R&D Team Memo
Tuesday, July 17, 2001

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Note:  Please make your comments and suggestions kind, civil and respectful.  I am still receiving adamant emails and I can't handle it.   

It's fine to have a strong opinion and seek to improve this first draft by pointing out flaws and making suggestions.  But please be constructive and supportive.  

Crafting this stuff is NOT easy.   Please understand this.  

I'm very close to shutting down the R&D Team because some of the emails I continue to receive are just too harsh.  As much as I want to be "above it," I'm just not there yet along the evolutionary ladder.

Please remember that you're emailing a guy who is doing his very, very best.


Coaching Principles Project

Dear R&D Team member...

I've been working, on and off, on a set of Coaching Principles for about 2 years.  I have about 100 of them roughed out.

Of course, now that I have so many of them, it's a little overwhelming.  Some are in 'slide' form (from a PowerPoint I crafted) and others are just 2-liners I have in a Word document.

Examples of both formats are below.  My intention is to do my best to complete a full set of 100 (in either format) and use that as the beginning of an interesting discussion/bulletin board to let members tweak/evolve the first draft of these.  


Why are these Coaching Principles important?
I'm not entirely sure.  But I'm guessing that these 100 principles do and say a couple of important things:

1.  The principles will be wisdom-in-a-sentence.
2.  The principles will be good training topics for coaches.
3.  The principles will be "come-froms"/strategies that the coach can share with current clients.
4.  The principles can be intelligent sound bites for media interviews.
5.  The principles describe 'why' coaching works.


Questions for You...
1. What should I do with these principles, meaning should these be a specific training within CoachVille or just integrated into other modules?
2. What's the easiest/fastest way to get input on these that won't overwhelm the members?
3. How do we get buy-in on these, when I'm CERTAIN many coaches/members won't agree with some of the principles (either because they don't like my flavor but in many cases because they haven't ever experienced frozen yogurt before, if you know what I mean).
4. Are these really coaching principles of life-success principles.  Should I categorize the 100 that I do into different groups, or...?
5. My wording is 'off' on some of these, I believe.  Some sound more like an affirmation or assumption/belief or a claim or a theory.  
Help!  I'm stuck on this one...  Can you rewrite a couple to be more in 'principle' form?


Format A:  100-pointer Format
Single page PDF is here: http://www.coachville.com/prin/coachingprinciplespdf.pdf


Format B:  2-liner Format
1. Success is a basic human right.
Success has nothing to do with privilege or background.

2. Fewer problems occur when one's Personal Foundation is strong.
Rising above the muck of life and history is a key function of coaching.

3. Synergy causes better results, more quickly.
The coach and client matching process is key to coaching success.

4. What one puts up with, costs one dearly.
Tolerations waste one's spirit, heart, mind and pocketbook.

5. Distinctions evolve people quickly.
Reorienting around progressive ideas stimulates creativity.


Format C: Slide Format



Comments/suggestions to thomas@thomasleonard.com.  Thanks!

Note:  Please make your comments and suggestions kind, civil and respectful.  I am still receiving adamant emails and I can't handle it.  

It's fine to have a strong opinion and seek to improve this first draft by pointing out flaws and making suggestions.  But please be constructive and supportive.  

Crafting this stuff is NOT easy.



Best,

Thomas