Christine Wahl, Clarice Scriber, Beth Bloomfield (Eds.) - On Becoming A Leadership Coach - A Holistic Approach To Coaching Excellence (2013, Palgrave Macmillan US) PDF

ON BECOMING A
LEADERSHIP COACH
ON BECOMING A
LEADERSHIP COACH
A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO
COACHING EXCELLENCE
SECOND EDITION
EDITED BY
CHRISTINE WAHL,
CLARICE SCRIBER, AND
BETH BLOOMFIELD
ON BECOMING A LEADERSHIP COACH
Copyright © Christine Wahl, Clarice Scriber, and Beth Bloomfi eld, 2013.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-137-32288-3 ISBN 978-1-137-34413-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137344137
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
On becoming a leadership coach : a holistic approach to coaching
excellence / edited by Christine Wahl, Clarice Scriber, and Beth
Bloomfield.—Second edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978–1–137–32288–3 (alk. paper)
1. Executives—Training of. 2. Executive coaching. 3. Leadership.
4. Employees—Coaching of. I. Wahl, Christine. II. Scriber, Clarice.
III. Bloomfield, Beth.
HD30.4.O5 2013
658.4⬘092—dc23 2013005944
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: September 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For all who believe in the rigor of practice and
the possibilities for our remarkable profession.
CONTENTS
List of Figures and Tables xi

Introduction xiii
Part I Being
CHAPTER 1 On Becoming a Leadership Coach 3
Neil Stroul and Christine Wahl
CHAPTER 2 Mapping the Terrain: An Overview of
Professional Coaching 13
William J. Courville
CHAPTER 3 Sacred Space: Where Possibilities Abound
and Change Is Engendered 45
Julie K. Shows and Clarice Scriber
CHAPTER 4 Cultures in Coaching 57
Karen Curnow
CHAPTER 5 Eastern Influence on Coaching 67
Randy Chittum
CHAPTER 6 The Case for Cultivating Present-Moment
Self-Awareness in Leaders and Coaches 75
Steve Heller
CHAPTER 7 Embodying Change 83
Roselyn Kay
Part II Doing
CHAPTER 8 The Coaching Relationship: A Mirror
into the Self 93
Kelly Lewis
viii | CONTENTS
CHAPTER 9 G.R.A.C.E. at Work: Strong Relationships

for Powerful Results 101
Eric de Nijs
CHAPTER 10 Using Story in Coaching 111
Margaret Echols, Karen Gravenstine, and
Sandy Mobley
CHAPTER 11 Whose Story Is This, Anyway? Identification
with Clients in Leadership Coaching 119
Dave Snapp
CHAPTER 12 Congratulations—You’re in Breakdown! 129
Jennifer Sinek
CHAPTER 13 The Role of Emotions in Coaching 137
Karen Curnow and Randy Chittum
CHAPTER 14 Using Somatics to Coach Leaders 145
Margaret Echols and Sandy Mobley
CHAPTER 15 Distinctions for Coaching Leaders 157
Beth Bloomfield
Part III Using

CHAPTER 16 ALIFE™: A Listening Model for Coaching 169
Christine Wahl and Neil Stroul
CHAPTER 17 Behavioral Practices Made Simple 177
Scott Eblin
CHAPTER 18 Coaching in Organizations 185
Randy Chittum
CHAPTER 19 Moving the Client Forward: Designing
Effective Actions 195
Frank Ball and Beth Bloomfield
CHAPTER 20 Assessments for Insight, Learning, and
Choice in Coaching 207
Sue E. McLeod
CHAPTER 21 The Art and Practice of Grounded Assessments 219
Lee Ann Wurster-Naefe and Julie Shows
CHAPTER 22 Coaching and Leading as Stewards
for Sustainability 229
Lloyd Raines
CONTENTS | ix
CHAPTER 23 The Thinking Path 243

Alexander Caillet
CHAPTER 24 Coaching for Leadership Presence 259
Clarice Scriber
CHAPTER 25 Coaching for Leverage: Helping Clients
to Manage Priorities, Time, Energy,
and Resources 269
Katherine Ebner
CHAPTER 26 Action Learning: An Approach to
Team Coaching 281
Jennifer Whitcomb
CHAPTER 27 Coaching New Teams 291
Patricia A. Mathews
About the Editors and Contributors 301

Index 309
FIGURES AND TABLES
FIGURES
9.1 G.R.A.C.E. at Work: Playing in a bigger space 103

9.2 G.R.A.C.E.: Full coaching checklist 107
10.1 A model for using story in coaching: SCAN 114
12.1 A formula for change 132
19.1 The flow of coaching 196
22.1 Four stewardship relationships 231
23.1 The Thinking Path 244
23.2 The Thinking Path Template 249
23.3 The Current and Desired States 249
23.4 Partial Thinking Path Plan 256
25.1 Leverage coaching framework 271
26.1 Components of action learning 283
TABLES
3.1 Leadership coaching survey: Qualities 47

3.2 Leadership coaching survey: Practices 52
5.1 Eastern/Western thinking 68
12.1 Types of breakdowns 134
19.1 Steps to create self-observations 199
19.2 Steps to create practices 200
19.3 Steps to create an inquiry 202
19.4 Creating a structure of support 203
25.1 Priorities interview—Sample questions 272
25.2 Time interview—Sample questions 273
25.3 Energy interview—Sample questions 275
25.4 Resources interview—Sample questions 276
INTRODUCTION
Possibility. Sustainability. Agility. Reality. Opportunity. Quality.

Authenticity. Ability. Capacity. Stability. Productivity. Curiosity.
Rationality. Emotionality. Resiliency. Dignity. Integrity. Humanity.
MEANINGS THAT WE ASSOCIATE WITH the words above

have tremendous connection to the work we do as coaches of lead-
ers. Coaching leaders is a heart-and-soul, mind-and-body endeavor
that holistically focuses on a leader’s desired results. It requires our
leader clients to step onto the challenging path of reshaping their
current boundaries and recrafting the borders of their lives. Such
work is uncomfortable yet emboldening, freeing yet grounding. The
work has the impact of bringing leaders back to a person they know
well—themselves.
So much of coaching leaders is to help them remember their best
version of “self ” as well as the version of “self ” they aspire to. We call
this authenticity, and we need more of it from our leaders.
The chapters in On Becoming a Leadership Coach: A Holistic Approach
to Coaching Excellence are written by coaches who are or who have been
on the faculty of the Leadership Coaching Certificate Program at
Georgetown University. The chapters cover topics that cover heart and
soul, body and mind. When we wrote the fi rst edition of this book, we
intended to share the current thinking about the multiple aspects of
the art and discipline of coaching leaders from the perspective of the
edgy and inquiring minds of the faculty. Th is second edition reflects
our updated thinking and offers new topics for coaches to reflect on
and revisions of the thinking in some of the original chapters.
While aimed at coaches who wish to continue their own develop-
ment by offering them concepts and tools to work with, this book will
appeal to anyone in the business of listening to others and helping
xiv | INTRODUCTION
them clear and forge a path. So, consultants, psychologists, leaders,

managers, clergy, and entrepreneurs will get something useful from
any chapters they are drawn to. The book is a primer for being with
others who wish to understand themselves better to find greater per-
sonal and professional fulfillment. As Joseph Campbell so eloquently
states, “one way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the
flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life and dedicate our-
selves to that.” In terms of coaching leaders, we believe Campbell’s
thought is our imperative. Our business leaders shape the world.
To support leaders in achieving and sustaining results in the most
humane way, coaches need to work from various stances, including
“being” with their clients and really seeing them; “doing” things with
and for their clients that will forward a client’s progress; and “using”
tools, concepts, models that apply appropriately to a leader’s work on
any given day. Leaders will always be in the perfect position to create
the future. They affect business, economics, global productivity, and
ultimately global mindsets, and they do this through the “who” they
embody daily. Their “who” is affected by their level of self-awareness
and self-compassion, and it touches and influences all of the people
in their orbit. It is from their “who” or way of being that their actions
flow, and from their actions they work to achieve the right results to
benefit the whole—their organizations and, ultimately, the larger sys-
tems within which their organizations live—to include the health of
our planet and cosmos.
As members of the coaching faculty at Georgetown University,
we are infinitely committed to our own development and to push-
ing the edges of what is possible, inviting new ways to think about
the transformations needed in our world and what that means for the
coaching we bring to leaders. Our students help us develop, and we are
ever grateful for their conversations with us, which continue to loop
and generate insight and action. We all have teachers and guides who
inspire our lives and to whom we are grateful. And of course, we are
grateful to Georgetown University administrators for the leap of faith
they took when they supported the start of our program in 2000 and
for their continued support as we grow and transform as an entity.
In this second edition, we hope you will find inspiration, insight,
and validation, and that you will continue to explore your own edges
and bring your passion forward.
We need everyone’s thoughtful, positive spark to bring more
peaceful ways of being that help us navigate the polarization that will
always keep people separate from others. I have always said that every
coach is an ambassador for bringing generosity, curiosity, generativity,
INTRODUCTION | xv
challenge, and kindness into the world of achieving in the workplace,

so as to bring these ways of being into the awareness of leaders. Joseph
Campbell writes, and I agree with him, “I don’t believe people are
looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the
experience of being alive.” When we, as coaches, listen deeply to find
the wholehearted aliveness in our clients, we help them tap into that
experience of being alive.
May you, the reader, be graced with time to reflect on the ideas
in this book, time and support to engage in personal and professional
renewal, and resolve to make a difference in the lives—the “being
alive”—of those you touch. Your presence makes a difference.
Christine Wahl
PART I
BEING
CHAPTER 1
ON BECOMING
A LEADERSHIP COACH
NEIL STROUL AND CHRISTINE WAHL
THE OPERATIVE WORD IN THE TITLE of this chapter is “becom-

ing.” Human beings always become something. Those who like to learn
set their intention to becoming a new and learned version of their self.
Those who are mindful find ways to learn from the multiple events,
surprises, and disappointments that comprise daily life; they also know
they will never really “arrive” at a place of achieving “becoming”—like
a river that continues to flow, the lessons are too numerous, our time
is too short.
A model we wrote about for the inaugural edition of Choice,1 a
publication devoted to the blossoming field of professional coaching,
serves us here. We explored coaching through three distinct perspec-
tives—Being versus Doing versus Using. In this chapter, we take the
model in a new direction, exploring the three perspectives in the ques-
tion of how one becomes a leadership coach.
Before moving into the model, we want to emphasize that becom-
ing a leadership coach demands certain knowledge in addition to know-
ing the fundamentals of coaching. Leaders today are challenged to the
max. Stakes are high. Competition in the marketplace is a fast-paced
game. The spotlight is constant, and it is sometimes hot. The business
world seems to require that leaders be beyond human, demanding 24/7
accessibility, perfection, up-to-the-minute knowledge, vision, stamina,
emotional agility, and people savvy. Leadership coaches must have
experience in organizations, systems, and change and must possess
4 | NEIL STROUL AND CHRISTINE WAHL
business acumen to have any credibility with leaders in today’s organi-

zations. Leadership coaches must understand and know how to work
with pressured leaders in today’s complicated systems and, as such,
have highly developed distinctions of their own about what it means
to be a leader.
The original conception of “becoming” was introduced in 1955 by
Gordon Allport, 2 who found the then-prevalent conceptions of adult
personality development to be lacking. Although Allport’s framework
is beyond the scope of this article, we do want to acknowledge his
ideas that we humans continue to evolve and develop across the span
of our lives, that each of us represents a unique self, continually inte-
grating new experiences that are reflected in who we “be.” Regardless
of what might be apparently stable traits, we are continually becoming.
The “who” that we “be” has the possibility of continued growth and
development.
First, we believe that coaches need to develop their own voice,
rigor, and conception of coaching, by blending what they learn from
the experts in the field through training and experience with their own
way of applying what they learn. As teachers in the field of coaching,
we expose our students to many different formulations about coach-
ing, and from their learning, we ask them to extract and integrate for
themselves those ideas that are resonant with who they are as unique
individuals. Coaches have a professional obligation to aspire to become
masters of their own discipline and to engage in continual self-develop-
ment. Our becoming reflects our being. Our being informs our doing.
The tools and techniques we use are an extension of our being. Being is
the cornerstone.
ON BECOMING A COACH: BEING

Although we encourage our student coaches to formulate a highly per-
sonalized understanding of coaching, that is not to say that we don’t
subscribe to several key principles. Coaching is a personalized vehicle
for supporting clients in “stepping up and into” their own develop-
ment. Development involves transformations based on increasing one’s
awareness. Through coaching, clients discover possibilities that were
previously unavailable to them, given the way they had constructed
their world; the clients’ current state of awareness constrained the range
of possibilities available to them. Awareness is not the same as insight.
Awareness is dynamic. In the moment, what are we able to notice?
Expanding awareness involves the capacity to shift what we notice and
how we think so that we see our possibilities through new eyes.
ON BECOMING A LEADERSHIP COACH | 5
Emerging awareness, seeing new perspectives, and noticing how

and what we notice—these threads collectively generate a living tapes-
try we call being. To help aspiring coaches explore their being, we rely
on several conceptual tools.
BODIES OF DISTINCTION
The fi rst concept is “body of distinctions,” which is a widely used

concept in coach training. A body of distinctions equates to highly
personalized frames of reference, or mental models, that serve as
heuristics that determine what a person is able to notice. The idea
that each of us possesses a highly personalized body of distinctions
has been applied in music, cultural anthropology, philosophy, and
now coaching. The idea of distinctions is best understood through
illustrations.
Imagine standing on a bluff overlooking a desert landscape. Imagine
allowing your gaze to slowly scan your surroundings. What might you
notice? Sand? Vastness? Scrub vegetation? Blowing winds alternat-
ing with silence? Then, imagine being joined by a Saharan tribesman.
What might the tribesman notice? Not only would he notice features
of the landscape that escaped your notice, but he might also employ a
dramatically different vocabulary to express what he notices. Much of
what he is able to notice is informed by his body of distinctions. The
tribesman would see the patterns in the sand, take clues from the veg-
etation. These might tell him of recent visitors to the area, or upcoming
weather. He would be able to tell a story about the landscape that you
would not be able to tell, based on the differences in your knowledge,
or bodies of distinction.
Two individuals stand before a third person. We ask each indi-
vidual, “What do you notice?” Would their descriptions be similar? If
one individual is a fashion consultant and the other is a fitness trainer,
might they focus on different features and express themselves through
different vocabularies? Our bodies of distinctions will often draw our
attention to different features of what we observe.
Are the words “red” and “green” in your vocabulary? If we show
you two identical items, except one is painted red and the other green,
would you be able to distinguish one from the other on the basis of
color? If so, you have the distinction of red versus green. Similarly,
we could ask someone who suffers from red-green color blindness the
same question, and although such a person’s vocabulary may have the
words red and green, the person doesn’t truly operate with the red-
green distinction.
Generally, our bodies of distinction work in the background,

operating implicitly. Yet, as we said in our introduction, all of us are
unique individuals with unique histories and, therefore, unique bodies
of distinction. Unless we consciously choose to make these distinctions
explicit, we may never recognize that we may “see” yet not truly notice.
Generally, we are inclined to attach significance to what we notice only
to the degree that the significance meets one of these conditions: One,
it is already present in our preexisting body of distinctions, or, two,
we are engaged in some form of learning that is intended to expand or
modify our current body of distinctions. The immense implication is
that, as often as not, our experiences are determined not only by fea-
tures of events in real time, but also by preconceptions and conditioned
tendencies that shape our experience.
For all of us, our “structural determinism” is at work. The idea of
structural determinism was initially proposed by the research biologists
Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. 3 Structural determinism
represents that experience involves an interaction, and that experience
is not “pure.” Rather, our experience is to some degree determined by
both the nature of our biological/physical structure and the recogni-
tion that prior experience shapes what we are able to experience in
the present. We are all Pavlov’s dog, creatures of habit, repositories of
our individual conditioning histories, reflexively salivating to our own
wide, highly personalized array of tones and bells. If we are able to
learn to notice how we notice, we will also be able to reclaim greater
control of our experience. How do we learn to explicitly recognize our
body of distinctions?
Our bodies of distinction operate implicitly. We don’t experience
our distinctions directly, or with awareness, though we do experience
the effects of them. Part of the early work of becoming a coach is to
learn how to bring our bodies of distinction to the surface, to make
them explicit. To help aspiring coaches expose their distinctions, we
work with the concept of “stories.”
We experience our lives as extending through time, as a subjective
narrative. Said a different way, your life is a story. The idea of story
suggests the creative nature of our experience of our lives. We do not
necessarily choose the circumstances of our lives, but we can choose
the stories regarding how we “hold” and interpret those experiences.
We not only live life, we also explain it. We communicate our lives
to others through the stories that we tell. We are meaning making
creatures. Subjectively, the various events and experiences of life are
connected to each other through time and through a series of linkages
of causes and effects. At the most basic level, a story is nothing more
than our account of the relationship between some eff ect or result that
we notice, and what we perceive as the cause. The stories you live and
the stories you tell are a window into your body of distinctions.
For all of us, the common factor in our stories is we ourselves.
We are the recurring character—the hero. We are the constant thread.
Initiating the process of examining our own stories, becoming genu-
inely curious about who we are and how we conduct ourselves, and
shifting away from relating to our stories as journalistic reports of news
to seeing them as expressions of our creative self allow us to exam-
ine the dynamic way we as storytellers create our story. Coaches must
be able to distinguish their stories! The intent at this stage is to raise
awareness rather than to generate insight.
As a coach, as we achieve a better grasp of our way of being in our
stories, we are able to see that we are both author and actor. For any
adult, seeing oneself as both author and actor constitutes a major step
into one’s own development, being able to make meaning from the
viewpoint of a curious observer, where the self becomes both subject
and object. To do this, a coach must become genuinely curious about
his or her self and learn to tolerate discomfort, as aspects of self that
had previously been hidden from view are now available for personal
scrutiny and learning. Later, when a coach engages with clients, this
same curiosity becomes part of the coaching relationship in service
of clients, helping them to explore their stories and how their stories
inform their thinking, feelings, decisions, and actions.
For aspiring coaches, learning how your stories reveal your body
of distinctions represents an accessible framework for perceiving “who
you be” and for creating new awareness. Th is new level of awareness is
the beginning of a walk into infinity in terms of the possibility for per-
sonal learning. In other words, once the awareness muscle is exposed
and consciously used, it is regenerative ad infinitum.
From an examined state of being and an ability to be present,
coaches have the ability to choose from a wider array of responses and
actions to benefit their clients. Lacking this level of engagement inter-
nally, which comes from being able to be aware of stories and their
impact on how a coach sees and makes sense of the world, the coach
runs the risk of having the story in charge versus being in charge of
the story.
ON BECOMING A COACH: DOING
Coaching is a highly personalized process for development in which the

coach, as the instrument of coaching, plays a critical role. Development,
in our view, is an “inside out” process. For both the client and the
coach, “who you be” is the bedrock on which “what you do” rests. Our
premise is that for coaches to share in this journey with a client, it
must be a journey on which they themselves have already embarked
and with which they are fully engaged. The coach’s personal journey
into greater self-awareness informs how the coach works with a client
who is on a similar path. Still, being is only one part of the coach’s
craft; without it, the coach ends up relying on tools and techniques that
don’t work well on human beings. The coach has to learn and accept
his human-being-ness to be able to move beyond the use of simplistic
tools and techniques.
Coaches engage with clients primarily through conversation. Yet
not all conversations are created equal. The first distinction that we
address is that coaching conversations, although they might be inter-
esting, must be purposeful. A simply “interesting” conversation does
not constitute a coaching conversation. To be purposeful, coaching
conversations focus dialogue on the client’s development. To do this,
the coach must be present to the client. In other words, when a coach
enters into a conversation with a client, the coach must have already
cleared his mind of distractions and attained a quiet-minded stance,
thereby being open and engaged in the moment—or being present,
with the client. Being present helps the coach to keep the purpose of
the conversation front and center.
Boundaries are critical in a coaching relationship. Being in con-
dition to coach by having worked on one’s own awareness steers the
coach to be able to listen for the client’s struggles and successes, and
it keeps the coach from overidentifying or imagining that the client’s
struggles are solved by sharing “solutions” from the coach’s own life.
We often see new coaches “doing” too much! It is easy for them to fall
into the trap of believing that their worth comes only if they resolve the
client’s struggles. Au contraire. Developing good boundaries begins
with the coach believing that the client is already capable of resolving
issues, once the client is able to open up to a wider lens view of the
challenge. Only in this way will the client learn and develop from the
“inside-out”—therefore, while keeping the conversation purposeful,
the coach also needs to keep the conversation focused on what the cli-
ent is aware of, perceiving, thinking, and feeling, to expand the client’s
field of view.
To be good at this, a coach must have highly developed listening
skills—listening for meaning, for the story, for the commitment in the
story, for the values in the story, for the emotion, for the somatic mes-
sages, and, of course, for what is not being said. Such a tall order can
only be achieved from a state of “being” that is evolved and quiet. The
less noise inside the coach, the better the listening.
The kind of listening to which we are referring integrates bound-
ary awareness and genuine curiosity. By boundary awareness, we mean
that the coach stays separate while being connected to the client. The
coach knows where his or her story starts and stops, and how the coach’s
story is not the client’s experience. The client has his or her own experi-
ence for the coach to witness. The intent is to listen to clients’ stories
and manage our boundary awareness in service of clients. Are we able
to grasp how their structural determinism shapes the array of possibili-
ties that they are able to notice? The coach doesn’t simply point out new
or different possibilities by virtue of a different structural determinism
and body of distinctions. Rather, the coach, through asking “powerful
questions,” evokes from the client “the opening of new eyes.” Listening
and evoking represent the key combination of doing and invite the
client to explore what and how they notice. Later, the coach and the
client will be able to see the client’s story as a story and then determine
options for restructuring the story.
We have often found the saying “Name, Claim, Reframe” to be
very apropos in working with coaching clients. Assigning a “name” to
the story helps clients see their story as a story. Many stories represent
repeatable themes that show up in several domains of clients’ lives.
For example, the story name might be “That’s my ‘I have too much on
my plate’ story,” or “That’s my ‘going small when I could play big’ story.”
When the client and coach name the client’s story, they also create the
possibility that the client will claim the story as the client’s creation.
The client is the author. Once the client can recognize and claim author-
ship, then a new possibility becomes available: reframing. Reframing
is learning to assemble the factual elements of the story into a new
interpretation, one in which the clients reclaims the power of author-
ship and choice.
ON BECOMING A COACH: USING

The coach’s craft extends beyond being and doing. The third element,
equally significant, is using. Using as a concept refers to the tools, tech-
niques, and frameworks that the coach employs in service of the client.
We will devote a limited amount of time to the concept of using, as
many of the applications that coaches use are addressed in subsequent
chapters of this book.
Yet a few thoughts are valuable here. First, tools, techniques, and
frameworks are good and useful only to the extent that they serve
the client and expand the client’s field of view, or lens, and range of
action. We encourage coaches to be creative in applying these tools
and not to be overreliant on any tools. Being creative with tools not
only keeps the coach active in imagining how to help the client move
in the desired direction, but it also mitigates a one-size-fits-all men-
tality. New coaches can fall into the trap of thinking that an exercise
they love, such as a certain meditation exercise, is right for every cli-
ent, or that every client needs to do a values exercise. However, this is
not so. As coaches, meeting clients where they are builds a trusting
relationship where much good work can be accomplished. Leaders are
interested in accomplishing goals, and a coach must be focused on the
best ways to do that.
Second, a coach whose listening skills are superb will be able to
detect and creatively “use” frameworks from the client’s own life and
thereby develop experiments and practices that will fit the client’s abil-
ity and desire to stretch. For instance, a stressed executive confided
that years ago, creating music was his way of relaxing. The coach asked
the client to imagine bringing music back into his life. She then asked
whether he could commit to doing one activity a week that had to do
with music, where he would be engaged with music, versus passively
listening to it. What this assignment did was to reopen the client’s love
of composition and recording; six months later, the client handed the
coach a self-published CD of his writing and playing. Relaxing back
into music had a parallel consequence for the client at work. The client
began to see more clearly. Stories that he had been wedded to about how
the world at work should unfold started to lose their power. He started
to see how stress had affected his thinking, and his every moment,
and shifted his story about how to be engaged at work and how work
should engage with him. The point here is that in a truly dynamic
and alive coaching relationship, the coach is never “doing to”—and
coaches, both new and seasoned, need to remember that applying tools
to a coaching situation is more than using the same tools repeatedly.
This is the art of coaching, using the craft in masterful ways.
Tools and frameworks represent a two-edged sword, offering both
the possibility of expanding and limiting options. Most coaches and
consultants are familiar with various personality instruments, from the
MBTI®,4 to the DISC®,5 to Personalysis®,6 to name a few. The dis-
tinctions from each of these represent useful and powerful descriptive
frameworks for exploring individual differences. Yet many individuals
operate as if their type defines who they are. They begin to explain
their behavior (create a story) from the perspective of the type’s ration-
ale (i.e., “I don’t participate in the meeting because I’m so introverted,”
or, “I am ‘very red’ when I am at my best, and so I can’t really do plan-

ning”). The “type” itself becomes a story from which individuals choose
options. Of course, this is limiting. The point here is to neither criticize
any of these tools, as they are all brilliant and useful, nor discourage
assessment tools in the practice of coaching. Rather, coaches need to be
clear about their intentions when they use tools and frameworks, listen
for the story the client may be creating, and keep working to keep the
client from limiting thought patterns.
The coach’s body of distinctions, when made explicit and used
with awareness, is a set of tools that clients can benefit from. In leader-
ship coaching, for example, the coach’s distinctions about leadership
become invaluable in helping the clients learn their own distinctions
about leadership. Later chapters in this book point to distinctions that
are used in leadership coaching.
The greater question in bringing tools into coaching involves “In
service of what?” Coaching embraces many objectives, not the least of
which is to help clients expand the array of choices available to them.
It is imperative that coaches continually deploy tools and frameworks
creatively in service of helping clients explore their choices, from a
stance of curiosity.
In summary, coaches have an obligation to be in and stay in their
own development. We have covered three broad ways of thinking about
what it takes to become a coach and encourage all coaches, seasoned or
not, to revisit their roots, their stories, their automatic actions, and
the tools they are using. In the absence of such reflection, coaches run
the risk of dousing their spark, creating unexamined habits and burn-
ing out. We take the process of “becoming” very seriously, and we ask
coaches to periodically ask themselves these questions:
• What am I learning about myself?

