Leadership and Life Coach Training for Women in Faith-Based Ministries
In this video Directors Sister Evelyn Dettling, OSB, MA, Sister Susan Merrie English, OSB, EdD, Master Certified Coach, and Sister Roberta Campbell, OSB, MA provide an overview of the program.
Learning Philosophy
The Leadership and Life Coach Training Program for Women in Faith-Based Ministries is designed for adult learners who lead busy lives. The intention is to help each learner grow her coaching skills over a period of 2 years so that coaching becomes engrained in the personal identity of the learner.
Spiritual Component
The coaching program is intertwined with a strong spiritual component and a mission to serve those later in life. It is our belief that coaching is itself a spiritual practice that matures later in life. Coaching involves more than helping people. Keith Webb, author of The Coach Model states that the Coach and Coachee must pay attention to God’s larger purposes. Coaches help people become what God would have them become and to do what God would have them do. Thus, coaching supports and encourages the calling, gifting and unique potential that God has given each person.
Building Community
We believe in building community and to that end we begin every training program with an interview and four webinars for a voluntary orientation. Discussions center around a definition of coaching, building trust and community and managing technology.
We believe in modeling the principal concepts of the Core Competencies in how we form community and provide instruction. We emphasize building trust, modeling presence, careful listening and open questions in our interactions. Learners are given individualized attention in office hours following each Zoom meeting and have access to program directors and staff via email, phone calls, and texting.
Reflection
To deepen learning the program is designed so that reflection and review are part of each semester. Students do a personal reflection or summary of learning at the end of each semester and the students all take a written exam at the end of the 4th semester designed to help them review the major concepts of each semester and their own growth as learners.
Pedagogical Approaches
The program is based upon a belief of continuous improvement so that it is shaped and reshaped upon feedback from learners and faculty both formally and informally on a regular schedule.
Key concepts and coaching skills are introduced at a learning retreat at the beginning of each 6 month semester and then deepened with a series of 10 webinars spread over the following months. We believe in taking a coaching approach in all components of the program.
The program is designed to provide timely feedback to learners in small steps. In each retreat, there is a practice component guided or observed by an experienced “Mentor Participant.” For each asynchronous assignment, the learner receives written feedback by email.
We believe in life-long learning, using multiple learning modalities and following a strength-based approach. Our usual practice is to …
- Present a short didactic instruction to introduce a concept
- Facilitate a discussion & feedback about the presentation
- Demonstrate the skills by the instructor coaching a practice client
- Facilitate a discussion and feedback critiquing the demonstration
- Practice the skills by asking learners to coach each other, often with an experienced observer
- Facilitate a discussion and feedback to review the practice session and subsequent learning
Benefits of the Program
- Earn a Coaching Certificate through an International Coach Federation (ICF) accredited program.
- Increase your ability to engage in complex thinking.
- Develop a stronger sense of confidence for life and leadership at all levels.
- Discover new approaches for an existing ministry.
- Be prepared to create a new ministry of professional coaching as a potential income generating service.
- Strengthen communication skills needed for leadership and ministry.
- Enhance community life by fostering deeper relationships.
- Learn skills to function and flourish in a world growing in complexity and instability.
- Increase skills of deep listening and profound questioning.
- Enhance your skills for working with diversity, equality, and respect for all people.
ICF Accreditation
Being accredited by ICF is the gold standard for coaching education globally. We chose to become a coaching education provider because we believe that as a global society we are in dire need of cultivating better relationship skills that can help people develop stronger communities of support and belonging. By learning coaching skills as women of faith, we can share more deeply our intrinsic values with others and can become even more consciously a sign of the Divine in the world. We believe that by using sacred texts and spiritual practices as an authentic basis for a coaching program and by helping religious women develop coaching skills, we can more consciously address fundamental issues of peace and justice in the world.
For the Schedule and Contact for the Leadership and Life Coach Training for Women in Faith-Based Ministries Program details, please click on this link.
For specific Leadership and Life Coach Training Program Policies, please click on this link.