We all have a past – a rich tapestry that has created who we are and how we contribute to our worlds of family, of work, of community.
As coaches, we have been taught to avoid the past. We have concluded that the past is reserved for the doctors and therapists and should rarely be addressed in a typical coaching session. And furthermore, our own past, as a coach – should certainly be kept out of the coaching conversation.
Best selling author, John Schuster has different ideas and is challenging these assumptions and conclusions. He explores these ideas in his most recent book (2011)
The Power of Your Past: the Art of Recalling, Reclaiming and Recasting (Berrett Koehler).
A coach’s clients can reach into their pasts to gain fresh perspectives only as well as the coach can interpret his or her own past. This topic explores how the coach learns and then teaches the client how looking back facilitates moving forward. Striding into the future requires not just keeping abreast of today’s learning, but also breaking into the meaning of yesterday and how it has influenced the development of now. This topic teaches how the past is far from being irrelevant or insignificant, and investigating its teachings can invigorate a “stuck” outlook or transmute some thinking that holds the client back. This presentation makes the proper distinctions between therapy and coaching, and the big differences that need to be maintained. It discusses not only how prospecting the past can be a useful tool, but how expanding a coach’s storehouse of teachings adds valuable ingredients to a client’s present and future.
- Expanding your clients’ capacities to move ahead by skillfully exploring your own lifework path
- Delimiting your own belief systems to support your clients
- Enlarging your repertoire for supporting your clients by integrating more of you into your coaching presence
- How being present – in the now – for your clients, and exploring your yesterdays for their rich learning, are of equal importance
John Schuster is a wonderful, creative, soulful human being. He has been coaching since the early 1980s. He is a celebrated author, a highly sought after speaker throughout the US and connects with his audiences as few speakers can. His books include:
Answering Your Call: A Guide to Living Your Deepest Purpose
From Hum-drum to Hot-diggity: On Leadership
Open Book Management (translated into four languages)
His presentation will appeal to anyone involved in supporting other people’s growth.
______________________________________________________________________________
John P. Schuster is the founding partner of The Schuster Kane Alliance, Inc. a consulting firm he started over 25 years ago. Since he founded his business John has assisted the leaders of enterprises in business, government and non-profit environments with a variety of services and tools. His company is known for its ability to connect soft people skills with hard business results. He has a passion for markets and communities that work for everyone and specializes in leadership development and business-smart workplaces
Prior to starting his business, John was the director of human resources for a region of the U.S. EPA.. He was a chairman for The Executive Committee, a peer-learning group for CEO’s, in both Kansas City and Cincinnati. His firm pioneered the open-book management practices that tie to balanced scorecard work. The business simulation Profit and Cash® developed to support financial and business know-how in the workplace has been played by over 450,000 participants. He is an executive coach, primarily in the C suite, and serves as senior faculty at the coaching certification programs administered at Columbia University and at the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara. He acts as coach in residence for the CEO mentoring firm, Merryck and Co. His clients include Wells Fargo, ITT, Syngenta, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
John is a former board member of SIAS International University in Henan Province, China, and has taught extensively in a variety of subjects in executive MBA programs. He graduated summa cum laude at Xavier University where he received his BA and MA in English. He is currently enrolled in a certificate program in humanistic psychology at Saybrook University.
John‘s work has taken him to engagements on five continents.. He is a grandfather of four, plays tennis and guitar, gardens, and serves in various roles in the community and on non-profit boards.