• What story am I living in?
• How is that story empowering me or limiting me?
• What do I need to pay more attention to?
• What clients am I attracting?
• How does being in my own development help me serve my
clients?
• Who am I in the process of becoming?
NOTES
1. Neil Stroul and Christine Wahl, “Being, Doing, Using: A Way to Under-
standing Coaching,” Choice (Fall 2003), 43–45.
2. Gordon W. Allport, Becoming: Basic Considerations for a Psychology of

Personality (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1963).
3. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, “Structural Determinism,”
The Tree of Knowledge (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1987).
4. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator• (Consulting Psychologists Press), www.
cpp.com.
5. DISC• Personality Profi le, www.discprofi le.com.
6. Personalysis• Questionnaire, www.personalysis.com.
CHAPTER 2
MAPPING THE TERRAIN:

AN OVERVIEW OF
PROFESSIONAL COACHING
WILLIAM J. COURVILLE
THE FIELD OF PROFESSIONAL COACHING IS an often misunder-

stood phenomenon. There is much debate and confusion about what
coaching is and isn’t, what it does and doesn’t do, how it is similar and
different from other interventions, and even how it is defined. This
chapter provides an overview of the field. It traces the development
of coaching from etiology to definition and explores the distinctions
between different types of coaching and coaching and other similar
interventions.
Professional coaching, a hybrid intervention melding Western
therapeutic counseling and spiritual traditions, has recently emerged as
a relatively new phenomenon in the fields of professional development
and personal growth. As an emerging field, it has no theory or meth-
odology that it can call its own; however, it borrows from three tradi-
tional academic fields: psychology, business management, and adult
education (training) and development. Given its cross-disciplinary and
cross-methodological underpinnings, it employs methodologies and
techniques from transpersonal psychology, humanistic psychology,
depth psychology, psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, cogni-
tive behavioral psychology, and ancient wisdom traditions among oth-
ers. Recently, it has begun to be linked to a fourth academic field of
study: spirituality
14 | WILLIAM J. COURVILLE
Professional coaching, as a new therapeutic intervention, arose

primarily out of the need to find meaning, values, and purpose that
were perceived as missing in what were otherwise rich, full, material
lives. The field emerged first with an application of the concepts of
eastern religious practices to draw upon personal interior experiences
to improve physical prowess and quickly developed into professional
and psychological models for achieving success in different areas of
personal and professional life. The result has been the development
of many types of coaching distinguished by content, population, and
expertise as well as a multiplicity of definitions of coaching. It has led to
some confusion about how coaching as an intervention is distinct from
other similar interventions, and some concerns have been expressed
about the use of coaching as a back door method of providing therapy.
FOUNDATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL COACHING

Executive development—heretofore the domain of psychological
assessments, behavioral psychology, and emotional competencies—has
recently been opened up by the work of professional coaches who are
comfortable in the worlds of humanistic and transpersonal psychology,
depth psychology, psychoanalytic theory, management, and spiritual-
ity. They have derived models that have antecedents in both form and
structure in traditions of spiritual direction, psychology, counseling,
adult learning, and management theory.
Generally speaking, the literature coming out of the field of pro-
fessional coaching has an applied focus, is practice oriented, and does
not have a theoretical perspective. While this suggests that profes-
sional coaching, as a distinct intervention, is greatly undertheorized,
it is not to say that it is without theories. The history of how the term
“professional coaching” itself came into existence can be traced back
to the development of coaching from its beginnings as a sports-based
philosophy in the mid 1970s to the psychological model for personal
and professional development that we know today. Different theories
and models of professional coaching were created along the way and
underlie the methodologies and techniques that are used by profes-
sional coaches worldwide.
TRAVELING THE COACHING ROUTE:

FROM ETIOLOGY TO DEFINITION
There are some who would say that coaching could be traced back
to Socrates and his Socratic method of teaching by inquiry (Bennett
MAPPING THE TERRAIN | 15
2006). Socrates employed the fiction of “not knowing” in order to elicit

ideas and theories from his students. Lewis Stern (Stern 2004) says that
the word “coach” comes from the Hungarian village of Krocs where
the covered carriage (koczi) was first developed to carry people from
their point of departure to their destination with comfort. Whatever
its origins, in our lifetime the term has been more often associated with
sports coaching, academic coaching, and personal training (individual
coaching for health and fitness) before gaining traction as a term asso-
ciated with executive development and self-actualization.
It is unclear when the term “professional coaching” as we use it today
came in use, but widespread acceptance of coaching for professional
development began in the early 1990s as consulting firms proliferated.
Most people agree that coaching began appearing sometime in the
1980s in the business world, where it described consulting for business
managers and leaders. Between 1950 and 1979 organizational develop-
ment (OD) professionals began using a blend of OD and psychological
assessments in working with executives. Sometime between 1980 and
1990 standardized services began being built around 360-degree mul-
tirater assessments accompanied by one-on-one feedback. From 1995
to the present, professional coaching schools and professional organi-
zations for coaching, e.g., the International Coach Federation (ICF),
proliferated (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001).
During this same period of time, the practice of professional
coaching also took hold outside the business world and outside of the
academic discipline of psychology. In fact, in tracking the historical
development of professional coaching, executive coaching seems to be
an outgrowth of professional and personal coaching, and not the other
way around. It perhaps could be seen as a classic example of Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs playing out in a capitalistic society. Having satis-
fied all physical needs, people were searching for guidance in a move
toward self-actualization.
RECENT HISTORY
In the 1980s, Thomas Leonard introduced coaching to a wider audi-
ence as a professional and personal intervention. Leonard, a financial
planner, is credited with developing and introducing coaching as an
intervention to help prosperous clients find meaning and value in what
they were experiencing in comfortable but otherwise empty lives.
Leonard, encouraged by the results of his work and the demand for his
services, began training coaches in 1989. In the early 1990s he started
Coach U, and in 1994 he established what would become the ICF.
Thus, he began the process of creating procedures and setting stand-

ards for what is known as professional coaching today (Capuzzi Simon
2003).
Today, the ICF estimates that there are about 47,500 professional
coaches worldwide, the use of coaching by organizations around the
globe has increased exponentially, and there is now a well-recognized
industry offering a range of coaching certification programs as well as
university graduate programs with a concentration in coaching.
About the same time that coaching as a profession was being
introduced by Leonard into the personal and professional worlds,
coaching as an organizational intervention was being introduced into
the workplace by management consulting firms such as Personnel
Decisions International (PDI) and the Center for Creative Leadership
(CCL). According to Dr. Carol Dellamore, the director of the
National Leadership Institute (NLI) at the University of Maryland
University College, “the original focus of PDI, which began its opera-
tions in 1967, was helping organizations assess and select talent and
was mostly concerned with job placement and career advice.”(Personal
Communication, 2007). Over the next three decades, PDI developed
360-degree feedback tools, personality assessments, executive coach-
ing, and leadership development programs to link “the art and science
of human behavior to business needs, providing both individuals and
organizations with distinctive expertise in building leadership tal-
ent that provides a real competitive advantage” (Personnel Decisions
International 2008). PDI was the first management consulting firm
to offer a coaching program that was both structured and individually
based (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001; Hellervik, Hazucha, and
Schneider 1992). PDI’s coaching approach is a process that involves
gathering information to explore the difference between perceptions
and abilities in four major areas: goals and values (what do you want to
do?), abilities (what can you do?), perceptions (how do others see you?),
and success factors (what do others expect from you?).
In 1970 the CCL was established to “advance the understand-
ing, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society
worldwide” (Center for Creative Leadership 2008, see http://www.
ccl.org). Dr. Dellamore has worked with CCL since its inception.
NLI is the network affi liate of CCL based in Washington, DC, and
was the fi rst satellite location providing CCL’s programs outside of
its headquarters in North Carolina. Dellamore says that CCL was
founded by psychologists who came from a theoretical background
and initially wanted to provide assessments for business leaders by
using psychometric instruments. The idea of using psychometric
analysis for business was seen as a very new and exciting option at
the time, and psychologists were seen as the proper delivery system
for presenting that feedback. The program was so successful that the
demand for psychologists soon exceeded the supply, and eventually
CCL programs expanded by using other professionals, all of whom
worked under the supervision of a “chief assessor” who was a cre-
dentialed psychologist and acted in a supervisory role for the feed-
back givers. Even today, all the coaches who work in CCL programs
work under the supervision of a chief assessor who is a credentialed
psychologist.
In the mid-1970s, CCL expanded its services to provide a week-
long program for developing leaders that included support for behavio-
ral change in addition to the feedback on the assessment instruments;
the people providing that support were called “feedback coaches.”
In the mid-1980s, CCL expanded the role of the feedback givers
and began using the term “executive coach” to describe their role in
providing assessment, challenge, and support to aid the executive
in bringing about a change in behavior. In its role as a developer of
executive leaders, CCL has more recently begun providing one-on-
one executive coaching as a stand-alone component and in 2007 began
providing training for people interested in developing coaching skills.
Using your Executive Coach by Wayne Hart and Karen Kirkland (Hart
and Kirkland 2001) is published by CCL and provides guidelines for
choosing and hiring a coach, and it also lays out the general param-
eters of the coaching process. Hart and Kirkland describe coaching
as a private, personalized, one-on-one development program that can
deliver significant improvements to a manager’s leadership effective-
ness particularly when used in conjunction with an assessment of the
manager’s strengths and development needs, challenging practices,
and affirmative support.
While the corporate world was developing coaching in an organi-
zational context, the profession, practice, and craft of professional and
personal coaching continued to grow. The development of professional
schools of thought dedicated to training coaches was growing to meet
the increasing demand for these skilled professionals by individuals
and organizations. These schools were based on the concepts developed
by Timothy Gallwey and Sir John Whitmore and enlarged upon by
others such as Laura Whitworth (Whitworth et al. 1998), Julio Olalla
(Olalla 2001), Frederick Hudson (Hudson 1999), and James Flaherty
(Flaherty 1999). These original schools were followed by programs at
universities and eventually by the field of psychology itself with the
work of Martin Seligman (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000).
Seligman, the father of the new field of positive psychology, partnered

with a coach training school (MentorCoach) to apply his new approach
to the field of professional coaching.
The Coaches Training Institute (CTI), another commercial coach
training organization, was founded in 1992 by Laura Whitworth and
Henry Kimsey-House. Whitworth says that their coactive coaching
model takes a different stance from commercial coaching and mentor-
ing because it involves the active and collaborative participation of both
the coach and the client. It is a relationship between two equals where
it is believed that the clients have the answers or can find the answers.
Thus, Whitworth sets the stage for one of the most important distinc-
tions for professional and personal coaching and makes an important
contribution to the theory and practice of the field: it is client-centered
and client-directed; the agenda comes from the client, not the coach.
This assertion begins a debate within the field of the role of coach
as advice giver or expert versus coach as facilitator. Whitworth adds
two other distinctions that appear to distinguish professional coach-
ing from other similar interventions: (1) coaching moves the client to
action and (2) coaching takes place in a relational space that provides
curiosity, listening, and intuition.
Julio Olalla, the founder of the Newfield Network, another
coach training school, was one of the first to develop a philosophi-
cal framework for professional coaching. In an unpublished paper, “A
New Discourse on Learning,” Ollala lays the foundation of a coaching
philosophy as he reflects on learning in relation to establishing a new
grounding for coaching: not learning for learning’s sake, but to live
rich, full, satisfying lives. In order to elaborate on such a discourse
of learning, Olalla turns to philosophy and its ontological, epistemo-
logical, and ethical perspectives for learning to form the basis of his
coaching model and methodology. Thus, he grounds his coaching
methodology in who we are and how we know. He adds to this his
ethical perspective which gives direction to the who and the how. His
goal is “to broaden the scope of our model of learning to encompass
all four dimensions of being [language, society, emotions/body, and
transcendence] and recover the building of connectivity and meaning”
(Olalla 2001, 17).
One of the aspects of the Newfield approach, and a major con-
tribution to the field of professional coaching, is the “power of lan-
guage” that Olalla describes as “the ability to acquire distinctions for
the sake of cognizing and making sense of our world and the ability
to coordinate action via speech acts” (Olalla 2001, 10). Olalla showed
that “language can frame opportunities, discourage innovation, or
illuminate wasteful habits.” In the Newfield approach, the language

aspect is extremely significant and “has several components, including
emotional benchmarking, body language, and verbal clues” (Eckberg
2001). The Newfield approach generally follows these steps: observa-
tion leads to action, which drives the results. “When systems discon-
nect and fail to achieve a desired result, leaders usually revert to another
action, which can lead to more failure. Instead, they should start com-
pletely over at the observation stage” (Eckberg 2001). David Martin, a
Newfield-trained coach says, “You need to look at the way you look at
the world because if a coach doesn’t challenge how someone looks at
the world, they will continue to act in the same way” (Eckberg 2001).
In short, if you want a different result, instead of changing the action,
you change the way the observer sees the world, which will result in
different actions and a change in results.
James Flaherty (Flaherty 1999) takes a phenomenological approach
and adds to Olalla’s philosophical discussion about coaching with his
book Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others. Flaherty draws from phe-
nomenology, “a school of modern philosophy centered on the way phe-
nomena actually show up in people’s lives, as distinct from metaphysical
schools of philosophy in which events and experiences are categorized
by preexisting distinctions” (Flaherty 1999). That is to say, for the phe-
nomenological approach there is no objective reality “out there”; the
only reality is our experience of the event/object, not the object itself.
Flaherty uses this phenomenological approach to provide a basis for his
coaching theory and the foundation for his coach training school, New
Ventures West. Flaherty says that coaching must account for behav-
ior—because behavior leads to outcomes—and suggests that coaches
do that “by understanding it [behavior] as what follows from the way
the world is showing up for someone” (Flaherty 1999). Flaherty pos-
its that there are two ways to do this: first, “by providing a new lan-
guage that allows the client to make new observations” and, second,
“by providing practices that allow the language introduced to become
permanently part of the client’s structure of interpretation” (Flaherty
1999). Flaherty grounds his theory of coaching in phenomenology and
develops a model for coaching that proclaims that language and prac-
tices can change the structure of an individual’s interpretation which,
in turn, can lead to a change in behavior.
If Olalla and Flaherty attempted to ground coaching in a philo-
sophical framework, it is fair to say that Seligman and his new posi-
tive psychology have been instrumental in grounding coaching in a
psychological one. “The roots of coaching psychology . . . are related
to the factors underpinning the emergence of the Positive Psychology
movement” (Grant 2006). “There have been long-standing calls for

psychology to broaden its relevance to society in ways that would
help the general public to use psychology in a positive manner in
their daily lives” (Miller 1969, in Grant 2006). Seligman heard that
call clearly and took up the task of crafting a psychology that focuses
on developing human strengths and competencies. In 1998, as presi-
dent of the American Psychological Association (APA), he suggested
that “psychology should turn toward understanding and building the
human strengths to complement our emphasis on healing damage”
and decided to teach an undergraduate seminar in positive psychol-
ogy (Seligman 1999). He said, “I believe that a psychology of positive
human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific understanding
and effective interventions to build thriving individuals, families, and
communities” (Seligman 1999). That class resulted in his first book on
positive psychology called Authentic Happiness (Seligman 2002). Given
that “positive psychology can be understood as ‘the scientific study of
optimal functioning, focusing on aspects of the human condition that
lead to happiness, fulfi llment, and flourishing’ (Linley and Harrington
2005, 13)” (Grant 2006) and that this is one of the goals of professional
coaching, “links between positive psychology and coaching psychology
are clear” (Grant 2006).
Another leader in establishing training programs for professional
coaches is Frederick Hudson (Hudson 1999). Hudson founded the
Fielding Institute in 1973 to provide graduate programs for midca-
reer adults. He left Fielding in 1986 to establish the Hudson Institute
of Santa Barbara as “a training ground where leaders and profession-
als can learn how to sustain resilience, future vision, and renewal
within themselves and the environments in which they live and work”
(Hudson 2008, 1). The Hudson Institute is a nondegree adult training
center, combining personal, professional, and organizational renewal
and grounded in adult development. Hudson appears to have been the
first one to utilize a developmental approach to coaching as a model
for understanding how we move through life and negotiate transi-
tion points. He used a development map to identify and work with
adults during these transitions. Hudson is the author of The Handbook
of Coaching: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for Managers, Executives,
Consultants, and Human Resource Professionals.
In 2000, Chris Wahl (Wahl 2000, 2008) was invited by Georgetown
University to design and develop a coaching program for the univer-
sity’s School of Continuing Studies. Seeing a gap and a need for a
coaching program that would bridge coaching and OD, Chris took a
different approach from the traditional models presented above where
the program was centered around a particular theory and a particular

leader. Instead of a central leader, she put together a diverse team of
professionals who were fully versed in their own theories, thinking, and
models (coaches trained by New Ventures West, Newfield, CTI, etc.)
and who had thriving coaching practices in organizational contexts.
Rather than rely on one particular theory, she designed and developed
a program that was a blend of different styles and approaches to coach-
ing based on universal principles, where people could learn from prac-
titioners who used different approaches and styles and were successful
in both OD and coaching. This group of faculty came together in the
spirit of collaboration, not competition. They offered their best exper-
tise and collaborated to create an incredible contribution to the field
that blended coaching theory and organization development theory.
The program continues to be a flagship program at Georgetown and
has attracted a global audience.
The Georgetown Leadership Coaching program presents an eclec-
tic blend of coaching theories and models, including adult develop-
ment, organization development, sociology, somatics, behavioral sci-
ences, and linguistics. The students are encouraged to develop their
own models of coaching using these different styles, approaches, and
techniques.
THE DEFINITION
So, what is this thing called “coaching”? We’ve seen how coaching as
a profession has developed, how it draws from other disciplines and
theories, but what does coaching do and what makes it distinctive from
the other fields from which it draws its methodologies and techniques?
I think it is useful to begin by presenting an overview of the multiplic-
ity of definitions of coaching in order to give the reader a perspective
of how difficult it is to define the term. With the term “coaching,” one
encounters a definition issue. In fact, one finds that there are almost as
many definitions of coaching as there are people who coach.
Quite bluntly, the definition of coaching is not clear. Despite the
fact that the definition of coaching has been the subject of much debate,
it appears that coaching as a distinct field, practice, craft, profession,
or domain remains ill-defined and with a variety of definitions, not
unlike the Sufi tale of the blind men and the elephant. Each man who
touched the elephant in different places described a different animal.
To wit, “A number of authors have stated that executive coaching as
a distinct intervention remains poorly defined (Brotman et al. 1998;
Kilburg 1996b, 1996c, 2000; Tobias 1996)” (Kampa-Kokesch and
Anderson 2001). Anthony Grant maintains that “definitions of coach-

ing vary considerably (Palmer and Whybrow 2005) and have been the
subject of much debate (e.g. D’Abate, Eddy, and Tannenbaum 2003;
Kilburg 1996; Mace 1950)” (Grant 2006). Given the above, it is not
the purpose of this section to set out all of the definitions of coaching
that exist or to try to come up with a definitive definition, but rather
to present what might be seen as a representative sample of what one
finds in the literature in order to see what the defi nitions have in com-
mon. For example, Shelley McNamara, a human resources manager
at Proctor & Gamble, says, “Coaching is about asking questions that
help people discover what they want out of life and how to go get it.
It’s offering them ways to create something new for themselves person-
ally, for their organization, or for the business” (Capuzzi Simon 2003).
Mary Ellen Brantley in her PhD dissertation “Executive Coaching
and Deep Learning” describes coaching as “working individually with
a leader using both the content of her work and the way she makes
meaning of it to assist her in developing new perspectives, new ways of
making meaning, and more effective ways of being in a leadership role
so that the individual, the company, and the employees are benefited”
(Brantley 2007). Patrick Williams who once practiced as a clinical psy-
chologist and later founded the Institute for Life Coach Training, a
coach-training program for therapists, says, “coaching is about ‘futur-
ing’ people” (Capuzzi Simon 2003). On the basis of his reviews of the
existing literature, Kilburg (1996c, 2000) proposed the following defi-
nition of executive coaching:
A helping relationship formed between a client who has manage-

rial authority and responsibility in an organization and a consult-
ant who uses a wide variety of behavioral techniques and meth-
ods to help the client achieve a mutually identified set of goals to
improve his or her professional performance and personal satis-
faction and, consequently, to improve the effectiveness of the cli-
ent’s organization within a formally defined coaching agreement
(Kilburg 2000, 67). (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001)
Kampa-Kokesch adds “that it [coaching] can be used for both develop-

mental and remedial purposes, and it seems to occur in six stages: rela-
tionship building, assessment, feedback, planning, implementation,
and evaluation and follow up and that these stages are consistent with
other consultation models” (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001). It
is “a highly confidential personal learning process that focuses not only
on interpersonal issues, but also on intrapersonal ones (O’Brien 1997;
Witherspoon and White 1996a)” (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson

2001).
Dearlove and Crainer say, “executive coaching may be seen as a
combination of mentoring, professional development, and support
offered through a one-on-one relationship between a coach and an
executive” (Dearlove and Crainer 2003).
Allison Rossett (Rossett and Marino 2005), a professor of edu-
cational technology at San Diego State University, says, “coaching
is about purposeful interactions between a coach and the person or
persons being coached” (Rossett and Marino 2005). To Lewis Stern,
“executive coaching (EC) is an important method that can be applied
as part of an organizational consulting intervention. It entails a coach
working one-on-one with executives to help them learn how to man-
age and lead and assist them to establish, structure, plan, and lead the
executives’ organization” (Stern 2004).
That the definition of coaching is still in flux is evident even if
one looks only at the definition put forth by its official professional
organization, the ICF. In an article published in 2001, Sheila Kampa-
Kokesch quotes a definition taken from an ICF conference in 2000 as
follows:
Executive coaching is a facilitative one-to-one, mutually designed

relationship between a professional coach and a key contributor
who has a powerful position in the organization. This relation-
ship occurs in areas of business, government, not-for-profit, and
educational organizations where there are multiple stakehold-
ers and organizational sponsorship for the coach or coaching
group. The coaching is contracted for the benefit of a client who
is accountable for highly complex decisions with [a] wide scope
of impact on the organization and industry as a whole. The focus
of the coaching is usually focused on organizational perform-
ance or development, but may also have a personal component as
well. The results produced from this relationship are observable
and measurable. (International Coaching Federation Conference
2000). (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001).
Compare that definition to the one John Bennett found on the ICF
website in 2001. In an article in 2006, he quotes the 2001 ICF defini-
tion as follows:
Coaches help people set better goals and then reach those goals;
ask their clients to do more than they would have done on their
own; focus their clients better to more quickly produce results;

[and,] provide the tools, support and structure to accomplish
more (International Coach Federation 2001). (Bennett 2006)
And in a recent search of the ICF website in 2008, one finds the fol-
lowing definition:
Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and

creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal
and professional potential. Professional coaches provide an ongo-
ing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfi lling results
in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people
improve their performance and enhance the quality of their lives.
Coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their
approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions
and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally
creative and resourceful. The coach’s job is to provide support to
enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already
has. (International Coach Federation 2008)
Teri-E Belf, author of Coaching with Spirit gives both her official and
unofficial (functional) definitions of coaching. She says, “my official
definition of coaching, derived from the British training I received in
1987, is an inquiry process of helping people master the ability to con-
sistently obtain the results they want in all life areas with a sense of
well-being,” but her preferred definition of coaching is “when a client
takes the initiative to create a space of unconditional acceptance or love
(as well as a coach, a human being, can), then, for a time period of at
least four months and for as long as the coaching partnership lasts, the
client can just be who he or she truly is” (Belf 2002). James Flaherty
in his book Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others defines coaching as
“a way of working with people that leaves them more competent and
more fulfilled so that they are more able to contribute to their organi-
zations and find meaning in what they are doing” (Flaherty 1999). For
Flaherty, “coaching is a principle-shaped ontological stance and not a
series of techniques” (Flaherty 1999). He adds that “one of the most
powerful ways of understanding coaching is from the end” or from
what coaching produces. “Whitmore adds the idea of ‘unlocking a per-
son’s potential’ (Whitmore 2003)” (Brantley 2007).
It appears that the definition of professional coaching is indeed
not clearly articulated, that the definitions vary considerably, and that
there continues to be much debate—even within the professional
association that attempts to govern the field. “The difficulty of defining

executive coaching may also be a result of the many different individu-
als and disciplines involved in providing executive coaching services”
(Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001). However, one does find some
agreement:
Central to most definitions are the assumptions of an absence

of serious mental health problems in the client (Bluckert 2005),
the notion that the client is resourceful (Berg and Szabo 2005),
willing to engage in finding solutions (Hudson 1999), and that
coaching is an outcome-focused activity which seeks to foster
self-directed learning through collaborative goal setting, brain-
storming, and action planning (Greene and Grant 2003). (Grant
2006)
“Coaching is thus collaborative, individualized, solution-focused,

results-oriented, systematic, stretching, fosters self-directed learning,
and should be evidence-based and incorporate ethical professional
practice” (Grant 2006). In addition, one might add that coaching helps
to give people a sense of well-being, is not only client-centered but
also client-directed, is appreciative, is future-oriented, moves people to
action, and involves one’s search for meaning, values, and purpose.
Because of the multiplicity of definitions of the term I think it is
often more useful to describe what coaching does (i.e., how one experi-
ences coaching) rather than trying to define what it is. To get a sense of
that, let’s look at the different approaches to coaching and the different
methodologies and how they are used.
APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL COACHING

THE MAIN PLAYERS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
PROFESSIONAL COACHING MODELS
In addition to drawing from the psychological models of cognitive

behavioral theory and Rogerian “person-centered theory,” the field
of professional coaching has developed its own models of coaching.
Professional coaches, who are not psychologists, employ a range of
theoretical perspectives that draw from the fields of sports, philosophy,
adult learning, and ancient wisdom traditions.
The main players in the development of professional coaching were
Timothy Gallwey (Gallwey 1974), Sir John Whitmore (Whitmore
2003), Julio Olalla (Olalla 2001), James Flaherty (Flaherty 1999),
and Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, and Phil Sandahl

(Whitworth et al. 1998).
In many ways, psychologists are “late to the party” when it comes
to professional coaching. The first model used by professional coaches,
as distinct from coaches with a psychology or management back-
ground, was a model that came from the field of professional sports in
the early 1970s. That model, developed by Timothy Gallwey, a profes-
sional tennis coach, encouraged people to look at their game from both
an inner and outer perspective. Gallwey maintained that the inner per-
spective was as important as the outer game, and he developed a model
to strengthen the inner game. His model borrowed from the perennial
wisdom traditions, and his ideas echo some of those found in James
Hillman’s work in archetypal psychology. Gallwey’s model replaces
the coach as “expert” with the coach as “facilitator of learning” in order
to help people develop their full potential (i.e., the acorn becomes the
oak that is inherent in the acorn from the beginning). His model is
encapsulated as “performance is equal to potential minus interference”
or P = P – I. Gallwey’s model was the first to suggest that the coach
did not need to be a content expert but rather a facilitator and that
coaching was applicable in areas outside of sports. It suggested that
people had inside of themselves all that they needed to be successful
and that all they needed was an objective observer to help them remove
obstacles to growth.
The second professional coaching model was developed, imple-
mented, and marketed by Sir John Whitmore. Whitmore too comes
from the world of sports and business, and he took Gallwey’s idea and
expanded it to make it more useful for business. His model is very
methodical and suggests step-by-step guidelines that one can fol-
low to remove the obstacles that are interfering with successful per-
formance. A coach needs first to explore what the client is hoping to
achieve (goals); second, he or she needs to call the client to honesty
by examining the reality associated with those goals (reality); third,
the coach explores options and determines which of those are “live”
or real options for the client (options); and finally, the coach discusses
with the client which of those options s/he would like to explore and
moves the client toward a commitment to one of those options in order
to move the client forward (willing). His model is encapsulated as the
GROW model and has become a standard coaching model utilized by
many professionals as they begin their career as professional coaches in
the business world. Because of its simplicity, it is often used as a tool
to develop line managers into “coaches” for their direct reports. The
GROW model gives them a method to apply basic coaching techniques

in their organizations.
The model developed by Olalla and taught in the Newfield profes-
sional coaching program moves from an archetypal and process view to
an ontological view. The focus is on the observer and how the observer
knows and learns. If one wants to change the results one is getting,
then instead of focusing on changing the actions (behaviors) one would
focus on changing the way the observer sees the world. If the observer
sees differently or with more distinctions, the observer will change and
that will change the actions, which will in turn change the results.
The goal of the Newfield’s model is to give people new distinctions
(for example, emotions, moods, somatics) with which they can see the
world.
James Flaherty developed another professional coaching model
with a phenomenological view, and he based the New Ventures West
coaching school on it. Flaherty’s model is based on his theory that
how we make meaning or how we structure our interpretation of the
world determines to a large extent how we behave. His model helps
the client understand the way he or she structures his or her inter-
pretation of events and then helps him or her change that structure
so that the client sees things differently. With a different interpreta-
tion, one develops a different structure that produces different actions
that can bring about the different results. His approach uses two basic
techniques for bringing about this alteration in interpretation: fi rst, it
provides new language that allows a client to make new observations;
second, it offers practices that will make that new way of seeing per-
manent. His model could be depicted as follows: Behavior = Structure
of Interpretation, and Structure of Interpretation = Language +
Practices.
Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, and Karen Kimsey-
House developed what they call the “coactive coaching model” that
comes from their experience working with clients and training coaches
at the CTI. Their model draws from the above-mentioned theories
of coaching, and while they offer no new insights or theories, they
organize the skills, techniques, and practices of professional coach-
ing in a way that makes it accessible to people who want to join the
practice. Their model is based on what they call four cornerstones:
“one, the client is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole; two, co-
active coaching addresses the client’s whole life; three, the agenda
comes from the client; and four, the relationship is a designed alliance”
(Whitworth et al. 1998, 3).
Dr. Neil Stroul (Stroul 2001), a psychologist on the faculty of

Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program, has devel-
oped a leadership coaching model that is based on a narrative con-
structivist approach for developing authentic leadership. The premise
of his model is that “we experience our self-continuity as a narrative
that moves through time. In other words, it is a story. Because it is a
story, because it is our story, we continually rework and edit the story
so that it makes sense. The story is always a ‘first-person’ story, and in
making sense of the story, we give our lives meaning” (Stroul 2001).
Stroul says, “the coach operates on the premise that clients are
gifted people. The purpose of coaching is to work with clients to help
them better understand the nature of their gifts. To the extent they
write the story of their lives with their gifts as a major plot line, they
will be more happy and more effective” (Stroul 2001).
In 2004, David Rock (Rock 2006 and 2009) developed a brain-
based approach to coaching that attempts to apply new research in
neuroscience and the physiology of the brain as a theoretical basis for
coaching. His model is based on techniques and approaches that tar-
get the neural basis of issues such as self-awareness, status, certainty,
autonomy, relationships, fairness, reflection, insights, and accountabil-
ity. This effort to ground coaching more in the hard sciences could
lead to a new direction in approaches to coaching. For example, an
approach could emerge that uses a language that is more empirical and
rational rather than subjective and emotional; this would be a language
more palatable and accessible to the more rational business types.
SOME VARIATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL COACHING
Now that we’ve looked at the different approaches to coaching and

have seen how they can be used, let’s step back and take a look at the
many types of coaching that populate this landscape of what we call
“professional coaching” and see what makes them different and dis-
tinct from one another—or not.
“In the last 20 or so years, at the same time EC [executive coach-
ing] evolved as a recognized practice or methodology, many other
forms of coaching have also morphed into our organizational and per-
sonal lives” (Stern 2004). Carol Dellamore says that what differentiates
different types of coaching are the [client] population, the content, and
the [coach’s] expertise in the specific field. Lewis Stern (Stern 2004)
provides the following list of different types of coaching that supports
what Dellamore says by demonstrating the distinctions among some
current popular forms of coaching:
Personal or life coaching primarily focuses on an individual’s

personal goals, thinking, feeling, and action and on how an indi-
vidual can change his or her life for greater personal effectiveness
and satisfaction.
Career coaching primarily focuses on the individual’s short-
and long-range career objectives. It helps the client to decide on
career directions and then plan, seek, or change them over the
short or long term.
Performance coaching focuses on an employee’s specific per-
formance potential, job requirements, deficiencies, or derailers
and on how to fi ll performance gaps and shape the job to opti-
mize the individual’s performance.
New assigned-leader coaching focuses on helping the leader to
assimilate into a new role and successfully define and implement
his or her new business charter along with key constituents and
his or her team.
Relationship coaching focuses on specific relationships between
individuals and helps form or change those relationships for
greater productivity and satisfaction.
High-potential or developmental coaching helps employees
with potential for greater responsibility to develop the skills and
prepare for moving into new roles.
Coaching to provide feedback debriefing and development
planning helps individuals understand and use their assessment
results and 360-degree feedback in the context of their personal
and professional history and their career and business objectives.
Targeted behavioral coaching aims to modify specific behavior
or habits (e.g., intimidation, risk aversion, nonassertiveness) or
develop new behaviors to allow an individual to be more effective
in his or her current or future roles.
Legacy coaching helps the retiring or winding-down leader to
identify the legacy he or she would like to leave behind and to take
the appropriate actions to make that legacy become a reality.
Video coaching is defined by its method of using immediate
video recording and playback to allow people to become more
aware of how they come across to others and to shape their verbal
and nonverbal communication to convey the intended messages
and achieve the desired influence.
Team coaching, different from most of the other coaching
methods, provides one or more coaches who specialize in team
dynamics and effectiveness to work together with the leader and

each member of a team. The team coach has an ongoing, help-
ing relationship with both the team and the individual executive
(Stern 2004).
One can see from this rather extensive list that almost any content,
population, or expertise can form the basis for a coaching engagement.
As the term has becomes increasingly popular, it seems to have become
what Lucy Bregman (Bregman 2006) refers to as a “glow word”—that
is, a word that we like to use because it makes us feel good when we
do and yet a word whose definition remains elusive. We see the term
“coaching” popping up more and more as a way to describe almost any
kind of one-on-one helping relationship that wants to share in the new
“glow” of the term coaching. “Want to drop a few pounds? Get a coach.
Want to motivate employees? Get a coach. Want to monitor progress
toward retirement? Get a coach. Want to become more creative, less
dependent, or stop pulling your hair? Get a coach. Are you ready for a
special date with a special person? That’s right, get a coach. People with
needs, many kinds of needs, are turning to coaches. Coaching is big for
matters from the sublime to the ridiculous” (Rossett and Marino 2005).
As the supply of coaches proliferates, coaching is quickly becoming an
overprescribed and undifferentiated solution.
There is another perspective on what distinguishes different types
of coaching. Otto Laske says that “the way in which the level of self
is construed, both theoretically and practically, determines the telos
adopted for the coaching and the kind of coaching that is actually
done” (Laske 1999). That is, the way we are wired determines both
the kind of coaching and the end or purpose (telos) of the coaching.
Laske’s notion of “the construction of self ” and “telos” seems to better
describe two other types of coaching not covered by Stern: leadership
coaching and spiritual coaching.
LEADERSHIP COACHING
Peter Senge (Senge 1994) in his introduction to Joseph Jaworski’s

(Jaworski 1996) Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership contrasts
leadership books about what leaders do and how they operate with the
book by Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership, that “invites people to
consider a domain of leadership grounded in a state of being, not doing”
(Jaworski 1996). Senge says, “leadership is about creating a domain in
which human beings continually deepen their understanding of real-
ity and become more capable of participating in the unfolding of the
world. Ultimately, leadership is about creating new values” (Jaworski

1996). Kevin Cashman (Cashman 1998) echoes Jaworski and Senge.
He says, “leadership is not simply something we do. It comes from
somewhere inside us. Leadership is a process, an intimate expression
of who we are. It is our being in action” (Cashman 1998). Bill George,
a Harvard Business School professor and former CEO of Medtronic,
says that “authentic leaders demonstrate a passion for their purpose,
practice their values consistently, and lead with their hearts as well
as their heads. They establish long-term relationships and have the
self-discipline to get results. They know who they are” (George et al.
2007). And finally, celebrated leadership gurus such as Warren Bennis
(Bennis 2003), Jim Collins (Collins 2001), and Stephen Covey (Covey
2004) agree that authenticity, willful humility, and purpose are funda-
mental for effective leadership.
In a 2007 Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew McLean, and Diana
Mayer conducted a study described as “the largest in-depth study of
leadership development ever undertaken” (George et al. 2007). After
interviewing 125 leaders, they concluded that there were no “univer-
sal characteristics, traits, skills, or styles that led to their leadership
success.” Instead, the authors learned that “their leadership emerged
from their life stories. Consciously and subconsciously, they were
testing themselves through real-world experiences and reframing
their life stories to understand who they were at their core. In doing
so, the subjects of the study discovered the purpose of their lead-
ership and learned that being authentic made them more effective”
(George et al. 2007). The authors describe three steps in the proc-
ess that people used to become authentic leaders. “First, and most
important, the leaders frame their life stories in ways that allow them
to see themselves not as passive observers of their lives but rather as
individuals who can develop self-awareness from their experiences.”
Second, they “act on that awareness by practicing their values and
principles, sometimes at substantial risk to themselves.” And third,
“authentic leaders keep a strong support team around them, ensuring
that they live integrated, grounded lives” (George et al. 2007). “The
journey to authentic leadership begins with understanding the story
of your life. Your life story provides the context for your experiences,
and through it, you can fi nd the inspiration to make an impact in
the world” (George et al. 2007). “It is your personal narrative that
matters, not the mere facts of your life” (George et al. 2007). Or, as
James Hillman explains in The Soul’s Code, when you read the story
of your life backwards, it tells you more about who you are than the
mere facts of the story.
Georgetown University has developed a certificate program for

leadership coaching that uses a model based on the concept of story and
how one can use story (narrative constructivism) to develop authen-
ticity and values, discover meaning and purpose, and integrate and
ground oneself in life. “Asked what empowered them to lead, . . . leaders
consistently replied that they found their strength through transforma-
tive experiences. Those experiences enabled them to understand the
deeper purpose of their leadership” (George et al. 2007). “Authentic
leaders used these formative experiences to give meaning to their
lives” (George et al. 2007). And, “As John Donahoe, president of
eBay Marketplaces and former worldwide managing director of Bain,
stressed, being authentic meant maintaining a sense of self no matter
where you are” (George et al. 2007).
Leadership coaching involves working with a population of lead-
ers—people who are leading in their own lives or leading corporations.
As Kevin Cashman says, “Leaders lead from who they are; only the
domains of influence are different” (Cashman 1998). Th is suggests that
leadership coaching could be seen as a distinctive type of coaching not
only as defined by Dellamore (content, population, experience) but also
as defined by Laske (the way in which the level of self is construed and
the telos adopted). One could usefully describe the content of leader-
ship coaching as “essence” or “authenticity,” the experience as a devel-
oped expertise in the therapeutic traditions of humanistic psychology
and self-actualization or spirituality and perennial wisdom, and the
population as people who are in leadership roles—either in their per-
sonal lives or organizations—thus satisfying Dellamore’s conditions.
One could also usefully describe leadership coaching as the develop-
ment of levels of the self or levels of consciousness. The progressive
development of higher levels of consciousness is synonymous with the
development of what might usefully be called a “spiritual intelligence”
or “existential intelligence,” that is, the intelligence that human beings
use to become self aware, make sense of their world, and construct
meaning and values for themselves. The telos or purpose of leader-
ship coaching is assisting people in their attempt to live integrated,
grounded, connected (authentic) lives, a definition that also satisfies
Laske’s criteria.
Laske’s criteria of what distinguishes types of coaching are impor-
tant for two other reasons. One, because Laske’s conditions establish
the criteria for what might be a useful distinction between so-called
transformational coaching and transactional coaching. Transactional
coaching has as its primary focus changing behavior; transformational
coaching has as its focus “changing character, identity, and one’s deep
assumptions about self and the world” (Hodgetts 2003). “In transac-
tional coaching, the person learns to behave differently, but the self
that learns basically stays the same at its core; the person’s core identity
and deep assumptions about self and the world are not worked with,
not challenged, not identified directly” (Hodgetts 2003). In transac-
tional coaching, the client might behave better, but the person does
not change or develop; in transformational coaching, what changes is
the client’s “core identity, his or her sense of who he or she is, and
his or her fundamental beliefs and assumptions about self and world”
(Hodgetts 2003). Transformational coaching thus seems to align more
closely with Laske’s definition, which characterizes coaching by what
constitutes the self and how one works with the levels of self. Secondly,
Laske’s definition more closely reflects the type of coaching that could
be described as spiritual. Spiritual coaching can be seen as a type of
coaching that focuses on the development of levels of consciousness,
the sense of who a person is at his or her core, his or her fundamental
beliefs and assumptions about who he or she is, why he or she exists,
and what his or her purpose or “call” is. These characteristics of spir-
itual coaching are more closely aligned with Laske’s definition, which
characterizes types of coaching by the way they work with levels of self
and by their teleology.
SPIRITUAL COACHING
There seem to be two ways of describing what is called “spiritual coach-

ing”: (1) coaching models that specifically and unabashedly utilize the
language of spirituality in their methodology and practice and are
unapologetic about referring to their work as “spiritual coaching,” and
(2) professional coaching models that employ methodologies, theories,
and practices from perennial wisdom (spiritual) traditions and spir-
itual direction, take part in a discourse about spirituality that could
be described as unconscious and implicit, and are teleologically based
(i.e., defined in terms of a goal or purpose) that could be described as
spiritual growth, such as self-actualization, purpose, or meaning.
Many coaches would agree that there is an element of spirituality
to what they do, but few are comfortable calling it by that name. Frank
Ball, the former codirector of the Leadership Coaching Certificate
Program at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies
says, “I’ve been saying for years that coaches are secular clergy.” And
Dearlove and Crainer say, “often the executive coach is a corporate
father confessor” (Dearlove and Crainer 2003). Coaches have even
been referred to as “the new high priests” (Conlin 2002).
In spite of the evidence of a spirituality discourse in the world

of business, spirituality is often, like Harry Potter’s Voldemort “that
which must not be named.” As one coach who uses a holistic approach
to executive coaching explained to me, “it’s like getting the camel’s
nose under the tent.” She described her coaching as a “Trojan horse”
used to get spirituality into organizations without calling it spiritual-
ity. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz (Loehr and Schwartz 2001) in an
article for the Harvard Business Review describe a high-performance
pyramid that builds from a base of physical capacity to a peak of spir-
itual capacity. They say,
Most executives are wary of addressing the spiritual level of

the performance pyramid in business settings, and understand-
ably so. The word “spiritual” prompts confl icting emotions and
doesn’t seem immediately relevant to high performance. So let’s
be clear: by spiritual capacity, we simple mean the energy that
is unleashed by tapping into one’s deepest values and defining
a strong sense of purpose. Th is capacity, we have found, serves
as sustenance in the face of adversity and as a powerful source
of motivation, focus, determination, and resilience. (Loehr and
Schwartz 2001)
An explicit spirituality discourse in professional coaching would allow

us to be clear about what spirituality is, how it operates within a coach-
ing engagement, and how it affects the way coaches work. Like emo-
tions—which we are uncomfortable discussing and often omit from
our conversations—I would suggest that spirituality exists in coaching
engagements whether it is acknowledged or not. A spirituality dis-
course would allow coaches to name what it is they are doing and see
themselves as “spiritual counselors” able to tap into a dynamic process
that has been shown to be a source of motivation, focus, determination,
and resilience.
COACHING AND OTHER INTERVENTIONS
When I work with clients, I often hear them say some variation of,
“this looks a lot like consulting, mentoring, training, and therapy,
what’s different”?
1. COACHING VERSUS THERAPY
Given the similarities in the content, setting, and vocabulary utilized
in both psychotherapy and coaching, there appears to be a legitimate
concern over whether there is indeed a distinction between the two.

To clients, coaching can look a lot like therapy: two people working
together one-on-one, private space, confidentiality, often dealing with
emotions. In fact, “Tobias argued that coaching by psychologists is a
mere repackaging of practices once done under the umbrella of con-
sultation and counseling” (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001). So
what is different?
Teri E-Belf says, “Coaching picks up where traditional therapy
leaves off, moving people to integrate their therapeutic insights into
practical everyday living” (Belf 2002), and “therapy takes bad things
and chunks them smaller while coaching takes good things and chunks
them bigger” (Belf 2002).
There is also a difference in the training. “Years of training can
separate therapists and coaches. Therapists with PhDs may train for
more than six years. Coaches need a minimum of 60 hours of training
and 250 hours of coaching client experience for ‘associate’ certification;
‘master’ certification requires 200 hours of education and 2,500 hours
of coaching experience” (Capuzzi Simon 2003). “But the major differ-
ence between coach and therapist is in the degree of active interven-
tion” (Capuzzi Simon 2003).
Another important place where coaching and therapy differ is the
status of the relationship. “The issue here is about the role of expert
knowledge in coaching and how expert knowledge can be best utilized
within the coaching relationship” (Grant 2006). “In essence, this issue
is about striking the right balance between process facilitation and
content or information delivery” (Grant 2006).
A further distinction is that in therapy, “the relationship is pro-
tected by an ethical and legal framework. The coaching relationship,
on the other hand, functions as a collaborative business arrangement”
(Capuzzi Simon 2003). And unlike therapy, “coaching doesn’t look
back” (Capuzzi Simon 2003). With coaching, we don’t care why you
are the way you are, but given who you are, what do you want to do
about it and how can you be most effective?
Additionally, coaching does not deal with people who have mental
disorders but rather coaches work with what they refer to as “ ‘high-
functioning’ individuals who want their lives to be better in some way”
(Capuzzi Simon 2003). That said, “It may be that some individuals
seek coaching as a more socially acceptable form of therapy” (Grant
2006). Capuzzi says, “there are others, especially men, who would
never consider psychotherapy but who would talk through problems
with a seemingly less threatening, more positive coach” (Capuzzi
Simon 2003), and “for people who are ‘terrified of treatment,’ says
Washington clinical psychologist and coach Lynn Friedman, coaching

is a good thing. It allows them to get help in a way that doesn’t make
them feel bad” (Capuzzi Simon 2003, 2 F).
One could sum up the distinctions between coaching and therapy
as follows: (1) coaching doesn’t develop therapeutic insights, but rather
might take therapeutic insights and integrate them into everyday life;
(2) coaches are trained facilitators not trained therapists; (3) therapists
actively intervene in patients’ lives while coaches are guided by the cli-
ent; (4) therapists have expert knowledge whereas coaches use the cli-
ent’s knowledge; (5) therapy is protected by a legal framework whereas
coaching is a collaborative business arrangement ; (6) coaching is more
about the future than the past; (7) coaches work with high-function-
ing individuals rather than people with mental disorders; (8) coaching
is appreciative—focusing on what works rather than on what doesn’t
work.
All of these distinctions lead Grant to conclude, “Thus, rather than
act as a coach, it makes more sense for a psychologist to actually be a
coach, to develop coaching skills and psychological frameworks that
go beyond existing clinical or counseling frameworks and applications”
(Grant 2006). That of course, begs the question of “what are these
‘coaching skills’ that go beyond clinical or counseling frameworks?”
2. COACHING VERSUS TRAINING, CONSULTING, MENTORING

In addition to therapy, professional coaching is often confused with
other interventions or practices such as consulting, mentoring, and
training. Dearlove and Crainer say, “step back from the hyperbole,
and executive coaching may be seen as a combination of mentoring,
professional development, and support” (Dearlove and Crainer 2003).
My personal observations, discussions with colleagues, and interviews
with practitioners in the field of professional coaching have produced
the following distinctions.
Training is an intervention that is designed based on generic
skills or expectations for an organization, a group, or a position. It
may or may not involve individual progress, has a short time frame,
and uses required information to provide learning. Coaching, on the
other hand, is individualized, tailored, customized to the individual,
and it is based on data. It requires individual progress, on ongoing
time frame and uses open-ended questions and reflection to promote
learning.
Mentoring is a practice where advice is expected. It emphasizes
organizational goals, usually occurs between a senior and junior per-
son, and generally focuses on career development. Coaching requires
questions rather than advice, balances individual and organizational

goals, can occur between peers, and focuses on learning or develop-
ment rather than on performance.
The focus of consulting is problem solving. It uses available data to
diagnose problems and provide solutions. The consultant is the expert
and accountable for success, and the emphasis is on group change or
organizational change. As we have seen, the focus of coaching is to
deepen learning and move the action forward. It uses data, but only to
set goals, not to diagnose problems or provide solutions. In coaching,
the client is the expert and is accountable for success, and coaching
emphasizes personal change.
Common to all of the above interventions of therapy, consulting,
training, and mentoring is that they are all expert-centered. The thera-
pist is responsible for one’s mental health; the consultant is in charge of
diagnosing and solving the problem; the trainer’s position is to impart
specific skills or knowledge, and the mentor’s role is to share experi-
ences and give advice. One of the things that make coaching differ-
ent is its focus. Coaching is client-centered and client-directed, and
the responsibility for success rests with the client. Further, coaching
is focused on learning and development rather than on performance,
on the future rather than on the past, on strengths rather than on
weaknesses, on movement toward action rather than on stasis, and on
questions and reflection rather than on advice or problem solving. In
addition, coaching is customized and tailored to the individual rather
than to a methodology or theoretical stance, and its primary tools are
questions rather than answers.
One of the basic tenets of professional coaching is that coaching
helps clients see things differently. Each client has a story about what
he or she is doing and why he or she is doing it. The primary skill uti-
lized and developed by professional coaches that goes beyond existing
clinical or counseling frameworks and applications is the ability—even
in areas where they have little or no expertise—to lead the client with
a few well-placed questions to focus on variables that are critical to his
or her success and to bring clarity to his or her story. Often adjusting
the lens through which the story is viewed can have a major impact on
the options for action and hence on the outcome.
Earlier I posed a question about distinctive coaching skills that go
beyond existing clinical or counseling frameworks and applications.
I am not convinced that there are distinctive coaching skills; what is
distinctive about coaching is the framework and process within which
those skills, techniques, and methodologies borrowed from other
disciplines are practiced and applied. The coach becomes a relational
container, confessor, partner, facilitator, provocateur, confidant, chal-

lenger, truth-sayer, and supporter.
History suggests that Gallwey and Leonard introduced the phe-
nomenon of professional coaching in North America in the mid-1970s
and that it was focused on finding meaning, values, and purpose. With
the entry of psychologists and management consultants into the field
in the mid-1980s, the focus of coaching began to shift from meaning
to means of production, from fulfi llment to efficiency, from purpose to
engagement, and from personal values to the bottom line. This is not
the first time that psychology has appropriated language and experi-
ence from another domain, “psychologized” it, and utilized it in the
service of business.
TOWARD A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF

PROFESSIONAL COACHING
While the field of professional coaching is becoming increasingly pop-

ular and widespread due to its “glow,” it is not without its detractors
and its concerns. Not the least of these, from an academic viewpoint,
is the fact that there has historically been a lack of published work to
conceptualize and theorize this new field and thus a dearth of theoreti-
cal literature about it.
In addition to the fact that the field is undertheorized, Kampa-
Kokesch identifies the following concerns regarding this new social
phenomenon: “the absence of a clear and widely accepted (a) defi ni-
tion, (b) standard of practice, and (c) agreement as to the appropri-
ate service providers” (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001). She
argues correctly that “there is surprisingly little empirical research on
the efficacy of executive coaching” (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson
2001) and that there is “increased concern regarding the definition and
standardization of executive coaching as well as who is most qualified
to deliver such services (Brotman et al 1998; Filipczak 1998; Harris
1999; Kilburg 1996b, 1996c, and 1997; Saporito 1996; Tobias 1996)”
(Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001). While there have been many
attempts—and some progress—on measuring the effectiveness or ROI
for executive coaching since 2001, it still remains an open question as
to whether a hard business case can be made to justify the investment
in coaching for organizations and establish how—or even if—coaching
is effective.
Another issue “involves the myriad backgrounds of executive
coaches. Currently, professionals from business, teaching, law, and
sports are claiming to be executive coaches (Brotman et al 1998; Kilburg
1996b). In part, this is a result of the increased demands for executive

coaching [and its accompanying revenues], and, as such, there is con-
cern over unqualified professionals making claims and threatening the
legitimacy of executive coaching as a viable intervention (Harris 1999;
Kilburg 2000)” (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001).
In an attempt to address these concerns, “guidelines for successful
coaching have been proposed by various individuals (e.g., Kiel et al
1996), but to date no standards or guidelines have been widely adopted”
(Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson 2001). Grant says that “because coach-
ing is an industry and not a profession, there are no barriers to entry, no
regulations, no government-sanctioned accreditation or qualification
process and no clear authority to be a coach; anyone can call himself a
‘master coach.’ Worldwide there is a veritable industry offering a range
of ‘coach certification’ programs” (Grant 2006).
Though it has not been for lack of effort, there is still no gen-
eral agreement on what effective coaching is, and while there has been
much work done on standards of practice, there is still no agreement
on what coaches do and who is most qualified to deliver these services.
Substantive research on what effective coaching is might give more
clarity to who is most qualified to deliver this service as well as indicate
the best path to the development of effective coaches.
Lastly, another of the underdeveloped areas of professional coaching
is the discourse about spirituality that was the impetus for its emergence
and about the role spirituality continues to play in professional coach-
ing. As we have seen, most of the literature in professional journals and
academic literature is centered on the theory, methodology, and practice
of coaching from a psychological, philosophical, and adult development
perspective. What is lacking in the field and the professional literature
is a more robust discourse about the spiritual or religious aspects of pro-
fessional coaching that were present at its origin and that still operate—
implicitly or explicitly—at its core; a spirituality discourse that speaks
to our search for meaning, purpose, values—our ultimate concern. This
argument for a “spiritual or existential” intelligence and an examination
of coaching as a means for developing that intelligence and of coaches
as spiritual directors is a subject for another chapter.
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CHAPTER 3
SACRED SPACE: WHERE

