Community is Opportunity with Lara Langman

Hello, my name is Tracy Sinclair. Welcome to Coaching and Conversation. Coaching in Conversation is a chance to discuss and explore, not just how we can keep developing. And ensuring as coach practitioners, but also to consider how coaching is evolving and its future potential and place as a powerful vehicle for human development in today's and tomorrow's world. I'll be sharing some of my own thoughts on these topics. And we will also hear from some great guests from around the world who bring their unique experience and perspectives. Hello everyone. My name is Tracy Sinclair, and welcome to another episode of Coaching in Conversation. This time I am joined by Lara Langman, who is a wonderful coach and even more wonderful is that she is a colleague of mine at Coach Advancement Lara, initially trained to be a lawyer, and she has told me on several occasions that she very quickly decided that law wasn't for her, and she moved into project management. Particularly within the context of leadership development and leadership consultancy, which is where I met her in 2012, I think. And Lara and I have known each other therefore for quite a long time, and she has been working with me at Coach Advancement pretty much since. It's beginning and she has taken on various roles initially supporting me as she still does with some of the operational side of of the organization, but she, through that work, was inspired to become a coach herself, and I know it's now a huge passion for her and she has secured. Her associate certified coach credential and her professional certified coach credential. And Lara also handles within Coach Advancement two key areas, which is around our alumni community and supporting them, and also our Coaching with Conscience initiative, which is what we want to share a little bit with you today and talk about. And we hope that from this conversation you will get some ideas, learn a little bit about who we are and what we do, and maybe even be inspired to come and join us. Who knows? But also more importantly for you to think about what does community mean for you, and what else might you do to make that positive step, that little ripple into society to support community in today's world. So I hope you enjoy this episode, and this one is called Community Is Opportunity. Hello Lara. Hello Tracy. It's lovely to have an opportunity to have this kind of conversation with you today. I know that we. Converse very regularly in the work that we do together. And I'm delighted to have this opportunity as well. And the topic that we are going to talk about is community. And I'd love to just position a little bit why I've asked you to have this conversation with me if you, if you would. I guess we all think that community is important. There's some things that I'm noticing, think you notice, and probably the world is noticing that is leading us to perhaps realize more and more how significant a sense of community is. And just to, to put a sort of, a bit of a leveler on, on all of that. And I'm conscious maybe some of the information I'm about to share might not be the most positive information, but it's real. I've just come back from a, an amazing networking event which I was very lucky to be invited to. And a gentleman there, Dr. Jim Kim, who used to be the leader of the World Bank and is now a prominent figure in global healthcare. Opened his keynote session just a few days ago saying that, The pandemic that we now have in our world is loneliness and that the antidote to loneliness is connection and community. Mm, absolutely. Which already says enough when you add to that, the fact that many people are still working in perhaps somewhat isolated ways in our world and. When you notice that some sectors of our society feel marginalized or isolated, don't always feel part of a community. And when you notice that we have some horribly frightening statistics around suicide and mental health, particularly in young people and children, mm-hmm. This seems to be quite a big deal. It is. So before we go into talking about what we're doing around all of that at Coach Advancement, what strikes you about that, Lara, in terms of what community means for you? Hmm. Well, thank you Tracy. I, I just find it such a lovely introduction despite the, the statistics, but just Bringing them to the surface, the importance of community in line with the statistics you've just shared. Community for me is really an opportunity for us to, to be together and to support one another. I guess the word that comes to my mind really when we think of community, it's support. It is being there for one another. I think another word that comes to my mind with community, it's also the opportunity to give of oneself to the other, to be generous with the other to love the human being. Well, some amazing words that you've just shared there. I mean, but just to pick on the last one, to love. Hmm. To just quote another person from this event that I've just been with, I've been to other Alan Mulally, who was the retired c e o of Ford and of Boeing. Mm-hmm. And he said, shared that one of his mantras for his leadership philosophy is that the most important thing in the purpose of life is to love and be loved. And in that order. Yeah. So it's quite interesting, isn't it, how, how love comes up there and how other words that you used around support and caring and comfort for each other. Yeah, absolutely. And building on, on love. One of the things that I, I've been reading in, in a book that I'm really enjoying, which is Switch on your Brain. They were just saying in the whole neuroscience dimension that we were actually wired for love. Our brains are wired. Our whole being is wired for love. