Coaching

Coaching has been around for a long time in sports.  I grew up with a very negative image of coaches probably due to my youth football coach who treated us like marine recruits.  So don't think of coaching today as one who is towering over another screaming at them on how to be a better leader!  It is quite the opposite.

Coaches today are people who have received specialized training to engage leaders one on one in order to help them discover for themselves the direction of their professional and personal lives.  It's a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.  Throughout her journey to find her way home to Kansas she had the power all along.  But she needed the help of others to enable her to know it.

 

Last week the Alaska UM clergy and deaconess gathered at Anchor Park for our annual retreat.  Mary Huycke and Lee Hayward were our leaders to introduce us to the basic principles of coaching.

Our Leadership Team approved major funding not only to provide coaches for our leaders but also to provide learning opportunities both in person and online so that we can be prepared to lead our conference in reaching our mission to transform the world through discipleship in Christ.  I am seriously exploring becoming trained as a coach. 

This is a clip of our clergy practicing coaching with one another.

Grace Always,
Dave