POSSIBILITIES ABOUND AND
CHANGE IS ENGENDERED
JULIE K. SHOWS AND
CLARICE SCRIBER
Early morning—at dawn—I find my rhythm, my mind quiets,

and I am completely at peace. The house is quiet. I am connected
with spirit, known to myself and the universe. It is a time full
of grace, a time when I am connected to my center and open to
what is calling me. My dreams whisper to me. The answers to the
questions I pose are revealed. I trust what I hear. This is for me
sacred space. (Clarice Scriber)
At the start of another day, I focus my mind on the stillness and
feeling of calmness. I push away my thoughts of things to do and
obligations to others—this is a sacred time that is mine alone. I
breathe deeply and release the worries and concerns. I breathe
deeply and connect to the wisdom of my spirit. It is in this space
that I can pause and set my intentions for the day, reflect on what
is important to me, and connect to what inspires me. From this
sacred space, I start my day with a feeling of purpose and pres-
ence. I am ready for another day. (Julie K. Shows)
WE BEGIN THIS CHAPTER WITH THE PREMISE that each human

being has a wellspring of innate intelligence from which deep qualities
46 | JULIE K. SHOWS AND CLARICE SCRIBER
like presence, wisdom, common sense, resiliency, and peace of mind

emerge. To access that innate intelligence, we coaches learn to create
a space for ourselves and for the leaders we coach. We call this sacred
space.
The coaching hour provides the opportunity so that men and
women who are called to “do” can learn to “be.” It’s a space where
leaders reconnect with their values, shift into possibility, and explore
future options. As leadership coaches, we cocreate sacred space with
leaders to help them fashion strategies that bring positive action in
service to the organizations they lead. It allows our clients to leave
ego out of the conversation and to connect with their greater wisdom
and authenticity. It is the space for conversations about learning and
growth, intentions and desires, and values and purpose. From this
space, leaders can move forward with clarity of intention, foresight,
and balance.
How does the practice of creating sacred space influence our abil-
ity to be masterful leadership coaches? What qualities allow the coach
to be present—to listen with the “third ear,” intuitively and deeply, for
what is spoken and not said? How do coaches facilitate moments of
grace in which leaders learn and grow?
QUALITIES THAT EMBODY SACRED SPACE
We had our own ideas and, at the same time, we wondered what
other leadership coaches believe about creating sacred space. With
that question in mind, we distributed an online survey to 100 coaches.
Those coaches were selected for gender diversity, variety in training
venues, number of years of experience, and geographical differences.
We received a 50 percent response rate from the survey. Subsequently,
we followed up with interviews of twenty coaches to gain additional
insight into the question of sacred space.
We began by identifying attributes that we believe coaches
embody when they create sacred space (table 3.1). We asked coaches
to select the top five qualities that a leadership coach should embody
to create sacred space. In a companion survey, we asked the same
questions of coaching clients to see if what coaches think and expe-
rience matches what clients observe and experience. Although not
quantitatively valid, the survey and follow-up interviews yielded
rich data culled from the experience of the coach respondents and
clients.
The coach respondents selected and thereby validated the quali-
ties that we deem most important to the coaching relationship.
SACRED SPACE | 47
Table 3.1 Leadership coaching survey: Qualities
Please select the top five qualities a leadership coach should embody to create
sacred space. Then, rank your selections in order of importance with 1 being
the most important and 5 being the least important.
1. Ability to connect
2. Commitment to others
3. Confidence
4. Congruence
5. Comfortable
6. Equanimity
7. Grace
8. Heart
9. Humor
10. Intelligence
11. Inspiration
12. Motivation
13. Openness
14. Political savvy
15. Presence
16. Self-awareness
17. Spirit
18. Trust
19. Warmth
20. Wisdom
If there are other qualities that you believe are important to a leadership coach,
please list them:
The qualities both the coach respondents and we selected were as

follows:
• Ability to connect
• Trust
• Presence
• Self-awareness
• Wisdom
ABILITY TO CONNECT
“The essence of communication is connection.” 1 The ability to connect was

the quality most identified by coaches and leaders alike. What makes
that quality so important? For the coach and the client, it is the catalyst
for the genesis of the partnership, and it recurs throughout the course
of the alliance. It is not static; it deepens as trust grows.
This ability is fed by the leaders who reveal themselves, warts and
all, as the coach reciprocates with regard and respect and compassion.
Both leader and coach become more open and thereby vulnerable.
The coach is open to the client; the leader feels safe to disclose, to
try on new behaviors, to wade and perhaps later plunge into uncharted
water, to be courageous in the face of uncertainty. There is a dance—
an exchange of energy—as the client and coach garner trust to chal-
lenge, to hold accountability for new actions. During this exchange,
it becomes even more likely leaders will “act” into the future they
imagine.
If you don’t connect, then the coachees are less likely to open up
when they don’t feel the connection. When people do connect,
[there is] more of a free flow of dialogue, said a manager in a glo-
bal law firm who worked with her coach for a year.2
Therefore, how the connection is established sets the tone for the
coaching relationship. As in many relationships, a decision to work
together occurs quickly. Is the coach someone who makes it easy to
engage? Can leaders see themselves in partnership with their coaches?
Is the coach able to create the space for discernment to occur—for them
both to choose to relate and to form a relationship?
TRUST
If the ability to connect is the catalyst to forming the relationship,

then trust is the glue that cements the coaching alliance. Trust is what
allows the clients to be truthful and to fully reveal their challenges,
concerns, dreams, and strengths. In other words, they can be vulner-
able and not be judged. Trust is a two-way street, a complementary
process.
The coach enters the coaching alliance with the premise that the
client is whole and competent, and the coach helps to establish trust
by partnering with the client to create the parameters for the coaching
engagement.
SACRED SPACE | 49
In large organizations, the coaching hour may be the only place a

leader can fully reveal what it is like to sit in the leadership seat or to
be held accountable by someone whose purpose is to hold an agenda.
In this setting, the leader-clients are able to root for themselves and
to act as their best selves for personal change and growth as individu-
als and as leaders. One consultant (who is also trained as a coach) we
interviewed put it this way:
For any work relationship, a level of trust between people that is

comparable to the level of vulnerability and power that people
have over one another [must] be very high for the coach. If it’s
a good coaching relationship, the clients will share information
that puts them in a very vulnerable situation. If they don’t open
up, that [lack] will hurt the coaching relationship. 3
To that end, contracting around confidentiality is a crucial ele-

ment. A frank discussion of the terms of confidentiality—what the
coach won’t and what the coach is obliged to reveal can help make the
process trustworthy and transparent. Th roughout the engagement, the
coach holds the client’s agenda, listens deeply, and fosters both reflec-
tion and self-examination. As time elapses, both the client and coach
can move into that sacred space comfortably with each other and can
trust the process.
PRESENCE
Presence is the quality that affects the coach’s capacity to hold the
space. It is the essence of the individual, and presence manifests itself
both physically and spiritually. It is the embodiment of the individual.
In the context of coaching, we view this presence as a positive
force, as the ability to manifest compelling energy that is confident
without being cocky and is open without crossing boundaries. Spirit
abounds. It contributes to the chemistry of coaching.
The coach’s presence helps us to attract the clients for whom we
can contribute. Presence fosters credibility with the leader. When the
coach is congruent, centered, relaxed, and fully aware of herself and is
in tune with the client and the environs, the clients are freer to access
their own willingness and intuition.
The coaches’ presence (i.e., their way of being) can engender posi-
tive energy that is conducive to openings for new possibilities.
Presence also supports the connection that the coach makes with
the leader. For all of us, when we are in tune with our values, our
beliefs, and ourselves, it shows. And it allows us to engage confidently,

welcomingly, empathically, and powerfully.
The coach’s full presence needs to be there, observed a coach.

“[That presence] is to provide a big enough container to take
everything in.” [The client] needs to know that there’s a spine
there, not just a friendly, nice, empathetic energy, but one that
can question, push back—a clear gravitas to the coach.4
SELF-AWARENESS
Now we come to the quality of self-awareness. The self-aware coaches

do the internal work to understand their boundaries, triggers, gifts,
and limitations. In this way, the coaches are able to enter the coaching
space authentically and confidently.
How do we increase self-awareness and thereby enhance the safety
of the coaching alliance? Very simply, it is by following many of the
tenets we propose for our clients. Consistent self-care—the day-to-day
activities that engender health and well-being; self-observations and
practices that encourage reflection; willingness to examine our suc-
cesses and our mistakes, and the ability to learn from them are factors
that foster self-awareness. Beyond these basic practices, we find coaches
regularly include many other activities in their daily routines to sup-
port their work. These range from yoga to morning poetry readings.
Later in this chapter, we address in more detail the practices coaches
use to get themselves into shape mentally, physically, and spiritually
that in turn foster greater self-awareness.
We want to point out that self-awareness alone does not lead
to action. From careful self-observation, we learn what we want to
change as we show up and behave differently. Self-awareness is a
catalyst for new thinking, new possibilities, new behaviors, and new
outcomes.
WISDOM
The fifth quality or characteristic that our respondents identified was

wisdom. The word wisdom means more than knowledge. It is access-
ing the wisdom of a greater intelligence, the wisdom of the ages. It
is using all the senses to listen. It is cognitive—and more. Wisdom
embraces the domains of body, emotion, and spirit. It is being able
to tap into an inner knowing for both the client and the coach. Such
wisdom is possible only through the creation of sacred space that is
SACRED SPACE | 51
built on connection, self-awareness, trust, and presence. The access to

wisdom is the internal process for a coach and a leader; the external
process comes from inquiry. By asking questions from a place of curi-
osity and by being in service to the highest potential of our clients, we
coaches allow the leaders to connect to their own authenticity. Then
the insights and answers will emerge.
The wise coach knows when to be silent; when to challenge; when
to observe as the client moves into space and behavior that might
derail; and when to intervene with humor, a story, a poem, or a prac-
tice. Coaches who call on their wisdom will tap into their knowledge of
human nature, organizations, and the universe. In this sense, wisdom
is bigger than both coach and client. It is capturing and practicing les-
sons of time immemorial. It is best used to know ourselves as coaches
in service to client-leaders who join with us in their own development
to become more humane, more competent leaders.
Does the coach create sacred space with every client? Absolutely
not! We all have our off days—coach and leader alike. There are times
when we are distracted and when the client is distracted or when con-
ditions are too hectic to engage. There are times when the coach is
grabbed by the leader’s story and loses perspective. Occasionally, trust
erodes. When such conditions show up—on either side of the rela-
tionship—we maintain that it is the coach who is called on to return
to center and to seek discernment around the commitment to the rela-
tionship. If the client disengages, we coaches should seek to under-
stand why and should endeavor to re-enroll. When we as coaches are
harried, we should return to the practices that generate the capacity for
creating sacred space.
WAYS FOR COACHES TO GET IN SHAPE
This discussion leads us to the second part of the chapter: how does the
coach get in shape for creating sacred space?
In our brief online survey, we asked leadership coaches about the
practices they engage in to support their work. The list ranged from
walking, journaling, meditating, practicing yoga, and praying—the
more popular practices—to weight lifting, horseback riding, and prac-
ticing Reiki (table 3.2).
A common thread among all coaches who talked with us was that
they engaged in those practices not only to create their own sacred space
but also as a method of getting in condition to coach. If we believe that
as coaches our work is about our own growth, then the practices that
allow us to create our own sacred space so that we can access our own
Table 3.2 Leadership coaching survey: Practices
Please check all of the practices in which you regularly engage (at least 3 times per
week) and include the number of hours each week you engage in those practices.
Practice
1. Journaling
2. Sitting meditation (30 minutes or more)
3. Yoga
4. Stopping
5. Prayer
6. Tai Chi
7. Aikido
8. Poetry or inspirational readings
9. Walking (30 minutes or more)
10. Running
11. Visualization
What other practices do you regularly commit to (i.e., massage, Rolfing, Reiki),
and how often do you engage in those practices?
wisdom will become one of the foundations of our work. If as coaches

we can create our own sacred space, then we can genuinely invite our
clients to create that space for themselves.
It takes discipline to maintain such practices, and life gets in the
way. As coaches and humans, we face the challenges of leading busy
lives, being tired, or having too many commitments and daily inter-
ruptions—just as our clients do. It is also by creating the discipline to
do those practices that we can understand the struggle that our clients
go through in their busy lives as they try to create new ways of doing
things. We can more consistently stay grounded and be present with
our clients as they walk their journey when we have taken the time to
be centered in our own day.
The most popular practices mentioned by the coaches interviewed
were these:
SACRED SPACE | 53
• Praying
• Walking
• Reading poetry or inspirational writings
• Journaling
• Stopping
PRAYING
Prayer—a conversation with a greater wisdom—was named as the

number one practice that coaches engaged in as a daily practice. Prayer
is used as a practice for centering, as a time for reflection, and as a
time for gratitude. Prayer is the connection between the sacred and the
present moment.
WALKING
Used as exercise, as a way of being in nature, or as a meditation, walk-

ing was the next practice that coaches mentioned. Taking the time to
be connected with nature regularly and walking as a moving medita-
tion provide a structure for pausing in our lives and connecting to our
own sacred space.
READING POETRY OR INSPIRATIONAL WRITINGS
Both poetry and inspirational readings can be used in reflective

practices, as well as being offered to the leaders we coach. Starting
a meditation period with a poem often sparks new learning or obser-
vations about one’s self and gives food for thought for journaling or
self-observation.
JOURNALING
As we record our inner thoughts and use reflective learning, journaling

lends itself to slowing down. It allows us to speak from our hearts, to
connect to the joy of learning, and the wonder of being a beginner. It
gives us a place to be ourselves without the fear of judgment. It allows
us to solve problems and to clear our mind for the day so that we can be
present with our clients and ourselves.
STOPPING
By taking time out from our busy schedules as we stop or pause, that
respite helps us to come back to ourselves, to rediscover day in and
day out our sacred space. We stop, recover, and reconnect to our inner
sense of ourselves. At Georgetown University, an important compo-

nent of the leadership coach training program is for our students to
take on a new practice in a domain where they want to build capac-
ity, as well as learn a practice that allows them to stop and to pause
from the busyness of the day. We ask students to write in a journal
so they enhance their self-awareness. For some students, the jour-
nal is a welcome developmental tool that allows them to learn about
themselves and to discover entrenched beliefs that hinder growth.
For others, journaling is a tedious practice and is difficult to begin,
much less maintain. That revelation in itself provides a conversation
for the coach and the leader in the hour of sacred coaching space.
Laura Divine and Joanne Hunt speak about such a stop in their arti-
cle titled “The Power of Pause”:
There are certain words associated with pausing that we do

not hold as positive within our culture. Words such as delay,
hesitate, or doubt give us some insight into how pausing can
be held as something that delays action, forward movement, or
success. Pausing can be interpreted as a lack of decisiveness or a
sense of being unsure. As coaches, we need to take into consid-
eration both what frightens people about slowing down . . . as
well as how our culture holds this construct. Together these
two forces create resistance in our ability to value and build
this competency as an individual or as a society.5
By experiencing the resistance as well as the joy of pausing and

reflective learning, the coaches will better use those practices in their
own lives before introducing them to the clients they serve. We want
to emphasize, as well, that pausing or finding sacred time in one’s
routine is an important concept not only for the coach, but also for
leaders, many of whom rarely come up for air during the grueling
work day. When practiced consistently, the pause is generative and
refreshing.
When we interviewed coaches, we learned that what seems to
matter most is the consistency of the practice. Like the leaders who
have competing commitments, our respondents acknowledged the
challenge of keeping the intention and commitment of practice. How
did those coaches bring consistency into the relentless demands of
day-to-day living? For most, it required another rigor: scheduling
the time. When they put the practice on their calendar, they found
it easier to stick to their commitment. One coach we surveyed said,
“When I get too busy with clients, secular space gets in the way. Being
SACRED SPACE | 55
unfocused, my own resistance gets in the way of connecting, [of]

being congruent.”6
The coach-respondent also remarked, “Practices are patterns of
attitude and habits. [Because] we experience and understand it, [we’re]
in the position to help others to create patterns for the way they want
to be.”7
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz more fully describe this practice
of brief periods of stopping for renewal and its applicability for lead-
ers in their article, “The Making of the Corporate Athlete,”8 which
appears in the January 2001 issue of the Harvard Business Review. In
their research, Schwartz and Loehr found that world-class athletes and
top executives engage in a cycle of work and renewal to foster excellent
performance over time. By incorporating downtime in a busy day and
thereby managing their energy, the authors posit that top leaders will
reap multiple benefits.
So again, as we coaches build in the practice of stopping, we want
to ask leaders how they can schedule time to walk, to write in a journal,
simply to breathe, to go to a gym, to eat lunch regularly, or to attend a
yoga class. We should ask this question: what will leaders do to fulfill
their intentions to themselves and to build a capacity for future “right”
action (as they define it)?
CONCLUSION
As coaches, we do the following:
• Connect to build and sustain relationship.

• Engender trust to allow the client’s truth to emerge.
• Self-observe and take on practices to generate self-awareness.
• Demonstrate presence that is open, grounded, and optimistic.
• Access wisdom to serve the client’s agenda for a more effective
and generative leadership stance.
To be sure, other ingredients can help the coach facilitate a safe,

supportive environment, but we feel the ones we’ve discussed in this
article are integral. By practicing those tenets, coaches create envi-
ronments of self-examination and of learning for future success. By
introducing leaders to the practice of creating time for reflecting; by
accessing their wisdom and their capacity for growth and action; and
by using the tools of self-care—be it through prayer, meditation, exer-
cise, or pauses—coaches can more fully engage and hold a sacred space
for the leaders whom we coach.
NOTES
1. Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Being Human at Work: Bringing Somatic Intel-
ligence into Your Professional Life (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books,
2003).
2. Jacqueline Wilson Cranford, in discussion with Clarice Scriber, May 9,
2005.
3. Beatriz Boccalandro, in discussion with Clarice Scriber, May 13, 2005.
4. Ibid.
5. Joanne Hunt and Laura Divine, “The Power of Pause,” Integral Institute
of Canada, 2002.
6. Zayd Abdul-Karim, in discussion with Clarice Scriber, March 17, 2005.
7. Ibid.
8. Loehr, Jim and Tony Schwartz, “The Making of the Corporate Athlete,”
Harvard Business Review, January 2001.
CHAPTER 4
CULTURES IN COACHING
KAREN CURNOW
HAVE YOU EVER HAD MOMENTS in your coaching when you hit a
roadblock that absolutely stumped you? Where you “missed” your cli-
ent in some fundamental way? Where you suddenly realized that your
client thinks in a very different way than you do? Most coaches have
had experiences like this.
Over years of training coaches, I have seen many who are skilled
listeners, who ask powerful questions, who offer observations to pro-
voke awareness, and who generally demonstrate solid coaching com-
petencies but are still blind to the cultural influences right in front
of them. This blindness can, and often does, limit both trust and the
depth of coaching conversations.
We can look to our clients to show us when we are caught in our
cultural blindness. If we’re lucky, it will be obvious. Our client may
look confused or actually say something about the disconnect he or she
is experiencing with us. Most of the time, the reaction is more subtle
and indirect than that. We may see our clients resisting a conversation
they said they wanted to have. They may also respond “politely” (and
superficially) to our unintentionally culturally ignorant comments or
questions.
While these reactions could happen for multiple reasons, it is pos-
sible that we are operating from the assumption that our clients are like
us when they are not. We could be blind to a difference that matters
to them. We’re not talking about a difference of opinion; we’re talk-
ing about a different way of seeing, thinking, believing, acting, and
58 | KAREN CURNOW
valuing. The cost of being ignorant of those differences is the clients’

diminished trust in the coach’s ability to really understand and support
them, which is likely to result in shallow coaching.
We all have our moments of cultural blindness, but with inten-
tional focus and practice, we can lessen how often we fall into this
blindness and learn how to move away from ethnocentric thinking that
can trap our clients and us.
In this chapter, we will look at how culture is constantly playing in
the background for us and our clients, how it affects coaching, and how
we can use aspects of culture to deepen our clients’ learning.
WHAT IS CULTURE AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Culture is the way we have been taught to see and engage with the
world. Each of us is multi-cultured, reflecting not only our country
culture, but also our regional, family, religious, ethnic, generational,
organizational, and other cultures. Even if we choose to operate differ-
ently than we were taught, we are nonetheless influenced by that accul-
turation. When coaching, we are always reaching across these different
cultural backgrounds. We are always coaching across cultures.
As mentioned above, including an awareness of cultures as part
of your coaching can help build trust while deepening your coach-
ing impact. Ignoring the relevance of culture runs the risk of keeping
your coaching and your client in too small a frame, since your client is
not the only source of his or her actions, challenges, and viewpoints.
Deliberately spotlighting the cultural influences in your client’s life
helps prevent the self-defeating tendency of clients to think that “it’s all
my fault” and keeps the coaching realistic and future-focused. While
we might imagine that our clients’ thoughts and actions are based on
their own conscious choices, in fact larger cultural forces are always
influencing every individual we coach.
That said, we have to be careful not to devolve into stereotyping.
Stereotyping occurs when we oversimplify, assuming that people will
behave and think in a certain way because of their membership in
a particular group. Th is rigid view does not acknowledge the indi-
vidual shifts that come with living a full life. Cultural awareness is
also not to be used as an excuse or justification for a way of being, but
as one way to understand the larger forces that may be influencing
your client.
For example, I worked with a client who was convinced that some-
thing was wrong with him (that he was a “case” to be fi xed). He had
received feedback about his tendency to speak very directly without
CULTURES IN COACHING | 59
attention to the impact of his words and was struggling to be less blunt.
When we looked at where he had learned to be so direct, he could see
more clearly that his bluntness made perfect sense, given his family and
national heritage, his past professional experiences, and his new, for-
eign location. This awareness removed the sting of self-doubt that had
actually paralyzed his learning. Acknowledging the cultural influences
opened up the possibility for change.
Recognizing the larger influences in a person’s life helps provide
context, compassion, and connection. Without this cultural recogni-
tion, the coach is doomed to coach from a disconnected perspective.
When we understand that cultures strongly influence our clients in
ways they perhaps cannot see, we open possibilities for change, learn-
ing, and effective action that are more generative.
Recognizing our own cultural conditioning is also imperative
for coaches. Our cultures are reflected in our internal responses and
external comments, in how we are “present” with our clients (whether
we are in person, on the computer, or on the phone), in the coach-
ing model that we use, and in the kinds of questions we can imagine.
In an August 2012 interview, Julio Olalla (founder and president of
Newfield Network and a pioneer in transformational learning) sug-
gests, “So many have lost the capacity to see that your thinking is not
your thinking. It is our thinking. . . . Although there will be modifica-
tions here and there, the way US Americans ask questions is typically
different and more utilitarian than the way Venezuelans do, and New
Yorkers’ questions are different from Californians’ questions.” Just like
our clients, we as coaches have simply accepted and privileged without
question certain ways of being as a result of our cultural history. If we
don’t recognize our own cultural norms, we will be unable to leverage
them when working with clients, where the contrast in cultures can
sometimes open up new perspectives.
While coaches don’t have to become experts in every culture, it
can be helpful to learn about the cultures that have influenced your cli-
ent. This might include learning about a person’s history, heritage, or
geographical roots. It may also include learning more about the visible
and invisible norms in your client’s organizational culture. If a coach
works with a leader without understanding the pressures and tenden-
cies inherent in his or her company culture, the coach could poten-
tially suggest practices and actions to the client that are not sustainable
within that culture.
If the coach ignores the impact and importance of culture for coach
and client, the client may not feel fully seen and the coach may misread
the client’s real issues.
60 | KAREN CURNOW
CULTURE AS AN ICEBERG
In his seminal book, Beyond Culture (1976), Edward T. Hall proposes
that culture is like an iceberg, with the tip above the surface represent-
ing the small part of culture that you can see (external elements of
culture) and a much larger part below the surface representing what
you cannot see (internal elements).
External elements of culture are those that are often explicitly
learned, conscious, and more easily changed. They include character-
istics such as dress, language, behaviors (for example, how close one
stands to others or how direct one is in giving feedback), operational
codes of conduct for work, religious or holiday rituals, gestures, and
preferred aesthetics, among others.
Internal elements of culture are those that are implicitly learned,
often unconscious, and therefore not as easily changed. They include
aspects such as education, values, beliefs (organizational, religious, and
political, for example), history, work ethic, and concepts of leadership,
fairness, and beauty.
The connection between internal and external elements of culture
is clear: internal or invisible aspects of culture (beliefs, values, etc.) help
manifest the visible, external facets and surface behaviors that serve as
cultural markers.
Now imagine that both coach and client come together with their
“icebergs,” each making assumptions, drawing conclusions, and speak-
ing based on their visible and invisible cultural norms. But where do
icebergs hit first when they collide? Below the surface. In coaching,
this cultural collision may create discomfort or a tug-of-war feeling
in the coaching conversation. Why? Because values or beliefs collide
below the surface—well before anything shows up in behaviors above
the surface. Considering these uncomfortable moments as possibly
resulting from cultural differences can help the coach recognize what
is happening and enable a shift in approach.
WAKING UP FROM ETHNOCENTRIC THINKING:

THE ETHNORELATIVE COACH
To be more culturally astute, the coach needs to make a shift from an
ethnocentric to an ethnorelative perspective. Ethnorelativism means see-
ing the legitimacy and value of multiple cultures, while ethnocentrism is
the belief in the inherent superiority of one’s own culture. For coaches,
this distinction is critical. In Coaching: An Ethnorelative, Not Just
Global, Profession, Liora Rosen explains that an ethnorelative point of
view requires coaches to accept the existence of culturally different ways

of thinking and operating, expand their own worldview to understand
and be understood across cultural boundaries, and act in culturally rel-
evant ways to shift smoothly between cultures (Rosen 2011).
In the book Coaching Across Cultures, Philippe Rosinski adds that
in ethnorelativism, “you perceive cultural differences as inevitable, and
you acknowledge that your worldview is not central to everyone’s real-
ity. Yet you don’t feel threatened, but instead become curious and eager
to learn about differences. . . . Importantly, you do it without giving up
your own integrity. You become more flexible without changing who
you are” (Rosinski 2003).
Some may argue that there is no need for ethnorelativism since we
are becoming more homogeneous as technology connects all parts of
the globe. But evidence exists that shows this is not in fact true. In his
July 2010 TEDGlobal TEDTalk, “Listening to Global Voices,” Ethan
Zuckerman (cofounder of Global Voices and researcher at Harvard’s
Berkman Center for Internet and Society) suggests that we think eve-
ryone is coming together in some “imaginary cosmopolitanism,” but
the reality is we still spend most of our time tweeting and blogging
within our own cultural group, communicating with people who are
like us (Zuckerman 2010). We think we are all becoming one global
culture, but we’re not. If we as coaches think that everyone thinks the
way we do as a result of today’s technologically connected world, we
are kidding ourselves and are almost sure to fall prey to ethnocentric
blindness.
STRATEGIES FOR USING CULTURE IN COACHING
Use the iceberg model. Once we create an ethnorelative context,

we can then use specific strategies to bring culture into our coaching.
The iceberg model provides a simple structure that allows us to work
intentionally with both internal and external elements of culture. We
can directly observe our clients’ behaviors and characteristics “above the
surface.” We can also work below the surface as we get our clients to con-
sider their motivations and values—then support them above the surface
as they put into practice those values they care about most deeply.
Sometimes, simply pointing out or asking about aspects of culture
can make what was invisible to our client visible, since it can be hard
to see one’s own cultural norms. Commenting on this phenomenon,
Olalla said, “As I have coached in the United States over the years,
people have often asked me, ‘How did you see that?’ The logic in the US
culture was that I was brilliant for noticing a tendency. In reality, I was
62 | KAREN CURNOW
simply making observations that Americans couldn’t make because I

am a very different cultural observer. I was able to see things that many
people within their own culture could not.”1
In my own practice, I remember working with a client years ago
who laughed each time we touched on a sensitive topic that was dif-
ficult for her. When I shared with her my observation of this behav-
ior, she revealed that that was how she had been taught to deal with
challenges—both in her family and in her company (where people were
expected to always be in an optimistic mood). These messages about
literally “laughing off ” difficulties came from two cultural sources and
had a strong grip on her. In our coaching, she was able to acknowledge
her “teachers,” choose the way she wanted to operate going forward,
and begin the process of developing new skills and approaches based
on her expanded awareness. Being aware of this cultural norm allowed
her to break free from a patterned response.
At times, we are aware that we are blind in some way but are unsure
how. We can’t name it. The iceberg model can provide some topics for
exploration. For example, to better understand the concerns that our
clients bring to coaching, we can ask them about the milestones in
their company’s history that affected them, the core values they find
most important, or the role of education and learning in their lives.
Finally, we can use this model as a way to open a direct conversa-
tion about culture. By simply sharing this model with our clients, we
can ask them to teach us about themselves so that we can serve them
more completely.
In addition to using the iceberg model as a way to better under-
stand your clients and the cultures that have helped form them, you
can also use the following cross-cultural skills and approaches in your
coaching.
Clarify that there are multiple cultures present—in the client
and in the coach—and acknowledge with your client the impact that
may have on the coaching.
Don’t assume—ask. Rather than assuming that your clients would
operate in the same way you would, ask questions to get to know their
cultural influences. Who are their heroes? What values do they cherish
most deeply? What is their relationship with time? With nature? What
does failure mean?
Do your homework. Research your client’s cultures. In addi-
tion to asking our clients, we can learn about our clients’ cultures in
many ways, such as doing text and publication research, reading books,
watching movies from or about their traditions, or speaking with others
from that culture.
Acknowledge that some cultural concepts will be diffi cult to

