and then coaches out in the wild. We all need to be super dutiful about our wellbeing and not just classic cliche self-care things. Right, that too right, we need to not work 75 hours a week and all those things. But it's bigger than that. We have to really check and see where our own head chatter gets in the way of us fulfilling what we desire to fulfill, whatever that is.

Garry Schleifer: 8:10

It's like, I don't know if this is the term, but a self-fulfilling prophecy. So you're getting into coach training to help people that have mental blocks similar to the ones that we're just about to have or are having right now now. So how educated are we at the beginning of a coach training course to be able to recognize that this is what our clients are having and we need an intervention called coaching? Is it up to coach trainer to watch for this and put in steps to check in?

Garry Schleifer: 8:51

And how do we train the coach to say to speak up?

Terri Hase: 8:55

Yeah, so it starts. I know we started with from a pre-session. We have a pre-session before we go into our main program and the pre-session is all about how will you be in this program, how will you be as a learner, how will you be as a participant. It's going to stir up your own stuff. You're going to find things you agree or disagree with and even if you agree with them, stay curious, right. Don't just take them in as like, oh, that's a end of a sentence. I agree with that. Really critical thinking, curiosity, beginner's mind. We have an entire session about that, two and a half hours long, with our courses.

Terri Hase: 9:28

And then we're constantly reinforcing throughout the training. We don't role play coach. Do not role play coach in the work. This is your time to actually talk about the stuff you're facing. This is part of your time. So if we're going to do a coaching session demonstration, let's make it real. Who's really got an issue? So that the students can really see themselves reflected in the coaching that's actually happening, as opposed to made up hypothetical scenarios, which I mean those two have a purpose and a place, but by and large, we like to just keep the conversation open and going.

Garry Schleifer: 10:08

Yeah. Well, that's excellent. So you walk in the talk. I'm gathering you don't say something like when you become a coach, all your relationships change. Your friends might go away, but new friends will appear.

Terri Hase: 10:23

No, I may actually say some of that, but I say it because I tell my story.

Garry Schleifer: 10:29

Well, which is perfect, but that's a little too adamant.

Garry Schleifer: 10:33

Like your relationships, all your relationships change and it's like no you will occur differently. The world will occur differently because you now have a different lens on life.

Garry Schleifer: 10:51

Would you say that's accurate?

Terri Hase: 10:52

Oh, for sure. And everybody, you know, we're always still at choice, right, we're all always still in that position. But you know, that was the message I got and it was very just sort of dropped and then not explained. It was like oh girl, all your relationships are going to change, it's going to be upheaval. All right, let's go on. You know, you're just like what, what, what. Yeah, say what.

Garry Schleifer: 11:15

Yeah.

Terri Hase: 11:15

So I mean, it's really just about having thoughtful conversations and, of course, just like, every client needs something different, every coaching student needs something different. So there's not even a prescriptive out there that says, oh, this is what you should do to make sure all your students are doing well, because it's customized in a case by case basis, but it really is checking in, like did you follow through and take x, y, z action with your students, not just administrative homework check-ins, but you know how many people have you talked to this week about the fact you're becoming a coach and how did that go for you and what do you feel about?

Terri Hase: 11:55

What do you think about it? And, we start talking about beliefs in the coach training. There's like a section when we go into belief roadblocks and I do this exercise with the students where I say, well, just let's just check you. Let's just check you as an example. If I directly ask you about your beliefs, what comes up? And so I started asking them what do you believe about being an entrepreneur? What do you believe about being successful in business?

Terri Hase: 12:22

What do you believe about? and I just keep going through like 10 or 15 questions. I mean the exercise takes a good bit of time and I'm like, okay, so you know who ran across something that you think might be blocking you. And of course, all the hands, right? Everybody runs across something. And I'm like that's the value of asking you what you believe you know.

Garry Schleifer: 12:46

How has this affected the conversion or completion rate of your program? How long ago did you introduce this and then what impact have you seen?

Terri Hase: 13:01

So, like I said, I started a really long time ago. I'm coming up very quickly here on my 25th year in coaching.

