The International Coaching Federation’s Competency 8 asks its certified coaches to work with clients in ways that great leaders do with their team: consider possibilities, create action plans, and explore learning. It also requires developing measurable achievements.

In a new coaching session with MCC Coach Ben Dooley, we review a strong— perhaps an excellent contender for my second recording submission to the ICF for my MCC certification. It seems strong to me—and to Coach Ben— but without time-stamped requests for specific action steps at the end. Does this eliminate me and make this recording? I’m still not sure. The client establishes action steps, but perhaps not in textbook perfect ways.

Listen into a mentoring session for fodder for your own ICF certification and/or more training on deep, active listening.

Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training via my website, or find me also on Linkedin. Reach out to MCC Coach Ben Dooley via his website, here.

This month, the U.S. reaches historic milestones in some lovely and not so lovely ways. In my world, June 2025 brings joy and hope to 3.9 million high school graduates. Class of 2025 becomes the largest and most diverse class in history, experts say, and with historically high competition for college placement, too. My son, Nicholas, and his friends joined those millions this past Sunday at Muskego High School here in Wisconsin.

What the media skips over is the deep emotions and new perspectives graduation brings for students and parents, especially those emerging from more egalitarian cultures like New Zealand which favor equality and humility and discourage displaying our success.

And that’s what I’m documenting in my second essay for the Harvard Mum project, an essay project on all that I’m learning about leadership, confidence, my American dream, and immigrant motherhood as my son joins Harvard University’s Class of 2029 this fall. The moment feels far closer now he’s high school graduated — and with that, I’ve much to process. You can read my first essay here.

You can read along with this essay on Medium here.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her Brag Like a Boss three-hour workshop on Maven here and check LinkedIn for free Lightning Lessons.

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Albert Einstein, our beloved German-born physicist and mathematician, owns the delightful quote. And I find it especially timely when I’m mid-build of something big, new, risky, but beautiful.

I find when I’m imagining what’s truly possible, I love to collaborate with my inner circle (new and old). I also love to isolate. This feels intelligent (or at least sensible) to me. Imagining is where the magic is. We can always curtail our hopes once we see how things land.

Once the build begins and progresses, and as launch deadlines near, I find even more need to isolate. This helps protect you from my diluted focus. And it helps tame my inner critical interference (a Saboteur hijacking) and tap instead the creativity and strength of my inner girl and of my Sage. She tells me to think bigger. Trust more. And to calm my mind.

In this week’s episode, reading from Medium, I’m exploring this creative, self-preservation process on why you won’t hear from me mid-build in hopes it sparks a new way of looking at courage and imagination in you. I wrote and read this episode on the week of a huge launch: my first Lightning Lesson on Maven, a precursor to a my Brag Like a Boss workshop I’m launching in July. This sharing helped anchor me as I hope it does you.

Your show host, D G McCullough is a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. She runs Hanging Rock Coaching and serves as a communications coach to leaders all over the globe. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her Brag Like a Boss three-hour workshop on Maven here and check LinkedIn for free Lightning Lessons.