Project Roadmap
Purpose of coach training: For women at Mama to become more entrepreneurial (those that receive training will then coach other women in their organization)
Funds Collection:
Started April 2022 (continuous ongoing process)
Preparation Work:
Situational analysis was conducted to evaluate the scope of the project given that the organization involves various roles in which women need support to be more entrepreneurial, that there are cultural specificities that knowledge brought from our more westernized ways of doing coaching need to be accounted for, and that women have different levels of education and the coach training needs to be specifically designed to ensure women can receive the training in a way that fits them in the moment (three-pronged approach: women on the ground, middle management at Mama, and top leadership at Mama)
Announcing the pilot project for January 2023:
End of 2022, we reached a milestone, that of receiving just enough donations to kick start the pilot project in January 2023. That pilot funded a five-day basic coach training of 40 hours and covered the expenses we incurred for a) preparing a unique training program that integrated culturally important aspects to make it effective, b) costs of accommodation and full board for 29 women in Nairobi, c) costs of software and all the material necessary to set up the website and manage the donation process from Austria, d) purchase of necessary training material and print costs on site, e) and the costs of administering and managing the attendance of 29 women by a paid recruiter in Nairobi.
Pilot Project:
5-Day Basic Coach Training in January 2023
Delivered to a group of 12 women
Duration: 1 year
The pilot project involved two Kenyan women and myself in entering into a non-for-profit collaboration to be introduced into the Kenyan culture and to get a sense of what it takes to deliver a coach training to the women in Kenya. We evaluated the pilot and set up a follow-up approach to be rolled out per early 2024.
Just got back from Kenya!
The Documentary receives ICF CCEUs:
In February 2023, ICF (The International Coaching Federation) recognized the documentary as valuable learning material for coaches awarding it 10 CCEUs (Continuous Coach Education Units). Coaches who are members of ICF can use these units towards their further development and accreditation.
Start of Podcast Series:
Guests who come on the show will have watched 6 hours of coach learning material. With being a guest on this episode series, each donor takes an additional step: share their learning and insights from the documentary to inspire further curiosity about our practice. Why would you want to miss that?
Guests are all donors and sponsors to the coaching documentary about the light and shadow of coaching. They all believe in funding coach training for women in Kenya. They are all committed to create social impact through their donations and they believe that the true power of coaching lies in generating ripple effects of coaching beyond individual change, growth and development.
The Documentary receives the Ellen Shub Coaching for Social Good Award Honorable Mention
End of April 2023, the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate, recognized the documentary as an extraordinary contribution to doing social good through coaching. The ceremony was held at their annual conference on 27-29 April, 2023. The award honours Ellen Shub at Institute of Coaching, whose mission was to demonstrate the value of social good in anything including her widely published photojournalism.
Roll-Out of Three-Pronged Approach Starting 2024:
Following the successful implementation of the pilot project in January 2023, the goal is to beef up the funds during 2023 to ensure we can roll out a fully-fledged ICF accredited coach training for women in Kenya starting from 2024. Within that process, the idea is to involve qualified coaches and remunerate them decently. We believe that is important as democratizing coaching should not come at the expense of coaches' earning a decent fee.
Publication: Where there is light there is shadow. Coaching Perspectives 42, pp. 40 - 42.
We're exploring some striking shadow sides of - in-person and virtual - coaching in my article for Coaching Perspectives – Association for Coaching (AC)'s International Magazine overseen by James Bridgeman Clare Manning and Stephanie Lucas.
🏁 In a recent survey of 100 mid-sized organizations, we discovered some eye-opening insights about virtual 1:1 coaching:
- 87% of coachees disengaged from coaching early on
- 2 out of 3 coachees requested to be rematched on virtual platforms
🎤 Additionally, in a survey of 100 coaches on virtual platforms, 91% reported perceiving no difference in their coaching presence compared to in-person sessions. Surprisingly, a survey by CoachHub - The digital coaching platform revealed a remarkable 522% return-on-investment through virtual coaching for organizations.
🔔 These findings raise thought-provoking questions:
1. What are coaches committing to when embracing virtual coaching?
2. How does our acceptance of virtual platforms impact coachees and the coaching profession?
3. What biases may influence coaches to overlook distinctions between virtual and in-person coaching?
Ever thought
❓ Which competences do you perceive as different in virtual coaching?
❓ How do you make sense of the survey results as per my article?
Erdös, T. (2024). Where there is light there is shadow. Coaching Perspectives 42, pp. 40 – 42.