Terri Hase: 13:11

We opened our own school about six years ago and we built this in from the day we opened. So a lovely lady opened the school and then my business partners and I, we purchased it from her, but we were there from the beginning and so this has been built into my current school Impact Coaching Academy for since day one. But it's evolved over time. I t's evolved. We realize, especially through COVID and through the changes that everybody was experiencing through that transition and then in coaches dealing with a post-COVID world, we noticed more and more stuff come up. So we've had to be responsive with it and increase our conversation. So we've increased volume not necessarily made changes.

Garry Schleifer: 14:04

Well, good, noticing. Because you know it impacts the conversation about whether or not to take a course from Impact Coaching Academy if people don't graduate.

Terri Hase: 14:14

Right, exactly, and the reality is that it's okay if somebody got into coaching and said, oh, this isn't for me. I consider that a win. Somebody says you know, I thought I'd make this a career, but I'm just going to take them on as skills and my leadership role where I am. I think that's a win.

Terri Hase: 14:37

The only losses I find are when people ghost, when they don't say anything or they say, oh, the business isn't what I thought it was going to be, but they're kind of dodgy and then they drift away. And the reason I consider it a loss is because one they may be a really decent coach, right. They may really have embraced the coaching skills and have so much to give to the world, but I also know that they didn't come to coaching intellectually. Nobody comes to coaching. Hey, I heard about this new business. I think I'll give it a try. Right, they come with a heartstring. They're like, oh my gosh, I think this is my purpose, this is my mission. I've been doing this my whole life.

Terri Hase: 15:18

Yeah, exactly, and so when we lose people from our profession, they're going away with a little bit of a heartbreak. We're sending people out in the world with a heartbreak around this, and that doesn't feel good to me.

Garry Schleifer: 15:34

Yeah, you know, and it really speaks to integrity and personal responsibility. If they really didn't want it or didn't feel right or had a block or something, at least just clean it up and leave with some integrity, but nothing we can.

Terri Hase: 15:49

And peace. Leave with peace.

Garry Schleifer: 15:51

Right, because they're broken. You're right, they have a broken heart, basically like a space, if you will so yeah. You talked a little bit inside the article about the coaches having a coach, a suggestion. Do you suggest it in your program? Would you suggest coach training programs, say, you have to have a coach, and what kind of coach would that be? A peer coach from the program or someone outside?

Terri Hase: 16:21

So we're in a really sticky position with this whole you should have a coach thing, because never in a million years would we say to a client hey, client, if you're a real business owner and you don't have a coach every day for the rest of your natural life, clearly you're a fraud, you don't take it seriously, you're a fake, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But our profession is far too quick to say that to coaches. Oh, you're out of integrity, you have no credibility, you have blah, blah, blah if you don't have a coach. The challenge is that a lot of people coming into the profession are investing thousands of dollars on getting their training. They're trying to launch a business. Having a coach at that exact moment may not be conducive. So right in that tender sweet spot and during the first year of their coaching, we're sort of clubbing them about having a coach as opposed to building in options, which is, I think, the direction we need to go.

Terri Hase: 17:22

We need to build in deeper peer resources so that veteran coaches, retired coaches, can effectively mentor the newer generation that's coming up for a period of time to help them get over the initial stuff, get their businesses moving, so that I guess later on they can invest in a coach and they can use a coach exactly like we would expect any client to use a coach, which is invest in coaching, then graduate from that, come back for periodic tune ups just like any other client.

Garry Schleifer: 17:58

Yeah, oh no, no, that's great. So you suggest coach training schools connect to those resources, because I know there's ICF has it at a really low rate. Peer stuff. What about peer coaching within the program?

Terri Hase: 18:16

Oh of course I mean that's built in, but then you're really looking at new coaches facing newer coaches. So you really want to nurture relationships with your alumni, nurture relationships with coaches that have been in the business, to attract people who are willing to come in as mentors and work with the coaches during that training period.

Garry Schleifer: 18:40

You know what? You just said something that's really brilliant, and I know you're brilliant, so you know this.

Garry Schleifer: 18:45

But for our listeners, engaging the alumni because we want to give back and giving them an opportunity to give back makes them feel good and makes them feel good about being alumni with your school.

Terri Hase: 18:59

Yeah, and I mean honestly, we just have to take care of our own. We should, I think that for a multitude of reasons, which is a whole other show. I think that there's a lot of perception of competition between coaches and the reality is that we are not. We are each other's best support. I think the most credible professional thing you can have is a big old fat directory of coaching colleague friends that you really refer to and refer to you and that you know from around the world.

