Category: Coaching

A few years ago, I began formal education and training to become a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach. After five years of benefitting from a leadership/executive coach with the same training and after multiple discussions with Jamie as well as a few close friends around the possibility of developing and refining this skill, I decided to invest in formal training. As part of my training and certification program, I was required to develop a roster of at least five paying clients, and so I figured I would formalize the process a bit by establishing a business. I talked to a few friends about how to go about doing something like this, and they counseled me through the steps. I also had the privilege of having nine clients sign on for my services as I was going through my own certification.

It has been an incredible learning process, with me learning everything from how to establish an LLC to what steps are necessary to open a business banking account. I chose the name Archegos after learning this Greek word from a friend. It means the chief leader, the author, one who takes the lead in anything, and thus affords an example, a pioneer. In the Bible, it is used to describe Jesus. As I thought about starting a coaching company to help others bring their very best into both work and life, it seemed appropriate to give it a name that incorporated my own love for writing and creating, my faith, and my own curiosity and desire to explore.

Over the last few years I have developed a solid roster of clients. These men and women come from a wide array of backgrounds. I’ve been privileged to coach individuals from the healthcare industry, as well as finance, technology, banking, and ministry and enable them to bring forth their very best to the world around them. I have been blessed so much by my clients, and as 2016 ended, they each took time to thank me for the transformative steps I helped them take in deepening learning and forwarding action in their lives. I’m so proud of all I witnessed them accomplish—from transitioning to a new job, to completing CPA and CFP accreditations, from addressing relationships with others to identifying and silencing their own inner critics, they have each taken incredible steps in leadership and life.

Currently, my client roster is full, but there may be an opening or two in the summer or fall of 2019. If you are interested in working with a formally credentialed coach, contact me now and we can see if it might make sense to work together toward your goals. If I am not available, or it doesn’t seem to make sense to work together, I can very likely point you to another coach or two that I trust as well.

Regardless, I’m excited for all of the learning that has come from launching this new means of serving others, and for all of the people who have believed in me, encouraged me, and spurred me onward to work to make a difference in this world. May we each develop and cultivate our gifts, skills, and talents for the good of others in this world of wonder.

After a series of trainings on the Co-Active Model, I decided to take the next step of formal certification to be a Co-Active Coach and help others to live more authentic and enriching lives. I launched into this process last summer, and as part of the process I had to acquire a roster of at paid clients. This led me to formally establish a business centered on coaching called Archegos. I’ll be sharing more about Archegos soon, don’t worry!

In the meantime, I wanted to share a reflection and some of the personal learning and growth I’ve experienced as I ventured through this process. The entire process ended with both written and oral exams, and so it wasn’t a given that if I just signed up that I would end with a certification credential.

As much as I had learned in the earlier trainings with Coaches Training Institute (CTI), this certification program showed me just how much more I had to learn, and illuminated the fact that I don’t have to have it ALL figured out because I’ll be learning my whole life. In addition, it showed me just how much progress can come from spending the time learning, being, and doing.

This certification process commenced a very busy time for me, and required much more from me than I had originally considered. The requirements of the program demanded 10-15 hours each week over a six-month period, and included readings, recordings, group instruction, personal supervision, and over one hundred hours of coaching with clients. By itself, the program was a tall order.

But that wasn’t all that was going on in my world. In addition to my normal ‘routine’ of fighting extreme poverty together with Jamie, I was also moving forward on a few other projects. I started a coaching business. I began a program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. I trained to run my fourth Marine Corps Marathon. I remained actively engaged in my faith community. I mourned the loss of one of my previous mentors from my own tribal community. I supported Jamie and her family as they mourned the loss of one of her uncles. I learned how to swim freestyle. And, most importantly I walked alongside Jamie as her pregnancy came full term and I became a dad!!!

It’s a bit ironic when I think about it all. Had I given myself time to think about all that was going to be happening at that time, I might not have taken on the certification process. And, the irony of that is this…by walking through certification, I was not only moving toward the completion of formal training and skill-building to become a Co-Active Coach, but I was also being equipped with the skills I needed to be fully ‘in the moment’ for each of these major events. Not only was I facilitating the growth of a full roster of diverse clients, but I was also able to tap into why everything I was doing was important, and prioritize and execute through a very full season.

The training and certification program that CTI has put together provided me far more than I anticipated, and even if I chose to never coach another individual again (highly unlikely), I experienced so much personal growth that it was fully worthwhile. The skills and resources I have acquired access to are now flowing into my work at Nuru, my relationships with others (including Sylvia), and my own spiritual growth and development. I feel more fully alive and attuned to the good that I can bring into this world, and I hope that others who complete the journey experience something similar. May we all be more deeply awakened to our giftings and may we offer them for the good of others in this beautiful world!

This training marked the completion of the intermediate training for myself, and for the individuals who had started this regimen with me.  It was a turning point and a graduation of sorts. We had been part of several deep-dive trainings to move into a new arena of self-awareness as well as a new arena of evoking transformation in others. It was a very special moment.

