Countdown on for Climate Coaching Action Day

If not now, when? Liz Hall reports on the rise of climate crisis coaching, and Climate Coaching Action Day.

As recently as a few months ago, it was hard to get coaches excited about climate change in the context of their coaching practice. The stark and hellish images of Australia burning were a tipping point for many, however, amongst other factors such as widespread storms.

It seems that suddenly, there’s a real momentum building across the profession, with many coaches asking themselves, if not now, when? And what can I do?

Next month, (5th March) sees the first Climate Coaching Action Day take place. An initiative launched by Coaching at Work to inspire and equip coaching providers and others to engage more fully. The Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC) is one of many supporters including Climate Coaching Alliance and the EMCC. There is a host of events to choose from, either for your own CPD as a coach, or to take part in such as offering pro-bono coaching around the climate crisis in the Climate Coach Action Day Coachathon (see the calendar below for a selection of activities), or a 24-hour conversation around how coaches can respond to the crisis.

What is climate coaching? Actually, in some ways, it is just coaching. All the usual guidelines apply, such as meeting the client where they are, drawing on evidence-based approaches, ensuring you access supervision and so on.

However, there are specific things to think about such as ensuring you’re willing and able to work with what can be pretty intense emotions - your own included. Of course, this can be the case in all sorts of coaching engagements - but with climate crisis coaching, it’s very much part of the territory.  There will be particular issues to think about too when working with clients who are already operating in areas such as sustainability and environmental activism such as avoiding burnout. Again, these aren’t issues solely found in climate coaching, but you’re very likely to be exploring resilience and overwhelm.

Below is a calendar of just some of the events coming up through Coaching at Work and other avenues to mark Climate Coaching Action Day and beyond to help you engage in climate coaching in all its facets and make a real difference.

Calendar of Climate Coaching Action Day Related Events

In the lead-up to the day

Coaching and climate change – what on earth can we do?

25 February

• 15.00-16.30 GMT Join the Coaching and Climate Change – what on earth can we do? webinar for AoEC Alumni, facilitated by Climate Change Coaches to explore how to respond as a coach to the climate crisis www.aoec.com

26 February

• 9.30-11.00 GMT Join the Coaching and Climate Change – what on earth can we do? webinar for AoEC Alumni, facilitated by Climate Change Coaches to explore how to respond as a coach to the climate crisis www.aoec.com

4 March (12.30-14.00 GMT)

• 1st webinar in Climate Coaching series launched by the EMCC to mark Climate Coaching Action Day, with Zoe Cohen Cohen@shinecoachingandconsultancy.co.uk

On the day

5 March

• 24-hour global conversation via Climate Coaching Alliance around how we respond to the emergency, how we work with clients, and nurture ourselves, and each other? The conversation will be hosted by people all over the world at different times, including Coaching at Work editor Liz Hall https://www.climatecoachingalliance.org/events/
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• 10.00-11.30 GMT Free ‘Alarmed to activated, get into action’ workshop for coaches & the public, with Emily Buchanan and Ruth Sprinter www.climatechangecoaches.com
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• The Climate Coaching Action Day Coachathon – offer pro-bono coaching around climate change, on or around the day
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• 13.00 GMT: The Business of Climate Coaching™ : Find Your Legs in the Marketplace: Quickly come up the curve of the evolving landscape of climate coaching by learning a few essential industry concepts you can immediately apply to your business. Whether you coach students, corporate executives or individuals looking to turn angst into action, this 1-hour session will teach you what you need to know to feel more confident in your climate coaching business while you continue to learn-as-you-go.https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-business-of-climate-coaching-building-credibility-in-the-marketplace-tickets-95099341691
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• 14.30-15.30 GMT Join Liz Hall & Charly Cox for a online session on kick-starting your climate coaching https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kick-start-your-climate-crisis-coaching-tickets-93828903777

• 15.00-16.30 GMT Join 5 other coaches and Climate Change Coach Sarah Flynn for a friendly one-off free mentor coaching session, in which you will develop your coaching skills when working on the topic of climate change. www.climatechangecoaches.com
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• 18.00 GMT Join hosts Angelos Derlopas& Maureen Purcell for an open online discussion, ‘Climate Action Discussion: “Doing good,” versus “Avoiding bad”, exploring what we as coaches can do to raise awareness on climate issues, how can we best be coach climate activists, and what is the first small change in our behaviour we can commit that will make a change in the climate issue today. Register in advance: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/upArfuusrzkjovjSneh6K57Barw_WTDf6w 

After the day

10 March

• 13.00-14.00 GMT Debriefing for coaches who’ve taken part in the initiative, with Amanda Devine & Zoe Greenwood www.climatechangecoaches.com

April – date tbc

• Date tbc, 2nd EMCC Climate Coaching series webinar, with Peter Hawkins peter.hawkins@renewalassociates.co.uk

 4 May

• 12.30-13.30 GMT 3rd EMCC Climate Coaching series webinar, with Charly Cox and Zoe Cohen charly.cox@charlycox.com

19 June

• 12.30-13.30 GMT 4th EMCC Climate Coaching series webinar with Linda Aspey, linda@aspey.com

1 July

• 13.00-14.00 GMT (possibly extending for half an hour) 5th EMCC Climate Coaching series webinar, with Alison Whybrow, alison@alisonwhybrow.com

Get involved

If you’d like to brainstorm potential activities or other contributions to Climate Coaching Action Day, email liz@coaching-at-work.com

Join us on social media, to see what others are doing and share what you’re doing.

Facebook Climate Coaching Day group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClimateCoachingActionDay/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8869975/

Twitter @Climatecoachday