Cultivating a Community of Coaches

Called to Coach Webcast Series -- Season 12, Episode 15

Below are audio and video plus a transcript of the conversation, including time stamps.

What does it take to build a coaching community? Ask Amy Shuman. Amy built and now leads a coaching community at the University of California, Davis. In this episode of Called to Coach, Amy shares how her vision of a coaching culture came to fruition over time, and how she applied her strengths and some practical principles to make it happen. Learn about the role listening played, how she invited others into coaching and overcame obstacles, and the difference that is making at UC Davis.

We spend so much of our time at work, many of us. And so, how do we make that experience better for people? How do we learn and grow together? And for me, coaching was the way to do that.

Amy Shuman, 6:34

I always try to keep my ears open for, What do people need? How's it going? Do we need to make a change?

Amy Shuman, 21:17

This is just my own strategy: Start with where you know you have support. ... when you're passionate about something, and you start telling people, oftentimes, you'll gain more people than you think.

Amy Shuman, 45:37

Jim Collison:
[0:00] I am Jim Collison, and this is Gallup's Called to Coach, recorded on November 7, 2024.

Music:
[0:06] Music

Jim Collison:
[0:17] Called to Coach is a resource for those who want to help others discover and use their strengths. We have Gallup experts and Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches share tactics, insights and strategies to help coaches maximize the talent of individuals, teams, and organizations around the world. If you're listening live, love to have you join us in chat. You can put your questions there. Or if you're listening after the fact, you can always send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Don't forget to subscribe to Called to Coach on your favorite podcast app or right there on YouTube, so you never miss an episode. Junjun Feng is our host today. Junjun is a Senior Education Adviser here at Gallup. Junjun, great to have you on Called to Coach. Welcome!

Meet Our Guest on This Episode

Junjun Feng:
[0:55] Thanks, Jim. Today, we are so thrilled to have Amy Shuman with us. Amy serves as the Executive Director of Staff Coaching and Professional Development for Student Affairs at UC Davis, and she's been a pivotal force behind UC Davis' Coaching Community of Practice, a vibrant learning network that provides space for genuine connection, self-discovery, and lasting growth. Amy's Top 5 CliftonStrengths^®: Communication^®, Competition^®, Maximizer^®, Significance^® and Focus^®, talents that truly shine in her mission to empower individuals and create positive workplace cultures that maximize each person's unique strengths. Amy, we are so excited to learn from you today. My No. 5 Learner^® is already buzzing with excitement. I see a lot of energy coming from our chat right now, so let's go ahead and dive right in. So to set the stage, I'd love to start at the very beginning. What's the origin story of the UC Davis Coaching Community of Practice? How did it all begin?

Amy Shuman:
[1:56] Yeah. So Context^® is my No. 30. So let me rewind a little bit and make sure I'm getting some of this. We have multiple communities of practice at Davis. So I see a lot of the people in the chat saying, "Hello from Davis!" We had a few different communities that were based on essentially different coaching methodologies, you know, maybe a different assessment or different training. The one that we call the UC Davis Coaching Community of Practice started as exclusively an ICF or International Coach Federation group. And so it started for people who were already certified through ICF who wanted a community. I was not the founder of this group; I'm the current leader, and I became that a few years ago. When that happened, we merged in other coaching communities of practice that existed on campus, like the one of our strengths coaches who had been coaching around strengths-based, strengths-based methodologies.

Amy Shuman:
[2:56] And so now we have a group, I think we have about 100 people in this combined community, and we've expanded the criteria for joining, where it's really anyone who subscribes to our common definition of coaching, which is the ICF definition. That is, it's about partnering with clients to help maximize their potential by asking thought-provoking questions. Sometimes, and, you know, here on Called to Coach, sometimes the word coaching can mean a lot of different things in different contexts. And so our group subscribes to that ICF definition of what is coaching, and it's open to anyone who's been through any kind of formal training and wants to continue their learning and be part of this, this group of coaches.

The Coaching Community of Practice: A Seed Planted

Junjun Feng:
[3:44] Amazing. Well, thank you so much for sharing that guiding philosophy of coaching. I always think it's really great to reorient ourselves with the definition of coaching to really guide our practices for coaching. And I love to see, you know, their community clearly has grown large scale, with many members. But what was that first start -- for the Coaching Community of Practice, what was that first beginning, the seed that was planted?

Amy Shuman:
[4:08] Yeah. Well, I'll say, so for me, the first, the way it started for me was actually I attended one of the, I think it used to be called the Strengths Summit. But I had attended this Strengths Summit event, and I, like, wanted to learn more about my own strengths. And so I wanted to find a way that we could keep the conversation going. So for me, my No. 1 strength is Communication. Probably not a surprise -- I wanted to keep talking about this. And I asked a couple of other people who I knew were already versed in strengths, some were also Certified Strengths Coaches like myself and, like, "You want to get together at lunch?" And they said, "Yes." And that was how it started for me. The ICF group had already started, and so we merged paths later. But for me, it was meeting at lunch. I think there was maybe two or three of us in the beginning. And this was about 8 years ago, I think. And it grew. It just grew and grew. And we started opening it up. And we still do that today. Actually, I see Jeff Heiser, who's here on the call, he facilitates that now. But it still goes on today -- that once a month we have open, open meeting for anybody that wants to come and join and talk about their strengths, talk about strengths coaching.

Junjun Feng:
[5:25] Amazing. I always find the story beginnings absolutely inspiring, because you can often see that even the smallest actions like a lunch can really lay the groundwork for something bigger than you even imagined. I'm really curious, in those early days, as you were setting those monthly lunches, what were you hoping to accomplish? What were some of those initial goals you and the team envisioned for these lunches and then community?

