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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
"There's much noise around sleep, and when sleep improves, life improves." Clear advice on better sleep from Louise Berger
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We sit down with Louise Berger, a British occupational therapist specializing in sleep, to hear about the deep work she's doing for the UK's National Health Service on a large sleep study for sleep deprived Brits. (She's the founder and lead of the NHS Insomnia Clinic and a sleep coach with BetterUp.)
Given that maintaining presence and staying calm amidst mayhem, ambiguity, and life's stresses becomes so much easier when we get good sleep, I knew Louise would help us rewire how we think about sleep deprivation, which happens to me often.
We learn that sleep's more evasive when we command it and when we apply perfectionistic standards. Also, that we can take comfort in remembering our ancestors survived on minimal sleep, and in way harsher conditions than our own. And we learn the power of making time each day for, well, doing absolutely nothing. Apparently allowing our minds to wander and ruminate in the day time makes us do so less at night.
You can find Louise Berger on LinkedIn here. And a video she created to help the millions of people in the world who have sleep difficulties, but who never get referred to a clinic nor can afford private help.
Your show host, Debbi Gardiner McCullough, is a Master Certified Coach and communications coach for Fortune 100/500 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Book her for coaching, training or ICF mentoring here. Join her active listening and communications workshops on Maven here and here.