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. So it's interesting, isn't it? How, I don't know, maybe this is just me, but it feels as though in our, in our current 21st century exer experience or existence as human beings, we seem to almost have minimized the concept of love to being, being love for your partner or love for your family, or love for your friends. And yet actually, it's not necessarily that kind of love, is it? There's a love. Goes beyond your personal intimate relationships that goes into groups, societies, communities that you, that you live in, that feels in a way as though that's a, a quality that we could do is dialing up a little bit. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I, and I guess we, maybe we come with a belief or the concept that love, like you say, is more restrained to the private sector. Coming back to community, community is not just within the small household, it's with a broader world. So we kind of need to expand that opportunity to love just, you know, outside of our, of our borders. So going across the borders of the family or, you know, private relationships. Yeah. The other word that's coming out then for me that you mentioned a couple of minutes ago associated with community, was you used the word opportunity, which I think is a perfect counterbalance to some of the more, you know, negative let's say, or alarming statistics or information that I shared at the beginning. Within any risk or crisis or difficult situation, there's always an opportunity as well, isn't there? If we look for it, and what I'm picking up already here as as a theme for our conversation, is that there is opportunity within community. Absolutely. That's quite a nice ring to it, doesn't it? It rhymes. Absolutely. We are, we are poets. So without realizing it, of course. So let's, let's talk a little bit then about what community means for us at Coach Advancement. And I, I, I'd love to maybe kick that off by, by sharing that at Coach Advancement we have what I call at least a win-win win model. Mm-hmm. And the win-win win is, Coach Advancement wins, our alumni wins, and community and society wins. So I, I'll speak a little bit about how Coach Advancement wins and we can talk as well about the other two. So how does Coach Advancement win in our model is I think that we win when we can engage with a community of. Global professionals, which is something that has always been characteristic, hasn't it? Of the, of our programs and the work that we do, particularly because we are a virtual organization. We have the absolute fortune of having people joining us from literally all over the world. Yeah, absolutely. I can recall several cohorts where people's sense of community and belonging. Has meant that some students have got up at 4:00 AM to join us, and

00 PM to join us on the same cohort and many time zones in between. Mm-hmm. So there's something there about, we win. Because we get the luck of the draw to work with so many different people who come together outside of their time zones, outside of their own home environment, to join an international community to learn and discuss and study something as amazing as coaching. Mm-hmm. And that's always been I've always felt really lucky and privileged to be able to work that way, especially given that we work with. I tend to work typically by design with smaller groups because our task or our mission is not to just turn out hundreds and hundreds of coaches, or to develop hundreds and hundreds of coaches. It's to work with people so they can be the very best coaches they can be. So we like to work with small communities, mm-hmm. In our work so that the safety and the intimacy and the sense of community and belonging can be. Mm-hmm. Really strong. So that's my skin in the game, if you like. That's what I love about that. And then we have this model, don't we, where something else happens as a result of that, or at least that's what we're nurturing for something else to happen. So you, in terms of coach advancement Support us by managing our alumni community and our Coaching with Conscience Initiative, which is a community based initiative or, or, or offering. So tell us a little bit about that and how this win-win win starts to come together. Wow. Where to start? Well, we've got a, a beautiful, beautiful community of people. I have to say, being on the side of managing this, I personally love the connection that I, I get from, you know, from interacting with all these wonderful coaches. And you said, just to catch on what you were saying as well, that it's, you know, We have little groups, intimate groups, but at the same time, it just feels like we're so rich of diversity as well. So rich of having the whole almost world in that small little group and creating that community. And here with the Coach Advancement alumni community, we're, we're just able to, to nurture that. And we feel that richness of connection through the different benefits that they have through the community. And we see that the, the feedback that we get is that people are learning from each other. They're, they're getting that support through the, through the benefit, through connecting. They, they, what we, we have one of these wonderful activities that we run, which is the, the book club. And it's just