We recently published the issue called “Coaching Mastery – Slow Down – Pause, notice and listen, then choose” written by Janet M. Harvey, MCC, CMS, ACS
Being disrupted in any form or degree is, as the word sounds, penetrating, challenging, and often so dramatic we don’t recognize that it is occurring immediately. Still, you are being disrupted, whether you recognize it or not.
As you read this issue of choice, seven months have passed in your journey with the pandemic plus the cascading effect on the rhythm of your life, both personally and professionally. If you are like most people drawn to professional coaching, your preference each day is to be helpful, useful and a productive contributor to the emerging future. Like many, you may feel the inspiration to act as a soulful calling and it is oh-so-tempting to leap into and pursue a worthy cause, to assist others to restore a new relationship with work, family and community. I invite you to pause and read this article so you may notice, listen and then choose, from presence, wisdom and wholeness.
The speed and ferocity of this time of disruption are historic in scale. Your words will never do service to the stress, emotional pain and hopelessness that cascade in times of great struggle. Neither will those words capture the courage of those who do choose to face another day; the anonymous millions who generate a collective resilience. It is your instinct to survive – everyone’s instinct to survive – that ultimately fuels vision and grit to set a course for certainty in an uncertain time. To do so, consider
how you open with integrity, honoring your authentic self and with eyes wide, alert, present, conscious and accepting of the world as it is, not as you wish it to be. In the words of Chogyam Trunpga, a Tibetan Rinpoche, “open to the world as it is and you may discover that gentleness, decency and bravery are available not only to yourself, but to all human beings.”
Even in less disruptive times, you know that attending to your own wellbeing is essential and a dependent step for being effective in your coaching partnerships. The International Coaching Federation Code of Ethics, standard 17, amplifies this idea further: “Recognize my personal limitations or circumstances that may impair, conflict with or interfere with my coaching performance or my professional coaching relationships.”
Be brutally honest with yourself. What is the impact of the world as it is on you? You are likely discovering that routines, habits, and common methods for efficiency are not working as they once did. The simplest of tasks require more time and evoke doubt and hesitance. In the study of trauma, this experience has a useful acronym: UDIN moments.
Unexpected – What is happening has no precedent for you. The experience disrupts your expectations.
Dramatic– The event evokes intense emotions. The emotions impact you and others deeply.
To read the full article, click here.
Tell us what you think about this issue and this Coaching Mastery article.
How does it apply to you and the women in your life?
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