Coach training isn't just for aspiring coaches, (but we have launched plenty into private practice.)

Do you have:

• conversations with friends that you wish would actually help them feel more confident?
• direct reports you wish were growing more?
• children you want to help mature to make healthy Godly decisions?
• aging parents who need respect, but also need to weigh transitional decisions?
• adult children you care about but don't want to interfere?

The Coaching Culture comes alongside your relational connections and gives you tools to be more effectual in helping people discern what God has for them.

What would it be worth to you to be able to help people help themselves?

What if there were overarching principles that could help people engage with owning their own situations and next steps?

Learning the skills of active listening and how to ask empowering questions can take your everyday conversations to a next level. Coaching culture helps you help others help themselves get unstuck...

People have stuff!

How you handle it makes all the difference!

Do you feel like you need to have answers for people?
Or maybe you actually do have answers but they don't seem to be listening.

Here are 10 reasons coaching works better than telling!

10) You don’t have to know everything for everyone.

Leaders who tell have to know what’s best for every situation and for each person to be effective. That’s a lot of stuff to know! (And what if you aren’t right?)

9) People love it when you focus on them.

Active listening is the highest form of loving someone. When the focus is on the other person there is a lot less pressure on the coach to solve issues. It is way easier to be curious, trust the Holy Spirit, and listen than to have to diagnose and prescribe.

8) Relationship trumps regimen every time.

God designed us to be in relationship with Him and others. When we reduce leadership to telling people what to do, we can easily “cookie...

Are there professional life coaches? Of course!

But the majority of people who take coach training are:

• Businessmen - looking for leadership develpment
• Ministers - wanting to make disciples, not foster dependents
• Parents - of both young children and adult children
• Friends - who people come to with their stuff
• Followers of Jesus - who are hoping to make a kingdom impact

I guess what I am saying is you don't have to want to be a professional coach to consider coach training!

Do you have an ed allowance? This could be the right investment!

Would you like truly help others help themselves? This course will give you the conversational tools to do so!

At every last class I love hearing how the course has affected people. Some of my favorites are the double dippers. I've had more than one businessman take the course to level up their leadership and experienced a change in their relationship with their adult children. We've seen ministers take the course to better serve their congregation...

There are two four-letter words we are going to focus on today.

The first is: lazy. (Probably not the first four-letter word you thought of.)

There are basically two kinds of lazy.

One is intentional -  it includes rest, like a Sabbatical or a Sabbath, a nap, or even an extra good night's sleep. It could be taking a walk, listening to some good music (I recently discovered smooth jazz and only wish I would have known about it sooner), having a slow conversation with a good friend, or enjoying a special meal.

The other is unintentional. Unintentional laziness is when you didn't set out to slow down or neglect an area of your life, you just drifted into being stuck by accident. Unintentionally. At my home church, we recently heard a message that identified a type of laziness I had never thought of before. Our pastor talked about how being busy can be a form of laziness. (You can check the message out here if you like.) Usually, when we think of laziness, we think of someone being...

Hi friends!

I did my first podcast! 

Meet Michelle Pavasars. Michelle and I met serendipitously as we sat next to each other at a wedding rehearsal dinner years ago. We got to talking, and to make a long story short, she has taken multiple coach training courses and now works for Bridges as the host of our Next Level Coach Training course.

Michelle is the Executive director of an organization called KINDLE that specifically targets, empowers, and serves second-chair leaders. We are so fortunate she loves coaching and does a little work for us on the side. She says keeping her fingers in the pie helps keep the coaching mindset active in her life and leadership.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the podcast!

What would you think if we did a Coaching podcast? Is that something you would be interested in?

It's been a while since Eric and I did a Coaching workshop live, and to be honest we have had some difficult experiences. Once, while leading a workshop I was invited to teach at, I had leaders questioning me about the method - right during the session -  and, you know, I get it. It is a radical shift in thinking for a leader. 

They were used to leaders being "in charge" of their people's spiritual growth. They felt it was abdicating responsibility to leave people to own their own choices. 

So, knowing we were going to a Latin culture where leadership is traditionally more top-down I had my doubts as to how we would be received (just in case you did not know, Eric and I just got back from a mission trip to Costa Rica where we did a coaching workshop hosted by Alex Dienner.)

But our reception, and their connection, were a welcomed breath of fresh air for all of us!

Hebrews 8 and 10 talks about the New Covenant that Jesus made possible. We now have direct access to the...

What's your recurring dream?

• Love to have a family vacation?
• Want to write a book?
• Hoping to be more at peace and sleep better?
• Like to feel healthier and maybe have a little less around the middle?

Whether your dreams are for fun or accomplishment, for physical health or emotional well-being, or to upgrade your personal life or be a better assist to someone else, turning hopes and dreams into reality and memories could be as easy as good coaching!

Good Coaching helps you define the goal, remove the obstacles that have impeded forward movement, and set up a plan with reasonable action steps and clear follow-through. 

Maybe it is YOU* that is hoping and dreaming, or maybe you'd like to help others get unstuck. Walking down the Bridges Coaching ROAD helps people get "there". 

Where would you love to build a bridge to? 

Start here:

*Best Option: Life Coach Certification

Next Best Option: Coach Training Video Course

*Life Coaching: Associate Coaches Connections

...

Coach Training isn't only for those who want to become professional coaches. Almost everyone can benefit.

Have you ever wanted to help someone but were not sure what to say or do?

Wish you could have more meaningful conversations?

Tired of hearing the same ol,' same ol', from a coworker or family member?

Most people who take Bridges Coach training are NOT looking to become professional coaches. (But they CAN move in that direction if they so choose.)

Here are four actual people groups who have benefited from coach training!

Parents - of kids still at home, but also of adult children.

Learning to craft questions that help children make wise choices is incredibly valuable and empowering! IT takes the strain off the relationship and actually brings hope. One father of an adult child said, "I used to dread our weekly phone calls. I felt compelled to try and keep him in line and that wasn't fun for either of us. Now, I ask him questions that help him make his own choices and I actually...

Shawn's email was an honest inquiry about coach training. He wondered what he should be looking for in coach training and asked if I could chat. So we did.

I looked over the coach training org he was interested in and noted a few things he should ask. If you are considering coach training you should be asking these questions too!

1- How many certifications, programs, or tracks do you need to take in order to actually coach people?

This was a problem for me when I took my initial coach training. I'd finish one certification and they would hold out the next as a "must-do" before coaching. After your first coach training with Bridges, you will be fully prepared to offer an actual coaching session.

2- Will all your training be with a facilitator, or are you ever left on your own?

Many coach training orgs have you "practice" coaching with a peer or fellow trainee. If your sessions are not observed or supervised this can actually be a harmful way to learn as you could be practicing poor...

Our church has been doing a series called, "Beware of the drift" on the book of Colossians. It's really got me thinking.

     Likely, no one plans in advance to gain 20 pounds in 10 years.

     Most people don't set out to become distant from family members.

     We're not intentional about building a habit of anxiety.

     We don't hope and dream to neglect our faith.

And yet, we drift toward all kinds of unintentional behaviors and unwanted habits.

Psalm 141:4a says,

     "Don’t let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness"

What if "wickedness" doesn't only means violence or intentionally hurting another person? Could it also include neglecting priorities or not pursuing what God has for you?

God offers believers so much - as a people group and personally. Let me explain.

As part of God's family, we are all offered forgiveness for whenever and however we miss the mark of...