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.

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.

In 2025, the ICF estimates 109,200 ICF certified coaches exist worldwide, an unprecedented milestone exceeding the 100,000 mark. Most recent 2023 data has MCC coaches at 2,203. So reasonable to expect, it’s still under 3,000.

How high am I with this long climb and summit of certifying with the International Coaching Federation as a master certified coach, an honor the international non-profit, the largest for coaches globally, bestows to only 4% of its coaches globally.

Well. I need to secure my second recording having secured one clear winner. And whilst I see the summit, I’m not quite there yet.

I LOVED and felt euphoric about a recording I recently shared with MCC Coach Ben, my partner on this climb, with whom I’ve mentored ten times since last May. (I also shared this recording with you as episode eight.) Having listened together, my mentor and I both feel this effort’s a ‘maybe’ a ‘probably’ vs a clear ‘yes.’

In this week’s episode, with my client’s blessing once more, you’ll hear Coach Ben and my musing on the ICF evaluators and their very strict rule book of eight core competencies. We just don’t know how much they’ll love this attempt.

The sharing’s a little choppy as we’re stitching together (with dear Dotun’s help) a conversation prior to listening to the coaching call with a conversation after listening to the coaching call.

Harvard University received 53,700 applications for this incoming class of 2029. Of those, 1,950 were admitted, a 3.63% acceptance rate. My oldest of two sons, Nicholas McCullough, is one of them. He’ll play defensive tackle for the Harvard University football team, who recruited him, and he’ll study economics.

As mother’s day weekend approaches, my last with him under our roof, I’m feeling what any Harvard parent might feel: Pride. Euphoria. Excitement. Awe.

The deeper feelings, impending heartbreak of him moving away from our Wisconsin base to Boston, I’m processing—and managing, in part through honoring Competency No 5. That deceptively tricky competency of staying present in a space of not knowing feels super powerful and potent to me now, with one delightful and lovable son still with us and one getting ready to leave.

I’m reading this episode from a first essay published today on Medium, honoring an 18-year chapter of raising a son within two cultures and in ways that instilled confidence, calm, and a quest for adventure. And we’re starting another. I’m calling this essay series “the Harvard Mum Project” (because we say “mum” vs. “mom” where I come from).

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 active listening workshop on Maven, Listen Like a Boss.

“The summit is what drives us; but the climb itself is what matters”

The delightful quote comes from Conrad Anker, the American rock climber, activist, author and mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest three times. Anker, known for his visionary approach towards hardship, also tackled challenging routes across the Americas, Antarctica, and the Himalayas.

I’ve thought of Anker’s views on the journey of learning often whilst securing my final goal of MCC certification: Finding a second viable coaching recording to submit to my ICF evaluators.

In this week’s episode I’m airing (with my clients encouragement and permission) a coaching call that came once I refocused my mind to love and trust the climb vs. the summit. (This may meet the mastery level ICF evaluators look and listen for. It may not. But I love it.)

Why? Because I felt so anchored and present in this call for the entirety vs. moments throughout. I encouraged and witnessed my coachee’s empowerment without pouring in ideas. The results? Massive clarity, awareness and truly a joyous human experience requiring trust in the journey of learning–for us both. Listen in.

For Anna Damsma, maintaining presence was not much on her radar when working as a consultant. Work was more about pouring in excellent advice and building profits.

But when later training to become a coach with the prestigious Co-active Coach Training Institute, Anna, based in the Amsterdam area, discovered three levels of listening existed. And level three listening—a universal level of listening which requires listening on a deeper, more full-sensory level, brought her extreme presence. “This felt so wonderful,” she recalls. “I’ve been hooked ever since.”

In our delightful conversation on how we both define and strive to maintain presence, even when the mindset and feeling feels unattainable, we hear of a woman who now builds her very day around creating moments of presence.

For Anna, that feeling of calm and bold intuition comes from setting her intention in the morning, visiting her garden often (and between calls). Presence comes from coaching, being with her family, and from immersing her hands in clay as a potter.

Whether we’re busy or not, we can learn lessons on maintaining presence as we coach, lead, and live our lives from our interview with Anna.

You can find Coach Anna Damsma on LinkedIn by clicking here. Find me, your show host, via my website, or find me also on Linkedin. Join my first workshop on Maven, Listen Like a Boss, here.

I’ve not mused about my certification efforts with the International Coaching Federation as a master certified coach for a good while. Much has happened, and not happened since my January update. Here’s where we’re at.

To certify as an MCC coach, coaches must submit for thorough evaluation two recorded coaching calls of at least 25 minutes in length. These conversations must resemble pure coaching, not a smidgen of consulting nor therapy, and at a level of coaching the ICF, the world’s largest non profit organization for coaches, deems as “exceptional” even “beautiful coaching.”

If you’ve been following my Competency No 5 show, you’ll know I’ve secured one recording I deem as “beautiful” and my MCC mentor coach Ben Dooley agrees. Oddly, I’m struggling to secure the second.

In this episode, I share my struggles lest it helps fellow coaches striving for MCC, that top 4% of ICF globally certified MCC coaches. My musings may also help other deep listeners who also find asking “how are you?” opens floodgates. That very genuine inquiry, especially in these troubling times, allows us to ask with heart, but then risk losing the thread of the conversation, or even creating one.

Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, coaching, and training via my website, or find me also on Linkedin. Join my first workshop on Maven Learning, Listen Like a Boss, here.