Simplifying Mastery in Coaching

Wed May 24th, I am honoured to be a panelist in Coacharya's 'Masters in Coaching' series.  This panel discussion is ideal for aspiring and experienced coaches, mentors and super-visors. 

It will also appeal to any professional, committed to professional mastery in your professional domain.  Panelists are Master Certified Coaches (ICF-MCC) from 4 continents (North America, Europe, Africa and Asia), with a mix of professional backgrounds, such as accountancy (John Serrao), law (Vijayalakshmi S), TV Host (Allison Task), ICF-MCC Coach, Mentor and Skills Assessor (Cindy Muthukarapan) and pharmacy (Rachel - 'The Pharmacist Coach'!). 

Coaches - bring all your MCC-related questions.  For all those committed to professional mastery, it is the perfect place to gain industry insights and tips and explore the broader eco-systemic spaces of how masterful coaching can support professional mastery in any domain.  

CLICK HERE to register for the webinar and recording

Invitation to Participate in Wellbeing Research

As you know, practitioner wellbeing is a core component of 4Front Pharmacy's  PERSONAL pillar of the 6Ps of Professional Excellence.  In pharmacy, I recently partnered with the FIP to facilitate six workshops focused on workplace wellbeing in community pharmacy practice globally and further research into this project is being conducted by the University of Newcastle in Australia.  In coaching, principal researcher Sheela Hobden is conducting research into the impact of workplace coaching on resilience and wellbeing.  Sheela was inspired to conduct this research based on her experience coaching healthcare professionals working in the NHS in the UK.  One of my coaching clients and I are participating in this research as a coach practitioner and client.  As part of her research, Sheela is now seeking participants who would be willing to track their own wellbeing and resilience by completing surveys (8) over a 9-12 month time period.  Each survey take 10-15 minutes to complete and participants would take part anonymously. 

What would you gain by participating?

• You would undoubtedly learn more about your wellbeing and resilience by considering the questions asked of you.
• You would become more aware of changes to your wellbeing and resilience over time.
• You would gain early access to the findings and receive an invitation to a workshop at the end of the survey completion. 

To participate in this arm of the research 

• You must be working (employed, self-employed or business owner) 
• You must NOT be working as a coach or be a coaching or therapy client at present.   

If you are interested in learning more about participating in this research, please contact sheela@bluegreencoaching.com.  You can read up more about this Workplace Coaching Research on (1) LinkedIn.

NOTE: Like the FIP research, this is global workplace wellbeing research.  Please do consider taking part yourself and encouraging a diverse selection of your friends and colleagues to do the same.  Workplace wellbeing is not only a critical component of a healthy workplace culture, performance and sustainable professional practice.  It also significantly impacts personal, family and community health.  And, in the case of healthcare workplaces, workplace wellbeing impacts healthcare delivery, decision making and patient safety.    

Personalised Resources to Help Identify your Internal Barriers to Mastery

Positive Intelligence Saboteur Assessment

Another great self-awareness tool is the Positive Intelligence Saboteur Assessment. Click Here! to gain access to the Saboteur Assessment to identify how YOUR Saboteurs might fuel conflict. You can also discover your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ Score).  The resources include links to assessments and videos:

• Learn more about how Positive Intelligence mental fitness can improve productive conversations by watching the Positive Intelligence TED Talk
• Discover the saboteurs that are negatively affecting your impact and influence by taking the Saboteur Assessment.  Remember - conflict is not only about conflict with others.  We also experience inner conflict between our Sage Self and our Saboteur Selves! 
• Discover your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ Score)
  

 From a place of self-awareness of the saboteurs that hold us back from mastery, we then have a choice as to whether and how we choose to confront them, tame them and then shift to being masterful, from a less critical, more compassionate and empowering place. 

I look forward to hearing what you learned by completing this saboteur-assessment.  Click here to schedule a conversation with Rachel.  I am curious to hear from you!