Amy Shuman:
[5:51] Yeah, you know, I have Futuristic^® pretty high. And so, I think I had a vision of a culture, a coaching culture. There's something about coaching in all, you know, there's many different kinds of methodologies and things you can do with coaching. But I think at the core, it's about communication. It's about listening. It's about asking better questions. It's about a coaching mindset of being open, curious and flexible. And my work before this was in HR, as an HR generalist. And so underneath all of this, my why for, you know, why I get up, why I go to work has always been about the workplace experience. We spend so much of our time at work, many of us. And so, how do we make that experience better for people? How do we learn and grow together? And for me, coaching was the way to do that. I saw it as a mechanism for how to increase communication in the workplace, help build connection. So as far as goals, I don't know that I never, like, I don't think I ever wrote them down.

Amy Shuman:
[7:01] My strength I love to partner with is Strategic^®, like, that sees those steps. I don't always; I sometimes see something shiny in the distance, and I have a lot of energy that I don't, it comes from somewhere, and maybe Maximizer, and I just start and just start doing it. So the goals, I guess, was to keep it going, to get it to more people, this idea of like, what is coaching? How could it impact their lives? Because it was impacting my life. And ultimately, the big goal was, how do we create a workplace that people are excited to be at, and it's a positive part of their life? So that was the goal. But it wasn't like a sheet, you know, like a, "This is my goal spreadsheet," and turn it in and track the progress. It was happening a lot more organically and a lot more fluidly. And at the time, none of this was actually my job. It was something I was doing for fun, and then it became my job. So that was another factor where I didn't have, like, concrete goals necessarily set. I say that maybe to help inspire people. Like, you don't have to -- if that's not how your brain works, you can still make progress without charting out all of these goals that way.

"The Best Jobs Aren't Found; They're Made"

Jim Collison:
[8:20] Amy, my job, also a job-crafting job, I didn't start this intending to do what we do today; we're doing it because we started it. Do you feel like you're a job crafter? I mean, that's a word we've been throwing around for the last decade or so. Have you kind of crafted yourself into a role? And how has that worked for you?

Amy Shuman:
[8:40] Yeah. Yes. And actually, I love your job and your job title, Jim, that -- this Community Leader.

Amy Shuman:
[8:47] So I watched a TED Talk sometime. I'm not very good at remembering the source who said it. But somebody on a TED Talk somewhere had said, the best jobs aren't found, they're made. And it really resonated with me. I've always been, well, not always in my professional life. I've been quite vocal. I say not always cause I was actually a really shy kid. But I've been quite vocal and I'm always looking for more and more things to do. One of my personally, one of my best achievements, I think, was being able to craft this role. I am so highly engaged in the work I do because it's exactly custom fit for me. So, yeah, I don't know that I knew that's what I was doing at the time. I was just trying to do a little bit more, a little bit more. But I feel very fortunate that I was able to do it because I work in a large organization, right? People had to sign off on this. I don't have my own or I just get to decide what I do. So, a lot of that was also about how do you show value in what you're doing and how it meets the needs of whoever it is you're, you're supposed to serve. So when you find that win-win, I think job crafting depends on the context. For me, it was, how do I share what I have to give, what lights me up, what I would do anyway, with the greatest needs that our organization has.

Jim Collison:
[10:17] Well said, because I think sometimes we think job crafting is, I want to do something, and so I'll just do it. And that doesn't always work. I mean, the road is not a straight path. You've got to -- but you said there, oftentimes, it's where the need meets opportunity, right? And in a strengths concept, where we, where our strengths meet that opportunity in a way where we can really shine on that. So I just, it, I think some people, I want, I just really want to do this. So, and you're like, Well, OK, the opportunity still has to be there, and you have to look for ways to serve. I think that's the key on this, is you have to find a way to serve people in that. So, sorry, Junjun, I jumped in already, but I'll turn it back to you for questions.

Applying Strengths to Build a Community

Junjun Feng:
[11:00] No, I love the questions, Jim. I'm hearing from both Jim and Amy that you've held this energy, you can feel that you are gravitating toward certain tasks, which allowed you to craft this job for yourself. And to me, whenever I find myself energized by something, usually it just means that my talents or strengths are at play. So I'd love to hear a little more, Amy: How do you really connect your strengths to building this community you have at UC Davis?

Amy Shuman:
[11:30] Yeah. Well, I lead with -- my Top 4 are all Influencing strengths. I don't know if anyone on the call noticed -- I'm wearing this color on purpose because -- represent the Influencing Domain. So for me, what that translates to is I'm all about impact and influencing, like, positive behavior. So I also have Significance as one of my Top 5. And I think that one, and when it comes to community, I think about, well, what is different because we came together? What's the impact of this? And I think about it every day. Like, I don't know if anyone else on the call has Significance high, but it's something, it's not an afterthought. It is the through, like the constant thought. So when it comes to leading a community, it's like, for what? It has to mean something in the lives of the people involved, and then the impact that we're having out there.

Amy Shuman:
[12:27] I think there's something about getting people together. And in grad school, I had learned this concept that I really love, about when you have a meeting, there's a rational aim. Like, what are you trying to do in this meeting? What's the business objective of this meeting? You know, maybe you need to make a list of something, or you need to identify your mission statement or something. That's great. And it's important to know, Why are we getting together? -- from a rational standpoint. But there was this other concept, and I think it was really why I like facilitation in the first place, which is the experience of it. What's the experiential aim? The way I lead is, well, I'm doing, that's what I'm thinking about all the time. How is this group going to be different because they showed up here today? Why would they come to this instead of just watching so much free content? You can get free content; you can learn about anything online at any time. You don't have to come with us and do it in a community. But there's something that we get in connection to each other -- a lot of things we get, and maybe that's its whole own topic.

