Pro bono coaching for healthcare workers

Nearly 200 coaches have now responded to the initial call for action put out by Mark McMordie, CEO of The Conscious Leader what feels like months ago, but is only weeks (here’s the original LinkedIn post Pro Bono Coaching for Healthcare Workers).

In just ten or so days, the core team behind the COVID-19 Rapid Response Coaching programme, has set up and begun delivering a programme of pro bono coaching to healthcare workers, on demand and for as long as participants want it.

The core team fuelled by The Conscious Leader, the Academy of Executive Coaching, Lee Hecht Harrison, Liz Hall (www.lizhallcoaching.com) from Coaching at Work magazine, Lindsay Wittenberg Ltd and Visible Dynamics, with others such as Henley Business School having pledged their support too.

Guided by the consultant anaesthetist on our team, we’re already well into the initial pilot. The first coaching sessions for staff in the anaesthetics department of a central London hospital have taken place. Further sessions are lined up and the programme is being rolled out to intensive care, and accident and emergency departments. We aim to expand to other London hospitals and to hospitals elsewhere in the country. Demand is growing exponentially.

The core team is working intensively and agilely to deliver a professional, high-quality, scalable, coaching programme, supported by supervision, trauma specialists, counsellors and therapists, at speed. Just a few days after the coaching began, feedback from those receiving it has been extremely positive.

We’re expecting take-up of the programme to snowball, particularly as the peak of the COVID-19 wave starts to hit.  Demand is likely to continue growing after the peak as it leaves distress, exhaustion and trauma in its wake.

The ethos of the programme is constantly reinforced in the interactions of the core team, as we endeavour to demonstrate that compassion, psychological safety, and a results focus are compatible!

The desire to be of service trumps all. There are no commercial interests, and all materials are shared generously without any exclusive ownership being claimed.

We are continuing to build a community of professionals who, in addition to being highly professional and  experienced, are:

• Not wedded to one single model and who are able to where appropriate draw on approaches focusing on 'being’, such as Gestalt, mindfulness, somatics and the like
• Psychologically-informed, including around working with trauma, distress, and mental health issues
• Compassionate
• In individual supervision but also participating in the group supervision programme we are developing
• Appropriately qualified
• Able to evidence appropriate credentials, including PCC or MCC, or the equivalent

Ways to support us include:

• Resourcing the core team on an ad hoc basis through specialist input
• Signposting the core team to further specialists
• Informing your network of the programme on an ongoing basis
• Writing about the programme
  

If you're a qualified coach or supervisor or specialist in an area you think may be relevant, who recognises fully what it means to be human, and you’d like to offer your services, please complete this application form.

Thanks in advance for your support

COVID-19 Rapid Response Coaching Team