Our ‘Best Article’ Awards: The results
We announced the winners of our new Coaching at Work Best Article Awards at our annual conference on 2 July in London. Liz Hall reports.
Neil Scotton, Alister Scott and Katherine Long have receivaed the top accolades in Coaching at Work’s new Best Article Awards 2013.
Tatiana Bachkirova and Graham Lee also received runner-up awards, while Eunice Aquilina, Janet Evans, Barbara Moyes, Bob Garvey, Aboodi Shabi and Hetty Einzig received commendations.
The winners were announced at an awards ceremony at the Coaching at Work annual coaching conference on 2 July in Bloomsbury, London. The award categories are a departure for Coaching at Work. In the past, we have awarded in the following categories: Coaching Person of the Year and Mentoring Person of the Year.
“This year, the Coaching at Work team wanted to recognise some of the best articles from coaching practitioners and academics, which not only help bring the magazine alive and keep it fresh, real and accessible, but which make noteworthy contributions to the emerging coaching profession,” said Liz Hall, editor of Coaching at Work.
The judging panel consisted of members of the magazine’s global editorial advisory board, Liz Hall and Coaching at Work’s publisher Stephen Palmer.
Neil Scotton and Alister Scott jointly picked up their award in the Best Thought Leadership Article category for their series on making a difference (vol 7, issues 1-3) and their Three Minutes to Midnight columns (vol 7, issues 5-6; vol 8 issues 1-3).
In second place came Tatiana Bachkirova for her article on supervision, “Guiding Lights” (vol 6, issue 5).
Judges’ comments included the following: “Neil Scotton and Alister Scott provoke us to higher thinking in sharing their thoughts and observations with us. Their commitment to bringing leadership to life and making our world a better place is evident in their writing and in their work.”
On receiving the award, Best Thought Leadership Article winners, Neil Scotton and Alister Scott said: “There’s a strong sense of irony. We began the column not because we knew the answers, but because we didn’t. And we’ve always felt that the writing is more about allowing the voices of others to be heard, rather than our own. And then we get the award for thought leadership?
“Perhaps this is, in its way, saying something about leadership in these times. It’s less about knowing answers, and more about exploring the right questions. It’s less about telling and more about listening and sharing. It’s less about self and more about serving something bigger.
“Thanks to Liz and Stephen for giving us the opportunity to write in such a great magazine. Thanks to all the people whose thoughts, wisdom and generosity have allowed us to craft the columns. Thanks to everyone who reads them and comments on them. And, above all, thanks to everyone out there, at the edge, supporting, coaching and mentoring the people who are asking themselves the tricky, complicated questions about their part in addressing the big issues of our times. And courageously doing something. It’s vital, urgent, inspiring work. You provoke, energise and inspire us. We hope our writing helps you.”
In the Best Practical Article category, Katherine Long won an accolade for her “Symbolic Gestures” article (vol 7, issue 1).
Judges noted her “originality of theme and clarity of message”.
Graham Lee also received an award as runner-up in this category for his article on mindfulness-based supervision, “Mindful Insights” (vol 8, issue 1).
Commended in this category was Dr Eunice Aquilina for “The Dance of Trust” (vol 8, issue 3). Dr Aquilina’s article also received a nomination in the Best Thought Leadership category; Janet Evans for “How to Coach Creative People” (vol 7, issue 1), and Barbara Moyes for “Express Yourself” (vol 8, issue 2)
Best Practical Article winner Long said on receiving the award: “I’m normally known for being highly conceptual rather than practical, so I’m really thrilled to have been able to contribute in a down-to-earth way to how we work with the wonderfully humanising and powerful phenomenon called metaphor.”
Judges’ comments on Long’s article included: “I found this very interesting conceptually anyway (which may have biased me), but I thought it was a nice combination of the practical ‘how to’ box supplemented by the more complex diagrammatic representation of the coach decision-making path.”
Runner-up, Graham Lee said, “Coaching at Work is a great magazine for sharing new, practical ideas. I think mindfulness is one of those invaluable practical ideas, and I am delighted that my article, ‘Mindful Insights’, has won this award.”
Also in the Best Thought Leadership Article category, the following three contributors were commended:
Bob Garvey for “Ethical Frameworks”, (vol 8, issue 2). Judges’ comments included: “I liked it because it challenges an important and widely accepted notion of ‘good’ practice (adherence to a universal ethics code) and does it in a logical, well-argued fashion. He didn’t completely convert me to his way of thinking, but it sure challenged and made me reflect on the need for us all to think much harder about how to be an ethical practitioner.”
Also, commended were Aboodi Shabi for “Choice Words” (vol 7, issue 5), and Hetty Einzig for “Beast Within” (vol 3, issue 3).
The 32-strong editorial advisory board includes: Linda Aspey (past chair, BACP coaching division);
Diane Brennan (president, 2008, International Coach Federation); Alison Carter (principal associate, Institute for Employment Studies), David Clutterbuck (practice leader, Clutterbuck Associates and co-founder of the EMCC), and Liz Macann (former head of executive, leadership and management coaching, the BBC).
Coaching at Work, Volume 8 , Issue 5