Amy Shuman:
[13:31] But I guess what I'm getting at is, my brain is thinking about that all the time. Like, What's the greater significance of what we're doing here? And my whole goal, I guess it was 2 years ago, I, sometimes I like a word of the year or, like, a phrase of the year. And my phrase a couple years ago was, "Design people" -- "Design meetings people want to attend." If they want to come, then the engagement's going to go up and all of that. So I probably strayed away from your original question. But I think about, I don't take it lightly that I get the honor to serve as the leader of this community. There's some amazing people with so much talent. And I see my role with my Communication, with my Significance, of amplifying the message, amplifying the voices, and also amplifying the impact. So that's what I try to do.

Junjun Feng:
[14:23] I laugh because there's that famous mug where it says, "This meeting could have been an email."

Amy Shuman:
[14:28] Yeah, I have one of those somewhere.

Designing Meetings That Have Impact

Junjun Feng:
[14:31] And it's absolutely important, because, to me, time is so valuable. You never want to waste anybody's time. And I think it's so impactful that your mission or business objective is to design experiences where people want to come back. So what are some of the key factors or key elements you think is important to designing an impactful experience?

Amy Shuman:
[14:54] I think it's kind of equal parts content and connection. Those both start with "c"; that's fortunate. OK, so content and connection. One, there has to be some substance, right? We're not running just a purely social group, where people just getting together for, you know, and that's great. And that has its place. That's not what we're doing as a Community of Practice. So one is the content -- bringing in fresh content, making sure that it's aligned with what people want to learn. We survey our group. We try to do it, like, once a year, to see, What do you want, what topics do you want? And who in the community can, can lead them. One of the things I think that also makes a Community of Practice different than, I don't know, like some, just, meeting about it, is that we try to bring expertise from the members. It's not just me talking, you know, every meeting. If it's really as a community, we should be hearing all those different voices. So the content of the learning, and also then that, back to that experience. So to be an engaging meeting, somewhere along the line, I heard this kind of metric about, you know, Who's talking how much of the time in your meeting? Are you having a 90-10 meeting, where 10% of the people are talking 90% of the time?

Amy Shuman:
[16:15] How do we move more to, like, a 100-100 meeting, where everybody's talking all the time, everyone's participating all the time? So I think, in addition to the content, is how do we get people to engage with it? And what is it that they want? Just the other day, I was thinking about this through the lens of being a coach. I'm a professional Certified Coach with ICF. I'm a Gallup Global Strengths Coach. I think of the community almost like they're its own entity, like they are of my client. The whole coaching community is its own coaching client entity. And so if I think about it through that, I have to think, well, what do they want to do? As a coach, I'm not setting, I'm not directing the agenda; I'm following what is the need of the group.

Amy Shuman:
[17:05] And then also back to that coaching mindset -- open, curious, flexible -- to stay with the group. Where do they want to go? How can I help facilitate it? How can I help bring it back top-of-mind? If the content is coming from the group itself, if I'm asking questions of, like, How is it going? What do you want to see in the community? Then I think naturally people will want to be there, because we're designing what they said they wanted. I think one of the tricky things, if people are thinking about forming their own community or they're having challenges, sometimes you get into an established rhythm. Like, this is just what we do. And it might be working, but it might not. And when is the last time we asked? When did we ask people? So I think sometimes when things are going really well, we might just make some assumptions. And so checking in, that kind of iterative thing, to stay, stay flexible with people as they grow and learn, and their needs may grow and learn, and new people may come in. So, I think, thinking of the whole community, like they are the coaching client. And so they're really running it. We're helping facilitate what they're asking for.

Listening to the Coaching Community

Junjun Feng:
[18:15] That's absolutely powerful, because I think oftentimes, while the North Star or the mission can stay the same, the goals can shift -- and it needs to, because as your community evolves, naturally those goals will evolve as well. And I'm really, you know, excited to hear that you mentioned you really leverage the strengths of the people within your community by allowing them to have a voice and driving the type of content they want to learn or even having the empowerment to be the person that facilitates that learning content for the community. So how do you stay up to date with the needs of the community? How do you make sure that you're listening to their opinions and the things that they want?

Amy Shuman:
[19:02] Yeah, well, and because I'm going to play off a word here, when you said, like, "allowing them to have a voice," I think they're allowing me to serve as their leader. I think of it kind of the opposite way of that, right? So I serve at their will. So everything they want to do, that's where it starts. And I think, OK, how can I be a better leader to this group, make it fun, make it exciting? The other nice thing, though, that I don't think we laid as groundwork, maybe it's, you know, assumed -- this is not a group anybody has to be in. Like, this is a totally voluntary community. And my whole career, even before I got into higher ed and I worked in a theater, and theater is largely volunteer-run. I served on the board at ICF Sacramento, all -- most, yeah, all volunteers. So when you're running a volunteer organization, there's something in that element, too, about people are showing up because they want to be there and, and your role is a little bit different, in terms of they are kind of deciding what they want to do and how they want to participate. And, and I get to facilitate. But now I've gone off on a trail. Can you remind me what your question was?

Junjun Feng:
[20:13] Actually, I was so engrossed in your response, I forgot my initial question. But I think my question was about, How do you stay up to date or just make sure you're really actively listening to opinions?