Pharmacists, Coaches, Mentors and Super-Visors

Are you regularly prioritising time for Reflective Practice? 

Reflective practice is a fundamental component of continuing professional development and is required by all regulatory bodies of healthcare professionals in order to attain and retain registration, for trainee, newly qualified and experienced practitioners. (Atwal & Jones, 2009). 

In the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Cycle used by Irish Pharmacists, 'Reflective Practice' underpins ALL five stages of the CPD cycle. 

Mentor Coaching is required by the International Coaching Federation for credentialed coaches.

Coach/Mentor Super-vision is required for coaches and mentors credentialed by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), to complete at least quarterly. 

For example, the credentialing pathway for coaches, mentors and super-visors with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) requires applicants to submit evidence of both written reflective practice and evidence of coaching super-vision.  The credentialing pathway for coaches with the International Coaching Federation requires applicants to complete a minimum of ten hours of ICF Mentor Coaching (skills based reflective practice).  

But what is 'reflective practice,' why is it important and how on Earth do you create the space for 'reflective practice' in an already full schedule?

The busy work environment is a barrier to strategic thinking and reflective practice.  For this reason, unless a practitioner consciously chooses to prioritise and schedule dedicated time for reflective thinking, it is unlikely to happen, EVEN when it is critically important and EVEN when the consequences of not doing so mean we are destined to continue to repeat the mistakes of the past on auto-pilot. 

This is why the busiest, most productive and most inspiring professionals schedule regular time for reflective practice. 

They are

• less prone to burn-out,
• more fulfilled in their career and
• have fewer blind-spots when it comes to wisely navigating challenges and dilemmas. 

If you are a practicing mentor, coach or pharmacist interested in Structured Reflective Practice as part of your Continuing Professional Development, CLICK HERE to discover more

Applications are now open for the latest IIOP Mentoring Programme.  Not unsurprisingly, I have been a founding member of the peer mentoring programme for pharmacists.  From my experience, every single pharmacist who is involved as a mentor, mentee, ambassador, steering group and programme directors are exemplary examples of growth-oriented professionals, willing to generously give and receive mentorship and learn from one another.  If this is a mindset and culture you yearn to experience more of, then be sure to apply for the flexible four-six month programme running from May 2023. There are 40 places available on the programme, 20 mentors and 20 mentees. If you want to apply, do so now, as applications are closing soon. 

The IIOP Mentoring Programme is for pharmacists, by pharmacists. (the IIOP Mentoring Programme won the EMCC Global Award in Mentoring last year).  Both mentor and mentee generously gift their time, energy, curiosity and expertise to the programme. 

Applications are open to all pharmacists across the profession, at any stage of your career and in any practice area. This is an opportunity to access to your own personal mentor who is there to support you in your development.  

Click here to apply as a mentee.

Applications for mentors are open to all pharmacists who have completed the IIOP Mentorship Skills Training. Have you completed this training and want to put your skills into practice? Would you like to support a fellow pharmacist with their development?  Are you looking to develop your mentoring skills further?

Click here to apply as a mentor.

To apply to be a mentor you must have completed the IIOP Mentorship Skills Training for pharmacists. If you want to be a mentor but have not completed the training yet, don't worry, there are more training dates to be announced in the Autumn. 

Participation in the IIOP Mentoring programmes is optional and voluntary. Training and support will be provided.

