How Can the PCA Better Serve You?
A Pittsburgh Coaches Association Strategy Meeting

Wednesday, July 8, 2009
9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Networking
9:30 - 1:00 p.m. Program and Lunch

Panera Bread
Waterworks Mall (Fox Chapel)
Pittsburgh, PA 15238

There is no charge for this meeting (lunch is at your own expense), and it is open to all members and guests. Please join us for an update on current programs and to bring new ideas!

To register just send an e-mail to Roberta@Pittsburghcoaches.com

The Pittsburgh Coaches Association Monthly Meetings typically take a break over the summer months, but this year it was decided to have a strategy session to talk about the programs that the PCA currently has in place, and also to talk with members and guests about how the PCA can best serve its membership, guests, clients and the community.

Please join us for a fun, informal and free meeting. For guests, you are welcome to join us and will have an opportunity to meet members of the Pittsburgh Coaches Association.

The meeting will be facilitated by Donna Billings, PCC using Open Space Technology. Learn a unique, flexible and effective process that quickly brings diverse people to unifying results.

What is Open Space Technology?
Since 1986, Open Space Technology (OST) has been used throughout the world to enable groups of four to more than 2,000 people to address complex issues and achieve meaningful results in record time. This unique approach to group dynamics and democratic interaction is most effective in complex and conflict ridden settings where more traditional formats fail. OST has been used in such diverse situations as designing large aircraft doors, resolving community conflict and defining a sustainable inner city jobs program. But OST is more than just a meeting methodology - it is also a philosophy and life practice. Get a taste of what we mean by joining us as we simultaneously use, and experience, OST to address an issue or topic chosen by attendees. Expect this meeting to provide a new definition of interactivity - but don't come if you're not willing to participate and contribute.

About the Facilitator, Donna Billings,
Founder of Reach the Top and 2007 President of the Pittsburgh Coaches Association, Donna is a professional certified coach, an educator, a professional lecturer on leadership training, a consultant on organizational development and human resource management. She works with key leaders, professionals in transition, and individuals who have been successful in their life's work and now want satisfaction in their lives. Trained by Marshall Goldsmith and certified in relationship systems and team coaching, she has also participated in Open Space dialogue around executive coaching, facilitated by Henry Owen, founder of the Open Space Technology.

Note the different time and place for our July meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!

In addition to coaching and speaking, members of the Pittsburgh Coaches Association conduct workshops and seminars and for several years have also conducted teleclasses on a regular basis. These teleclasses are now held monthly, and are an opportunity for Pittsburgh coaches to share some of their coaching knowledge and experience with participants, as well as their passion for helping others to move forward and reach new levels.

Teleclass topics range from sales and marketing to creating space, leadership, and finding your dreams, and can help people to make important changes and take steps to reach their potential.

Judy's coaching has centered on academia and healthcare settings. In academia her focus is on junior faculty, doctoral students and department chairs. She coaches junior faculty towards the goals of promotion and tenure, centered on focus, planning and scholarly activities, especially related to research. She coaches doctoral students who are having difficulty progressing in the dissertation process. She has just begun a focus partnering with Susan M. English, OSB, EdD, CPCC, and Susan M. English, OSB, EdD, CPCC, on leadership coaching for academic department chairs and Deans.

Another aspect of Judy's coaching is promotion of the use of evidence as a basis for decision making for clinicians, administrators, and educators. The Evidence-Based Decision Making extends beyond healthcare with administrators and educators across all disciplines. She was invited to be a member of the Evidence-Based Management Collaboration formed and sponsored by the Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business and the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, Pittsburgh, PA. This international group is promoting the use of evidence in the teaching of management and the decisions made by managers.

Judy earned her PhD in Nursing/Research from Duquesne University. She has held several research positions, which include directing a collaborative research center, managing grant funding for a non-profit, and coordinating evidence-based research for a health system. In all these positions her approach has been coaching in developing her employees and her clients. She is currently a tenured Professor at Slippery Rock University and the Chair of the Nursing Department.

Judy can be reached at j.depalma2@verizon.net and (412) 498-5417.

The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our life.?

THOUGHTS

Think of three people in your life with whom you'd like to improve your relationship. Now ask yourself honestly, "How do I cause trouble for (each of them)?" That was the question we started with in a course I took recently from The Arbinger Institute. And to me it was a shocking question! I had thought a lot about how each of them troubled me, but very little about how I troubled them. Thinking seriously about this was an eye-opener. I could actually imagine how my judgments and sense of superiority probably felt.

The Arbinger model maintains that it's our "way of being" with people that determines the quality of the relationship. "Way of being" is deeper than behavior. Here's what that means. If we are angry with someone but act sweet, they are not fooled. If someone is indifferent to us but feigns interest, we feel their disinterest.

The recommendation is that we see people - all people - as people instead of objects. This includes people we love, people we don't care for, and people we meet casually, like clerks or flight attendants.

The Arbinger model suggests that the three most common ways we treat people like objects are to see them as:

1. Obstacles
2. Vehicles
3. Irrelevancies

1. Do you generally see people as objects or as people?
2. Name three people with whom you'd like to improve your relationship
3. How are you trouble to each of these people?
4. Do you see any of these people as objects? Obstacles, vehicles, irrelevancies?
5. What do you see if you look carefully at each of them as a person? What are their hopes and dreams? Their burdens?
6. What would it mean to have a "heart of peace" toward each of these people?
7. What would it mean to have a "heart of peace" toward yourself?

We invite experienced coaches, as well as those new to the profession, to join the Pittsburgh Coaches Association (PCA). This is an exciting time to be a member! We are a 501(c)6 professional organization, and an International Coach Federation (ICF) chapter.

Additional benefits for member coaches include networking opportunities with other professional coaches, a profile on PCA's 'Find a Coach' website directory, discounts for monthly luncheon meetings featuring interesting and relevant speakers, a forum to offer teleclasses on coaching-related topics of your choice, and special events to raise the profile of coaching within the community. There are many more benefits; please don't hesitate to become a part of one of Pittsburgh's best professional associations.

You can now register to become a member online at www.pittsburghcoaches.org. Join today.

We would love to hear from you! Just hit Reply to this newsletter with your ideas and feedback. Suggestions are very welcome, don't hesitate.

Not a Coach? Now you can join PCA as an Associate! We invite all professionals in the Pittsburgh area to join us. Are you interested in meeting coaches, supporting coaches but are not a coach? Join us now as an Associate Member of the Pittsburgh Coaches Association.