Terri Hase: 19:34

I mean, that's really the ideal and it's our sovereignty. It's our responsibility as a profession to take care of each other. That's part of our sort of creed, so to speak.

Garry Schleifer: 19:49

Yeah. Well, and knowing that we operate a majority of the time in isolation.

Garry Schleifer: 19:57

I've been to a couple of conferences over the last month and I can't tell you how enriching it was to be around. Like there are people I talk to. There was a lady walked up to me at one last week and she said hey, Garry, and I was like I was lost because she came from a different tribe. Her and a partner colleague had written two articles and been interviewed twice on choice, but to see her in person was kind of like I know this person, but I only know them through Zoom.

Garry Schleifer: 20:30

So it was so much more of a fun experience. She was going through the days we were together was like being with my little sister, because she had that kind of energy for me and I think vice versa. So we had a great time and got to connect a little bit further and a little bit more and, yeah, so definitely, definitely build that. Well, we can't say Rolodex, because the young people don't know what that is.

Terri Hase: 20:57

I know they don't know what a Rolodex is.

Garry Schleifer: 21:00

I should have one here, just to go through. I should have a dial phone, yellow pages, cassette, oh, even better, an eight track and have an education lesson. But OK, but enough of us old folk talk. Anything else you think coach training schools aren't doing that they could do? Maybe you're doing it. They aren't other than what you've already told us.

Terri Hase: 21:22

Yeah, and I do think there are some fabulous coach training organizations around the world that absolutely have elements of this baked into what they do. It's not saying you know, we've got it, nobody else does, that wouldn't even be accurate but it is saying overall, overall, I think you know. Everybody says what's the future of coaching and everybody's talking AI and all these you know wonderful business type, format, methodology type things. I think the future of coaching is producing more well-balanced coaches, coaches that have a higher attention to their own wellbeing and that we're we're in a constant conversation about your well-being and we do a lot less surveys about how many clients you have and how much money you're making and a lot more surveys about how are you doing, how's your work-life balance, how do you feel? Would you do it all over again if you had the chance?

Terri Hase: 22:22

And I think that's the shift. The fundamental shift is we just need more attention to the wellbeing of the coach trainee if we're going to expect to have long-term, successful, sustainable coaches in our profession. Because it does our profession no good to have a whole slew of coaches that come gushing in and then they're out of the industry in less than five years, right, or they have invested a bunch of money in training and then they never really really launch their business. They sort of stab at it for a year or two and have to go get a job.

Garry Schleifer: 23:03

Yeah, it's an interesting pointing that you gave us today about the well-being and the mental blocks of the coach going through coach training versus actually getting to the business part or using that as the excuse when there's really something else going on.

Terri Hase: 23:23

We're human right there's always something going on. With every new phase of us that we try and step into, we're going to bump into some old thoughts and old beliefs and things that don't necessarily serve us anymore, just like we expect our clients to, but we just haven't been really great at facing that head on and folding it into the ongoing big picture conversation.

Garry Schleifer: 23:47

Yeah, it makes me wonder, is this? I know what your answer will be. Is this a need for coach training organizations, but is it something that higher powers should be not exposing but engaging in the conversation of and adding to what it takes to be a coach training school?

Terri Hase: 24:13

I mean yes, I firmly believe that we should raise the bar on ourselves as a profession across the board. This is an across the board conversation is that the wellbeing of the coach matters. Sustainable coaching doesn't happen without a well-supported coach.

Garry Schleifer: 24:30

Right.

Terri Hase: 24:31

Right, it just doesn't happen. So if we wanna see coaching change the world, then we need to nurture the coaches who are gonna stay in the industry, the profession, for 20, 25 years. You know, when I first started out, the coaches that I looked up to at the time, they're almost all heading into retirement at this point, if they haven't already retired, and so we're watching this changing of the guard, the kind of the cyclic evolution of everything we do, and we just need to take better care of the folks that are coming up into our profession, coming from the world that they've experienced.

