{"id":1184,"date":"2019-01-02T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/?p=1184"},"modified":"2019-05-15T19:07:46","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T23:07:46","slug":"celebrating-20-years-since-i-caught-the-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/celebrating-20-years-since-i-caught-the-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 20 years since I caught the vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

2019 marks 20 years since I met my first coach and caught the vision that evolved into Coaching4Clergy and Coaching4Today\u2019s Leaders. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"At the time I was pastoring at a local United Methodist church, and I had signed up for a leadership training event \u2013 not specifically for clergy, but for corporate leaders. There I was in a room with 50 or 60 corporate types, and I found myself sitting next to a very tall woman who introduced herself as Fontelle. <\/span><\/p>\n

As we chatted, I asked what she did for a living and she said she was a coach. Because of her height, I assumed she was talking about sports and asked, \u201cBasketball or volleyball?\u201d \u00a0She laughed politely and said, \u201cNo, I coach people. I\u2019m a leadership coach.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d never heard of this, and as we continued to talk she told me that the best way to learn what coaching was, was to be coached. She then offered me three months of coaching \u2013 gratis. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was intrigued, but somewhat skeptical. I decided not to tell anyone else I was working with Fontelle, other than my wife. I figured if this was for real, people at the church would notice something was different.<\/span><\/p>\n

About five or six weeks after I started being coached, the team that evaluated me as a pastor said they wanted to meet with me. \u201cUh-oh,\u201d I thought, \u201cWhat did I do now?\u201d What they told me was whatever I was doing, they liked what they were seeing so keep at it. <\/span><\/p>\n

I asked them to tell me more, and they said that in meetings when I was the designated leader, I was clearer in asking people what they were committing to. I was also different as a person. <\/span>I was showing up differently<\/b>, not as tired or frazzled. Overall they just felt like I was at the top of my game. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d been at the top of my game before, but I didn\u2019t stay there. Like most people, every once in a while I\u2019d hit a home run. What they were seeing now was that I was at the top of my game consistently. And that\u2019s when I told them what was going on.<\/span><\/p>\n

I kept working with Fontelle, and by the end of our three months, I decided I not only wanted to be coached, but I also wanted to be a coach, and I wanted everyone to have coaching skills. At that moment a vision began to emerge\u2014a global vision of every pastor, ministry staff and church leader a coach.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I haven\u2019t told you is that I almost didn\u2019t go to that training event. Like most clergy, I felt like I was pretty good at what I did in church, but that I was of no use anywhere else. I figured that among all those corporate people I\u2019d be like a fish out of water. And I was, but that was a good thing. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like what we\u2019ve discussed about having a hobby<\/a>. You\u2019ve got to get out of your work environment once in a while and expand your horizons. Plus I\u2019d already paid and booked the time off, and there were no refunds. Thankfully, because this turned out to be a defining moment in my life. <\/span><\/p>\n

What have been those moments in <\/span>your<\/span><\/i> life? Those people, those experiences, those times that have really shaped you? I encourage you to celebrate those as we start this new year.<\/span><\/p>\n

This post is dedicated to Fontelle Gilbert, MCC, who unfortunately passed away in 2011 without ever knowing just how much my experience with her meant and what I did with it from there.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The defining moment in Val\u2019s life that led to his vision of every leader a coach. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"content-sidebar","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1216,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184\/revisions\/1216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4todaysleaders.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}