
Competency No. 5
Around 4% of the 55,000 + coaches certified with the International Coaching Federation hold the revered status of Master Certified Coach. Why so few? I'm about to find out. Competency No. 5, the podcast, explores how we maintain presence when we coach, lead, and live our lives. We interview coaches and others whose very livelihood depends upon staying calm and present with those they serve. We also chronicle my attempts (as a self-retired professor and global business reporter from New Zealand) to become an MCC coach. This effort requires beaucoup coaching hours, mentoring, and adhering strictly to the ICF's seven core competencies, especially the deceptively tricky Competency No. 5, maintaining presence.
Competency No. 5
One day at a time. Nick McCullough on retirement, Mississippi, and his land
About 900,000 Americans retired in the first five months of 2024, part of a “silver tsunami” of those reaching retirement age. My father-in-law Nick McCullough is one who retired a few years back, and in beautiful ways returning to the land just outside of Ruth Mississippi where he grew up. The cotton farm of his youth is now his retirement land where he lives with his Cajun wife, Crystall, my American Mum. After years of running his own auto repair workshop outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, he’s done with work, for now.
In our touching interview, Nick (who’s hard of hearing, hence me booming my voice just a wee bit) reflects on his farm labor as a boy which started at six a.m. and ended at twilight. He believes growing up rural taught him how to work hard and how to think big. The very openness of the land brings peace, calm, tranquility—and a feeling that anything’s possible. And it is.
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