Be A Better Coach – Go Beyond. Part 4 of 4
To be a better coach learn to recognize what enlivens your experience and what doesn’t. Most often we declare failure by examining the quality of outcomes or results. This obscures that the failure occurs because of the quality of experience that generated the results. By giving purposeful attention to our choices and being intentional about the quality of experience we desire, we architect the pathway to go beyond our current level of aliveness. This is equally true for the coach as for the client When the field co-created has reciprocal inspiration, innovation occurs.
Innovation in coaching is about causing individuals to renew and restore access to creativity and the resourceful capacity that is inherent in being human. Disruption of our status quo is necessary in order to choose something different and useful for our lives. Going beyond the status quo is an outcome of examining our human motives and character strengths that underpin mindset, behavior and decision-making, the elements that produce the quality of our experience.
Inspiration means literally to be in the spirit which is for sure an abstract idea. We experience a state of being that is inspired and use words such as bliss, vitality, ecstasy, joy, and love to describe it. These are very tangible descriptors of direct, felt experience. From this, we begin to understand that cognitive knowledge changes little and emotional, physical and spiritual connection changes everything. Being evocative with clients inspires a connection between us and, for the client, the connection within accessing the roots of the authentic self. Clients discover what enlivens them by balancing all human core identity motives: freedom, power, status, and approval. When we are present with clients in our balanced core identity the environment of a coaching session is filled with positive energy exchange. We create a field of reciprocal inspiration, jointly enlivened and courageous to disrupt the status quo and pursue a purpose greater than our current, ordinary self.
Practically speaking, we witness vocabulary change when our questions migrate from informational toward deeper inquiry about the client’s point of view on life, their connection to a greater purpose and to the authentic self. Daily life and the workplace are so filled with activity that the muscles for reflection and perceiving of our human motives are atrophied. Coaches that go beyond the presenting topic and outcomes to invite clients to examine internal motives replace the busy-ness with timeless moments of renewal.
About the Author:
Janet M. Harvey, ICF Master Certified Coach, Certified Mentor Coach, Accredited Coaching Supervisor, ICF Global Past President, and ICF Foundation Board President, has 30 years of experience as both a corporate and entrepreneurial business executive. An early adopter for creating a coach-centered workplace, Janet has worked with global organizations and teams of leaders within to establish a generative, resilient and high-performance culture through a coaching approach to leading and managing success. Janet Harvey brings her executive and entrepreneurial experience as CEO for inviteCHANGE, leaders in sustainable excellence through a signature transformative coaching and learning process for people, processes and systems. Clients and audiences around the globe speak of Janet as bold, curious, provocative, challenging, yet respectful and compassionate in her leadership roles.
The Expert Series is brought to you by choice Magazine as part of our ongoing efforts to bring opportunities for learning and growth to the coaching community. Delivered in four parts every two weeks, each series covers useful topics for business development and coaching insights, serving the needs of leaders in all areas and walks of life. Archived copies of the previous series can be found here.
