Innovative Leadership

To members of the San Antonio Professional Coaches Association:

Innovative Leadership is not a new coaching program that someone has put together for coaches to utilize with their clients. It is a philosophy and activity that has been taking place within the San Antonio Professional Coaches Association for quite some time now. A brief definition might help one understand what the heck I’m talking about. To innovate is to “create something new”. Leadership, when used as a verb is “the act of leading” and when used as a noun refers to “those in a leadership role”. Your Board of Directors is providing just such Innovative Leadership, not only within SAPCA, but also within the ICF and the entire coaching community.

As your Chapter President, I have access to a Chapter Leaders Resource page that is part of the ICF website. It is a tool that all Chapter Presidents can use to distribute information amongst ICF Chapters. The best tools, projects, processes and helpful ideas are posted to assist chapters in the operations and growth. It is chocked full of ideas that have come from our Leadership over the years. Every time I view those pages I am reminded of all of the hard work and efforts our Leadership provides. I am truly blessed to follow in some pretty big footprints left by previous SAPCA Board members. That’s Innovative Leadership and it is not something new to SAPCA.

At last week’s ICF International Conference in St. Louis I was proud to attend a session with our new President-Elect Angela Woodrow. The session was titled “If You Can’t Make a Living, How Can You Make a Difference?” C.J. Hayden, author of Get Clients Now!, was the speaker for this session. The session and subsequent discussions were about how we, as coaches, could grow our businesses. We also talked about ways to promote the awareness of coaching in our local communities.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read in C.J.’s handouts about how SAPCA sponsors a Borders Books event every other month, She spoke about how it was a great collaboration that helped Borders Books sell books and helped SAPCA increase the awareness of coaching in San Antonio. I’ll tell you for sure, I sat up just a little bit taller in my seat after that! She then went on to talk about how “some ICF Chapters” have even hosted Regional Coaching events to promote education and networking within our coaching community. By now I was sitting tall and had a big grin on my face. I was very proud to be a SAPCA member! It only got better when Angela stood up and addressed the three hundred plus participants, explaining an idea that she would like to implement in our local San Antonio chapter. Now I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag, but there were lots of people taking notes on what she planned. That’s Innovative Leadership!

Friday night our innovative leadership was recognized at the ICF Leadership Dinner. Over a hundred Chapter and ICF leaders were present when awards of excellence were handed out. SAPCA had submitted an application for “Finding Our Voice”, an award that recognizes Chapter efforts to increase awareness of coaching based on the following criteria: Demonstration of Excellence; Contribution; Creativity; Chapter Participation; Developmental Stage of Chapter; and Completion of the Application Form. I am very pleased to say that Michele Henkle-Irelan, our incoming SAPCA President, graciously accepted this award on behalf of all members of the San Antonio Professional Coaches Association. Michele told me later that, “many Chapter leaders stood in line to ask her how we did “this and that” in San Antonio.” That’s innovative Leadership!

We have a new Board of Directors that will lead our chapter next year. I feel quite confident that we’ll continue to witness Innovative Leadership from them. We are always looking for innovative leaders to join this great team. I know there are many of you that can fill the role of innovative leader. I hear about the things you are doing in your business, your communities, in your schools and in your churches. Now is the time fir you to get involved in SAPCA leadership, step up and provide your own style of Innovative Leadership for all of us. We’ll all be better off for what you have to give us.