February is a busy month at the Institute of Coaching. We are excited to be working on new ideas, and to share information about some of these activities with you. We invite all of you from every part of the world, to take part. And hope you are all doing well despite the dramatic environmental extremes we have been having in many parts of the globe. Temperatures dropped to -40 C in the central United States and then jumped 50 degrees C in the span of a couple of days; while record heat waves engulf Australia. Such dynamics are becoming more common, and remind us to reflect on attitudes and actions reducing risks for the environment, improving health of individuals, and contributing to sustainable development. 

Multiple psychosocial theories of behavior change have been informing research and intervention design, including coaching. The theory of “implementation intentions” and the related ideas about the gap between intending to act and actual action are part of motivational theories, which have been elaborated over the last decades. This framework informs the talk by Dr. Siegfreid Grief to be presented at one of our two February webinars. 

The research article we highlight in this Coaching Report is a very recent systematic review of how developing interventions, informed by implementation intentions, have resulted in successful behavior changes. The second webinar is on sustaining brain health and preventing problems with brain functioning, presented by Dr. Shelly Carson. Grounded in neuroscience research, the webinar will also illustrate life-style and behavioral changes which can have a significant impact on brain health and performance.  

The January Coaching Report highlighted many resources related to the emerging area of team coaching; the January Webinar also took a “deep dive” into this topic, presented by  Alexander Caillet and Amy Yeager. In this February issue of the Coaching Report, we add information about this growing literature by presenting a new book Transformational Coaching to Lead Culturally Diverse Teams. The book is being printed as we speak, and is authored by a long-term friend of the IOC and previous member of the Scientific Advisory Council, Dr. Sunny Stout Rostron. 

We are also announcing our first call for submissions of research to the Annual Coaching in Leadership and Healthcare Conference to be held in October 2019. We look forward to receiving information about your work and seeing you in Boston!

Irina Todorova
IOC Director of Research