“get.” Since we can’t be all things to all people, we will have moments
when we just can’t seem to understand an aspect of our client’s culture.
Admitting this and trusting the foundation of cultural awareness and
acceptance you have built with your client will be important in these
moments.
Observe, observe, observe. Notice your clients’ behaviors. What
is always on your client’s radar? What is never noticed? Your observa-
tions may provide you with evidence of your client’s cultural focuses,
preferences, and blind spots. Offering an alternative perspective
through your cultural lens may expand what your clients can see—
including what options they can see for responding effectively to the
situation they are in.
Be aware of nonverbal messages you are giving and receiv-
ing (including gestures, facial expressions, body postures, and vocal
expressions). Some of these nonverbal signals are universal, while oth-
ers are culturally bound. The research of Susana Bloch (on breathing,
posture, and facial expressions), Paul Ekman (on facial microexpres-
sions), and others highlights universal nonverbal signals, particularly
for such basic emotions as anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, joy,
and tenderness.
There are also some nonverbal messages that are specific to a cul-
ture. Ignoring the cultural aspects of nonverbal cues can lead to mis-
interpretations that can limit a leader’s and a coach’s effectiveness. For
example, a manager I worked with was consistently frustrated by one
of her staff member’s insubordinate, defiant behaviors. When giving
her reasons for her assessment, the manager claimed insubordination
whenever she delegated anything to her, although the employee did
complete the assigned tasks. Probing further, we discovered that the
actual behavior was not in the staff member’s words at all (she never
actually said “no” to her boss), but in her nonverbal action of shak-
ing her head when she accepted a new task. Come to find out, the
staff member was from a part of India where this shaking of the head
is quite a normal way of showing agreement, and the manager was
from the United States, where the same nonverbal message indicates
disagreement. Understanding this simple cultural difference changed
everything for the manager and helped her let go of the resentment and
frustration that had been building for many months.
Culturally linked nonverbals can also be found in vocal cadence,
projection, inflection, and tone. When one client I coached seemed
to always speak with a harsh tone, I found myself wondering why he
was so angry all the time. (This reaction showcased my own cultural
64 | KAREN CURNOW
assessment that his tone was “harsh” and that that meant he was angry.)
My assessments and my coaching shifted when I realized that the nor-
mal intonation and pacing of his native language was monotone, fast,
and abrupt. Although his English was quite good, he had held onto the
vocal norms of his native language. Recognizing this enabled me as his
coach to release my culturally bound interpretations of his vocal habits
and then serve him more effectively.
Live a day in their shoes. Ask your clients to walk you through a
typical day, with a focus on the impact of their cultures (racial, family,
country, organizational). Listen deeply for how their cultures influence
their thinking and therefore their actions. Ask them to “translate” both
verbal and nonverbal messages that you don’t understand.
Assess the important cultural tendencies. Invite your clients to
assess their cultural tendencies using the following cultural dichoto-
mies. Where would you assess yourself? What might the differences
suggest for your coaching?
Individualism______________________________ Collectivism
Equality_______________________________________ Status
Informality__________________________________ Formality
Future Orientation________________________ Heritage/Past
Time as a resource__________________________ Timelessness
Achievement_____________________________________ Fate
Direct/Assertiveness____________________________ Indirect
Other differences important to your client?
____________________________________________________
Be aware of additional challenges expatriate leaders face. Inter-

nationally mobile leaders will experience a cultural and emotional
adaptation process in each new location where they are assigned. They
will need multicultural competencies when working internationally,
as they face the added demands of leading multicultural and possibly
geographically dispersed teams in addition to their other leadership
responsibilities. Coaches who support these international leaders need
to be aware of these demands and become culturally literate not just
about the country in question but also about the nature of international
living.
SUMMARY
Today’s coaches are always coaching across cultures. Being blind to

this fact can limit our learning and our coaching. Maintaining an
ethnorelative perspective and using approaches that acknowledge inter-

nal and external aspects of culture raise the competence and impact of
leadership coaches.
When we consider culture, our built-in multiculturalism, and cul-
tural influences on our thoughts and actions, we see through a new lens
that can increase awareness for both coach and client. With awareness,
our clients can step into their leadership more powerfully—and we as
coaches can better see our clients, meet them where they are, and serve
them most effectively.
NOTE
1. Julio Olalla, personal interview conducted by Karen Curnow, August 10,
2012.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bloch, Susana. Alba of Emotions. 3d ed. Uqbar, 2008.
Ekman, Paul. Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve
Communication and Emotional Life. 2d ed. New York: Owl Books, 2007.
Hall, Edward T. Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Books, (1977) 1989.
Rosen, Liora. “Coaching: An Ethnorelative, Not Just Global, Profession.”
Coaching World (e-zine). October 2011. www.coachfederation.org/articles.
Rosinski, Philippe. Coaching Across Cultures. Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural
Press, 2003.
Zuckerman, Ethan. TEDGlobal TEDTalk, “Listening to Global Voices,”
(Ethan Zuckerman, cofounder of Global Voices and researcher at Har-
vard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society), July 2010.
CHAPTER 5
EASTERN INFLUENCE ON
COACHING
RANDY CHITTUM
THIS CHAPTER IS NOT MEANT TO BE a scholarly treatment of the

topic, but instead an effort to build awareness that coaching principles,
philosophy, and practice are heavily influenced by, or at least related
to, the diverse notion of “Eastern thinking.” It is my hope that it may
inspire further thinking and exploration on the part of the reader.
Writing requires linearity and reductionism, both of which are at
least partly contradictory to the philosophy of Eastern thought. Know
that all the parts are connected to all the other parts. There is a line in
The Tao that essentially says, “He who speaks of the Tao, knows not the
Tao.” That which is most important may be well beyond the words we
use to express it. It is with this full awareness that we forge ahead!
For this writing, I have reduced Eastern thinking into its parts, as
suggested in Table 5.1, which is a somewhat generalized and simplified
version.
BEING
The first, and perhaps most, significant way in which Eastern thought
appears to influence or be aligned with coaching is in the domain of
“being versus doing.” Eastern thought takes the position that we are
more than our actions, more than what we do. What matters most is
who we are in the process of being, and in some cases, becoming. What
we do is merely the reflection of who we are being.
68 | RANDY CHITTUM
Table 5.1 Eastern/Western thinking
Eastern thinking Western thinking
I am who I am I am what I do
I am connected I am isolated
Nonattachment Attached to beliefs and possessions
Wholeness Parts
Lightness Seriousness
Journey Destination
Simplicity Complexity
Mindful and Present Distracted
Coaches similarly believe that the leverage in creating sustainable

change is in changing the person, not the behavior. The behavior is an
extension or symptom of who we are. Who we are is the core. As you
might suspect, questions such as those that follow are deep, personal,
and rewarding. A willingness to delve deeply into questions like these
is one door into the sustainable and transformative change that most
coaches seek.
Consider, who am I? When you sift away the roles, the history, the
descriptors, who am I? If I am not my job, and not my relationships,
then who am I? If I am not my body, then who am I? Who am I beyond
personality, desires, and dreams? There are those who believe that a
life’s work is involved in answering and subsequently dealing with the
implications of those answers. I believe that this is a conversation that
coaches can and should have with leaders. Certainly not all leaders are
interested or ready for this, but on average I think we sell many of our
leaders short in this regard. I find that many of the leaders I coach are
craving purpose and greater understanding. I am not shy about intro-
ducing questions in an attempt to get closer to the core. In an attempt
to enter this domain I might ask questions like these. What do you
imagine your enduring legacy to be? Who are you at your core and
what do you stand for in the world? What matters to you? I have pon-
dered, considered, meditated, and discussed such questions for more
than 20 years and they still provide me new awareness and possibility.
I once had a teacher who told me that I could choose to either fol-
low conventional wisdom and “don’t just sit there, do something,” or
follow another path expressed in “don’t just do something, sit there.”
Eastern thinking values the promise of stillness, whether manifested
through meditation or truly simply doing nothing. One of my favorite
Zen sayings expresses this—“sitting here quietly doing nothing, spring
comes and the grass grows by itself.” Many leaders are caught in a
cycle of “deliverables” and doing. More rarely seen is the person who
EASTERN INFLUENCE ON COACHING | 69
takes the time to be still, or pause. That person reaps the reward of
a calm mind and presence, enlightened perspective, and lightness.
Ample research points to the significance of our physical presence in
leadership, the importance of healthy perspective, and the relation-
ship of daily stress to our effectiveness and creativity. We have quickly
forgotten the lessons of “sharpen your saw.” It is not uncommon for a
coach to work with leaders to help them practice pausing as a way to
stay more centered. I have asked leaders to develop a practice of being
quiet (internally and externally) for a few minutes several times a day. I
have asked leaders to learn and practice basic breathing and meditation
exercises. I have asked leaders to participate in a yoga class that I offer
for leaders who I think are ready to benefit from a program. I have
asked leaders to take a walk for 15 minutes each workday and practice
noticing. Any activity request is obviously specific to the leader and
his/her needs and abilities. The significant point I think is to risk where
appropriate to invite leaders into this domain of experience.
CONNECTION AND WHOLENESS
Another way in which Eastern thought and coaching are aligned is

in the significance of dealing with the whole as more than the sum
of its parts. Simply stated, Eastern thought has maintained its focus
on understanding the universe in its entirety where the Western
approach has been to use science to break it into its parts in an attempt
to understand it. It is fascinating to note that through the understand-
ings afforded us from quantum physics and other “new sciences,” that
both schools of thought appear now to be arriving at the same place.
This sense of wholeness extends beyond the “I.” As the earlier quote
so beautifully expresses, the wholeness extends to the universe. In
this way, we are universally whole. In practical terms, leaders who can
see beyond the needs of their team or department represent a form of
wholeness. Leaders who can see beyond the needs of their organization
to the greater needs of the community represent at a higher level. In a
personal way, leaders who understand that they are connected to others
through an invisible web are likely to be more thoughtful in how they
behave and therefore how they impact others.
Being part of a whole raises issues of self that are present in both
Eastern thinking as well as coaching. The “self ” is, in most Eastern
thinking, an illusion—but one in which we dearly believe. The “self ” is
home to the ego and pride, to name a few inhabitants.
Coaches are often faced with the challenge of working with lead-
ers who think that if she can just learn how to present more powerfully,
70 | RANDY CHITTUM
or be more assertive, or listen more, then all will be well. Particularly

in high-pressure business environments, our mostly successful clients
are taught to identify and then solve problems.
Coaching, with its emphasis on sustainable change and develop-
ment, will likely push beyond the limits of the “parts” approach identi-
fied earlier. Instead, the coach will be interested in the entire experience
of the client who wants to be more assertive. What belief systems does
she hold that interfere with her performance? How does she explain
things to herself? What emotions does she carry before and during
an opportunity to be more assertive? What “shows up” in her body in
terms of stress, and how does she hold her body to enable or interfere
with her desired goal of more assertive behavior? Finally, what skills
or information might be missing that would enable her? In short, the
coach is interested in the whole person.
Another way in which coaches coach the whole person is that we
may not be exclusively focused on the person at work. We understand
and honor that she is more than an employee or a leader. Who is she as
a person and how does that support or challenge her in achieving her
stated goal?
One of the most commonly expressed interests for leaders in coach-
ing is in achieving balance. For many, the world of work has taken a
disproportionate place in our lives. We have neglected our families,
our health, our communities, and our spirits for too long. Those being
coached often come with this awareness but with little understanding
of how to make changes. Eastern thinkers have had a lot to say about
balance. Perhaps the most insightful antidote to an unbalanced life is
presence. The notion of “being where you are” is profound and chal-
lenging for most of us. The simple act of attending and “not-doing” can
be a significant life challenge. Similarly powerful is the notion of being
wholehearted in our lives. To do everything wholeheartedly is another
path to presence and balance.
In general, I believe that the leaders I have encountered over the
past twenty years prove the point. The leaders I have known who are
most powerful exhibit the qualities of wholeheartedness, balance,
wholeness, and an understanding of their connection to others. The
leaders I have known who are least powerful do not often demonstrate
those same qualities. One person always stands out to me. He is a very
senior executive in a large company. Th is company is the market leader
in its industry. If you were to ask 100 people in this company, who is
the best pure leader in the company, at least 90 would come back with
his name. What is the source of this influence? He is completely present
when he is with you. He separates from his desk, phone, computer,
Blackberry, and so on and actually makes you feel as if you matter to

him. He is vigorous and wholehearted. He demonstrates outstanding
and consistent energy. In part his energy level is a result of a balanced
and healthy life, but it is also a result of uncompromising belief in the
importance of the purpose. I have heard him talk compellingly about
the importance of going home and then being home to hundreds of his
leaders. He is compelling in this case because he believes it. Finally,
I notice how simply he lives by a set of self-authored principles. You
rarely have to guess how he might respond to something because you
so clearly know where he stands.
ATTACHMENT
Letting go is often a fertile area for coaches and is one of the most pro-
found ideas to come from Eastern thinking. Our inability to let go is
the source of enormous suffering for many. Think about all the things
to which you are attached—relationships, work, friends, possessions,
status, pride, ideas, and opinions? The list is unending. The rise in pop-
ularity of emotional intelligence has put this issue into the conversation
in some organizations. As a coach, I find that the source of suffering is
very often an attachment. Beyond needless suffering, the consequence
of attachment is limited possibility. Coaches then, are often in the
conversation that creates the possibility of “letting go.” As you might
imagine, it is an area that is fraught with fear and uncertainty.
Similarly, one of the biggest attachments I see is to my sense of who
I am. Sometimes, a coach is working to get a client to let go of their
attachment to their very identity. Few things are more frightening than
truly “reinventing” oneself as reinvention requires a letting go of “who
you were” to become “who you wish to be.” The ability to consciously
choose who to be is the pinnacle of living a masterful and purposeful
life—precisely because the risk of letting go seems so high.
The attachment to sense of self is arguably in part a developmental
issue and therefore not everyone is developmentally ready to discuss
concepts like true self-authoring. For those leaders who are ready, their
coach has to also be ready and ideally have begun the journey. This is
another of those areas where the coach would benefit from having a
coach.
Related to letting go is the concept of acceptance. Acceptance is
different from settling or giving up. Acceptance comes in that grace-
ful space where one is able to release oneself from the hold of emo-
tion that is limiting them. In the world of leaders, acceptance often
comes after a huge effort to change or achieve something. After the
72 | RANDY CHITTUM
effort, there can be a place where the client accepts whatever outcome
awaits. I find that leaders often struggle to be unattached to outcomes.
A degree of attachment to outcomes can serve a leader, up to a point.
It eventually becomes unhealthy for the leader who can never let go of
the outcome.
LIGHTNESS
What naturally flows from a sense of acceptance and letting go? I
believe a sense of perspective and lightness. In this case, think of light-
ness as playfulness, not taking yourself or events so seriously. You can
imagine that the person able to do this is more likely to be adept at
acceptance. It is possible that the universe is absurd and unpredict-
able. The desire to feel a sense of control over it, or even over oneself,
is a potential source of suffering. The master has figured this out and
learned to laugh and let go.
How does this present in coaching? The leaders I work with are
often rooted in the desire for the control mentioned earlier. They crave
a linear, rational model that allows for planning and predictable out-
comes. They may be unable to change course, even though they tout
the benefits and even the necessity of change. The desire for control
generates suffering and, I would argue, lost productivity. It is the leader
with perspective, who holds plans lightly, who is most beloved and
effective. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was quoted as saying, “[S]
trategic plans are worthless. Strategic planning is invaluable.”1 This
implies the truth in the notion that the product of planning and work
should be held lightly and, furthermore, that the benefit in this work is
the connections and the process.
JOURNEY
Those even tangentially aware of “Eastern thought” are likely familiar
with quotes such as the one mentioned earlier. The notion that the
journey matters as much or more than the destination has found its
way into the popular Western lexicon. Unfortunately, popular aware-
ness has not necessarily led to popular adoption. Organizations, with
their relentless focus on achieving specific outcomes are seemingly
more focused than ever on the destination over the journey. The jour-
ney is forgotten in pursuit of the next objective. One of the ways I
get leaders to pay attention to this is to ask questions about learning.
For example, at the end of this project what would you like to know
better about yourself? As you engage in this work, what opportunities
do you see along the way for you to practice new ways of being or
behaving?
Tim Gallwey2 is noted for saying that coaches need merely to help
their clients pay close attention to the teacher, experience. Experience
is the teacher, and as we learned in grade school, learning involves
paying close attention to the teacher. It is notable that the experience is
the journey. Perhaps the art of coaching is simply to help clients make
meaning from their experiences, leading to new ways of being. The
meaning making, or learning, requires at least some attention be paid
to the experience or journey.
SIMPLICITY
Perhaps more than any other single word, Eastern thought might be
known for its emphasis on keeping things simple. Simple is believed to
be profound. Simple is believed to be elegant. Simple is a more accurate
representation of that which is true. I see clients every day who are
overwhelmed by the complexity in their lives, particularly at work. We
have come to believe that we need all manner of technology and infra-
structure to manage our complex lives. For some it is even a badge of
honor. Yet, the most commonly taught strategy in organizations today
might be—do what you are good at and focus on a few critical objec-
tives. This is an organizational version of—keep it simple.
I have come to believe that it is our complexity that keeps us safe.
Simplicity is dangerous, too close to the truth, leaving nowhere to
hide. In some ways, it goes back to the “who am I” question. Without
the complexity, the self-importance, who am I? If I am fearful of that
question and its possible answers, I may be well served by keeping my
life complex.
MINDFULNESS
Similar to the expression “be here now,” mindfulness suggests an

ongoing awareness of both internal processes (emotional, cognitive,
and physical) as well as environmental factors. It is a form of “active
noticing,” without doing. It often takes the form of meditation, though
the master is mindful at all times. It is “non-doing” in action. It deals
with the possibility that this is it. Everything real is contained in this
moment and if I am not present to it, I am missing not just this moment
but everything.
In coaching, this is evident in many ways. The most pedes-
trian is that all of us live distracted lives. Living in either the future
74 | RANDY CHITTUM
(possibilities, planning) or the past (assessments, emotions), but so

rarely in the present. Put this in the category of simple and not easy.
Mindfulness is to be cultivated and the more desire one has for it, the
more elusive it may be.
Leaders often express the desire to have something we are cur-
rently calling “executive presence.” I fear that we have substituted the
expression for charisma, and consequently we have little understanding
of what it actually means. In the context of mindfulness and presence,
executive presence would start with sharing the same moment with
others. To share in that moment I have to be present in it. However,
the sources of interference to being present and mindful are too numer-
ous to list. There is great power for coaches who are able to have this
conversation with their clients.
CONCLUSION
The reader is reminded that this chapter was not intended to be a full
discussion of “Eastern thought” and in fact that the very term “Eastern
thought” borders on slighting in its simplicity. However, the similarities
between coaching and Eastern thought are too obvious to be ignored.
It is my hope that by shining a feeble light on the relationship, we will
be better able to consider the distinctions and possibilities that exist.
NOTES
1. John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, “The American Presidency Project,”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, remarks at the National Defense Ex-
ecutive Reserve Conference, November 14, 1957 (Santa Barbara: Univer-
sity of California, Gerhard Peters Database), http://www.presidency.ucsb.
edu/ws/?pid=10951 (accessed November 13, 2007).
2. Tim Gallwey, “The Inner Game: Learning to Get Out of Your Own Way”
(presentation, annual conference of International Coach Federation, Or-
lando, FL, 1999).
CHAPTER 6
THE CASE FOR CULTIVATING

PRESENT-MOMENT
SELF-AWARENESS IN
LEADERS AND COACHES
STEVE HELLER
ASK MOST COACHES WHAT OUR WORK IS ABOUT, what it is that

we do, and you will likely get some variation of the following: we assist
our clients in getting from where they are today to where they want to
be. Whether the coaching objective is concrete or more vague, whether
the challenge is tactical or aspirational, whether the goal is a solution
to a problem, the overcoming of some obstacle, or addresses some ele-
ment of personal transformation, we generally see our work as being
about helping our client find his or her way from some point A to some
point B. And, while there is truth to such a characterization, and while
the work on this level is important and useful and necessary, I maintain
that there is always something much more fundamental going on in an
effective coaching relationship.
And what is going on is this: The greatest strategy, the most pow-
erful intention, the most profound new way of being will be for naught
without the client’s ability to catch himself or herself in the moment,
to recognize that this moment, right now, presents an opportunity to
employ that new strategy, to deliver on that stated intention, to show up
in that new way. That is, our work, no matter what else it might seem
to be about, is always fundamentally about helping our clients develop
76 | STEVE HELLER
their capacity for self-awareness in the present moment. Clients’ abil-

ity to be both in the action and look at themselves acting, to be both
subject to the given circumstances and able to examine those circum-
stances and their relationship with them as object, determines whether
the new behavior will be exercised or the old, habitual response is
launched automatically. Nothing new happens without sufficient
present-moment self-awareness to realize that “here comes the trigger;
this is one of those moments for which my coaching has prepared me to
be on the lookout; now’s the time to exercise my new behavior.”
In this chapter, we examine the paramount importance of the role
that present-moment self-awareness plays for both leaders and coaches.
We look at its role in two ways for each of the two players. For just as
the coaching engagement itself can be seen as having both the more
visible, exterior agenda (getting from point A to point B) and a crucial,
though generally less noticeable, interior agenda (the strengthening of
the capacity necessary to embody new intentions), so the disciplines
of leadership and coaching themselves also each have exterior and
interior agendas. We can think of these two agendas as the “doing”
agenda and the “being” agenda (or, as Doug Silsbee so aptly refers to
them, the “project” and the “curriculum”). In each of these disciplines,
present-moment self-awareness plays an important role in both of
these agendas.
DOING LEADERSHIP: THE EXTERIOR AGENDA OF THE LEADER

In their seminal 2002 book Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through
the Dangers of Leading, Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky argue that
perhaps the most critical competency for a leader is the ability to move
back and forth between the dance floor and the balcony, between the
role of participant and that of observer,
making interventions, observing their impact in real time, and

then returning to the action. The goal is to come as close as you
can to being in both places simultaneously, as if you had one eye
looking from the dance floor and one eye looking down from
the balcony, watching all the action, including your own. This
is a critical point: When you observe from the balcony you must
see yourself as well as the other participants. Perhaps this is the
hardest task of all—to see yourself objectively.
Oscillating between these two roles is essential to success in meeting

the expectation that leaders ensure that the organization both does
SELF-AWARENESS IN LEADERS AND COACHES | 77
things right and does the right things. Managing this polarity requires
that the leader be not only a dispassionate observer of the system, but
also a dispassionate observer of him/herself and his/her role in that
system—that is, the leader must demonstrate present-moment self-
awareness.
BEING A LEADER: THE INTERIOR AGENDA OF THE LEADER

Given the leader’s exterior agenda, one can conclude that a most criti-
cal element of a leader’s personal development, therefore, involves find-
ing ways of strengthening the ability to step back from the action and
observe with a broader perspective in mind. Cultivating the “being of
a leader,” then, means cultivating the capacity to observe with present-
moment self-awareness. Being a leader might be said to be most fun-
damentally about the way in which one pays attention.
Les Fehmi and Jim Robbins, in The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing
the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body, identify four very differ-
ent types of attention and propose that we can train ourselves to be
aware of how we are attending and be intentional about which style of
attention we choose to employ in any given situation. This versatility
in the domain of attention may just be the “secret sauce” of exceptional
leadership and the single most important item on the interior agenda
of the leader’s development.
Consider the case of Alice (I’ll call her), a senior vice president
at a large trade association in Washington, DC. Alice struggled with
what she saw as a serious gap between her expectations of her staff and
their performance. She was not getting the results that she wanted on
even seemingly straightforward follow-up actions discussed during her
weekly staff meetings. By directing her attention to her own behavior
in these meetings, Alice came to notice the degree to which she was
taking for granted that people understood what she wanted done, and
that she was, in fact, failing to be explicit and clear about what she was
asking of them. Her personal work then focused on staying present to
her own expectations, in real time, noticing when she had something
that she wanted someone to pursue, and maintaining the presence of
mind to remember to make certain that all of the elements of an effec-
tive request were being explicitly expressed. The impact, as she later
described it, was enormous. The shift in her attention to the quality of
her requests dramatically improved the nature of her relationships with
her staff and the overall performance of the team.
In another example, Robert (again, not his actual name), a sen-
ior scientist and internationally known leader in his highly technical
78 | STEVE HELLER
field, struggled with his frequent inability to maintain his composure

and patience when dealing with the demands of his children upon his
return home after a long day in the lab. Through work that focused on
building his awareness of his state of mind when entering the house
and on noticing the relationship between that state of mind and the
quality of his subsequent interaction with his children, Robert devel-
oped a practice of sitting in his car in the driveway for several minutes
of breathing-focused mindfulness meditation before going inside. He
reported a gradual but steady decrease in the frequency of incidents of
impatience and a noticeable improvement in the quality of his relation-
ship with his kids.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE LEADER