Amy Shuman:
[20:25] I know. And see, I have Focus Top 5; I should have remembered your question, but I went too far. Well, we survey people. Like, we do a form online where people can fill it out. We try and do that once a year. We ask questions like, you know, What topics? How's it going? Do you like the format that we're meeting? Because we're kind of hybrid. We do some meetings on Zoom, and we do some meetings in person. We ask about, like, the length of the meeting and how frequent they are. And so we do that with a survey. And then, I mean, I also talk to people. So a lot of these people, I see in other settings and contexts. I'm a member of the community as well. Like, I'm actively a member. And so I try and have conversations with people. If I can get to sit down and have tea, then that's great. But I always try to keep my ears open for, you know, What do people need? How's it going? Do we need to make a change? And I try to really not get too, too stuck on, like, well, this is the way it's been going, or this is what I personally like. And viewing, you know, what is the larger need? So I guess mostly talking to people, and then we do a little bit of surveys.

Gaining Buy-In From Leadership

Junjun Feng:
[21:39] Yeah. I know in higher ed, survey fatigue is a real thing. So surveys is a great way to capture opinions, but if you really want opinions to make it seem like they counted, you have to be doing something with those opinions. So I'm sure those conversations give you a lot more nuance to what you're capturing under surveys. But more importantly, you're actually doing something with the data or the input you're collecting. And something I saw on the chat from Lisa Feldman that I think is a fantastic question is this idea where collective support is absolutely crucial when pursuing any sort of long-term vision or longevity for an initiative. And so, Who were the crucial stakeholders that championed this vision alongside you? And how did you approach building their buy-in with senior leadership and having them be able to understand this role you crafted for yourself and the value of your coaching community?

Amy Shuman:
[22:36] Yeah, so here, I mean, this is going to get a little specific, and I don't know how transferable this is for others who are listening, but there's kind of two things going on. One, my role is in the Division of Student Affairs. And so, certainly, our local leadership, our Vice Chancellor, has been a huge, and our whole Vice Chancellor's Council leadership team have all been really big supporters in the work that I'm doing personally, like that's my role. My role as the leader of the UC Davis Coaching Community of Practice is kind of a volunteer role. It is supported by our central human resources office, and it was, that was all established before I was selected to be the leader, I don't know how many years ago it's been now, maybe 3. So I wasn't part of gaining that support in the beginning. The coaches over in our Organizational Excellence, now called Organizational Development Department, did that. But there is sponsorship from our central leadership that way.

Amy Shuman:
[23:35] I think about, when you think about the Community of Practice, there isn't actually a lot of hard cost associated with it. It's more about, I guess, the time, certainly, the philosophy. And so in our world, we have a lot of these things. We're very collaborative. I think higher ed in general is a collaborative work environment. So it's not uncommon for people to start a committee and get people from all these different areas. Community practice is a little bit different than a committee.

Amy Shuman:
[24:09] But that, for me, luckily, that was already established, the buy-in. There's a formal charter. So they had established that beforehand, too, which is really writing out, like, who is the sponsor of the community and what is, what are the goals of the community? And those evolve as well. In our local leadership, we, we also gain support from hearing from the people who are participating. When we get, we get a lot of testimonials and we share that. And then maybe it's my Influencing themes too, is kind of thinking like, well, what is it that we're actually asking for? In a lot of ways, we're asking for just time to get together. So as far as leadership, I think that's going to look different in every organization. I think at UC Davis coaching is looked at as a tool that's really helpful and it's pretty widespread. And this is, I'm talking about coaching broadly in terms of like any kind of professional coaching. And I also credit the people in our central human resources office who's, who've had it as an offering for, for years. And that predates me, yeah. So I don't know if I can exactly answer that question. My context is a little different. But certainly having people who like what you're doing and who are benefiting from your work, and if they're sharing that, that can certainly be influential for leadership. That's one angle anyway.

The Impact of Strengths on an Institution's Culture

Junjun Feng:
[25:41] Yeah. My Individualization^® really appreciates that sometimes questions can be very context-specific, or answers to these questions can be really context-specific. But I'm sure with the UC Davis leadership, one thing I really held on to was you mentioned that coaching is a mechanism. Coaching is a catalyst. And I think one of the most powerful aspects of your Community of Practice is its multiplier effect, where each individual coach not only influences the community itself, but they're also extending their reach to others beyond it. So in this broader institutional perspective, leaders could really benefit from the impact this coaching community has on the institution as a whole. So could you talk a little bit more about how your community has really influenced the wider institutional culture or goals of UC Davis?

Amy Shuman:
[26:31] Yeah, I might reframe that a little bit, because, I mean, we're such a large organization. We've got so many different things going on at the same time. But I'll say this: When you're forming a culture that is about increasing empathy, increasing listening, increasing communication skills, increasing perspective-taking and not rushing to judgment, that benefits everyone. There are courses out, we can, we do courses on, you know, coach approach styles for managers and leadership. We, we do, you know, one-on-one kind of coaching things. But for me, when you talk about that multiplier effect -- and I'll just speak personally for me, you know, not, not necessarily as, you know, the university's mission, which is, it's just a big question.

Amy Shuman:
[27:25] When anyone who's a coach themselves knows this feeling, which is when you see people making connections that are actually making changes in their lives, which are leading to something positive happening. And when that becomes part of the culture, supporting each other, listening, taking the time to reflect -- I mean, just reflection alone helps people. So I think the more people that you have that are coaches, it's hard, I think, for a coach to be out in the world and not still have some of those skills, right? Like if you learn skills as a coach, it can impact your day-to-day conversations, how you interact with people. And I think that's where we really see that multiplier effect of seeing it changes the whole conversation.

