Coaching World Issue 9: February 2014 | Page 18

ICF ADVANCE 2014 PRESENTER: Wellness From Surviving to Thriving One of the most popular songs today (with more than 300 million YouTube visits), Katy Perry’s “Roar” speaks to the power of the human life force to make the world a better place. Katy sings from her jungle perch, “I am a champion and you’re going to hear me roar.” Sadly, our collective roar is weighed down by the realities of being human today. Gallup’s 2013 “State of the American Workplace” survey shows that only 30 percent of Americans are emotionally engaged in their work. Meanwhile, findings from the Centers for Disease Control reveal that two-thirds of American adults are literally weighed down by overweight or obesity, while 95 percent aren’t enjoying the physical energy unleashed by engaging in the top health behaviors, including daily exercise and adopting a Mediterranean diet. Margaret Moore, MBA Margaret (aka Coach Meg) is a 17-year veteran of the biotechnology industry. In 2002 she founded the Wellcoaches School of Coaching for health professionals, which has trained 8,000 coaches in 47 countries. Margaret is co-founder and co-director of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and co-director of the annual Coaching in Leadership & Healthcare conference offered by Harvard Medical School. She co-leads the National Consortium for Credentialing Health & Wellness Coaches, which is developing national standards, certification and collaborative research. She is co-author (with Bob Tschannen-Moran) of the first coaching textbook in healthcare, the “Coaching Psychology Manual” (Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2009), and (with Paul Hammerness) the Harvard Health Book, “Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life” (Harlequin, 2011). This article is a preview of the next Harvard Health/ Harlequin book (forthcoming in 2015). 18 Coaching World The big and brilliant human prefrontal cortex, upon which we depend to move the human race onto a better trajectory, is struggling under terrible operating conditions: chronic deprivation of sleep and reflection time, a low-octane diet, nervous-system overload, and inadequate fuel sources (e.g., meaningful pu