A leader then, should look for ways, both in the fulfi lling of his/her
responsibilities to the organization and in his/her personal develop-
ment efforts, to continually exercise and strengthen the muscle of
present-moment self-awareness.
Potential questions for the leader to consider:
• What structures might I put into place to cause me to periodically

interrupt what I’m doing and ask myself: Am I, at this moment,
on the dance floor or on the balcony, and might I benefit from
considering the other perspective?
• How might I build some sort of pause practice into my routine
(meditation, yoga, martial arts, other mindfulness practices)?
• To what extent might daily journaling about what I have noticed
with regard to my own present-moment self-awareness heighten
my powers of attention?
• How might I engage in activities (e.g., artistic endeavors,
physical activities, spiritual practices) that trigger the flow state
for me (that sense of peak experience involving challenge, intense
concentration, and full engagement)?
• How might I explicitly engage my coach in helping me formulate
an approach toward strengthening my capacity for present-
moment self-awareness?
DOING COACHING:
THE EXTERIOR AGENDA OF THE COACH
One can easily argue that nearly every one of the eleven ICF
(International Coach Federation) coaching core competencies stands
on a foundation of present-moment self-awareness. Doing coaching

effectively means accessing the appropriate tools at the appropriate
moments while staying fully present in the conversation. It means let-
ting go of attachment to outcomes and staying fi rmly rooted in curios-
ity. It means striking just the right balance between the art and the
science of the work so as to invite the client into the flow, creating
the space for the client’s best work to emerge. It means finding that
sweet spot between providing enough challenge (but not too much) and
enough support (but not too much), so that the client can stretch and
develop. All of this requires that the coach be simultaneously in the
conversation (on the dance floor) and looking at the conversation (from
the balcony). In a very real sense, the coach models this very capacity
through the doing of coaching.
Furthermore, if, as is proposed above, the work of the leader
requires that he/she continually develop his/her capacity for present-
moment self-awareness, then the coach must challenge the client in
ways intended to do just that. The coach’s competencies (deep listen-
ing, powerful questions, creating awareness, etc.) are focused on help-
ing the client see through new eyes, that is to say, become more reflec-
tive and self-aware. Indeed, the self-observations, practices, inquiries,
exercises, and structures of support that the coach and client cocreate
are, above all else, tools to strengthen that muscle.
BEING A COACH: THE INTERIOR AGENDA OF THE COACH
By now, the parallels between leader and coach are clear. As with the
leader, the coach’s exterior work demands present-moment self-aware-
ness. As with the leader, the coach’s instrument is self. Therefore, the
coach must continually engage in the interior work necessary to sustain
the ways of being that enable him/her to do the exterior work of the
effective coach described above. Obviously, fundamental to that way
of being is that very same muscle of awareness. Clearly, if the coach is
to model the capacity for present-moment self-awareness through the
way in which the coach does coaching, then the coach needs to show
up with that capacity.
Like leadership, then, coaching is most fundamentally about the
way in which one pays attention. The coach’s personal development
practices, therefore, need to place a strong emphasis on the ongoing
development of the muscle of attention, the muscle of present-moment
self-awareness.
In the years since I personally began focusing with intention on
developing my own capacity for present-moment self-awareness and
80 | STEVE HELLER
in the slightly more than one year that I have been engaged in a daily
sitting meditation practice, I have noticed the following about myself
and my coaching:
• I seem to be more able to be both in the coaching conversation

and looking at it, which provides me with a much broader range
of options to access in the moment, a much richer palette of
possibilities from which to draw.
• I am more likely to be mindful of my client’s capacity for present-
moment self-awareness and to bring more conscious intention to
the process of developing suitable “assignments” for the client to
consider undertaking.
• I believe I am less judgmental, seeing things less through the lens
of black or white, operating less from an either/or perspective.
• I am more likely to preface my observations with qualifiers such
as “in my opinion,” “it’s my belief that,” “what I notice about my
own reaction is.”
• I am living more fully into the daily mantra upon which I
stumbled many years ago, namely, “what am I willing to be
wrong about today?”
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE COACH
In a very fundamental way, then, the essence of the coach’s ongoing

personal developmental work must center on the strengthening of the
muscle of present-moment self-awareness. Coaches can accumulate
tools and techniques, certifications and credentials, instruments and
frameworks—clearly, the learning opportunities are unending—but
unless the coach can show up for the session and be fully present to the
client in every moment of the conversation, be engaged in a way that
allows him/her to be both in the dance and on the balcony, then the
most powerful of tools will be, at best, a disconnected distraction. Th e
coach must meet the client to enable this connection, and that puts a
demand on the coach to show up in shape to coach. Present-moment
self-awareness is the key to showing up in this way.
Potential questions for the coach to consider:
• What structures might I put into place to cause me to

periodically check in with myself to consider whether I am, in
this moment, operating from the perspective of the dance floor
or the balcony?
• How might my current pause practice (assuming that I have one)

be strengthened or made more impactful?
• To what extent might I leverage journaling to help me strengthen
my own muscle of present-moment self-awareness?
• What are the activities that trigger the flow state for me? What
might I do to increase the opportunity to experience this state
more frequently?
• To what extent are the assignments that I offer my coaching
clients explicitly designed to assist my clients in exercising
the capacity for present-moment self-awareness? Consider,
for example, the power of having a client recount a past peak
performance experience in the present tense as one means of
embodying the experience of being fully in the moment.
CONCLUSION
The journey of developing the ability to observe oneself in the moment
can be viewed as a process of shrinking the amount of time that it
takes us to notice what is happening to us and how we respond. By
focusing my attention on my ability to observe myself, I will, over
time, move from “As I look back on what happened in that meet-
ing last week, I can now see how my behavior . . . .” to realizing upon
walking out of a meeting, “Oh no, I just did it again!” to noticing in
the moment, “Ooh, I just got triggered!” and, fi nally, to thinking,
“Here comes the trigger. I can be at choice with respect to how I
respond.”
As we have seen, this capacity is central to the disciplines of doing
leadership and being a leader and of doing coaching and being a coach.
We can and must be intentional about developing and strengthening
this capacity in ourselves if we are to be optimally effective in our cho-
sen role. The goal is, in the simple but elegant words of the title of Baba
Ram Dass’s 1971 book on spirituality, yoga, and meditation, to “Be
Here Now.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chödrön, Pema. When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice For Diffi cult Times.
Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, 1997.
Dass, Ram. Remember, Be Here Now. San Cristobal, NM: Lama Foundation,
1971.
Fehmi, Les and Jim Robbins. The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of
Attention to Heal Mind and Body. Boston, MA: Trumpeter Books, 2007.
82 | STEVE HELLER
George, Bill, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer. “Discov-
ering Your Authentic Leadership,” Harvard Business Review 85, no. 2
(February 2007): 129–138.
Heifetz, Ronald, and Marty Linsky. Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive
Through the Dangers of Leading. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School
Publishing, 2002.
Heller, Stuart, and David Sheppard Surrenda. Retooling on the Run: Real
Change for Leaders with No Time. Berkeley, CA: Frog Books, 1995.
Kapleau, Roshi Philip. The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice and Enlight-
enment. New York, NY: Anchor Books, 1989.
Silsbee, Doug. Presence-Based Coaching: Cultivating Self-Generative Leaders
Through Mind, Body, and Heart. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2008.
Tan, Chade-Meng. Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Suc-
cess, Happiness (and World Peace). New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2012.
CHAPTER 7
EMBODYING CHANGE
ROSELYN KAY
AS COACHES, WE HELP LEADERS MAKE the changes they seek in

order to enhance their leadership, use their talents, and grow their
potential. Making the change is one thing; embodying it is another. In
our coaching role, we are uniquely positioned to awaken consciousness
by shining a light on the body, a rich source of information. The body
is a crucial participant in change. It holds history in its cells, and expe-
rience and emotions in its muscles. No significant sustainable change
happens without it. As a coach, I see the impact of engaging the body
is significantly greater than working with story and language alone.
JOURNEY TO EMBODIMENT
We all know about habits. We talk about them often and make resolu-
tions or commitments to change them—and then rarely do. I discovered
through my Somatic Coach™ training program at the Strozzi Institute
that my habits kept me from embodying positive change. When feel-
ing vulnerable I contracted muscles around my diaphragm, forming an
arch backward, creating distance between me and others. This limited
my ability to learn and kept me from tapping colleagues for help. Th is
habit lived at a level of consciousness only accessible through the body,
a domain I had ignored for a long time.
During a workshop, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, of the Strozzi
Institute, said, “Allow your bones to hold you up rather than muscles.” I
immediately felt my muscles let go of tension. Bones and muscles work
84 | ROSELYN KAY
in tandem, but when we contract muscles in stress or fear, our breathing,

our energy, our listening, and our ability to get into action are affected.
My diaphragm muscles tensed when I was afraid or vulnerable, espe-
cially when challenged, and this resulted in my moving away from
people into negative self-talk. More, the message sent by my body was
incongruent with what I was saying. It said, “Move away.” My body,
unable to lie, gave me away. It reflected my fear and desire to retreat. I
couldn’t reframe or choose another way. Instead, I moved away to try to
figure it out on my own, unwilling to show the vulnerability.
My body in control moved me away from positivity, away from
being open, generous, and ready for change. However, upon realizing
I could make another choice, I committed to retrain my body to sup-
port the changes necessary for growth. After several months of prac-
tice, I did it automatically. When I was about to move away out of
fear of being vulnerable, I shifted in the moment, dropped my breath
deeper into my diaphragm, and relaxed the muscles around the rib
cage. I made a connection with the person with whom I felt vulnerable.
I could feel my body solidly in the presence I wanted to keep—a posi-
tive, strength-based, connected leader ready for possibility.
THE HABIT MACHINE

Change is challenging. Even when we are happy about change, it’s dif-
ficult to embody something new. Not only do our muscles remember
as they gain practice, but our brain develops neural pathways, like ruts
made by tires in mud. The muscle memory and neural pathways pull
us back to familiar habits, especially when we are under stress. Many
leaders will try the practices offered by you or cocreated with you, and
despite their best efforts, they will find themselves back in the worn
saddle of old habits.
They will speak a commitment to the new way they’ll try, and
some will even succeed in building this congruence quickly. Others
will struggle to engage in activities that will help them embody the
leader they want to be. Their habit machines, well oiled for today, are
sometimes rusty for tomorrow. There is comfort in habits; they are
structures we develop to get through our days, and they are the last
things we change. It’s uncomfortable; there is risk.
Paying attention to the structure of the body, the alignment of
muscles and bones, and inviting the client to make shifts in structure
or movement can reveal a narrative that is holding the body back from
action. A new narrative that is framed in what is desired along with
structural changes to the body can produce action toward a new habit.
EMBODYING CHANGE | 85
The autonomic nervous system, the reactor for fight or fl ight, triggers
our forward or reverse movement when we face discomfort. The fight/
fl ight/freeze response affects our presence and how other people expe-
rience us. It feeds our old habits.
Changing is not easy or simple. Once something is part of our
repertoire, embodying a new habit doesn’t result from the intention to
change. It results from actually shifting the way we talk, the language
we use, the shape we are, and how we physically engage in action. It’s
practicing what we preach that builds the competency to be the change
we want to be.
KELLY’S STORY
Kelly is transitioning to a new role as a coach. She wants to be a coach

who is present for her clients and lives in the moment. As she spoke her
commitment, I noticed Kelly’s head was facing up. She wasn’t making
eye contact. It was hard to feel connected to her.
She was invited to take a deep breath and allow her chin to come
down slightly and share her commitment again. Her flight response
kicked in with a statement, “I can’t.” With encouragement, she stayed
in the new space, allowing the energy to run through her rather than
contract. She spoke her commitment again from this place—chin down
more, engaged more in her body, and her commitment was delivered
with an authenticity easy to connect with. Kelly made a choice to prac-
tice noticing when her chin was high, bringing it back into alignment
and working to reframe her story, the inner talk that drew her away
from connection. Here is what she learned:
I had previously no awareness that I kept my chin up. I realized

I did this because I am very often looking to the next horizon,
to what I need to do next, to where I need to be next, to what is
expected of me next.
As a result, I am not here with the person in front of me. It was
a terrible realization. It made me sick and sad that I had spent so
much of my life looking out and beyond, instead of directly facing
what is in front of me in the moment. But then I used the UUN (Up
Until Now) approach and made a conscious decision to change.
Now, when I notice that my chin is up, I adjust it down. It’s
so relaxing. I am no longer worrying about what is coming next.
All I have to do is right in front of me, and it’s usually a very
doable task. I don’t need to worry that I will lose track of my
long-term goals. That is a hardwired strength in me that does
86 | ROSELYN KAY
not need more nurturing. Instead, I have this wonderful, simple

tool that is always with me and immediately brings me back and
makes me remember my beautiful life—the one that’s right here
in front of me. (Client interview)
As we coach, we help clients identify the inner dialogue supporting

their strengths and the dialogue that doesn’t. We can help them see
what they can’t see—the embodied habits in alignment or misalignment
with what they care about. We also have to be willing to be conscious
of our own habits, those embodied habits that keep us from being the
coach we want to be in service to our clients. When we embody what
we espouse, we have an easier time helping others do the same.
ELEVATING CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH THE BODY
Coaching somatically, we are working with the whole self. We are

focused on how emotions, thoughts and behaviors are reflected through
the body—its musculature, energy flows—and we look for distinct
movements that indicate something different than what is reflected
through words. Clients are often unaware of the sensations in the body
that produce physical contractions associated with fight, fl ight, freeze
responses. When these are brought to awareness, there is surprise.
Sometimes a narrative emerges to explain what is happening, provid-
ing for a rich conversation about how this narrative shapes the future.
A quick example of how the body plays its role:
1. Think of a time when you felt fully alive and excited and doing
something meaningful. When was it? Where were you? As you
reflect on this story, notice the shape of your body. What is your
structure? How are you sitting? What sensations do you notice?
What mood is evoked in you?
2. Now think of a time when things didn’t go so well: a time when
you felt fear, concern or were upset. What is the shape of your
body as you recall this story? What are the thoughts evoked?
What mood is stirred?
3. Go back to your fully alive story. Notice the shift in the body.
Notice the sensations. What’s different? Which of these shapes is
likely to bring you to make a new choice or a commitment to act?
Becoming conscious of how our body is structured to support current

thoughts and actions makes it possible for us to restructure the body,
reframe thoughts, and gain confidence to take new action.
MINDSET AND BODYSET

As you begin your journey to be a successful coach, mindset and
bodyset become tools for you to use. Mindset is structure we hold in
our mind to make sense of the world. I use the term “bodyset” for the
way our body is structured through years of response to fear, joy, and
excitement and the way it’s framed to create our experience. It shows
up in our shape, for example, the chin up, the shoulders tight, or con-
stantly shifting eyes. The structure of both mind and body influences
the way we know and the way we behave. Leaders conscious of their
bodyset, as Kelly’s story shows, can open the door to their ability to
reframe how they are shaped and better respond to today to create a
better future.
MARYANNE’S STORY
Mindset and bodyset exploration is a powerful combination as is shown
by Maryanne’s story. Looking at Maryanne, you’d assess her as a bright,
beautiful woman, a strong and capable business leader. However, she
wasn’t living as confidently as she appeared. Life had thrown her some
hurdles: an ill husband and two daughters to nurture largely on her
own. She had disowned parts of herself to maintain control of things.
• She was unaware of her practice of pulling her arms tightly to her
chest as if to protect her heart and holding her legs close together,
all contracted in a way that limited her ability to fully express
her strength. The impact was a life lived and business driven by
necessity rather than purpose. Her confidence regarding change
was impacted.
• She wanted to feel the confidence, not just look it. We began
with her sharing about her life and work. It was clear there were
sparks of light there. Her face lit up when she spoke about her
daughters and about establishing her business. Yet, her arms
or upper body didn’t move much. So, Maryanne was asked to
stand with legs slightly apart and arms relaxed and open. Th is
movement upset her structure (bodyset). Emotion seeped out
as memories surfaced, and she experienced them in her body.
As she became familiar with her body once again, new options
emerged. She noticed sensations appearing in her arms, jaw,
and hands. She was invited to breathe deeper, then deeper still.
Emotions stirred. She realized that the contractions of her
muscles held her back and dragged her confidence down.
88 | ROSELYN KAY
• She made a commitment to being open, strong and confident.

When it was clear she was solid, her voice, body, everything became
aligned. When asked how her body felt, she said, “Like a tree.”
• Maryanne developed a series of practices, including meditation,
deep breathing, holding her arms more freely at her sides, noticing
the language she used and reframing it as needed to help her
embody her confidence. When asked recently what has helped
her embody her new confidence, she replied, “Practicing my tree
stance when I notice my confidence fade, daily meditation, a
new awareness of language, reframing old stories and noticing
when I am connected to my commitment.”
HELPING CLIENTS EMBODY CHANGE
The most important ingredient to embodying change is to be really

clear about why it is important. No matter how desirable the change seems,
we are not always willing participants in the embodiment process. We start
and we stop when we become aware life will have to change or when
we realize that comfortable habits, our current situation, where we live,
or the job must go. Fear jumps in, and we stop the practice.
CONSCIOUSNESS ABOUT CHOICE
Many times clients will say they have no choice, despite their increased
consciousness. Th is may be true, and it may be the fear of giving up
something that competes with the desire to be a strong, present leader.
Or a deeper commitment to the status quo may be at work. Clients
profoundly want to take the step into the new business or move to the
new city, but they are unwilling to make the choices that manifest the
dream because old structures have to die or be changed. Once the real-
ization hits, they back up, slow down, and lose the sense of choice.
Remembering what we care about, what we want, and why we
want it can invigorate practice. Embodiment of change takes time; it’s
not an overnight sensation.
Sometimes the choices involved aren’t ours; that’s when a leader
needs resilience to deal with the challenges of change. The body is a vital
resource. Our full presence, centered and grounded, provides a great
resource for bouncing back into choice and dealing with setbacks.
CHOICE FOR COMMITMENT AND EMBODIMENT
How do we get into practice? What does it take to be fully committed

to change? How do we know we are in a commitment to change?
Throughout the coaching engagement, clients will move between

choice and commitment. It’s a rocky road. The more clearly they feel
the importance of the change deep in the body, the more likely the
choice will sustain a commitment. Guiding your clients to a clear com-
mitment includes getting the body, words, and voice aligned.
Here’s a practice to offer:
1. Work with your client to clarify the choice he or she wants to

make. Ask the client to put it in the frame of a commitment,
using “I am committing to . . .”
2. Invite the client to stand in front of you. Help align his or her
body by guiding the client to have feet fl at on the floor, knees
slightly flexed, hips even, and pelvis relaxed. Then work with the
client to bring shoulders down, take a deep breath, drop energy
into the center of the body, relax the jaw muscles, soften the
eyes, relax the muscles around the forehead, and level out the
chin.
3. Help the client set up his or her own body from feet to head. Ask
the client what he or she notices in terms of sensations, muscle
contractions, energy, or aliveness in the body.
4. Have your client state his or her commitment and notice what
shifts occur in the body. As a coach, what assessments are you
making? Ask the client what he or she notices or what’s different.
Ask for permission to share your assessment.
5. Ask powerful questions to help the client deepen the discovery
and gain more clarity about what is important about this
commitment.
6. When there is clear alignment, voice, body, and language are
congruent. Ask the client, “What did you have to do with
your physical body to align it with your commitment?” Or ask,
“What did you have to do with your body to strengthen your
commitment?” By speaking it, the client will find it easier to
remember what to do physically to return to this state when, as
easily happens, he or she gets off course.
Practice makes perfect. Energy follows where we put our attention.

To achieve embodiment, the commitment must lie at the very founda-
tion of what we want. We need clarity. When we have a commitment
to get thin for the reunion, the wedding, or the job, it’s usually for
the short term and focused on the superficial. We diet, lose weight,
the event happens, and habits and weight return. To achieve sustained
change, we need our attention on our commitment with awareness of
its importance.
90 | ROSELYN KAY
Embodying change requires a willingness to step into murky water,

wade through emotions, restructure the body and reframe narratives.
It’s hard work for the client and equally challenging for the coach.
A new coach may find this deeper work is discomforting because it
evokes strong emotions. Develop your capacity to breathe deeply, rec-
ognize your own triggers for stress and fear, and practice reshaping
your body and reframing your story. The deeper you go in understand-
ing your own body shaping, the more masterful you become at helping
your client achieve sustained change.
SUMMARY
As coaches, we are privileged to work with leaders who want to be
effective, resourceful, resilient, and lead in ways that compel engage-
ment and results. Our gift to them is our ability to see what they can’t
see. We can encourage a level of consciousness that opens the door to
choices serving the future they desire to create and hold them to their
commitments to practice being exactly who they want to be. The body
is a terrible thing to waste. By our learning how to work with bodyset
and mindset, our own and our clients’, we can be extraordinary part-
ners with leaders on the journey to change.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hanna, T. Somatics: Reawakening The Mind’s Control of Movement, Flexibility,
and Health. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books Group, 1988.
Kapuro, R., R. Hanson, and J. Oschman. Awakening Somatic Intelligence: The
Art and Practice of Embodied Mindfulness. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic
Books, 2012.
Palmer, W. The Intuitive Body: Discovering the Wisdom of Conscious Embodi-
ment and Aikido. Berkeley, CA: Blue Snake Books, 2008.
Siegel, D. Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation. New York,
NY: Bantam Books, 2011.
Silsbee, D. Presence-Based Coaching: Cultivating Self-Generative Leaders Through
Mind, Body, and Heart. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2008.
Strozzi-Heckler, R. Leadership Dojo: Build Your Foundation as an Exemplary
Leader. Berkeley, CA: Frog Books/North Atlantic Books, 2007.
Strozzi-Heckler, R. Anatomy of Change: A Way to Move through Life’s Transi-
tions, 2d ed. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1993.
PART II
DOING
CHAPTER 8
THE COACHING RELATIONSHIP:

A MIRROR INTO THE SELF
KELLY LEWIS
MIRRORS CAN BE EFFECTIVE TOOLS for self-development. They

give you a choice to see (or not) what is being reflected back to you.
When I accept what I see in the mirror, I grow into a better version of
myself. This is also true of what I call my inner mirror. This is the mir-
ror in which I see the part of me that is sitting just below the surface,
patiently waiting for my attention, the mirror in which I see reflected
my relationship with my coaching clients. Like the mirror that reflects
my physical image, this mirror allows me to interpret the reflection as
I choose. Sometimes I will see an inspired coach, sometimes a harsh
critic. The fact is, the mirror doesn’t criticize, judge, exaggerate, or
minimize light or shadow. I do that. The mirror, whether external or
internal, creates an opportunity for me to accept or reject who I am at
this very moment. It can facilitate or hinder my process of becoming, a
process that I find essential for personal and professional development.
As Warren Bennis, a pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership,
once said, “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It
is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.”1 I believe the same is
true of becoming a leadership coach. It requires a wholehearted commit-
ment to be in a continuous state of development—a condition that the
best coaches foster not only in their clients but also in themselves.
The easier and more straightforward part of becoming a leadership
coach is acquiring and applying “book knowledge”—the newest skills,
94 | KELLY LEWIS
the cutting-edge frameworks, the latest scientific research, the innova-

tive 360-degree assessments—what is discussed in subsequent chapters
as what we “do” as coaches. The more tumultuous and challenging
part is discovering and integrating self-knowledge—who we “be” as
coaches, which comes from our willingness to constantly look in our
inner mirrors and claim ownership of what is reflected back.
Much of my self-knowledge comes from looking in that inner mir-
ror and observing myself in my relationship with clients. As discussed
in chapter 11 (“Whose Story Is This, Anyway?”), it is a pretty sure
bet that, as leadership coaches, we will encounter clients with situa-
tions, issues, hopes, and fears similar to our own. These similarities
may inspire or intrigue us, or they may make us feel uncomfortable
or at risk. Whether these initial reactions are mildly electric or highly
charged, they are invitations to view the coaching relationship in that
inner mirror and acquire the self-knowledge that will make us better
coaches. As coaches, we understand that if we don’t claim our own light
and sit with our own shadows, we significantly impact our ability to
help our clients claim their own light and shadows. I question whether
we can give our clients what we haven’t experienced ourselves.
We are all familiar with the International Coach Federation com-
petency, “Establishing Trust and Intimacy with the Client.” We know
what to do to establish a safe, supportive environment that facilitates
a relationship between coach and client. What would it take to create
a safe, supportive environment for us? Could looking at the coaching
relationship as a mirror that reveals the self help us develop the same
level of understanding, care, and compassion for ourselves? How might
that level of intimacy allow us to become better coaches? For me, just
being able to see, hold, and sit with my own “stuff ” expands my ability
to see, hold, and sit with the clients’ “stuff.”
My hope in this chapter is that both new and veteran coaches will
accept the invitation to view the coach-client relationship as a source
of self-knowledge, looking at both positive and negative aspects and
being as open, courageous, and vulnerable in that exploration as we
ask our clients to be every day. Perhaps sharing my personal experience
with this practice will facilitate your process of becoming. I recom-
mend that, if possible, we discuss this practice and our own discoveries
with our coaches as part of our ongoing self-development.
ACCEPTING THE INVITATION
One important quality in acquiring self-knowledge is recognizing and

accepting the invitation to look inside and see what the mirror wants
THE COACHING RELATIONSHIP | 95
to reveal. I like to think of this as intimacy with myself, or “into me I

see,” as one of my coaches once said. Typically, the coaching relation-
ship mirror shows me pieces of myself that I have disassociated from or
covered up or that perhaps hold the threat of judgment. Like the mir-
ror that reflects my physical appearance, my inner mirror offers beauty
or blemishes—and sometimes both at the same time—to recognize
and claim.
REFLECTION #1
I am many months into a coaching relationship with a 60-some-

thing, senior-level, government executive. His boss and peers
consider him a “passionate technical expert, who is strong in
his decisiveness and intuition and needs to work on being more
inclusive, less critical, and listening more to others.” I have come
to know the man in that description and the person just below
the surface, a deeply caring, tender-hearted person, who craves
transferring something of value to the next generation and who
wants more joy in his life. On this particular day, my phone rings
at 4 p.m. and the voice on the other end sounds deflated and sad.
As he speaks, it becomes evident that what is actually uppermost
for my client is hurt and disappointment, and our work that day
focuses on control or the lack of it. Dave recently experienced a
loss in his life and is struggling with colleagues not supporting
him in the way he expects to be supported—an expectation that
is hidden from them. About halfway through the conversation,
when I ask him, “How giving are you willing to be?” He says, “I
can’t give of myself now, when others didn’t give to me when I
needed it.” It is clear we have touched a tender spot, so I “check
in” with him. We keep going, and I offer this reframe: “You can
choose to give of yourself, and you always have the choice not to.
What is your choice?”
Two weeks to the day after that coaching session, I woke up with a
vivid image from a dream. I found it strange, as I usually don’t remem-
ber my dreams, but that morning I distinctly recalled that in my dream
I was a warrior with a steel shield. I had no clue what this meant until
later that morning when I looked at my calendar and saw that I had a
coaching session with Dave. I was shocked. As though the early morn-
ing fog was lifting, I began to recognize the invitation to look into my
inner mirror, an invitation I had been rejecting for some time. I pulled
out my journal and began reflecting on a session with my coach that
96 | KELLY LEWIS
had occurred several months earlier. At that time I was working with
a Strozzi-trained coach, so part of the coaching looked at the domain
of the body.2 During one of our sessions, she made this observation:
“Kelly, it feels like you have a shield protecting your entire torso. I
push with my fingers, and there is no give. It feels like armor.” I recall
saying, “I just work out a lot. I just have a really strong upper body.”
Aaahhhhh . . . I think that might have been me declining the initial
invitation. No better time than the present to change my response and
accept what wanted to be revealed. So . . . I was a warrior with a shield,
because . . . ? Maybe because, like Dave, I felt my heart was so sensitive
and hurt that I had to defend and protect it. And while that shield had
done just that—protected me and kept the hurtful things out—it had
also kept locked in the love and joy I wanted to give and locked out the
love and joy I wished to receive.
SEEING (MYSELF) AND BEING SEEN
Looking in our inner mirror can be challenging and at times unpleas-

ant. Using this practice to build self-knowledge and claim more of our
selves usually comes with some resistance and calls for courage, another
quality I have found essential on the path of becoming. Fear appears to
be my resistance of choice. A teacher of mine once said to me, “Kelly,
fear is nothing but False Evidence that Appears Real, and the antidote
for fear is to Face Everything And Release.”
REFLECTION #2
A high-energy, empathetic consultant with a love of problem

solving is on the other end of the telephone. Cara and I have
been working to discover what she wants professionally and per-
sonally, to name her contribution to the world, and perhaps most
importantly, to enable her to value herself and her contribution.
Our work on this particular day is to find a way to generate and
sustain her energy. At first, her voice is steady and her breath-
ing is easy as we begin exploring what refreshes her and what
depletes her. Then, in a split second, her speech quickens and
her breathing becomes shallow as she blurts out, “People who
complain about a problem when they don’t need to be complain-
ing, and I can’t love and serve them. They deplete me.” This is a
big discovery for her. And she knows exactly what comes next—
some exploration about what other actions are available to her
when people are unable to receive her love and service.
Two days after that coaching session, I noticed myself highly frustrated
in an interaction with a colleague. It was the usual dance I had experi-
enced working with this person, and it was beginning to get exhaust-
ing. After he left, I heard myself say, “He just doesn’t get it. He is
so closed. What do you do when you feel like you can’t be yourself?”
Then I let out a big chuckle and said, “Thank you for the invitation,
Cara.” That evening I did some journaling on an odd question my fi rst
coach had offered me, “Who am I being that they are responding this
way?” As I journaled, I discovered a frightened little girl who if truly
seen and heard would not be accepted. I wanted to be sure that if I
shared myself—my unique contribution—it would be welcomed and
accepted. I discovered that when I perceive the stakes to be low or the
relationship temporary, it is easier for me to reveal myself and perhaps
be rejected. But in those relationships where I have more to lose—as
with my colleague—I put on my shield, share less of my contribution
and of myself. I wondered to myself, “What would happen if I choose
to share, to give of myself, without any guarantee that what I was giv-
ing would be received?” That day I began to know inside my bones
what Dr. Brené Brown writes about so insightfully:
The root of the word courage is cor—the Latin word for heart. . . .
Courage originally meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all
one’s heart.” . . . Today, courage is synonymous with being heroic
or performing brave deeds. Heroics and bravery are important,
but I think we’ve lost touch with the idea that speaking honestly
and openly about who we [are] and about our experiences (good
and bad) is the ultimate act of courage. Heroics are often about
putting your life on the line. Courage is about putting your vul-
nerability on the line. . . . For me, practicing courage means tell-
ing my story with all of my heart. It means being honest about
who I am, what I believe, and how I feel. It doesn’t come easy
for me—I have a tendency to self-protect—but it really is about
practicing authenticity and letting myself be seen.3
LISTENING WITH MY HEART
The last quality of my practice of looking in the mirror is listening