Jim Collison:
[28:16] I want to break in a little bit with some halftime questions from the chat. And I think Susan asks a really good one. She says, In your opinion, what's been some of the most surprising or exciting outcomes of this group being created? And I know it morphs and changes over time, and it may be specific to what's happening around it as well, but maybe you can address that, or other outcomes that you've been thrilled to see through your group?

Junjun Feng:
[28:41] Yeah.

Amy Shuman:
[28:43] Well, part of it, like, it keeps growing. I don't know why that surprises me, but I'm surprised, I guess, at how much it's grown. There was even a point where we were getting, you know, more coaches were getting certified, and part of my role was helping to facilitate, you know, that, or how do we get access for people to get training if they're interested in becoming a coach? And, and I really kept thinking, OK, we got everybody. Everybody that wanted to do it, now we're done. We got everybody. And no. Instead, the more people that become coaches, they are out there and talking to people, coaching people, and then more people are interested. So I don't know why that surprised me. But it continues to -- just how far it reaches and how much positive impact it's had. The other thing that surprised me, too, is, you know, it started -- well, at least, like, if I think about, like, the strengths coaching community, that one started even smaller than the ICF community did. And now we've got them kind of merged together. But thinking about the degrees of separation, I think that's, we think about things like, how do we scale this where we have enough coaches so that anyone who wants coaching can come and work with a coach? That's really what my vision is of, like, I want coaching to be available to everybody, and how do we do that?

Amy Shuman:
[30:08] But when you, when you hear something from someone who worked with a coach that, like, you got to have some role in helping get them through to their coaching thing, like, that's really what's rewarding. I think that's what I've been most excited to see is how big some of these impacts are in people's lives. And not just work lives. Like, you know, we're coaching through work. But there was a coach I worked with at one point said, "You can call yourself a strengths coach or an executive coach or a leadership coach or a business coach or whatever kind of coach. But at the end of the day, it's all life coaching. Like we have, we bring our lives with us into all these situations." So getting to hear, that's one of the greatest privileges, I think, of being a coach is getting to hear the difference it made and then feeling like some small part of it was because this community supported and enabled that moment to happen and how that's going to change other people's lives. I mean, it just, it gives me goose bumps thinking about that.

Jim Collison:
[31:10] Yeah. That's a, it's a good, it's a, it's a good thought to have, right? The goose bumps are a good thought to have on that. Junjun and I spend our days thinking about the communities, right? Like, we, it's our job to make sure these communities roll. One of the privileges that I have is every day, I get to see all the coaches who certify or recertify in a file, and I try to reach out, reach out to them on LinkedIn and congratulate them. It's something I've been doing for the last 6 months or maybe a year now. I always smile when I see UC Davis folks now come through -- and I smile for everybody, but it's so fun to see the momentum of coaching. And it's, in some areas, we do a big blast, right? A bunch of coaches get certified all at once, and it, you know, and it's kind of an initiative. One of the things I've noticed at Davis is a trickle, well, maybe a stream effect of it's just constantly, it seems like it's constantly happening there. Do you get a sense, or do you feel like that's the work in general there is that it's just this consistent stream of helpfulness and people doing these things and coaching is happening? Does it, do you get that same feeling?

Amy Shuman:
[32:23] Yeah. I mean, I don't want to, I know we've got some people on live who can chime in the chat and see if, see what their thoughts are too. From my viewpoint, it does. I think it just keeps growing and growing. And the university is collaborative anyway. Like it's always, in my experience, it's always been a collaborative culture. People are really excited to help each other share knowledge. We're a learning organization. Like, that's what we're about, you know, sharing education, sharing resources. And then what I've seen happen with coaching -- the other thing, and maybe this goes to the other thing about the question before about what surprised me is we've been hearing from people that they really want connection, like they want to meet other people, and maybe people outside of their immediate area. And so the other thing that the coaching is helping facilitate is this kind of trust-building, trust-building and community-building across. But yeah, I mean, from my standpoint, I see that happening. I hear about it more just as I'm out and walking around.

Amy Shuman:
[33:30] Well, it's even funny, like, today, a couple weeks ago, someone messaged me through LinkedIn, saying they wanted to ask me about our coaching community. And I was like, Oh, well, I'm going to be on Called to Coach on November 7. You can listen to it there. So for me, signs like that of people being aware of it and then the questions coming in is a sign that it's continuing to grow, and people are talking about it. And it goes back to that, like, meaningful content, meaningful experiences. If we're facilitating that, then people are probably out there talking about their experience, and they want other people to know about it too. And, you know, I always have to be careful of, like, you know, there's me as the coach, and then there's me who works for UC Davis. Certainly, in our organization, we have a lot of people who've been really interested and supportive of it. And so that's been amazing. And for me also, I just, I personally, my life has changed because of coaching. And so it's easy to see, well, it's easy to see why I spend so much time doing this, because I, I've been personally been impacted by it.

Inviting Others Into Coaching

Junjun Feng:
[34:44] I always feel like sometimes it starts with being able to see that impact for yourself to then feel compelled to spread that impact to others. And I imagine there's a multiplier effect in that aspect as well, where your coaching community is impacting more people to want to become coaches as well. So I actually am really interested in hearing about your outreach. How do you market your Community of Practice to others? And, let's say there are some folks who don't even know yet for themselves that they'd want to be a coach. How do you start that conversation?

Amy Shuman:
[35:19] Yeah. And briefly, I just have to, I saw Rogelio's comment just flashed on the screen. Rogelio was the one who made it possible for me to do my first Coaching Certification course. So it's fun to see him on the call and, and, you know, this movement was around before I started helping. And so it's fun to see that. So yeah, I think that, oh, now, sorry, I got so distracted by Rogelio being here. Can you ask me again, Junjun?