Garry Schleifer: 25:13

Wow, when you say that, I always joke because my mom at 92, obviously is retired and my sister, who's younger than me by four years, she's retired. And every once in a while, the conversation comes up about me retiring and to me, this isn't a job. This is a calling, it's a labor of love, and if I can keep helping make a difference in people's lives, I want to do it and I meet amazing, fabulous people and I think, from both sides. The coaching of my clients and then having conversations with brilliant minds like yours on the podcast and doing the articles, the prep, all of it. It's not work, right. So, and like a priest, a rabbi, Iman, it's a calling and it's something that you never stop being, in a way.

Terri Hase: 26:11

That's the transition.

Garry Schleifer: 26:13

So I keep saying I'm just going to keep coaching until I can't, and I plan on thriving beyond 105. So stay tuned, there's going to be, it might be an Ai, Garry, by that time time, who knows, who knows. Terri, anything else that you'd like our audience to know as a result, to do actually or know about this article and this conversation?

Terri Hase: 26:39

Well, I mean, personally I want everybody to do a wellbeing check, especially as we're looking at holiday seasons and New Years and all those types of things that are in the offing for folks and that is just check in with yourself. I think everybody should check in with themselves and I think the schools, any program owners out there, check in with your students. Just take the time to check in with them and obviously, you know people want to get connected for conversation or bigger discussion or, you know, align with a program that's going to do this.

Terri Hase: 27:12

They can they can check me out.

Garry Schleifer: 27:14

Okay, so that's easy to say check in with yourself. But what are you actually doing? Are you asking yourself a question? Are you pausing? Are you reflecting? Give us some ideas.

Terri Hase: 27:27

It really is as simple although it's not easy, but it really is as simple as a rundown of questions about all the things you currently have going. How's my work-life balance? Do I love what I do? How do I feel I'm working with clients? Do I love my clients? What do I believe about clients? Just allowing yourself to say what am I really thinking and feeling about all these things that I have my fingertips into? How am I feeling about it and how am I feeling about myself in this situation? And just notice if any red flags pop up or any concerning yellow flags pop up, because those are just as important to pay attention to.

Garry Schleifer: 28:02

Yeah, no, thank you. That's very helpful and now that you say it, it reminds me of exactly what I need to do. Every once in a while, I just need to write a list of everything I think I'm working on. Even that, even that action alone just calms me right down and realize oh okay, it's not as bad as I thought. It's only like you know 500,000 things.

Terri Hase: 28:27

I was going to say, really, that's what you get out of your list.

Terri Hase: 28:30

It must be an arm length long.

Garry Schleifer: 28:32

Yeah, you know, and then, and then it just puts it into perspective. It's like and is any of this so important that it needs to take over my life mentally, or you know anything like that. So thank you very much for that. Oh, and another one I'm sure is stop and breathe.

Terri Hase: 28:49

Yeah, all the time.

Garry Schleifer: 28:52

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Oh, my goodness, that's so great and we're still checking out here, but what's the best way to reach you?

Terri Hase: 29:02

Absolutely, so you can stop by and see the school at impactcoaching. academy, you can email me, terri@ Impactcoaching. academy. Or you can swing by and check out our brand new adventure of the Global Coaches Coalition, which is all about bringing community to coaches, and that's at coachcoalition. org.

Garry Schleifer: 29:31

Excellent, thank you so much. Yeah, seriously, like just, you're been in it for as long as I have, but in a different role, in different capacities, and I really really appreciate your insight and perspective.

Terri Hase: 29:46

I appreciate the opportunity to talk and to connect around this. I think that again, because you and I both, we just want to see coaching thrive. We see the need for it in every corner of the world and we just want coaching to thrive. And I know for coaching to thrive the coaches have to thrive.

Garry Schleifer: 30:03

Yeah, exactly, well said. That's it for this episode of Beyond the Page.

Garry Schleifer: 30:07

That's it for this episode of Beyond the Page. For more episodes, subscribe via your favorite podcast app, probably the one that brought you here in the first place. If you're not a subscriber to choice Magazine, you can sign up for your free digital issue by scanning the QR code in the top right corner over there, I can never get it right because the images flip, or by going to choice- online yeah, I should just go there. No see, I still don't get it right or by going to choice- online. com and clicking the sign up now button. Terri, thank you so much again.

Terri Hase: 30:44

Thank you so much. I appreciate it always.

Garry Schleifer: 30:46

I'm Garry Schleifer. Enjoy the journey of mastery.