Always be coaching.
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Early in my coaching training, I was stuck in a limited mindset that may be common to students just starting out in the field: the idea that coaching is something you turn on and off as needed to work with a client, or coworker, or member of your team. That coaching is limited in space and time to an hour here or there. This mindset sees coaching as discrete and functional, a fit-for-purpose tool only appropriate in certain contexts.
Fortunately, something wasn’t sitting right with me about that limited understanding. While I had not even heard of coaching until last year, my world had been broken wide open in all the best ways (thanks Tara!) by a coaching engagement – and I wanted to begin to share that with more and more people, in as many ways as possible. But I was feeling constrained.
I brought the issue to one of my peer coaches, trying to figure out what was it that felt too tight about this new sport jacket I was putting on and taking off as we practiced mentor coaching, observed coaching, and the other training as part of our certificate program.
In truly circular fashion, simply engaging the question in coaching led within that hour to a series of recognitions and openings about coaching that are still unfolding. It became clear that the definitions, structures and constraints I had assumed around coaching were entirely self-imposed. I ended the session saying out loud simply, “Oh, it’s all coaching!”
In other words:
Coaching is a mindset that can be accessed in every part of our day, as a matter of setting our intention.
In any situation we can ask the question: how can I apply a coaching mindset to this?
As a practice, we can be mindful of how we are embodying coaching, moment to moment.
How this plays out is that I have been bringing this coaching orientation to as much of my life as possible, at work and even in conversations with friends.
How are you bringing coaching awareness to your situation in this moment?
This article is part of a series of posts on life and coaching, with particular focus on the intersection of coaching with our sense of meaning and fulfillment, aligned with what the world needs, and how we can embody leadership (as defined by Master Somatic Coach Amanda Blake: leadership “… as a process of connecting to what matters, envisioning what could be, and taking action to bring that vision to life. When you care about something enough to ask others to care about it with you and you effectively collaborate with others to co-create a new future, then you are leading.”)