with my heart to the truehearted, integrated voice that is the source of
my own inner wisdom. Distinguishing this voice from my analytical,
inquisitive voice has been an important step in my development proc-
ess. Both voices are genuinely curious, but my analytical voice has a
need to understand fi rst and to embrace second, while my truehearted
98 | KELLY LEWIS
voice is willing to embrace first and then to trust that it will understand
when the time is right. Greater discernment of these two voices is com-
ing with practice, and it is allowing me to claim new parts of myself
and to let go of parts that no longer serve me. Discernment is creating
a deeper connection with my true self. And when I am connected to
this self, I understand where I end and where my clients begin. I am
clear about what I have in common with my clients and how we are
different. I can be fully present with and for them—their stories, their
truth, their fears, and their hopes.
REFLECTION #3
A warmhearted, deeply feeling communications executive

sits before me. She is determined to make the world a better
place—for herself, for her son, and for humanity. She is a new
leadership coach emerging from a transformational experience,
and she is investing in her continued development. She desires
to bring more of her authentic self to every encounter, and for
her, this means becoming comfortable with owning her gifts,
sharing her voice, and being visible. On this particular day, she
is sharing what has happened since our last coaching session.
She has hit the highlights, and then she says, “This isn’t really
important, but there is a quick story that I want to tell you.”
As she nears the end, she takes a big breath and says, “I took
ownership of the mistake. I responded in a professional way
and got it taken care of.” I ask, “What else needs to be said?”
Th irty seconds of silence later, Mary says, “I am angry that this
person didn’t trust me enough to come to me, and I am hurt by
his unnecessarily harsh words.” In that moment, she fi nds her
voice and discovers what it feels like to solve the problem and
fully express her self.
Following that coaching conversation with Mary, my truehearted voice

spoke to me over three consecutive days during my yoga practice. As
always, it offered me the opportunity to listen with the ears of my
heart. Finally, on the third day, I listened and I saw more deeply into
the woman who was looking back at me in the mirror, the woman who
until then had been afraid to stand out because she always wanted to
belong. On that day, like Mary, I found the courage to claim the free-
dom to fully express myself. I chose to create my own life by my own
rules, to let go of the baggage that was no longer mine to carry. And
I didn’t need to understand what was happening; instead, I embraced
it and watched a fuller expression of the Lord of the Dance pose

emerge.4
SUMMARY
My inner mirror reveals the reciprocal nature of the coach-client rela-

tionship. Just as my clients learn from me, I learn from them. My rela-
tionship with them supports and educates me on my journey to becom-
ing a great leadership coach—and to becoming myself.
This way of becoming is deeply challenging but also deeply reward-
ing. It requires a wholehearted commitment to be in a constant, and
perhaps never-ending, state of development. It means accepting the
invitation to look, having the courage to see and be seen, and listening
with my heart. It calls for my patience, resilience, trust, and willing-
ness to live into a fuller, truer, bigger expression of who I am. It allows
me to acknowledge the parts of me sitting just below the surface and
to discover the limitless depth of what is there. It feeds my spirit and
affords me the freedom to be in greater service to myself and therefore
to my clients.
I am grateful that I have made this practice of looking deeply a part
of my everyday life and hope that others will consider doing the same
on their path to becoming a great leadership coach—and to becoming
themselves.
NOTES
1. Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader (New York: Basic Books, 2009),
xxxvii.
2. Richard Strozzi-Heckler is the founder of the Strozzi work and president
of Strozzi Institute. A nationally known speaker, coach, and consultant on
leadership and mastery, he has spent four decades researching, developing,
and teaching the practical application of Somatics (the unity of language,
action, emotions, and meaning).
3. Brené Brown, The Gift of Imperfection (Center City: Hazelden, 2010), 12.
4. Lord of the Dance pose, or Natarajasana in Sanskrit, is a representation of
Shiva, the presiding deity of yoga, who rules over transformation. Learn-
ing this pose requires patience, persistence, and resolve. In its full expres-
sion, the pose demands balance, presence, strength, and flexibility and
offers the chance to become the lord of your own inner dance. See Kofi
Busia, “Cosmic Dancer,” Yoga Journal, Practice: Master Class: 1, available
at http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2305.
CHAPTER 9
G.R.A.C.E. AT WORK:
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS
FOR POWERFUL RESULTS
ERIC DE NIJS
COACHING IS, BY ITS VERY NATURE, a relationship. Many have

labeled it a partnership, others call it an alliance. However you choose
to describe it, it is still a relationship, and that relationship is at the
heart and soul of coaching. The coaching relationship’s vitality, bal-
ance, and strength are what determine a client’s success.
Webster’s Dictionary defines relationship as “a state of affairs existing
between those having relations or dealings.” What is most important
to understand, however, is not the definition, but the condition of the
relationship. Webster’s definition implies a relationship between those
“having relations or dealings.” But in our warp-speed world we tend
to remove the relationship from the interactions. People and organiza-
tions may have dealings together, but the art, science, and practice of
relationships has been abandoned. It is critical that the coach never
let this happen, but rather consciously work to establish meaningful
coaching and leadership relationships.
Developing relationships is the single most critical success ele-
ment for any leadership or coaching model. Coaches who develop
powerful, purposeful, and productive relationships with their clients
are more likely to inspire greater productivity, growth, innovation,
and overall performance. Without a powerful relationship, when the
coach and client have only those “relations or dealings” rather than a
102 | ERIC DE NIJS
relationship, coaching is flat, unproductive, and ultimately wasted. The

essence of successful and productive coaching conversation is a power-
ful relationship.
Because conversation is fast becoming a dying art, many people are
unsure of themselves and their ability to develop these powerful and
productive relationships. This article introduces a simple model that is
easy to remember and follow, yet powerful in its results. It is a model
of human dynamics that not only enables a coach to build the best
relationships for client success, but also serves as an effective leader-
ship guide for clients to follow. This model is not a list of competencies
or skills. It is about the behavior of relationships. The profession of
coaching has a great body of academic learning, including volumes on
appropriate competencies, skills, and behaviors. All of that learning,
each skill, competency, or behavior, can effectively be placed in one or
more of the categories of this relationship model. The purpose of this
model is to provide an easy and effective methodology, an “attitude
alignment” model, for powerful relationships that yield productive and
useful results for the client.
G.R.A.C.E. AT WORK: A NEW MODEL FOR POWERFUL,

PURPOSEFUL, PRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS
Powerful relationships are based on goodwill and a mutual commit-

ment to a shared purpose that provides affirmation, inspiration, and
personal transformation. These relationships emerge only through the
presence and practice of five key components whose initials form the
acronym G.R.A.C.E. These are Goodwill, Results, Authenticity,
Connectivity, and Empowerment (figure 9.1).
“G.R.A.C.E. at work” was originally designed as a leadership
model for application in the business environment, based on what is
known to yield results, as a human interaction model. Coaches are
leaders who have a powerful effect on the lives of their clients, often
leaders themselves. This model provides a solid framework and struc-
ture around which the coaching relationship is built, maintained, and
balanced. The model is easy to remember and can also serve clients
who lead others. The five elements of G.R.A.C.E. are blended in com-
bination and equal balance. All five must be present in the relationship
to guarantee results. A basic premise of G.R.A.C.E is that any result
you achieve in life comes by way of a conversation and a relationship;
the conversation is about managing expectations and agreements, and
the relationship is about intentionally seeking to transform the ordi-
nary relationship into an extraordinary one. For example, sometimes
G.R.A.C.E. AT WORK | 103
coaches need to leverage the goodwill they’ve built with the client and
tell the client something he or she does not want to hear even when it
goes counter to their desire. Only by exercising G.R.A.C.E. can you
and others experience an extraordinary relationship.
GOODWILL: IT ALL BEGINS HERE
Goodwill involves assuming positive intent, suspending judgment,

looking out for the other person’s best interest, giving without condi-
tions, offering forgiveness, being at peace with what is, and provid-
ing support and safety in times of risk and failure. It’s about making
things all right regardless of what is happening in the relationship. All
this begins with goodwill. The leader creates a “safe place” for working
relationships to flourish, where people work together to achieve similar
and collaborative goals.
Goodwill doesn’t mean ignoring the effects of poor decisions. It
means creating the conditions so both parties know each is looking
out for the other’s best interest. Sometimes expressing goodwill might
involve giving without condition or extending forgiveness. Sometimes
it can mean simply being at peace with what is. Goodwill is closely
linked to trust and creates the psychological safety net that encourages
people to take the risks associated with breakthrough performance.
In the coaching relationship, however, all the goals will focus
on the client, not the coach. This differs from the standard leader-
ship relationship where both parties have goals and objectives, and the
goodwill is based on achieving those mutually acknowledged goals.
This is most often not true in the coaching relationship. The nature of
coaching demands that the coach holds the client’s best interests as his
or her own. Hopefully, both coach and client, however, approach the
relationship basing their actions and words on mutual goodwill.
Figure 9.1 G.R.A.C.E. at Work: Playing in a bigger space

104 | ERIC DE NIJS
RESULTS: FORMULA FOR PURPOSE

There are actually two “R”s in this component: Reason and Results.
This element of G.R.A.C.E. refers to the reason for being in a relation-
ship, which ultimately yields results. It focuses on the ability of both
parties to create meaning and value together and points to a shared
sense of purpose.
Obviously, there must be a relationship of some sort to put good-
will to work. The working relationship between the coach and client
is the reason for being together. And that reason is always to share a
purpose and generate results and value for both parties.
Effective coaches help their clients identify their purpose and
passion. G.R.A.C.E. helps answer the questions: “What’s my reason
for being?” and “Why are we in this relationship?” Long after leaving
an organization or exiting a relationship, people realize that success
isn’t just about the numbers. It’s about making a contribution by doing
the things they love to do—things that are meaningful. Research
conducted by the Corporate Leadership Council’s Learning and
Development Roundtable found that “by changing the way employees
think about themselves, their jobs, and their organizations, managers
have another means of obtaining dramatic improvements in the per-
formance of their employees” (Corporate Leadership Council 2003,
20). Effective coaches and leaders recognize this desire as a powerful
motivator for people, and they leverage it to create commitment to the
vision and purpose of the organization or of the client.
AUTHENTICITY: ESSENTIAL REALITY
Authenticity is being real with yourself and others, choosing how you
wish to relate to others, declaring what your stand is, holding yourself
accountable for your actions, rewarding yourself appropriately, being
open and vulnerable, openly communicating needs, desires, moods,
attitudes, values, and feelings—even about the other person. Being
real—and being all that you can be—is essential to any relationship,
but especially to one with expectations for authentic results. Open and
uncompromising standards, positive attitudes, and the desire to be
exactly who you are, is the heart of a fruitful relationship. Authenticity
keeps all relationships balanced and healthy. Each person must fi rst
identify, then “own up” to his or her own reality. Successful relation-
ships thrive when both parties are exactly who they say they are, say
exactly what they mean, and apply the same standards to self and
others.
G.R.A.C.E. AT WORK | 105
Great leadership and great coaching begin by knowing and lever-

aging strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness in coaches and leaders
represents a huge opportunity to create consistency between the walk
and the talk and provides a measure of transparency to others that
fosters trust in a relationship.
CONNECTIVITY: COCREATED VALUE
Connectivity means finding ways to identify with, affirm, and encour-

age the other person, understanding how the other person feels, what
is important to him or her, sharing assumptions and beliefs, iden-
tifying and realizing differences in intention and impact on others,
and the genuine desire to associate with and relate to others. When
goodwill, a reason for being in relationship, and authenticity combine,
they advance the relationship to the place of real connectivity. From a
coaching perspective, connectivity is about empathizing with the cli-
ent and finding ways to help clients achieve their goals.
It is the coach’s responsibility to create connection through care-
ful and deliberate observance and understanding of the client’s most
effective methods of engagement. Coaches connect with clients and
essentially “team up” for shared results. When coach and client con-
nect, through shared motives, values, goals, and understanding—and
through effective engagement practices—the resulting bond can yield
powerful results. The safe place of G.R.A.C.E. easily affords this vital
connectivity.
EMPOWERMENT: ENABLING SUCCESS
Empowerment is helping others overcome obstacles, develop new

skills, establish a safe environment in which to succeed (for self and
others), create catalysts for change, see potential and possibilities, be
open to possibilities, allow time for testing and learning, and see the
larger whole but remain aware of its components. Empowerment is
about enabling clients to achieve their own success, not doing it for
them. It is about creating a “nutrient-rich” environment for free, unfet-
tered growth.
It is essential that the coach maintain the critical balance of chal-
lenge and support, sufficiently motivating others to take risks, see new
things and do new things, while still holding the client accountable. A
good coach must create a dynamic tension, a balance, that motivates
the client to advance his or her skills. For example, the coach must
also provide a safe place of challenge and support. In this way, the
106 | ERIC DE NIJS
coach creates and maintains this same balance between advocacy and
inquiry, between task and relationship.
Coaches and clients need to cocreate the boundaries for empow-
erment, learning, and responsibility. Trust also plays a vital role in
empowerment and begins with a common understanding of expecta-
tions and mutual commitments to goals, roles, and consequences.
PROVEN AND POWERFUL CHECKLIST
Accountability is something most people fi nd difficult. But it is essential

for the coach. A great coach systematically reviews his or her perform-
ance, always seeking areas for improvement. He or she is constantly
learning, constantly checking, constantly improving. The following
is a checklist that captures the main concepts of the G.R.A.C.E. at
Work model, presented in a manner that allows coaches to monitor
and realign their relationship-building behaviors, while at the same
time building those same skills in their clients. A coach who practices
G.R.A.C.E. at Work will build the kind of relationship that delivers
results for clients. A client who learns and practices G.R.A.C.E. at
Work will see results in the organization as well as in the individuals
he or she leads; quite often, this is what the coaching is all about in the
first place: becoming a more effective leader.
IT’S NOT ABOUT ME
This is not a popular sentiment today, but it is essential for the GRACE-
full coach. Clients’ success sometimes demands sacrifice. And that
requires doing what’s best for the client as opposed to pushing toward
the coach’s bias, perceptions of success for the client, or personal goals.
In the game of baseball, a sacrifice fly or bunt may result in a player
sacrificing his personal performance statistics to advance the team.
Similarly, a sacrifice in a powerful relationship may mean that a person
gives up his or her agenda, his or her need to be “right,” or the need to
be first. This is the meaning of goodwill and evidence of the capacity
to coach and lead with G.R.A.C.E. It is also an attribute that, when
successfully modeled, can be learned by others.
LEADING AND COACHING WITH GRACE
An interaction model for coaching relationships that facilitates trust

and transparency is needed to guide performance and productivity and
G.R.A.C.E. at Work Questions Checklist
Coach’s Personal Checklist Coaching (and Modeling) to Client Checklist
1. How am I approaching the coaching relationship with 1. In what way is my client approaching his or her relationships with goodwill and
goodwill and positive intent for my client? positive intent? What does that look like?
2. How do I suspend any judgment I may tend to make 2. How is my client holding onto judgments and prejudices, and would he or she be
regarding this client? able to suspend/release them to move on?
3. How am I truly interested in, and looking out for, my 3. How is my client interested in others, developing them, and mentoring them?
client’s best interest? 4. How or to what extent is my client giving without condition?
4. How am I giving to him/her, without condition? 5. How is my client able to freely extend forgiveness if needed, or is he or she
Goodwill
5. How do I and will I freely extend forgiveness as needed? harboring unforgiveness, or a grudge or living in past wrongs?
6. How am I able to be “at peace with what is” in the 6. To what extent does my client know contentment in the moment, or is he or she at
relationship? unrest? How do I help my client find peace with what is, yet still set appropriate goals?
7. How have I created an environment of trust and safety 7. How trustful is my client of me and others? How is he or she able to create an
for my client? environment of trust with others?
1. What do I know of my client’s dreams and goals? Can I 1. How does my client know what he or she is looking for? How will my client be
describe what he or she thinks success looks like? able to recognize when his or her goals are achieved?
2. How well am I fully understanding and embracing the 2. What does my client understand the purpose of this coaching relationship is, and
purpose of this relationship—the intended results? how has he or she clearly stated the intended results? How can my client transfer
3. In what ways am I being in service to the client? this ability to identify intention and shared value to other relationships?
Results
4. In what ways will I be genuinely pleased for my client 3. How is my client able to support the intentions, purpose, and goals of others
when he or she achieves the success desired? without imposing his or her own values, goals, or intentions?
5. What have I identified, what and do I understand, to be 4. How well is my client able to be genuinely pleased with success in others?
the intended and unintended consequences of the stated 5. How has my client fully explored, identified, and accepted the intended and
results? unintended consequences of his or her desired results?
Figure 9.2 G.R.A.C.E.: Full coaching checklist

G.R.A.C.E. at Work Questions Checklist
Coach’s Personal Checklist Coaching (and Modeling) to Client Checklist

6. What have I identified as my own purpose and passion, 6. How can my client identify his or her purpose and passion? How can he or she
and is this coaching relationship built within that passion? help others to do the same?
7. How have I helped this client to establish a solid plan to 7. To what extent does my client have a plan to achieve results? Does he or she know
achieve the intended and stated results? how to measure progress? Is he or she able to do this for others?
1. How can I be real and authentic with this client? How 1. In what ways is my client real and authentic with me? With others? How is he or
well can I describe and articulate my values? she able to articulate personal values and vision?
2. How do I keep myself accountable to “walk my talk,” 2. How well is my client willing to engage on an authentic level and willing to be
and how well do I honestly engage this client and keep helped to “walk the talk” in this relationship? How well is this person able to do
him or her accountable? this with others and self?
3. How can I openly communicate needs, desires, moods, 3. How does my client openly communicate needs, desires, moods, attitudes, values,
attitudes, values, and feelings with this client and with and feelings with me? Others?
others? 4. In what ways does my client have uncompromising standards, positive attitudes,
4. How well am I able to have open and uncompromising and a deep desire to be exactly who he or she is?
standards, positive attitudes, and a deep desire to be 5. How well does my client know his or her strengths and weaknesses (areas of
Authenticity
exactly who I am with this client? challenge), and is he or she able to leverage them in all relationships?
5. How do I know what my strengths and weaknesses are, 6. How is my client “transparent” in all his or her relationships?
and am I able to leverage them, especially is this 7. Does my client appear to be exactly who he or she says? Does this person say what
coaching relationship? he or she means? Does my client use the same standards for self and others?
6. How am I “transparent” in this relationship?
7. To what extent am I exactly who I say I am? How do
I say exactly what I mean?
1. How am I able to identify with, affi rm, and encourage 1. How is my client able to identify with, affi rm, and encourage others?
my client? 2. How does my client understand how others feel and what is important to them?
2. What do I understand about how my client feels? How does he or she empathize with others?
3. To what extent do I have a genuine desire to connect and 3. In what ways does my client have a genuine desire to connect with others?
associate (relate) with this person? 4. How has my client enabled others to connect with him or her?
4. How have I enabled my client to connect with me? 5. How can my client put his or her aspirations aside to be sensitive and of service to
5. How have I put my own aspirations aside to be sensitive the needs of others?
and of service to my client’s needs? 6. How is my client able to understand the situations of others and to appreciate how
6. How am I able to understand, empathize with my these situations impact the moods, attitudes, identities, egos, and vision of others?
client’s situation, and appreciate the impact this situation 7. How does my client honestly support and share the motives, values, goals, and
Connectivity
has on her or his mood, attitudes, identity, ego, and desired results of others in relationship with him or her? How does he or she put
vision for success? the needs of others first in order to establish solid, productive connections with
7. How can I honestly support and share my client’s motives, others?
values, goals, and desired results from this relationship?
1. How well am I able to help my client overcome obstacles, 1. How is my client able to overcome obstacles and develop new skills? How is this
develop new skills, and create catalysts for change? person able to create catalysts for change in others as well?
2. How am I able to help this client be open to possibilities 2. How is my client open to possibilities and potential? How is he or she able to help
and potential? others in this regard?
3. How can I help my client be aware of all components 3. How is my client able to see the details and the whole picture, keeping perspective
but still see the larger “whole”? on both? How is he or she able to help others doing this?
4. How am I able to create the right balance between 4. How does my client know and understand the difference between challenge and
challenge and support for this client? support in his or her current relationships?
5. In what ways am I equipped to assist this client in 5. How self-sufficient is my client in terms of acquiring adequate resources for
developing new skills or advancing toward his or her expected growth? How well is he or she able to provide that to stimulate and assist
Empowerment
goals? growth in others?
6. How am I able to help my client tap into his or her 6. In what ways does my client understand working from passion, and how well is he
own passion or purpose? or she able to discover and enable it in others?
7. In what ways do I need to grow or reframe my 7. How is my client able to take the time necessary for testing and learning in both
perspective in order to be most effective for my client? self and others? How is he or she able to recognize reality?
Figure 9.2 Continued

110 | ERIC DE NIJS
ultimate success for the client. Purposeful, productive, and powerful

relationships can form the basis for achieving breakthrough perform-
ance and building the capacity for future growth. G.R.A.C.E. at work
can provide greater opportunities to build relationships and facilitate
performance. Coaches and clients are authentic, achieve a special kind
of chemistry for growth, empower each other, and extend good will.
It is the creation of a safe place for people to perform—within stated
boundaries—without fear of failure. Figure 9.2 is a checklist that cap-
tures the main concepts of the G.R.A.C.E. at Work model.
The concepts behind the word “grace” lend themselves to this
model well. Grace generally brings to mind two ideas. One, simply put,
is unmerited favor. In other words, we are treated much better than we
deserve. The other is a certain poise or elegance in movement. Both of
these ideas contribute to leading and coaching with grace. G.R.A.C.E.-
full coaching assumes goodwill, which will many times translate into
unmerited favor. In a state of G.R.A.C.E., energy is abundant and per-
formance effortless. Obstacles are anticipated, but with the expectation
that they will be overcome. Failure is seen as an opportunity to learn.
This does not imply that this kind of relationship is free of pain or even
easy. It requires effort, commitment, and grace. But the anticipation
and realization of success supersedes pain and difficulty.
Coaching and leading with G.R.A.C.E. encourages people to
learn new things and express themselves authentically in a safe environ-
ment. G.R.A.C.E. encourages commitment, not compliance, because
G.R.A.C.E. assumes that development and high performance occur
most effectively in the context of a purposeful relationship. This rela-
tionship is based on goodwill and a mutual commitment to a shared
purpose that provides affirmation, inspiration, and personal transfor-
mation. Without G.R.A.C.E., what remains is a series of transactional
interactions that neither satisfies nor inspires, and it does not advance
your clients to the success they seek. Are you insuring the success of
your clients by building G.R.A.C.E.-full relationships?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Corporate Leadership Council. 2003. “Engaging Managers as Agents of
Employee Development: A Quantitative Analysis of Manager-Led
Development Strategies,” 20.
CHAPTER 10
USING STORY IN COACHING

MARGARET ECHOLS,
KAREN GRAVENSTINE, AND
SANDY MOBLEY
STORIES OF OUR BECOMING
Since ancient times, we humans have told stories to make meaning and
sense of our lives. The Hindu Mahabharata, Homer’s epics, the Greek
tragedies, the Bible, Shakespeare, Aesop’s Fables, the Grimm Brothers’
Fairy tales, the “sacred bundle stories” of Native American Indians,
and the country and western ballads of Nashville are all powerful and
amazing stories that inspire wonder and awe. In these stories, facts are
mostly irrelevant. What matters is the underlying message they mean
to convey—the values, passions, concerns, hopes, and dreams of the
ones who tell them.
In her book, Corporate Legends & Lore, Peg Neuhauser writes, “the
stories of our own life are a personal treasure. They are your personal
sacred bundle. Those sacred bundle stories represent the best of who
you are, as well as the wisdom that you have accumulated over the
years of your life.”1 Listen to another’s sacred bundle stories and you
listen to his heart. Hear another’s legend and you witness the hero
within. Attend to the ballads one sings about her life and you learn the
recurring refrains by which she defines herself. Stand as witness to his
fables and fairy tales and you enter into the core values, principles, and
morals that guide his life.
112 | M. ECHOLS, K. GRAVENSTINE, AND S. MOBLEY
“We all tell stories about who we are, where we come from, and
where we are going. These personal myths in turn shape who we
become and what we believe.”2 Stories told time and time again give
us a glimpse into the spirit and soul of a tribe, a nation, a people, an
organization, and an individual being. The myths, legends, ballads,
parables, and fables we tell about ourselves reveal our essence. In the
Native American Indian culture, the role of the “story teller” is to share
the most important stories of the tribe so they continue from genera-
tion to generation. We are the keeper of our own stories, telling over
and over again those that define who we are—those that reveal our
spirit—our soul, both as individuals and as communities.
Sometimes we keep telling our stories as though they are irrefuta-
ble facts, unquestionable and unchangeable. We often live our lives as
if the stories we hold about ourselves are real. When that happens we
can get stuck in our past, seeing no possibility for the future. Scientists
studying brain activity found that people remembering a situation have
identical brain activity as those imagining a situation. Their hypothesis
is that people mentally cannot distinguish between a real and imag-
ined situation. If people are remembering, imagining, or anticipating a
negative experience, it shapes how they view the world. And so is their
world shaped when they hold a positive experience.3 This is powerful
for coaching. Coaching provides an editor’s role in our story. It helps
others to “detect the story line in their own lives . . . opening up a hidden
world of self-discovery and meaning.”4 Coaching invites the insertion
of new chapters. It creates the opportunity to write new, unimaginable
endings. It allows the possibility to change the moral of the story and
the outcome of the fairy tale.
“Storytelling is fundamental to the human search for mean-
ing whether we tell tales of the creation of the earth or of our early
choices.”5 These are the stories of our becoming.
STORIES FOR PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

I asked Jean, my client, to tell me the story of her life, the momen-
tous moments, and the people who have influenced/shaped her
into the person she is today. She shared the highlights, both
painful and joyful then said, I had never thought about how my
life sounds when I talk about it as a complete picture. I heard my
perceptions, my beliefs, the undercurrent of pain and dissatisfac-
tion . . . and fear. Is this the story of my life? It’s bleak—all black
and gray. I want a better, happier story—I want bright colors, I
want a hopeful mood, I want courage. How do I get there? How
USING STORY IN COACHING | 113
do I change how I view myself and my world—how do I change

my story? (see figure 10.1)
Who are we? Who do we think we are? How have our life experi-
ences shaped our bodies, our emotions, our beliefs—our way of seeing,
and being in, the world? What is our story, our narratives, regard-
ing the sum total of our experiences? It is how those experiences are
felt, defined, reflected upon, and talked about that become our set of
beliefs. These beliefs can severely cripple our ability to take action, or
strengthen and embolden us to extraordinary feats. Our stories, and
what we focus on, become our reality.
THE COACH’S ROLE

Stories are essential to our capacity to truly understand each other,
our world, and ourselves. Physicians who fail to listen to their patients’
stories may fail to provide the correct treatment, despite knowing all
the relevant medical facts. Narrative medicine programs are emerging—
evidence of the increased focus on training doctors to listen to the sto-
ries and learn to better “read” their patients. Coaches, also, must listen
deeply to their clients’ narratives. We must listen beneath the words,
beneath the facts, to understand the lens through which the client is
viewing the world, and the effects of that view.
In the earlier example, Jean told her story to her coach. With other
clients, the coach may have them write their up until now story to cap-
ture a picture of their life up to the present. During the fi rst month
of coaching, the coach also gave Jean some self-observation exercises
to help gain even further clarity on how she is seeing her world. One
exercise, for example, was the following:
• Notice things you are doing well, your successes.

