Thursday 7 May 2009

News from Advantara Global

At Advantara things have been happening so fast that it's been difficult to find the time to blog, but beginning now, we'll be making it a priority. We are grateful to our clients at Tower Automotive and other global corporations, and have enjoyed our work in Europe and India as well as those based in the UK travelling worldwide.

We have a brand new and beautiful website! Check it out at www.Advantara.com

You'll note that we describe our work as Leadership Learning and Coach Education. That's because we know how the brain works in the personal or organizational change process: ideas and concepts can be learned in a training (or in a book or online) and this kind of learning takes place in the neo-cortex of the brain which rapidly assimilates thoughts. However, sustained change and personal and professional development (changes in attitudes, emotions, behavioral habits) occurs in the limbic system; this part of the brain requires practice, repetition, and feedback, more like what is known as "Action Learning," in which you learn the idea, go out and practice, reflect on it, and come back to a coach to report and develop new approaches and fine tune what you've learned, building on it and integrating it.

We strongly believe that working with global executives requires highly developed people, not briefly trained coaches (two or three day coaching skills training, which only gives you the ideas and a little practice, soon forgotten in the press of everyday life) or even experienced executives without coach education. Our offerings develop the person, the professional, the leader so that they can lead well in a sustained, sustainable manner for a complex, rapidly changing world. They need "big picture" vision, proactive resilience(C) (see upcoming book on this), the ability to appreciate and integrate diversity of all types, and profound mindfulness in working with people (presence, emotional intelligence, the ability to take decisions and lead from wisdom). So, the Return on Investment is much higher (studies have repeatedly shown a fourfold increase in behavioral change when coaching is part of the approach). See below for my forthcoming book on related subjects! I've been a voice in the wilderness with regard to global and intercultural coaching with mindful awareness, combining this with ontological and evidence-based (research and practice) coaching. I'm now combing all I've learned over the decades into several books, one of which is on ProActive Resilience(C), very much needed in these times!


Several of our Global Executive Coaching graduates have been certified at the International Coach Federation (actually we have a 100% success rate for those mentored and educated by Hannah to date!): Beverley Robinson of Brussells, Belgium, and Margret Steixner of Uganda/Austria. Several more are in the application process.

Two of the coaches I've mentored, Doug Silsbee and Barbara Bouchet, have published new books, on Presence-Based Coaching (Doug) and Ignite the Leader in You: Inner work for Enlightened Power (Barbara)

More exciting news: I moved to the UK in 2006 and in October married a British citizen. I will be focussing on writing on Global Executive Coaching, Changing the Brain, and Proactive Resilience(c). Some of the material will be coming out in her blog and newsletters (The Global Executive and The Global Executive Coach), so watch these spaces! You can sign up for the newsletters at www.Advantara.com Look for the "Join our mailing list" forms.

We'll be back with more later. Look for us on LinkedIn and Ecademy as well.

And...have a pleasant Spring! We just welcomed it in at Padstow, Cornwall, one of the oldest traditions in May Day celebrations....Hannah and Andy have ties to Cornwall and a special place in their hearts for this celebration and community.

Walk in Beauty.....