lovely to hear what people are, are feeding back through that connection, through learning together. So even if, you know, we've learned all the coaching, we continue. To learn through that community and grow as a community, but as a person as well. So that's that's one thing. And then going back to the coaching with conscience it has been a wonderful opportunity using the word opportunity to. Share the, the, the joy of coaching with the wider world. So having our alumni community share their gifts, their skills of coaching with the broader community through the coaching of conscience. So thank you for that. And it's it, every time I hear you talk about this, I even get more and more inspired to. To keep nurturing this idea here and, and maybe then to, to join up some of those dots around how all of this comes together is with our alumni community. I'm thinking, you know, why did we create that? So if I ask myself that question, it's because one of the things I've noticed over many years of working in coaching, when people finish their training, They can feel as though they've suddenly almost just fallen off a cliff. You know, the coaching, the, the coaching training journey, the education journey can be so inspiring, so uplifting, so life changing in a way, and then all of a sudden it stops. And some people can feel really quite jarred by that. And. Not everyone, but, but some people can find themselves thinking, well what do I do now? And there's a sense of gap and uncertainty. And we also know that, that some coaches struggle to make that transition then into building, starting to build a coaching practice. And so a sense of community can be very helpful, can't it? Because you are not alone. There is a continuous thread that helps you. Having completed the milestone of your coaching, there is a community, a broader community waiting for you to pull you in and support you with some of the things that, that, that, you know, we, we offer around the book club or coaching circles, coaching clinics you know, all of the other, the range of things that we, we are engaging with that community on. Yeah. So there's a win. That's the idea of that second win, isn't it? They win because they don't just have their training with us. They have access then pretty much if they want it to a lifelong growing diverse community. And then the coaching with conscience. Maybe it's, maybe it's worth us talking about how coaching with conscience started actually. So coaching with conscience. I'll kick us off and please then add in. Lara Coaching with Conscience was born in 2020. As a result or in response to the pandemic, wasn't it? When many coaches and it's always wonderful that the coaching community is very quick to step up and help when, when things in in the world happen. It's one of the things that I feel always deeply in awe of around our profession. Anyway, one of the things that we did was we started to offer pro bono coaching services to some of the frontline key workers, didn't we? In, in society as I know many other coaches and coaching organizations did. And as a result of that, the impact that it had, how well it was received, the difference it seemed to make, we decided to carry it on, didn't we? We thought, well, why stop? The pandemic might be over, but. Maybe people's desire and appetite for this is not over. So Coaching with Conscience came outta that as a way of making coaching accessible to charities or non-for-profits or organizations that perhaps wouldn't normally have access to the kind of, I guess, corporate fees for coaching. So they win. Coming back to the alumni community, there's a double win for them too, because they are the coaches providing that service. So there's a cycle going on here. Yeah, we, we engage with coaches, train and develop them. They then go into our community and enjoy hopefully the benefits of being in that community. But they also then make a pay it forward contribution into society through our coaching with conscience packages. So tell us a little bit, Lara, about some of the things that you've heard our coaches say around the coaching with conscience initiatives.'cause you are the one that handles and coordinates all of that, aren't you? What do our coaches get out of that, those opportunities do you think? I think there's many good things that I've, I've heard. That I, that, that comes to my mind is, it's purposeful. So there's a, a sense of really. Having a purpose in serving the other, serving these charities as well through the coaching with conscience. So that's, that was when reading the testimonials and the feedback that was, I found, I found such a beautiful word, just a sense of purpose. And if we call 'em back to the love, there's, I think there's that really, that emotion of really loving the other, through this service, through this opportunity to coach. Mm-hmm. It's also, it's been the an opportunity for them to, to do something different and just kind of explore different way of, of coaching people a different setting. And just again, finding the value. It was also the human connection of being there for people in a time. Of obvious need. So despite, despite it having been, and I'm going back to 2020 because that's when we started, that's when we really felt that huge ripple effect on the people who benefited from the coaching with conscious, but also on our coaches. So we're talking about the win-win as well, winning by giving. You know, our, our of ourself, giving of our time, giving of our skills, and then obviously