Practice Review can be a daunting experience for pharmacists, even for those with years and decades of experience in a patient-facing role.  Many of us have not had our patient consultation skills objectively observed in a very long time.  As a result we can be unaware of how our consultation skills benchmark against standardised practice.  This uncertainly can be unsettling, even fear inducing.  I am very familiar with this feeling.  As a pharmacist, during my Masters in Hospital Pharmacy, practice reviews were a rite of passage.  Similarly, in my journey towards Coaching Mastery, the equivalent of practice review is 'performance evaluation.'  To earn an ICF coaching credential, one of the requirements is that coaches demonstrate competence (level 1), proficiency (level 2) and mastery (level 3) of core competencies in performance evaluation recordings.  In both pharmacy and coaching, as a reviewer, reviewee, mentor and mentee I have learned A LOT about what holds us back, what enhances and impedes performance in practice review and what is truly needed to empower us to showcase our skills in a practice review setting.     Firstly, we need a Consultation Framework, which supports us to showcase our skills.  CLICK HERE to access 4Front Pharmacy Online's introductory module on 4Front's STEPS Consultation Framework. CLICK HERE to access two online courses available from the IIOP to support pharmacists called for Practice Review.  These are  1. Consultation Skills in Pharmacy Practice 2. Practice Review | Sample Clinical Knowledge Review A variety of research demonstrates that, in any endeavour, mastery is ~20% knowledge and ~80% practice.  And for practice to lead to mastery, we need feedback from a mentor who can guide and facilitate our growth on the path towards mastery of that skill.      If you are a pharmacist called for Practice Review in October 2023 and you would like to partner with Rachel as your one-to-one  Practice Review Mentoring partner  Click here to schedule a conversation with Rachel.  My previous Practice Review partners have described the process as fun, practical, affirming, challenging and rewarding!

Pharmacists: Where do you stand in the 6Ps of Pharmacy Excellence?

 Having worked with 100s of professionals, we have created a short self-assessment tool aligned with 4Front's 6Ps of Pharmacy Excellence. 

CLICK HERE to take this self-assessment. 

I look forward to hearing what you learned by completing this self-assessment.  Click here to schedule a conversation with Rachel.  I am so curious to hear from you!

• What is your #1 area of focus? 
• How do you plan to grow in your area of focus? 
• What will be the benefits of you growing in this area?
• What will be the negative consequences if you don't grow in this area?

This month's yoga theme is Yoga for Everyone.  Yoga is an 8-limbed system for personal leadership in all areas of life, not just in the realm of physical fitness.  A yoga practice can be one of the support systems we can use to help us to proactively foster our physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual wellbeing.  

The link above provides you with A Complete Beginner's Guide to Yoga Practices such as guided breathing practices (pranayama), meditation practices and both energising power postures and restorative postures (asanas).

I have found that incorporating yoga teacher training and personal practice in my Pharmacy and Coaching CPD plan continues to be a powerful way to nurture my Sage's physical energy, mental focus, emotional bandwidth and purposeful living.  In doing so, I continually deepen my professional capacity to embody the essence of 'The Pharmacist Coach,' such as  

• personal skills (such as leadership, communication & informed decision making), 
• professional practice (such as adapting to change and innovation),
• organisation and management skills (including managing self, others, risks and quality),
• public health (including personally living a healthy life and advocating public wellbeing)
• client care (including education and coaching for personal and relational wellbeing) 

I hope you enjoy joining me, to practice yoga with three of my yoga teachers.  The course is free of charge.  Following enrollment, you will receive emails from Happy Jack Yoga, inviting you to consider joining their 200hr Yoga Teacher Training.  If this is of interest to you, I can highly recommend it.  if it isn't, just unsubscribe from their emails and continue to enjoy the free yoga course.  

4FrontPharmacy Online offers all pharmacy staff OTC pharmacy specific training, in medical conditions, product knowledge and consultation skills.   4Front's STEPS™ Consultation Framework offers a proven strategy to host productive pharmacy consultations that focus not just on managing symptoms, but on empowering your patients to be proactive about managing their own health and wellbeing, with you and your pharmacy colleagues as their trusted advisors.   

Start your journey with 4Front Pharmacy Online for FREE and experience your course with four easy-to-follow steps:

• Step 1: Choose your course and review learning outcomes
• Step 2: Watch course video at your own pace
• Step 3: Review resources, references, and reading materials
• Step 4: Take the Course Assessment and get a certificate (Premium Membership required)