In the late 1990s, when I began to pay attention to the emergence of the new profession of Executive Coaching, I was still practicing as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Pastoral Counselor. I began to notice that many of my favorite therapy clients were saying things like, 'Patty, I'm just fine. I'm not anxious or depressed. I know myself pretty well and my relationship is great.' Then, just as I thought their next words would be, 'So, thanks. I think I'm done.' They would say, 'But I don't want to stop coming here.'
A few years later, another wave of seasoned leaders had another goal in mind, “Patty, how do I learn to do what you do?” Thus began the SeattleCoach Professional Training and Development Program (2008). And since then, we've trained over 600 professional coaches and coaching leaders.
My goal is for SeattleCoach to keep our energizing blend of the conventional and the innovative. We are positive, optimistic, competitive, and hard-working. Plus, we are a very connected and fun tribe of ambitious people. And today all these years later, I can identify with Rebecca from the Ted Lasso series, “Just because I own this team doesn’t mean it belongs only to me.”
I think of us as the small craft brewery of coaching programs. This means that we start with fantastic ingredients (people like you), add some world-class content and materials, and then blend in grace, truth, time, and connection. It's true, our goal is to get coaches through our training and development--but our goal is also to patiently make sure that our training and development gets very sustainably through you.
These are our values and practices. Each one is baked into the way we train and walk alongside each SeattleCoach:
- Personal and professional integrity
- A bias for finding the next desirable and possible step
- Excellence in the craft of coaching via continuous growth, learning, practice, connection, and innovation
- Work that requires us to be positive, interesting, inspiring, engaged, and our best
- Personal presence: Energy, intuition, optimism, hope, grit, zest, humor, playfulness, and curiosity
- Fair costs, clear agreements, solid ROI, grace, and generosity
- Being world-class in our accreditation with the International Coaching Federation