the, the, the people in the charity gaining by having time to reflect in a safe space to express everything that was going on, to explore what had to be explored. So those are the things that I, I, I've heard and I, it's. Being positive. It's just been a wonderful human experience. And I think an example of, of love in action. Love in action. That's really nice. Yeah. That's really nice. Yeah. And even though we are now, hopefully, and thankfully post pandemic, Continues. So what do you see as the ongoing need or opportunity here? The ongoing opportunity. Is to continue offering coaching, as you said, to maybe, you know, people who wouldn't necessarily think of taking it on, or would be the first people who would think of offering it to. It's really an opportunity to offer you know, top standard wonderful coaching to people who would benefit from it as well. I. With coaching, with conscience, there's so many wonderful charities out there. It's an opportunity to support. Every person at every level and just being actually living the full potential. Because at the end of the day, the coaching is, that's what we're trying to do. Bring out that full potential of people. So if I have to dream, I can just see all our coaches having that ripple effect on all these people and the people within the charities also having that ripple effect on the people they are serving. Yeah. So that's, yeah, that's the opportunity. I'm definitely seeing. And you used the term there, the ripple effect, which for me is at the core of this. Yeah. You know, when it comes to community or to society so often the challenges that we face can feel so enormous. One can think, well, what difference can I make? Yeah. And yet this for me is an example of where it makes a huge difference because every conversation creates a ripple, doesn't it? Absolutely. Absolutely and every, if, if everyone was to say, what difference can I make and nobody did anything. Mm-hmm. Know what, we know, what that outcome would be, wouldn't it? It's actually the, the incrementalism, I guess. The incrementalism of ripple by ripple, by ripple conversation, by conversation, by conversation. That collectively starts to make a bigger ripple that turns into a wave. Absolutely. That, that will make that difference. So, so it's lovely to hear, and I've heard it too, how the coaches love this work. And of course it's very useful because it can offer. Back to the win, win win, it offers those coaches meaningful work with purpose, as you said, and also meaningful work that they can log towards their own development. So even though we, even, I guess this is a lovely example of even, even if no money exchanges hands, so we know that sometimes some fees do exchange hands because there is. Some, sometimes a minimal cost associated with these packages, but they're still very low fee. But even if no money changes hands, there is still a reciprocal benefit that's that's happening very, very noticeably. Yeah, absolutely. And just going back to, to the work that we have done with with the charities, it's. It's, again, it's a, it's, we're talking about exchange, but it's, it's giving, isn't it, giving and receiving. There's a constant giving and receiving. Through those conversations the, the, the coaches get an opportunity to, to learn also from their, the, the coachees, because we're constantly in that learning posture as well, and the client gets to grow, so, yeah. Yeah. So if we. Maybe pull this together a little bit. This is, this is what we are doing at the moment. You know, I've got big vision and plans for all of this, but what, what do you think about what, what could, what else could we do around this model to really make a huge difference? Where could in, in your wildest of dreams, where could this go? In my wildest dreams, I could see every charity asking for the Coaching for Conscience package and just influencing having that beautiful impact throughout all the charities who decide to take on this gift. That's, you know, you talk, we're talking about wildest dreams, you know, as Martin Luther King, you know, I have a dream. Yes, I have a dream that everyone would have a coach that everyone would take on coaching. And, and al it's also about giving yourself that gift of coaching so that you have someone you can work with, grow with, reflect with. And then on, you know, as you kind of, you know, go on with, with, with outside of the coaching conversation, you go out into the world and you, you give your best. You give your best. That's the ripple effect because you've been in a posture where you've been able to reflect and grow and given the opportunity to be your best version. So that's the dream. Everybody has a coach. Everybody does what they're supposed to do post coaching session. They work on their actions, and the world is a better place. Yeah, conversation by conversation step by step. Yeah, absolutely. And what you described, I guess there, Lara completely dovetails into the ICFs vision, which is that coaching is an integral part of a thriving society. And, and the key word there is integral, isn't it? That it's not, it's not for the few, it's for the many. Absolutely. Absolutely. And. It's almost going, coming away from that concept of coaching is a luxury. It is a luxury, and at the same time, it shouldn't be a luxury. It's, it's almost a luxury. Everyone should benefit of everyone should taste. Because I think once we do taste to coaching, we realize the impact it has for us to grow and just, yeah, give our best self to this