Some of the Institute's Achievements
The School was the world's first international professional coach training institution. Today, it is estimated that our graduates provide well over 250,000 coaching sessions a year. Our expert faculty members have provided invitational trainings in the use of evidenced-based, best coaching practices to qualified persons involved in people development from over 40 countries. Since 1998, the Institute has conducted advanced trainings for small groups at over 200 universities, corporate institutions and government agencies and our best-selling text books are published around the world in multiple languages.
"Unlike traditional business coach training institutions that embrace a singular and often, outdated view of professional development, BCI’s business and executive coaching courses offer a full range of psychological and behavioral based personal/professional development that incorporates the leading "best-in-class" practices in the world. With their research and development in the fields of the behavioral sciences, coaching tool development, cross cultural training they are able to offer a depth and breadth of learning that typically requires enrolment with several separate educational providers. The Institute's certified business coaching course employs a customized, hands-on, learning solution approach using total emersion case studies and role-plays that are uniquely designed to meet the specific coaching needs and business objectives of each course participant."
OD Journal 2006
BCI's Founding Director of Education
Dr. Suzanne Skiffington, B.A, M.C.P, PhD, M.A.P.S, M.I.S.H
"Dr. Skiffington's Certified Master Coach Course has a long standing reputation as the path to obtain the world's elite business and executive coaching credential."
H.R.Today
Background
Dr Skiffington is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of coaching in the workplace and has been interviewed on T.V., radio and in the print media around the world. Her work and research in coaching has been reported in the world's top business, professional and scientific journals. She lectured on workplace coaching in leading universities, consulted with various government committee meetings and hearings, opened international conferences with key note speeches and has had numerous coaching articles published in various professional journals, magazines and newspapers.
Dr Skiffington's formal qualifications included a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Masters of Clinical Psychology and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She received international recognition for outstanding teaching and research. In the early 1990's while teaching psychology at university, her research in human performance in an organizational environment led her to begin coaching.
In the mid 1990's Dr Skiffington was managing her own large practice which consisted of nine coaches and an international business client base. Her loyal clientele, spanning six countries, included several Fortune 500 companies and a number of high profile business and sporting identities. During this time Dr Skiffington (together with Perry Zeus) wrote many articles on organizational coaching for various psychological trade journals. In 1997 she pioneered and published research on 'Towards a Validation of Multiple Features in the Assessment of Emotions' that has stimulated new research and instrument development in this domain by personality, social and developmental psychologists. But something was to change all that.
In the late 1990's Perry Zeus and Dr Skiffington established the world's first course for psychologists to be trained as coaches. Executive and business coaching become mainstream when major universities began offering coaching degree programs. The first coach programs began in 1998 at George Mason University and in 1999 at George Washington University. In 2000 Dr Skiffington was a guest lecturer for the world’s first Coaching Psychology Unit at the School of Psychology at Sydney University. As her reputation grew, as an authority on coaching in the workplace, she was subsequently invited to speak on her successful coaching practices and techniques to hundreds of organizations and professionals involved in people development.
During their travels, Perry and Suzanne were increasingly asked by the wider business community to develop a coaching certification program for professionals (as well as psychologists) that had a behavioral scientific basis and also contained their trade secrets for establishing a successful coaching practice. A growing number of coaching practitioners also began to seek a high level credential that would help them distance themselves from the rest of a rapidly growing disparate coaching marketplace.
Meantime, McGraw-Hill Education approached Perry Zeus about writing a how-to, practical coaching reference text that was urgently needed to fill a void in business literature. After considerable thought Suzanne joined Perry to accept the challenge to write their first coaching text ('The Complete Guide to Coaching at Work') and passed the day-to-day running of their practice on to their partners.
By researching hundreds of research papers, studies, articles, books and by working with many of the world's industry thought leaders, leading providers and users of coaching, Perry was also able to further develop their Master Coach training course. After training hundreds of psychologists they also began to conclude that: their course's large class format couldn't address the individual participant's specific learning needs and that many psychologists were simply not suited to become business coaches.
Tackling the above issues together, they created a world-best standard, industry-focused, "hands-on" course designed for a very small group of qualified professionals with an established set of requisite people skills and a successful workplace track-record. The unique, invitational course was customized to each participants learning needs.
By 2002, Dr Skiffington had co-authored two more groundbreaking books with Perry Zeus ('The Coaching at Work Toolkit: A Complete Guide to Techniques and Practices' and 'Behavioral Coaching: How to Build Sustainable Personal and Organizational Strength'). The books have received numerous awards, are translated in multiple languages around the world and are now standard course reference texts in at least 50 university and college degree programs. The books are also the UK's, Australasia's and North America's top selling organizational coaching texts. The Chinese government selected the books to be the first coaching texts to be translated and distributed throughout China. The first print runs where sold out within several weeks.
The introductory-level books document the many outstanding success stories of her Institute's organizational clients and graduates across the world and have now become industry standard reference and resource materials throughout the global coaching community. Nevertheless, becoming a competent, successful coaching practitioner demands more than reading textbooks. As such, via the advanced-level, "hands-on" Master Coach Course, Suzanne and Perry were able to personally instruct each participant how to select and master the appropriate methodologies, tools and processes they required for their internal or external practice.
Today, the four day intensive certification course and pre- and post course 1-to-1 mentoring is universally acknowledged as the industry's highest level coaching program. The masters-level, industry-recognized course (continually updated with cutting-edge content) shows select participants how to establish, market and manage a world-class standard coaching business or/and implement successful internal coaching programs. As the new course applicant's relevant workplace experience became the major criteria of selection it followed that less than 7% of the participants had any formal psychological training. The course now only uses practical, proven, psychological-based tools and processes that are industry-focused and can be easily applied and learnt by participants who do not require any training in psychology. The Institute's students (a mix of highly experienced professionals with wide backgrounds involved in people development) simply require the formal structure, processes, tools and world best practices for their specific private or workplace practice.
