Seth Bate, MA, PCC
I was baffled when I was asked to attend a coaching training. My life and work were going well, but I didn’t have any business offering advice to strangers. And I certainly wasn’t looking for advice from someone else. What I found in the training, though, was not advice. It was space to work—and questions to work on. The first question my training partner asked me opened up a whole new way of looking at a challenge that had been eating at me for weeks. Coaching made an immediate difference in my life.
My role as the director of a university center takes me around Kansas and sometimes beyond. The demands and opportunities of the position are enriched by my coaching mindset. Whether I am in front of a room full of people who are trying to learn and apply leadership skills, in a conference room planning a multifaceted intervention to improve community health, or supporting people who are trying to change the culture of their towns and teams, I am coaching. It has made me a better supervisor, student, and colleague.
In hopes of continually improving, I have maintained a commitment to coach training; I’ve earned the Professional Coach Certification from the International Coach Federation, and I was the first person ever to complete the Kansas Leadership Center’s Level II certificate in Leadership Coaching. To complement my coaching, I have completed professional certifications in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organizational Management (IOM). I hold an MA from Wichita State University in community and local history.
Away from the leadership and coaching world, activities related to music occupy my attention. Sometimes this means growing a bad mustache and appearing in local musical theatre productions with my kids. Other times, this means teaching ukulele. And every year, this means stopping everything else to attend the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, with my spouse, our kids, and 12,000 of our best friends.