Junjun Feng:
[35:51] Yeah. I'm really interested in this aspect where one of your goals is about accessibility. So how do you reach those who might not even be sure for themselves that coaching is something they want to be doing?

Amy Shuman:
[36:05] Yeah, so it kind of started as a, it feels a little bit like it was like a kind of underground network -- like, you had to kind of know somebody who knew somebody. Certainly, LinkedIn is one place where we've grown. But it started really kind of internally, of somebody would know somebody else that was going through coaching certification. Or they'd meet somebody, and then we have, like, an email listserv. So if you connect with us, we'll add your name, and then you get all the information. There's something I think on the website, but it's, it's not, there isn't really a way to join in without, you know, just emailing us and getting in there. So it's still kind of a manual process. I think one of the ways we advertise it would be some of the courses that we teach. We might mention, Hey, if you're interested in, you know, doing more with this, we have little, we have, like, email newsletters and things that go out where we kind of let people know about programs, and then through the programs, we might connect them there.

Amy Shuman:
[37:13] But I think that the main way that the community is advertised -- well, OK, I got to back up. Not everybody in the Coaching Community of Practice is a coach in their job at UC Davis. So if you think back to, like, this is a volunteer organization. So people are there for all different -- some of them, their job includes coaching. A few of them, it's, like, mostly coaching in their job. Some of them are managers who use coaching as a tool to do a different primary responsibility. And then some just invested on their own to become coaches because they like it, and it's not really even what their main role is. So when it comes to access for coaching, even just to use the Coaching Community of Practice to receive coaching, we have some limitations there. It's not a group where we advertise, necessarily, because we're, we're not running, like, a, a service. The community exists mostly to support and enhance the people who are doing this work. So we don't advertise it in the way of, like, we're not always trying to source and get new members to fill, like, a role. We're just like, Hey, is this something you're interested in? There's a group here. If you want to learn more, if you want to keep the conversation going, if you're, if you just want company, people who do one-on-one coaching, I feel like it can be a kind of -- lonely sometimes, right? Like, you, and it's confidential. So you can't really talk about who are you coaching? What are they talking about? Especially if you subscribe to, like, ICF ethics, like, you can't talk about that.

Amy Shuman:
[38:56] So the coaching community also, we talk about it in terms of finding other people who understand what that work is like, and how do we refill our own bucket when you're out in a, really a support role in service of other people? I see Lisa just put in the chat, Lisa is one of our coaches and a career coach at UC Davis, and mentioning it in those trainings. So yeah, that's great. Knowing, for people who are going through trainings, Hey, there's another group you can join if you want to continue this. And I just saw Nellie also chimed in there. Nellie runs our newsletter and highlighting some of those stories, because the testimonials and the impact is a great way for people to understand what it is and do they want to be part of it?

Junjun Feng:
[39:41] Yeah, the Relator^® in me always loves hearing those personal stories, because that's what really emotionally, for me to really emotionally resonate or feel compelled by something. So I would love to hear -- is there a favorite story that you have about the impact of coaching you've shared with your community?

Amy Shuman:
[40:00] Hmm. Favorite story. Oh, my gosh. Like, my Competition theme is like, What's the very best story? I'm probably taking that too seriously. I didn't prepare one. But some of my favorite memories actually are -- What the feeling of when the coaches come together. So certainly there are personal stories about people, you know, without disclosing anybody's name or any kind of context that you could guess. There have been people who've said they, they changed their whole mind about their job because of coaching, or they were able to work through something really difficult. And now they have a new perspective because of coaching. And that is amazing. And that's why we're doing it.

Amy Shuman:
[40:46] And personally, my favorite memories are when we get, when we do these events where people come together, we started, we used to call it "Coaching Day." And it was to raise awareness for coaching, and we'd invite anybody -- you didn't have to be a coach; you could, anybody that wanted to learn about coaching could come. And the energy in that room -- there's something about being in person with people and feeling all the positive energy. So I still remember, like, our very first coaching day event, watching people who were getting exposed to coaching for the first time thinking like, Wow, this is really, this could be really helpful. And then the people who love it just being around, you know, like their people, people who get it, they do the same kind of work. So for me, the impact -- there are some personal stories, which I won't share, out of privacy, that live in my heart. But the other part of it is the, the memories of, like, it just makes me happy to think about what it feels like to get everybody together in community, preferably in person, and, and hearing all the support that comes from that.

Jim Collison:
[41:56] I think Junjun alluded to this earlier, but Amy, as I hear you talk, I have this picture in my mind. And at first I thought about stealth coaching. You know, it happening behind the scenes without a lot of authority or purpose -- that's probably not the right word, but -- or directive. In other words, sometimes we think of, if we're going to have an impact, we've got to create a group of coaches, and that's going to be their full-time job, and that's what they're going to do. And then we're going to advertise it at the very top level, and it's going to have priority on all the communication moving forward, and we're going to do all these things. Where I, what I'm hearing from you and the secret of the group is, one, everybody that's there wants to be there. They're choosing to be there. And then, the coaching doesn't always take the form of someone's full-time job, or something -- so oftentimes, it's embedded somewhere. And when we think about it being inclusive, that actually may be an indicator of higher inclusivity, in the sense that it's not a, it's not in some strict standards or they have to go to a center to get, oh, I'm going, I'm knocking on the coach's door. Is that the, that's the feeling I have. Is that correct? Correct me if it's wrong, but that's the feeling I get of what's happening there with your, with the group.