The weekend was a bringing together of all that we had been learning, and for me, it was filled with additional deeper awakening moments. I had recently completed the process of establishing Archegos, and had begun to plot out the path toward a new chapter in my life with this new array of tools to unleash the potential in others.

The two biggest moments for me were centered around a meal and a morning run. One of my fellow Co-Active coaches-in-training had discovered an amazing Italian restaurant near our training facility and had invited all of us to enjoy a meal together to celebrate the milestone we had achieved together. When we gathered together, she leaned over to me and asked me to give some remarks to mark this moment and help us all to acknowledge and celebrate. I was reticent to speak, and I really felt overcome with doubts that I had anything to offer—I was in a room filled with incredible human beings who were not only overcoming and moving forward in their own lives in rich ways, but also charting a path to help others do the same. I deflected the opportunity, and then my classmate told me it would really mean a lot to her personally if I would share. I thought the world of this lady, and in that moment I realized that my life is not about me, but about what I am able to do for others for whom I deeply care. This lady is an incredibly gifted leader, and she had given me a two-fold gift by inviting me to give remarks and by reminding me that my remarks were less about ‘drawing attention to myself’ and more about drawing attention to how I could best serve others in drawing attention to the significance of the moment. I pray I never forget that lesson.

The second lesson for me as we practiced bringing it all together occurred during a morning run through DC with Jamie. I started thinking about all that might be possible with this whole coaching endeavor. I started thinking about the life that I might possibly be inviting current (and potentially future) children into. I started thinking about just how much this training I had received might mean for the end of extreme poverty and the ground that might be taken in eradicating other social ills (human trafficking, slavery, etc.). I shared this vision with my colleagues, and as I shared, the possibilities became more real. I am excited for the possible vision God has given me for how I can be a sign, a foretaste, and an instrument of His Kingdom come and as well as a vision of a more beautiful world for all.

When I think about all that happened with this small community of determined and courageous leaders, my heart overflows with gratitude. I’m grateful for the journey together, and I’m grateful for the skills and talents each of us discovered in that journey. At the same time, I have an expectant excitement when I think about what each of us has the opportunity to unleash in others as we move forward on our journey as coaches helping others to move forward in the battlefields of their lives.

My continued formal training to become a leadership/executive coach with the Co-Active Model brought me back to DC for this next stage of my development. It was a mini-reunion with many of the amazing people I had started this journey with, and an introduction to some new wonderful people who were on a similar journey. So much had changed in my life since the last time I had seen this group—a group that, although we were strangers a few weeks before, seemed like a community of life-long friends that were just enjoying a few days of deep and meaningful conversations, like all life-long friends do when they are able to spend time together.

I came into this training with the knowledge that I was going to be a father, and with a recent trip to visit Nuru’s growing work in developing servant leaders in Ethiopia. I had also visited Muir Woods during a recent visit to northern California and my mind was literally swirling with all of these experiences. During the weekend of training, I also slipped out for an early morning workout in the rain on Theodore Roosevelt Island. That morning workout with Teddy looking down at me helped ground me for making space for what was to come as well.

During the course of this particular weekend, another of the dear friends I had made along this journey helped me to (re)discover the joy of the present moment. I had been on the go so much, that as much as I like to think I take time to enjoy the moments as they are happening, I was not as fully present to all of the experiences that were before me because I was so focused on what was next.

How many moments have each of us missed out on because we were not “fully there” or in some form disengaged? How many times in our life have we stuffed away our emotions to move on to the next thing? What would happen if we allowed ourselves, and one-another to have the permission to engage with what was happening in the moment? I believe that a number of problems we see and experience might become less significant.

Since the time of my training, I have been incredibly grateful for the skills to not only be aware of the present for myself, but also witness the unleashing that has happened for several of my clients along the way. After completing this training, each of us students were given the opportunity (if we wanted) to register for a formal certification program with Coaches Training Institute (CTI) to become a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach. The program is accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF), which is the governing accreditation body for professional coaches. As a preliminary preparation for my certification, I set up my first business, and began preparation for coaching individuals in a wide-array of career disciplines.

The second phase of my training as a Co-Active Coach commenced with a series of exercises and practices centered around fulfillment. This regimen had a mix of familiar faces along with new coaches in training who were joining in the journey. There was something really special about the group of people I was able to launch into this training with, and I was so glad to see so many of them continuing the journey and learning together.

One of the things that struck me about this group was that there were many people who had come from much longer distances to be part of this training. And, once again, the people participating in this training were coming from some top-notch roles in pretty well-known companies. I have really been impressed by the caliber and quality of leaders who have been participants in this program.

Out of this particular training, I became more deeply aware of my own unique life-purpose and the values that drive me toward achieving that purpose. Not only that, I became more aware of the resources available to me to see me (and others) through to living out the most authentic life I (and they) can possibly live.

What could be more rewarding, fulfilling, and empowering than to know what we are uniquely made for, and how we can move toward a more faithful living out of our unique calling as well as bringing a greater authenticity into all of our relationships. This training has left me wonderfully encouraged and deeply engaged to the things that matter most to me, and excited about helping others connect with those things that matter most to them as well.

May we all live faithful to the unique and diverse callings that have been given to each of us for the good of the world.