Peter Sinclair: Power of positive mid-life coaching

By PETER SINCLAIR

"It will generally be found that men who are constantly lamenting their ill luck are only reaping the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement and improvidence, or want of application ... "

This is the first authentic utterance of the self-renovation movement, of that rectitude edged with self-censure that made its appearance in 1859 when Scottish reformer Samuel Smiles, preaching industry, thrift and self-improvement, published Self-Help.

This was the DIY route to virtue, where the pursuit of profit was undertaken in the pure, driven spirit once reserved for the Holy Grail - and in one form or another it's been with us ever since.

Next century, Dale Carnegie was sufficiently inspired by Smiles' bootstraps philosophy to elaborate on it in Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business (1931), How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living; and his cheerful manipulations persist today.

In direct descent from this came the horrors of 1980s touchy-feely group bonding and team-building exercises, when you were expected to do stuff like close your eyes and fall backwards into your colleague's arms to demonstrate unqualified trust - though in that dog-eat-dog era you might have been safer falling backwards onto a circular saw.

But today there's a new craze to kickstart yourself and kick-ass others: Personal Coaching.

Helping lame dogs over stiles has become an industry in its own right. Borrowing heavily from the motivational and personal-growth techniques of everyone back to Smiles himself, the International Coach Federation is now eager to empower you to empower others for fun and profit.

It recently staged its 5th International Conference in Victoria, Canada, which was attended by about 1300 personal coaches - it claims around 3000 members worldwide.

The Auckland chapter has about 20 members, and one of them, Clive Littin, will be remembered by listeners to Newstalk/ZB, where for 10 years he broadcast Reflecting On each Sunday night.

Recycled into a personal guru, a cross between Freud and Carnegie, he can be found on the web at www.getacoach.co.nz

"I am no longer interested in victims," he says firmly. Where once he offered counselling ("turning dysfunctional people into functional ones"), he now prefers the more hands-on techniques of one-on-one personal coaching ("moving them from functionality to excellence").

His clients are typically executives or self-employed businessmen. For $100 to $120 an hour (plus GST) he will try to reinforce their belief in themselves.

I spoke to a senior executive in one of the industries in which I work who has taken some coaching sessions with Littin. Did it work?

"It's been the making of me," he says. "You can control your career, but sometimes you need to sort out personal stuff as well. Being able to run yourself is as important as being able to run your computer."

He makes the point that as you move up the corporate ladder it is harder to find someone to trust.

He has also sent two or three employees (who in his words "needed some goal-setting") to Littin, and says it was money well-spent.

Australia has three coach-training schools but there are none in New Zealand, and Littin says he's considered setting one up. To get some idea of what he's on about, check out sites such as www.coachyou.com or www.coachu.com (one suspects there was a race for the buzzer here).

Is the personal coaching craze for real or just another ultimately pointless exercise in setting our dreams of perfectibility against the natural frailty of mankind? I'm staying on the fence for now ...

Bookmarks:

MOST TRUTHFUL: Pravda

A Communist icon - Lenin's mouthpiece, Stalin's disseminator of dogma - has joined the free market and for the first time is delivering its newer, feistier message in English. Resurrected solely for the internet by original Pravda editor Viktor Linnik, it claims to be an "absolutely independent news-analytical agency" rather than a trumpet for the resurgent Communist Party. The term "English," however, is used in its broadest sense: "In Urus-Martan in the area of motor-car market today, employers of low-enforcement services were fired at with a grenade cup discharge the fire was carried on from the direction vegetable garden."

Advisory: don't panic, CNN

MOST FASHIONABLE: Hats of Meat

In this cholesterol-conscious age, a brand new and environmentally friendly way (unless you happen to be a cow) of using red meat. The 4th Annual Hats of Meat Fashion Expo at the Burbank Star Motel is not an event the style-conscious will want to miss. A useful FAQ answers such fashion-related questions as: how can I prevent a hat of meat going off? (a thin coat of hairspray will provide hours of protection); how do I beat off dogs? (a squirt-gun filled with lemon-juice will do the trick). Includes detailed instructions for making a baseball cap out of plank steak. The potential importance of this trend to a country whose economy depends on converting grass into money cannot be overstated.

Advisory: "one always looks neat, in a hat made from meat"

Links:

Samuel Smles

Dale Carnegie

Dalecarnegie.com

Group Love Activities

International Coach Federation

www.getacoach.co.nz

www.coachyou.com

www.coachu.com

Pravda

Hats of Meat
 
E-mail: petersinclair@email.com