Knowing what makes a difference, makes all the difference.

Daily, we are bombarded with disappointing and sad news from around the world.  On the surface, it’s easy to create a generalized perception of why these events are occurring, and to whom they are occurring. I’d like to take moment to encourage you to look deeper.

Research tells us that often these events occur as part of a chain reaction to inaccessibility of quality education. Children, adults, males, and females, nationally and internationally, are often on the receiving end of events that could have been mitigated by access to education.

But here’s the good news. Coaches, you can make a difference.

As coaches, we share a unique calling to create positive impact. Our life work centers around creating, developing, and propelling change in other humans. ICF Foundation’s Ignite Initiative is focusing on applying coaching to educational organization Leaders, building capacity to achieve their social progress goals, while conducting research on the impact of the intervention using data and measurement.

Traditionally, as a collective group, coaches have overlooked the most important and substantial way to exponentially compound the difference we can make. Relying on experience to understand what delivers the greatest amount of impact in our coaching is only part of the equation. To make the greatest amount of change, we need to first know the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind what creates the greatest impact. Knowing requires data and evidence.

Data-driven coaching is about more than learning new behaviors. It’s about translating behaviors into action to create a positive, tangible change in people and measuring the impact with quantifiable results. Using empirically based strategies and data allow us to improve our coaching and improve our impact.

Subscribing to these coaching methodologies, the Ignite Initiative will use the measurement of their coaching impact to better understand how we can continue to change the future on a broad scope in humanity, and in our daily engagements with clients and organizations.

Our coaching of these educational organizations and corresponding measurement of results will aim to understand:

  • The common challenges educational leaders face
  • How coaching can be impactful
  • Exactly what happens in coaching to create the impact we desire
  • Return on this investment from coaching for our partners

Our participation will go beyond helping those we touch directly, and even those the educational organizations’ touch. The research, evidence, and findings we uncover will result in making a greater impact on a broader scale.

I’d like to invite you to come be a part of our work by joining a chapter project near you in a world where we can sometimes feel like our impact is limited, we have an opportunity to create dynamic change, worldwide. You’ll coach. We’ll capture data. And together, we’ll make an impact.

Lisa Ann Edwards

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