world. Absolutely. And it's It is interesting when you say about everyone, you know, having access to this, and I know in the past I've been doing quite a lot of work on coaching and education, which I'm now delighted to see is becoming so much more mainstream. Maybe mainstream's a little bit. Too optimistic at the moment. It's not quite mainstream perhaps, but, but getting, you know, getting real momentum. Mm-hmm. I, I, I'm seeing some work by some great people and great organizations bringing coaching into educational leadership, but also into pupils as, as well. And I know some of the work I've been involved in, Is also teaching parents coaching skills. Mm-hmm. And teaching students coaching skills to coach younger students. Mm-hmm. And just some amazing, wonderful work. And another element that's linked to the coaching with conscience offering of course, is something else that I'm involved in with Susan Room. Which is coached us, which I must mention here because that's a really significant part of that as well, which is a development package offering for 18 to 25 year olds. Yes. And it's wonderful to see and it reinforces mine and Susan's belief around the fact that. We can develop and we need to develop leaders before they reach the age of 45 and start getting some gray hairs. You know, leadership development seems to be coming very behind the curve and too late almost. Given that we know that leadership is coming to people much more much at a much younger age. Also we lead in other ways in life, don't we? Not just in a corporate setting. Mm-hmm. So Coached Does is, is a wonderful initiative, which I'm very excited about offering coaching and coach training to young people. For me, I think there's an enormous opportunity, again in developing the younger coach community so that young people can be coached by other young people. Yeah. And, and, and really bring coaching into a huge part of society that where it's still is, is less, is less present. Another, another opportunity within community. Yes, absolutely. And you're like, through this offering, you're, you're inviting people to discover the, the, the beauty of, of self-awareness. I have to say, if I had been offered coaching between 18 and 25, I, I'd like to think that one life would've been easier, but I would've been, I would've been able to be myself much sooner. And embrace that. Be happy with who I am, be happy with being able to gift the world with my personality. And I think people would benefit from that. Yeah. And, and I say that because in a lot of, sometimes of the con coaching conversations I've had as well is that desire, that almost that fight, how do I accept myself? How can I be myself in the workplace? So coaching is such, again, it's, it's, it's a tool that can help us embrace that, explore that. Mm-hmm. Gosh, I'm really struck by what you just said there, that coaching would've helped you be yourself sooner. Mm-hmm. And that's very powerful, isn't it? How many of us and, you know, young, young people in the world, Need to find ourselves. And, and, and that can take years, can't it? Like you say, to find your place in communities, whether it's a working community. Absolutely. And coaching absolutely can with through the self-awareness and the confidence, we know that. Yep. A lovely byproduct of coaching is typically an uplifting confidence in some way. Absolutely. Else what a, what a great reason to, to have coaching to find yourself. I mean, what could be more important than that? Absolutely. Absolutely. A lot of better, sorry. Yeah, absolutely would avoid a lot of frustration in going around in circles too long. So, yeah. So yes, coaching has we could rave about coaching for hours, but these are, you know, I think we're just discussing some beautiful ways that we can impact our community through coaching. Well, I guess in us talking together, we are preaching to the converted, as they might say, because we're both, we're both umspeaking from the same hymn sheet to use another metaphor. Absolutely. Yeah. Maybe some of our listeners will take some ideas or some inspiration here on what kind of. Contribution or action could be made to just put a positive, drop, a ripple into a community that, that they're linked in. I certainly hope so. So, yeah. Thank you so much, Lara, for, for taking the time to talk about our work and how we're going to, coming about doing this. And yeah, onwards and upwards as they say. Let's try and do more if we can. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Tracy. It's been lovely to converse together and just to talk about coaching together. And I guess the last thing I would add is just, you know, whoever's listening, be brave. Be brave. Just, you know, share, you know, just throw that little pebble in the water and let the ripple effect take its effect. If it's just, you know, speaking to one person about coaching, that's already a great start. There we go. That's a great start. A wonderful call to action. Lara. Yes. Sounds good. Thank you so much, Tracy. Thank you, Lara. You have been listening to Coaching in Conversation by Tracy Sinclair, a podcast aimed at exploring how coaching is a vehicle for human development in today's and tomorrow's world. You can learn more about coach training and development at tracysinclair.com and follow us on social media. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a rating and review and also share it with your networks to help us expand our reach. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next time.