Dr Skiffington's elite Master Coach Certification Course is now recognized by many Government Accredited Professional Associations (as part of their Continuing Education professional development programs) responsible for the supervision and training of professionals working in areas such as the behavioral sciences, management and human resources. For example; the Behavioral Coaching Institute are approved to offer continuing education as required by the State of California, Board of Behavioral Sciences. Today, many federal and state government agencies around the world have enrolled their key staff in the recognized course.
New Objectives
Through the many publications and work with the Behavioral Coaching Institute, Dr Skiffington and Perry Zeus are now internationally recognized as pioneers in the development of coaching models and methodology and are acknowledged as leaders in the development of workplace coaching tools and techniques. Meantime, many of their coaching clients are to be found in the Business Who's Who. As an experienced adult educator and international best-selling author Dr Skiffington also found time, as a guest lecturer, to teach coaching in some of the region's leading universities.
Decades of research, development and teaching builds lasting legacy. Dr. Skiffington's life was dedicated to peace, humanity and spiritual development. Suzanne's human and cultural values took a broad and holistic approach to society and individuals. Her motive in the development of the science of the coaching model of change and learning was to empower people to be active participants in social transformation. Suzanne valued human worth above power. Today, Suzanne's values are deeply embedded in the philosophy of the Institute. The Institute takes its global responsibility as a knowledge maker and educational provider very seriously. It continues Suzanne's work in valuing the best of the human spirit and in promoting learning and behavioral change though coaching imbued with intellectual rigor and ethical practice.
In the last few years Dr.Skiffington dedicated her time to teaching the professional coaching and business skills she developed during her distinguished career to the Behavioral Coaching Institute's (Graduate School of Master Coaches) faculty members. Today, the unique professional development short Master Coach course she developed and pioneered is conducted by a small elite team of internationally recognised coaching experts. Her lasting legacy is that through her acclaimed course she is still able to share her humanistic values (engagement of the whole person through the focus on learning rather than teaching) and proven success formulas with accomplished, busy, professional people who desire to be qualified, credentialed professional coaching practitioners at the highest level.
"Through the work of Dr Skiffington's elite course graduates and her best-selling introductory-level coaching text books -it is estimated that Dr Skiffington's coaching methodology and best-practices have been used, in the last decade, by over 1 million people and thousands of organizations worldwide."
H.R.Today
BCI's Executive Director
Perry Zeus B.A. Fellow V.A.A.R
"We've learned a lot over the past 14 years, working with coaches and clients on a broad range of development issues, and we've attempted to capture and document the best processes and proven techniques in our personal development methodology."
Perry Zeus
Background
In the 1980's Perry worked as a project and business development management consultant (both in the United States and Australasia). In the early 1990's as an executive coach and management mentor he also conducted various specialist coaching clinics with a variety of professional groups including management consultants. In 1995 he teamed up with Dr. Suzanne Skiffington to establish a coaching practice that spanned six countries. Perry and Dr. Skiffington then went on to establish specialist coach training workshops.
Perry is the founder and principal of the Graduate School of Master Coaches and the Behavioral Coaching Institute. Today, he still oversees all course development, ensuring the training programs are always in step with world best practice and the latest organizational thinking. As well as being the head of the Institute's Partner Learning Program he also serves as an advisor to a number of corporations and government agencies.
An authority on organizational behavior and professional development, Perry has been at the forefront of integrating professional development with proven methodology from the behavioral sciences. He has written numerous articles on organizational coaching for professional journals such as; the Institute of Management, Organizational Psychologists Journal, H.R. Monthly and Business Review Weekly etc. Recent books co-authored by Perry include: 'The Complete Guide to Coaching at Work', 'The Coaching at Work Toolkit: A Complete Guide to Techniques and Practices' and 'Behavioral Coaching: How to Build Sustainable Personal and Organizational Strength'. He is currently writing another text book and now devotes much of his time to coaching research and development.
Today, Dr. Skiffington's expert team are recognized world authorities in training organizational "coaches" to achieve positive, sustainable, measurable behavioral change and learning.
With the Institute's support team and the help of her clients and graduates worldwide, Dr Skiffington spent over a decade in research, application and fine tuning in developing her elite course. Her Institute's faculty members are now among today's most acclaimed thought leaders, and have extensive experience in training and developing the world's top coaches around the globe. The small team of expert Facilitators (all personally trained by Dr Skiffington) are; highly experienced practitioners, who bring the real world of applied coaching to the workshop, and are published authors with national and international reputations in the field of people development.
With regional campuses in New York, London, Sydney, Singapore (and more on the way via our 'Learning Partners') her break-through fast track course trains and equips its graduates in the shortest possible time while providing a proven formula for achieving the greatest level of PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION and STANDING, SATISFACTION and SUCCESS. Over the last decade, working with Perry Zeus, she personally certified over one thousand professionals (from over 40 countries) involved in consulting, management, HR, L & D, training etc on their successful personal and professional development coaching methodology and business practice.
Global Learning Partners
To the continue the world-wide migration of advance coaching practices and tools the Institute established an international Learning Partners program. Today, highly qualified professionals (personally trained by Dr Skiffington) are providing our flagship CMC Course in such diverse regions as Brazil, Costa Rica and Dubai.