Direct services, operations, budget and finance, HR, development, board and governance, public relations, public policy – I had my hand in all of them. Though I preferred moving the strings behind the scenes over being the face of the organization, for a while I was even acting head of the nonprofit, “acting out” as I liked to say.
I had another sign on my wall that read simply “Coach Ref,” two words that boiled down my multitude of roles to two core responsibilities. Nearly every decision I made was either coaching someone trying to fly their job successfully or refereeing between two valuable people on the payroll.
Last year I stepped away from all that. Hands down, the part I was happiest to give up was the referee work. Stress be gone!
What I have missed most is the coaching. Watching people grow is one of my favorite pastimes.
When I look back at my five decades of adulting, I see this same pair – coaching and reffing – showing up in nearly every position. It’s all been about helping people succeed so that organizations can succeed, and vice versa, knowing that organizational and personal success will translate into fulfilling a mission of serving others.
Again, my favorite role has always been coaching. By coaching, I mean helping a new nonprofit leader get their bearings – or transition up to the next level. Inspiring an intern just starting out to see the big picture. Talking through with a pastoral team member or leader how to navigate particularly rough rapids in the river of ministry. Helping someone successfully process into cross-cultural mission. Walking alongside a doctoral student inching toward the dissertation finish line.
Coaching sounds a lot like mentoring – and it is similar to, maybe even a form of, mentoring. Coaching, at least in my book, is about investing and inspiring, connecting dots, nudging people in positive directions, helping people find their own unique solutions, showing people where the path can lead way out ahead, all with the end goal of watching them move forward on their own steam, with their own methods, in their own direction.
So, to keep my retirement status hyphenated with “semi,” my shingle is out. Coach Kenyon has opened shop. I’ve continued to coach informally, but now I’m available for hire.
I’ve been privileged to coach both men and women, people from different nationalities and ethnicities, young and older, and in vastly different places on the globe. I can look at a map and identify these friends in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and scattered all over the U.S.
Just to name two:
- Jenny Hale lives in Oregon. She is director of Second Home, a program ministering to houseless, unaccompanied teenagers, helping them find stable housing and complete their high school education.
- Tara Brooks Kenyon lives in Panama. She is working to complete her Ph.D. at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in the U.K.
You can read their testimonials here.
As this is not a fulltime gig, I’ll keep my commitments to a handful of promising prospects. While I prefer to offer my services at the full rate, I’ll willingly slide the scale to accommodate as necessary to ensure that even struggling pastors and Ph.D. students get what they need. So, what am I offering – or not offering?
No spiritual directing – we’ll talk spiritual, but spiritual directors have a separate, wonderful role.
No directing, period – that is for your boss.
No reffing whatsoever! I’ll leave that to my mediation friends (though I’m willing to talk through with you the reffing you are dealing with).
And no therapy either! There are others far more finely tuned for such a critical task.
So, then, am I a life coach? Well, I know I am not a death coach. That said, “life coach” is a broad field. Let’s say I am a leadership/ministry coach who also does dissertation coaching.
If you are a nonprofit leader, a pastor, in some form of ministry role, or a doctoral student creeping toward the finish line, I’ll be glad to commit to meeting with you on a regular basis – weekly, biweekly, or monthly. A few times or over a longer contract. The delight of modern online communications, especially with technology like zooming, is that we can connect pretty much wherever you are in the world and in real time. We just have to find a Venn space of mutual awake time.
However, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, I love hanging out in coffee shops with my Arnold Palmer or hot chocolate. Preferring as I do to hang close to home, I’ve found a few great establishments nearby.
We’ll take the first session to set basic objectives and start the process of getting to know each other. And then we’ll see how it goes from there. We can set up a short set of appointments so we can give it a decent run, then see if that is all that is needed, or if it makes sense to extend. The default plan calls for 6 sessions.
My approach is to keep it light-handed, let it move forward with you paddling the canoe and me serving as guide. From time to time, I’ll offer recommendations, references, or resources, but if it doesn’t come from inside you, it won’t stick. I’m just there to help the answers you need come out. And, no doubt, you already have the connections to those answers lurking inside. They’re just not yet connected, or you wouldn’t need me.
If you want to ask questions or are ready to sign up, go to this page on my website.
P.S. Maybe you are not looking for a coach for yourself, but you believe in this ministry so much, you want to sponsor a pastor in need or a student. If so, let me know via that page and we’ll set something up.