Amy Shuman:
[43:15] Yeah. Yeah, that is what's happening. And in fact, there isn't a door or even a portal, even like a -- electronic. You can't -- right now, you can't just go somewhere and request a coach. In Student Affairs, in the work that I do, you can. And that's something that is just thrilling for us to be able to offer. The coaching community at large are doing coaching in many different ways. Some of them have roles where you can make an appointment and see them for coaching. Some of them are using coaching tools more than, like, hosting actual, like, coaching sessions. And some of them are just living the philosophy out and, like, learning about it. So it's a pretty wide range. And then others work, you know, in our, our central offices, where they're out consulting as well and, and doing that coaching. So the community really, it's more, it really is that word community. It's not a department that -- there are some departments that have coaches in them, but the coaching community is a place where, regardless of level, regardless of job title, we all come together in the spirit of supporting each other in the work and helping us all to get better at it. I think it appeals to the Maximizer in me too. We're always learning. We're always enhancing our skills and practicing.

Starting a Coaching Community

Jim Collison:
[44:42] Listen, don't get me wrong. We, we at Gallup, we love to go into organizations to help them set up all that structure. Like, we love to do that. But it's great to hear. I hear this from coaches all the time in the community, they're solo in a place where there is, this isn't happening. And they say, "How do I get this rolling?" And so if someone asks you, Amy, if you were to put on a generic coaching hat to coach a coach and say, "I'm all alone. I want to start something like this." Knowing what you know now, what kind of advice would you give to someone who asked that question today?

Amy Shuman:
[45:17] Yeah. Well, as a coach, I would give advice. I would ask them a question back, probably.

Jim Collison:
[45:23] That's true. That's true. You caught me there.

Amy Shuman:
[45:26] Like, what's most important to you? Most important to you.

Jim Collison:
[45:28] Maybe it's a consultant, then, if you were going to be a consultant.

Amy Shuman:
[45:31] Yeah, if I was a consultant, or if I was a guest on Called to Coach, what would I say? I would say, well, this is just my own strategy: Start with where you know you have support. I mentioned briefly, I was previously involved on the board of our local ICF chapter, and that's a specific kind of coaching. But there's ways for you to connect, sometimes, even with a community outside your workplace. If you're really the only person there and no one else is interested in joining, then look beyond that. But in your own workplace, I think, looking for somebody who might be a supporter. I love hosting meetings. If -- I say, like, if I know at least one person wants to go, worst case, we have a nice conversation and we enjoy the time together. But what happens is when you're passionate about something, and people, and you start telling people, oftentimes, you'll, you'll gain more people than you think.

Amy Shuman:
[46:31] So I would say, don't be afraid to tell people about some of the impact that you've seen, the reason that you like it, the reason that you're doing this work, the reason that it's a calling. And it's OK to start small. I think setting something up and putting it in motion, creating a little bit of formality, and maybe the formality is just a meeting time. Like, we're going to meet at this time. Like, we started it at lunch, because that was, seemed like that would be the easiest time for people to get away to do it. Setting a meeting time with an intention and then sharing why you care. And other people, I think, will hear that and it'll, it kind of acts like a magnet.

Navigating Obstacles

Junjun Feng:
[47:17] Yeah, well, I love to hear, you know, all of these practices that you're sharing with coaches on how to get started with coaching, and I'm sure you're able to get this advice, because hindsight's 20/20, you're able to reflect back onto it. So I would love to learn a little more about, what are some of the major learning moments you've had when you've encountered some potential roadblocks or obstacles? How did you navigate those moments where it might seem like the coach community was reaching some sort of challenges?

Amy Shuman:
[47:55] Yeah. I mean, going back to the fact that ours is a volunteer network -- I mean, they're all employees in our organization. That was the other membership criteria. You have to be part of, you know, UC Davis to be in the UC Davis coaching community. But otherwise, it's people volunteering their time. So, time is a limiting factor a lot. People get other things that are competing priorities for attendance. I think the other challenge is getting enough feedback, so that we make sure that we are meeting the needs of the community. You mentioned earlier about, you know, like, survey fatigue and things.

Amy Shuman:
[48:32] And then also, I think being able to put in energy where you think it's dropping. So I think part of it, too, is, like, do you have somebody who can be a barometer or sense, like, how people are feeling, in terms of motivation and energy? So, like, last year, we did a big event in student affairs to increase excitement and engagement as the year was starting. And that was partly strategic, to think, OK, how do we keep the momentum going? I was thinking about this, actually, about, and it's funny because I'm really not good at this, the literal example of taking care of plants. But I will use it, because it's a metaphor -- people, I think, generally get this concept, right? You're taking care of a plant. It needs things, like water and sunlight and all this. If you water it too infrequently, it's going to dry up. And I know, because I've got some I could show you. But if you aren't watering it frequently enough, it's going to dry up. And on the other hand, if you're like, if you put too much water, you can drown it out, and it could get overwhelmed, and it can't survive that way either. So I think part of the community, cultivating a community and then keeping it going, is somehow you have to be able to have a pulse on how is the energy going in the group? Do you need to add more water? Are you doing too much stuff, and people can't participate?

Amy Shuman:
[50:05] So that's something that I'm mindful of. I don't know exactly how we're doing that, but I think the better you get to know the people in your community and that you build trust so people will give you their honest feedback, you can get a little bit of sense of that. So I think putting that extra water or plant stuff when it's time, that's what you need to sustain it, is you have to keep feeding it, and you need to know for your community, how often does that need to happen? And what does that look like?

Jim Collison:
[50:37] To your plant analogy, Amy, you kill the plant faster if you water it too much, by the way. I don't know if that always works in these kinds of scenarios, but, but, but certainly, that, that's the truth. As we kind of bring this in for a landing -- and Junjun, and I want to reserve the last question for you, so you be thinking of that. But, Amy, as you guys are looking ahead, what are you anxious for (not anxious in a bad way, but anxious in a good way). What are you excited for here in the future? Anything coming up that you want to highlight?

Amy Shuman:
[51:08] Yeah, I, well, the Maximizer in me is like, I always just want to get bigger, like more. So I'm excited for, can we help support more people find coaching? And if it's for them, can we help support them to get the education and the training and certification that they need to do that kind of work? I'm excited about that. I also have, in recent years, gotten, you know, kind of reinvigorated by these in-person events. So I'm, like, always excited about what can we do to help keep that spirit alive? And so there's events that we're planning. And my team, also, so I didn't mention this, but for, oh, I think 7 years, I was a team of one in my official role. And now I have a team under me. And so what we can do now with more people and more, more energy. So I'm excited about expanding services. My main focus now is on our staff and on our coaching community, so I like to be support for the coaches. I don't do as much one-on-one coaching as I used to do, but I'm excited to see how we can get more people in for coaching, and then what ends up happening in their lives.

Jim Collison:
[52:30] Junjun, last question -- for you.

The Community's Coaching Word of the Year

Junjun Feng:
[52:34] Now looking to the future, Amy, what would you say is your coaching word of the year? And what would you say is the community's coaching word of the year?

Amy Shuman:
[52:43] Oh my gosh, word of the year! I wasn't ready for this, because that's a January thing.

Jim Collison:
[52:48] We're prepping you. We're just getting you ready for it, because it's coming, right? You know it's coming.

Amy Shuman:
[52:52] Yeah.

Jim Collison:
[52:53] Or words, if you need. You could do words, if you need to.

Amy Shuman:
[52:57] Yeah. So for a while, for several years, one of the big words I've been thinking about is this transform, transformational. Coaching is a container where transformation can happen. And I think that continues into next year. But I think, really, the other word I'm thinking about is culture, and in that, there is a spreading kind of element in that, too, of, like, what does it mean for it to really be part of the culture, and how do we support that? So I think about the growth and culture. And then for me personally, my word is probably about -- I'm going actually going back to purpose. So in coaching, we do a lot to work around purpose statements. And I had one for several years -- and I can share it with you if you want. But I'm thinking, oh, maybe I need, like, a new updated purpose. But the purpose, which actually goes right along with coaching and strengths coaching, too, my purpose statement was: My purpose is to belong to myself and, and feel the love that comes from helping other people do the same.

Amy Shuman:
[54:09] That's what it's about. More self-awareness, so that we're making choices for ourselves that are in alignment with what our goals are and what's best for us. Because really, the only person -- and I saw Linda was on here earlier; Linda told me this -- the only person who's really an expert in your strengths, the only person who's an expert in your life, is you. We're here to help.

Jim Collison:
[54:32] That's good. Well said, Amy, well said. I'm going to thank you -- Junjun, we'll do it here in just a second. But, Amy, thank you for coming on today. You and I have been working on this for a while to get this done. And so thanks for holding the course and staying with it. Great to have you here today. Always great to hear the good news and all the great things that are going on. Growing up in the Bay Area, I heard the term Davis a lot growing up. That, that is just, it's a very popular school in, in the Bay Area and in all of California. And so congratulations on the work. It's a big deal what you guys are doing there, and you're doing it fabulously. Thank you to all the coaches, whether they're part time, full time, or just influencers in that space that are doing that as well. We thank them for the work that they do. Junjun, thank Amy for being here as well, would you?

Junjun Feng:
[55:27] Yeah, Amy, thank you so much for sharing your time with us today. I know that every single meeting we have, I'm constantly learning from you as much as you're learning from Gallup content as well. And I just am so excited to see what comes next for UC Davis' Coach Community of Practice, what your next chapter will be, and excited to be alongside this journey with you all.

Amy Shuman:
[55:49] Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This was really, like, this is a highlight for me. I've been looking forward to this. My Futuristic has imagined it even before you could imagine. And so it's, it's really great. And thank you also to all the people who came in live. I, I did get distracted a couple times because I was trying to read the chat. And I love all the comments that are coming in. So thanks for the people who made time to be here live, too.

Jim Collison:
[56:11] Yeah. And Michelle from Cal HR, that, she was out there saying, "Hey!" So, there might --

Amy Shuman:
[56:16] They're in California, yeah.

Jim Collison:
[56:18] We had, we had Michelle and Nicole on back in the spring, talking about all the work that CalHR is doing.

Amy Shuman:
[56:23] I listened to it. Yeah.

Jim Collison:
[56:25] The amazing stuff that they're doing. So, hey, California, it's my hometown. So, anyways, we appreciate you. Junjun, thanks for, for coming on today as well, and for hosting us on this program as well. With, with that, we'll remind everyone to take full advantage of all the resources we do have available in Gallup Access. You can head over there -- my.gallup.com. For coaching, master coaching or to become a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach like Amy was talking about, you can contact us as well: coaching@gallup.com. Then stay up to date on all the things we're doing around our coaching community -- in our Facebook groups, or you can join us in any social platform just by searching "CliftonStrengths." If you enjoyed it, hit the Like and Subscribe and follow all those -- you know, all those social buttons that you're supposed to be clicking out there as well. Thanks for coming out today. And thanks for being a part of the community. Thank you too, as well as everyone else listening today in the communities that you're in. Go out and do well. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.
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Amy Shuman's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Communication, Competition, Maximizer, Significance and Focus.

Junjun Feng's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Achiever, Responsibility, Relator, Individualization and Learner.

Gallup^®, CliftonStrengths^® and each of the 34 CliftonStrengths theme names are trademarks of Gallup. Copyright © 2000 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.