• Notice the challenges you are facing and what you are doing
about them.
• Write what you are noticing in a journal. Keep a daily record.
During the first few weeks, Jean observed many problems/chal-

lenges and very few successes. It was clear to both coach and client that
Jean’s attention and energy were centered on her missteps and daily
challenges.
The coach gave Jean the assignment of writing her best self (her
most powerful, authentic self) story. She asked Jean to write about how
she wanted to show up as her best self in her work, in her relationships,
SCAN
toward an understanding of who we are
and, ultimately, transformation to the person we can become.
Story > Commitment > Authentic self > New story and action
Figure 10.1 A model for using story in coaching: SCAN
and in her whole life. When they discussed this afterward, Jean was
excited. She saw that she was already exhibiting some elements of her
best self, yet never noticing. She saw that some of the challenges that
loomed as mountains in her mind were not so large at all—she had
been investing them with the power to paralyze her. Over time, she
began to gain insight and see possibilities for herself not seen before.
Through subsequent coaching sessions, Jean’s energy and increasing
belief in herself propelled her forward. She grappled with her “grem-
lins” and continued to shift her mental habit from focusing on prob-
lems to receiving solutions. She set her sights high and took bold action
on goals she had identified. And little by little, day by day, Jean’s life
shifted from shades of gray, black and white to a full spectrum of
vibrant color.
In the previous abbreviated story, we fleshed out Jean’s “story” of
her way of seeing the world up until now. We then explored Jean’s real
commitment to change. What does she want? What will that get her?
How will she know?
Through coaching Jean gained increasing awareness of her authen-
tic and best self. We uncovered layers of beliefs and experiences that
had given rise to her gremlins of doubts, fears, and judgments. She
began to advance to higher levels of learning, self-awareness, and emo-
tional intelligence. Jean identified her new story as her best self and,
through continued practice and feedback, started to live the story she
had created.
STORIES FOR ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

How does an organization build, teach, and reinforce its culture? Most
organizations have mission and values statements—does anyone read
them? If they do read them, do they remember them or behave accord-
ing to the values? What people remember are the organizational sto-
ries, and these stories describe what has meaning to the people.
For example, when two EDS employees were held hostage in a
heavily guarded prison in Iran in 1979 and political negotiations broke
down, EDS chairman, Ross Perot, took matters into his own hands.
He handpicked a team of volunteers from his organization to go in and
rescue the employees.6 What a powerful message that conveyed about

EDS taking care of its people.
Consider the leaders of Enron or WorldCom who put the organi-
zation in jeopardy and risked employees’ retirement plans for their own
gain. They sent a very different message to their workforce.
When people tell newcomers to an organization about the com-
pany, they tell the stories of risks taken, mistakes made, successes, and
what happened to the people who won and lost. This tells the new
employees what behavior is rewarded and punished far better than
value statements or employee manuals.
Just as people can use story telling for transformation, so can
organizations. How many organizations have come back from difficul-
ties because people had confidence in their leadership and the leaders
were able to create a vision that the workforce believed in? Think about
the rebuilding of Chrysler and the new vision or story Lee Iacocca
told the workforce and their debtors to make them believe and help
Chrysler come back. Moreover, Iacocca didn’t tell that story only once.
He made hundreds of presentations reinforcing the pride of the work-
force, the preeminence of Chrysler engineering, and the strong pos-
sibility of a successful outcome.7 Could he have succeeded without a
compelling story? We don’t think so.
An organizational mini-story may be its tag line or vision state-
ment. Some examples are: GE—“We bring good things to life” or
Nike—“Just do it.” These visions tell employees much more about the
company than employee manuals.
“START WITH STORY” COACHING

EXERCISES FOR YOUR CLIENT
HERO’S JOURNEY
• One way to use storytelling for transformation is in helping

people tell their story of what they want to create. Using Joseph
Campbell’s model of the hero’s journey,8 begin by asking people
what they are called to do or what vision they want to bring
about. Then ask them to reflect on both their fears (monsters)
and their resources for support. As they tell the story from
startup to struggles to success they embolden themselves and
engage others in the possibilities.
USE OF METAPHORS
• A metaphor is a mini-story. Symbolic representations bring

power and deeper meaning to transformation. The coach might
ask, “If you were a flower, how would you describe yourself?”
The client might see herself as a shade plant, a toad lily. Yet, she
is a tall, fun-loving person who is working in a serious, harsh
organization characterized by overwork and lack of personal
connection. The coach might tell the client that she sees her as a
sunflower—growing taller and bolder as she got more sunshine.
Holding this image would allow her to look for organizational
possibilities for more fun and connection (sun) and supportive
leadership.
• In a career development workshop, one coach asked people to
give her metaphors for their careers.
• One person said he steps into an elevator and pushes the
button for the penthouse but never gets there because other
people push his buttons and derail his assent.
• Another person said his career was like being a racecar driver.
He goes around and around at high speed, but there is never
a finish line.
• With metaphors, you can help people see possibilities for
change. In the first example, the coach asked, “How can you
enlist others in helping you reach your destination?” In the
second example she asked, “What are your own milestones for
success that will tell you that you have completed the race?”
RECALL AND RESHAPE THE STORY
• We have clients make a list of significant turning points in their

lives, and then list these events as chapters in a book, adding
some narrative description.
• Then they choose one of these turning points and describe
what changed for them after this event (i.e., outlook, emotions,
actions, and values).
• Finally they identify any patterns in these events as they scan
the whole story.
• We may ask a client to tell or write about a peak experience in
his or her life, and to write about a painful experience. In these
narratives people often realize the growth or shifts that came
from these episodes.
• We ask clients to write their obituaries—“How you would like
to be remembered?”
• Another story starter: “You are on the cover of Fortune magazine
in five years—write the story.” Th is exercise and the one preceding
open clients to more possibilities for their lives. Clients begin to
realize they still have things they want to accomplish. And so

they begin to create their new stories.
• This is a good targeted exercise: “Describe a confl ict you had
recently with a colleague. Write the story from your point of
view. Now write the story from your colleague’s point of view.”
A CLOSING EXERCISE FOR COACHES, THEIR CLIENTS,

THEIR FRIENDS, AND THEIR FAMILIES
TELLING YOUR SACRED BUNDLE STORIES
A “sacred bundle” is a symbolic collection of items—mementoes that

capture the essence of who you are—your heart and soul.9 Spend some
time over the next two weeks reflecting on your life—what you value,
key characteristics that describe you, your watershed experiences, the
heroes and mentors who helped to form you, significant events, major
disappointments, failures, or crisis—the most important things that
contribute to your identity.
For each of these things find a small, symbolic, physical object
that will help you remember and tell your story. Put these together in
a “sacred bundle”—a basket, a precious box—someplace where you can
keep them all together. Share your stories with a committed listener—
someone who can help you see not only how these items describe your
past history, but also support you in generating the future you want to
create for yourself.
This same exercise can be done with groups—families, businesses,
places of worship—with each person in the group bringing an item and
telling the story that contributes to the creation of the group’s “sacred
bundle.”
One of us, Karen Gravenstine, tells this story to illustrate, “My
family created a sacred bundle as a gift for my parents for their fi fti-
eth wedding anniversary. Each of us kids, ten in all, brought several
items that reflected for us the essence of our family. We carried them
to my parents’ home as part of the celebration. As we each presented
the object for the sacred bundle—a lovely basket my parents kept in a
special place from that day on—we told the story related to it. Stories
of church; reading; learning; service; vacation; singing; special foods;
siblings who had died; neighbors and relatives. Some things we hadn’t
discussed for years! The grandchildren and the sons and daughters-in-
law were in awe as they heard some family stories for the fi rst time.
They were initiated into, and we were reminded of, the essence of who
we are as a family. My parents were touched by the power of the stories
we told, the best of who we are as a family—the legacy they helped to

create.”
CONCLUSION
We are surrounded by our stories and the stories of others. These sto-
ries, as we have described in this chapter, have power and life. We can
use them to achieve greater connection. We can revise them to achieve
greater success. We invite you to use stories as a tool in your coaching
practice. Recalling, telling, and revising stories can stimulate dramatic
transformations for individuals and organizations. So . . . what’s your
story?
NOTES
1. Peg C. Neuhauser, Corporate Legends & Lore: The Power of Storytelling as a
Management Tool (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 68.
2. Sam Keen and Anne Valley-Fox, Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in
Your Life through Writing and Storytelling (Los Angeles: Tarcher/Putnam,
1989), David L. Miller, back cover comment.
3. B. Gonsalves, P.J. Reber, D.R. Gitelman, T.B. Parrish, M. Mesulam, and
K.A. Paller, “Neural Evidence That Vivid Imagining Can Lead to False
Remembering,” Psychological Science 15 (2004): 655–660.
4. See note 2 above.
5. Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Life (New York: Penguin Books,
1990), 34.
6. Famous Texans, “H. Ross Perot,” http://www.famoustexans.com/rossperot.
htm (accessed November 12, 2007).
7. Ari Weinberg, “The Dollar-A-Year Man,” Forbes, May 8, 2002, http://
www.forbes.com/2002/05/08/0508iacocca.html (accessed November 12,
2007).
8. Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth (New York: Doubleday, 1998), 14.
9. See note 1 above, 41–48.
CHAPTER 11
WHOSE STORY IS THIS,

ANYWAY? IDENTIFICATION
WITH CLIENTS IN
LEADERSHIP COACHING
DAVE SNAPP
My client Robert is a middle manager who is having trouble step-

ping up to the next level of leadership. After six weeks of coach-
ing, it feels like we are closing in on his key issues: his ambition
and his fl ight from ambition, his abundance of choices and his
fear of committing to a single game plan, his sense of an inherent
confl ict between his career and his family life.
Then it hits me—this is just what is showing up in my life. Th is
guy is me!
I’m excited because I know these issues, and I can be of help. But
from somewhere inside comes a warning, “You haven’t been pay-
ing enough attention to these issues for yourself. How can you
expect to coach Robert? And whose story is this, anyway?”
IT IS ALMOST INEVITABLE THAT, as leadership coaches, we will

encounter clients with situations and issues apparently similar to our
own. These similarities may intrigue and stimulate us, or they may feel
disquieting and uncomfortable.
Whether these initial reactions are positive or negative, they
are signals we should pay attention to. Identification with a client’s
120 | DAVE SNAPP
situation or issue may produce empathy and insight that can be helpful
to the client, but it can cause significant problems.
Why can identification become problematic? When a client’s situ-
ation provokes a response in us, it suggests that an active issue of our
own is being stimulated. Using the analogy of electrical current, we
can say that the issue is “charged” or “carries a charge.” We can imag-
ine a whole spectrum of reaction, ranging from “neutral” to “highly
charged.” The stronger the reaction, the greater the charge. And, often,
the greater the charge, the more active, deep, or fundamental the issue
is for us, and the more difficult it may be for us to see clearly and be
helpful to our client. Alternatively, the more likely it is that we are
responding to our own story instead of our client’s.1
This is why the way in which coaches manage issues of identifica-
tion can make the difference between masterful work with our clients
and mediocre—even harmful—work.
This chapter explores the dynamics of identification in leadership
coaching:
• Why does identification occur?

• How can we tell when identification is charged for us?
• How does identification affect our ability to coach leaders
effectively?
• What can we do to coach effectively and ethically in such
situations?
WHY DOES IDENTIFICATION OCCUR?
Judy learns that her client received a critical evaluation at work.

Having had a similar experience, she identifies with the client
situation and assumes she knows “how it is.” In Judy’s own case,
the critical evaluation was devastating. She is anxious to sup-
port her client and probes for evidence of disappointment and
sadness.
It’s a common occurrence. A client describes a situation. The coach

identifies with that situation, in one way or another assuming similar-
ity where it may not exist.
Why does this happen? To some extent, it’s unavoidable. One way
humans try to make sense of the world is to classify incoming data
about people and situations as “like me/mine” or “different than me/
mine.” Finding similarity provides reassurance that we can recognize
WHOSE STORY IS THIS, ANYWAY? | 121
and understand what is happening around us. For a coach, this may
satisfy a need to understand or “know what to do.”
HOW CAN WE TELL WHEN IDENTIFICATION

IS CHARGED FOR US?
When identification occurs, we as coaches will often be aware of it.

What may be harder is to assess whether this identification is charged for
us in some way and may as a result present a challenge to our coaching.
Fortunately, there are often warning signs that some degree of charged
identification may be occurring. Some of these warning signs are
• An emotional response disproportionate to the situation, either

positive or negative
• Pain, trauma, or discomfort in the body
• A strong desire to solve the client’s problem or give advice
• A sense of being stuck, blocked, or at a total loss as to what to do
• A feeling of being in the client’s story
• A persistent feeling that the coaching isn’t working, whether the
client agrees or not 2
These clues may or may not indicate that the coach is “identifying”
with the client’s story. But they are often good signs that the coach is
being “hooked” in some way and needs to take steps to figure out what
is going on.
HOW DOES IDENTIFICATION AFFECT OUR ABILITY

TO COACH LEADERS EFFECTIVELY?
Identifying with a client’s story is not necessarily a problem, and it may
at times prove helpful. Similar experiences can create some familiarity
with the client’s territory and provide a foundation for empathetic and
caring coaching.
So where might such identification present problems? In general,
identification becomes a problem when the focus of the coach’s atten-
tion moves from client to coach. When we over-identify with a client,
we are more likely to assume similarity. Our vision suffers, and we may
actually distort reality.
Jose is currently launching his own independent coaching prac-

tice. The experience is proving exciting, but also very stressful. As
his family’s primary breadwinner, he is particularly anxious about
122 | DAVE SNAPP
money. One of Jose’s first coaching clients has recently retired

from a successful and lucrative business career and is planning to
launch a strategy consulting business.
Jose finds himself unable to stop worrying about the viability
of his client’s new business, though the client repeatedly assures
him that he is at no financial risk. Jose also pushes “solutions”
that have worked for him but don’t work for the client. His cli-
ent’s real desire, to explore the broader meaning and value of his
new career, is not met.
The dangers of identification increase when the “similar” situation

or issue is a charged one for the coach. Jose is caught up with launching
his own practice. He projects his anxiety, particularly about finances,
onto the client situation. As a result, it is hard for him to hear his finan-
cially comfortable client’s quite different needs and wants.
A coach’s work is to help clients resolve patterns of breakdown or
reactivity. The client is stuck, and the coach helps the client dis-
cover how to get unstuck. To be helpful in this situation, it is critical
that the coach is not himself in a state of breakdown or reactivity. A
coach’s perception of similarity in the client situation or story may
cause coaches to assume greater similarity than actually exists. A
special challenge is presented when the perception of similarity trig-
gers—or is triggered by—a coach’s own active or unresolved issues.
When we as coaches are in breakdown ourselves, we may “see” our
clients differently.
A number of things can happen when a client’s similar situation trig-
gers a coach’s active story, as it did in the case of Jose. The coach may
• miss signals;
• become focused on her own story, and lose sight of her client’s
story;
• buy into the client’s story and get stuck with him;
• begin to work “harder” on the problem than the client is;
• push solutions or reject certain solutions;
• be unable to see alternative ways of being or acting; and
• have difficulty challenging the client or discussing a need for
change.
All of these possible responses can hamper the coach’s ability to

help the client.
Coaching leaders in organizations involves additional consider-
ations. We are in effect entering into the organizational “field” with
our clients. Leaders function amid a network of complicated relation-

ships and pressures. They must deal with multiple challenges, involving
vision and values, competition and confl ict, and ultimately success and
failure. As a result, there are countless opportunities for us to be drawn
into those same pressures and to lose our necessary independence and
objectivity. This is especially true when our own issues, reactivity, and
blind spots are apparently similar to those of the leader we are coach-
ing, as in the following case.
Maria made a career switch to coaching after a fairly unpleasant

and unfulfi lling stint as an organizational leader. She disliked
the competition and confl ict she experienced in her work, as well
as the focus on the bottom line. She became a coach to be able
to focus on building positive and supportive relationships with
others.
One of Maria’s clients is a leader who is struggling to manage a
great deal of confl ict in his organization. Maria begins to harbor
negative feelings about the client organization and is fi nding it
hard to help or support her client. She begins to think that her
client would be better off leaving this organization.
In this example, Maria has clear difficulty differentiating her story

from her client’s situation. Her own unresolved discomfort about the
bottom-line focus and confl ict in business organizations is aroused by
her client’s experience of them. As a result, her inability to separate her
own reactions from her client’s adversely affects her ability to be of help
to her client.
Coaches working in organizational contexts need to take particu-
lar care to avoid being unduly influenced by their own experiences and
stories about leaders, leadership, and organizations. It is interesting to
consider that leadership coaches have generally chosen not to take full
time jobs as leaders in organizations. What might this suggest about
our view of what it is like to be a leader in an organization?
We need to understand these fi lters through which we see lead-
ers and organizations. These include not only our general values and
assumptions, but also the experiences and stories that live deep within
us. We might ask ourselves: What do we like most or least about being
a leader? What have been our most or least successful and fulfi lling
experiences? What kind of leader am I? What excites or scares me about
it? What does all of this tell me about my own story about leadership
and how this might affect how I coach? A similar set of questions could
be asked about our experiences in organizations.
124 | DAVE SNAPP
Here are just a few of the stories we may hold about leaders and
organizations:
• Organizations eat people up.

• Entrepreneurial organizations are better than bureaucratic
organizations.
• Organizational leadership is heroic.
• Most leaders are dishonest.
• Successful leaders need sharp elbows.
• The problem with most leaders is: [fi ll in your own story].
How a coach’s own story interacts with a client’s particular lead-

ership context can be further complicated when a coach has multiple
relations in and with the organization. For example, the coach may
a) have a contract with the organization to coach this client,

b) coach others in the organization,
c) consult in the organization,
d) be on staff in the organization,
e) have a history in the organization,
f) have a relationship with key members, and
g) experience any combination of a) through f).
Besides creating boundary issues, the existence of such relation-

ships can multiply the sources of potential triggers for the coach.
WHAT CAN WE DO TO COACH EFFECTIVELY AND

ETHICALLY IN SUCH SITUATIONS?
In one of the vignettes earlier, Judy initially assumes that her client
will react as she herself would have and begins probing “for evidence of
disappointment and sadness.” What Judy eventually learns, however, is
that her client is, in fact, relieved. She had been fearful that her boss’s
assessment would be far worse, and she is also beginning to realize how
little she likes or cares about her current job.
By maintaining curiosity and an awareness that the client is differ-
ent from the coach, good coaches correct for any tendency to assume
similarity. Further exploration often reveals client situations and
responses to be distinguishable from the coach’s experience in impor-
tant ways. By staying open and curious, Judy learned that her client’s
reactions were actually quite different from her own.
In another of the vignettes, Jose was launching a new coaching

business while coaching a client also in the midst of career change and
thinking about next career steps. Here is more of the story, told from
Jose’s perspective:
This client’s situation triggered me in a number of ways. Along

with feeling very immediate financial worries, I was also very
committed to the process of self-authoring the next stage of my
life. I found myself becoming anxious for and about my client.
Since I found structure helpful in my own situation, I advocated
structures for him. I also wanted him to pay close attention to
generating income quickly. As a coach, I became very result-
focused with a client who was much more interested in a philo-
sophical exploration of the possibilities of this next stage of his
life. But it was hard for me to see the distinctions between our
situations.
A number of steps helped me become more grounded. By
spending some time understanding his past, I was able to see
how he was different from me. Using the DISC instrument and
other “neutral” assessment tools also helped me differentiate my
story from his. I consulted with a mentor coach who helped me
tune into the problem more clearly. Finally, concerned that my
coaching was not proving helpful to the client, I initiated a dis-
cussion about my concerns with him. Sorting out what he was
and wasn’t getting out of the engagement gave us an opportunity
to talk through these issues.
Jose got into difficulty because his related story was active and
charged. But he also took a number of steps to self-correct and, in
doing so, he became much more helpful to his client. The steps Jose
undertook included:
1. Staying open to his client’s story (as Judy also eventually did)
2. Using neutral assessment tools (examples of such instruments
include the MBTI®, DISC®, BarOn EQ-I®, and FIRO-B®)
3. Consulting another coach (conversations with other coaches can
help you see what you are not seeing in your coaching)
4. Sharing concerns with the client
It is often helpful to share with the client what is happening
for you as it occurs. The conversation might go something like this:
“I am noticing similarities between your situation and one that I
126 | DAVE SNAPP
faced recently, and I am concerned that my own reactions might

get in my way. I would like to hear more about how you are react-
ing so that I can understand ways that the situations are similar
and distinct.” This kind of statement invites a very real communi-
cation with the client and helps the coach to keep his or her own
experience separate.
Additional steps that are useful are
5. Paying attention to the warning signs (cited earlier, p. 122)
6. Using discretion in sharing stories
Once aware of possible similarities between the client’s story and

our own, we should take extra care to keep the two experiences dis-
tinct. If we decide it will be helpful to share our stories, we should
frame this sharing very carefully (i.e., “I am going to share an experi-
ence that I had related to this. I am not suggesting that my experience
or approach applies to your situation directly. But I offer it in case you
find something useful in it”). These kinds of steps help to keep the
focus on the client’s experience where it belongs.
Effective uses of these action steps depend, fi rst of all, on being
aware of the personal issues that may surface in our interactions with
leaders. Only through ongoing personal development work are we
likely to be able to know which issues belong to us and which belong to
our client. In particular, it may be useful to explore our experiences and
stories about leadership and organizations. Once we have identified
and dealt with those issues, we are less likely to experience the “charge”
when one of our issues shows up with a client, and we will be more able
to use our own experience without projecting it onto the client. As part
of this ongoing inner work, coaches should engage in regular practices
of reflection and centering (i.e., journaling, meditation, and bodywork)
that support their self-awareness and their presence for coaching.
Self-awareness can also help us know when we are just not the
right coach for a client. Most coaches have decided at some point that
a particular client is not a good match. Th is is a hard call, but learning
to differentiate a similarity that the coach can manage from one that
may interfere is a critical skill to learn.
In the end, our ability to manage identification issues is an ethical
concern. The Code of Ethics of the International Coach Federation
states:
I will at all times strive to recognize personal issues that may

impair, confl ict or interfere with my coaching performance or my
professional relationships. Whenever the facts and circumstances
necessitate, I will promptly seek professional assistance and deter-

mine the action to be taken, including whether it is appropriate
to suspend or terminate my coaching relationship(s). 3
CONCLUSION
A final way in which identification operates in leadership coaching

occurs at a deeper, more fundamental level than we have discussed
thus far. Our contemporary understanding of leadership effectiveness
increasingly extends beyond the idea of what leaders do to who they are
as people. “Leadership from within” suggests the notion that leader-
ship has everything to do with the personal attitudes, beliefs, strengths,
and character of the leader. It is these qualities that allow a leader to
navigate the challenges of modern organizations in a rapidly changing
environment. In addition, it is particularly to this dimension of leader-
ship that coaches must ultimately attend. Coaches who are attending
to their own personal attitudes, beliefs, strengths, and character can be
more adept at guiding their clients through that exploration.
Parker J. Palmer writes with particular insight about those funda-
mental inner qualities that most contribute to a leader’s effectiveness.
We share responsibility for creating the external world by pro-

jecting either a spirit of light or a spirit of shadow on that which is
other than us. Either a spirit of hope or a spirit of despair. Either
an inner confidence in wholeness and integration, or an inner ter-
ror about life being diseased and ultimately terminal. We have a
choice about what we are going to project, and in that choice we
help create the world that is . . . What does all of this have to do
with leadership? . . . I’ll give you a quick definition of a leader: a
leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to project
on other people his or her shadow, or his or her light.4
In the “shadow side” of leadership, as Palmer describes it, are a

number of common stories that undermine a leader’s ability to project
light. Those include deep insecurity about one’s own worth, the belief
that the universe is essentially hostile and life a battleground, the belief
that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with oneself, fear of
the natural chaos of life, and the denial of death and the related fear
of failure.
It is ultimately the power of these “shadows” or deep stories that
determines the effectiveness of leaders. For coaches to help clients
identify and work with these core stories and beliefs, coaches must also
128 | DAVE SNAPP
understand how these stories are present in their own lives. Work at
this fundamental level is most critical when the leader’s shadow story
is also alive for the coach.
Coach and leader are in a sense on a similar journey. Both are chal-
lenged to identify their core stories, to understand how they may affect
their work, and, in some cases, to choose new and different stories to
live by. For coaches, this ability to recognize and manage these deep
stories determines whether we shed light or darkness in our coaching.
NOTES
1. Psychological theorists have explored this terrain in considerable depth.
Since Freud, for example, the concept of projection—the psychic mecha-
nism by which one attributes to others one’s own unacceptable thoughts
and/or emotions—has become central in psychological theorizing. Read-
ers interested in exploring the evolution of this concept should consult
Freud, Anna, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (London: Hogarth
Press and Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1937), as well as a good textbook
on psychoanalytic theory, for example, Laplanche, J. and J.B. Pontalis,
translated by D.N. Smith, The Language of Psychoanalysis (London: Karnac
Books, 1966).
2. Adapted from Cashman, Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader
for Life, 39–42.
3. International Coach Federation, ICF Code of Ethics, Part Three, Number 5
(approved 1/22/2005).
4. Parker J. Palmer, Leading from Within: Reflections on Spirituality and Lead-
ership (Washington, DC: Servant Leadership School, 1990), 7.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cashman, Kevin. Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life.
Minneapolis, MN: TCLG, 1998.
Coleman, David. “A Coach’s Lessons Learned: Principles and Guidelines
for Practitioners,” in Executive Coaching: Practices and Perspective, edited
by Catherine Fitzgerald and Jennifer Garvey Burger. Palo Alto, CA:
Davies-Black, 2002.
Flaherty, James. Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others. Boston: Butterworth-
Heinemann, 1999.
Granberg-Michaelson, Wesley. Leadership from Inside Out: Spirituality and
Organizational Change. New York: Crossroad, 2004.
O’Neill, Mary Beth. Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
Palmer, Parker J. Leading from Within: Reflections on Spirituality and Leader-
ship. Washington, DC: Servant Leadership School, 1990.
CHAPTER 12
CONGRATULATIONS—YOU’RE
IN BREAKDOWN!
JENNIFER SINEK
NATALIE1 LOOKS AT ME HESITANTLY, her normal certainty absent.

The strong, confident, self-assured professional seems shaken. As she’s
talking she looks at the floor, then glances up to see what I think,
her shoulders tilted to the side as opposed to her normal strong pres-
ence with sustained, direct eye contact and squared-up, face-to-face
posture.
Simple and elegant, polished in her appearance but not uptight,
she is a white woman in her forties with short, stylish brown hair,
wearing a navy pantsuit with a cream-colored blouse. A principal at a
large consulting fi rm, she’s accustomed to knowing what to do in any
situation and just getting it done. Her current level of doubt is unprec-
edented in our work together.
Her voice is halting. “I just don’t think I can do it.”
“I know it doesn’t feel like it, but that’s really good news.” I give
her some space so my words can sink in. Her body tightens, and she
looks at me with surprise. “It seems as if you’ve been at the edge of this
struggle for a really long time.” With that, her back relaxes, her chest
and face soften, and she lets out a deep sigh.
“You’re right,” she responds, “but I don’t see how that’s good
news.”
I ask her, if it were good news, how would she be sitting in the
chair? Natalie looks at me quizzically, but shifts forward in her chair.
She sits taller, her chest and arms more open, and looks up. Her eyes
130 | JENNIFER SINEK
still look doubtful, but there is a hint of a spark in them. If it were

good news, what would it open up for her? The spark grows. As we
continue, her mood begins to lighten, her energy expands, and we are
on our way.
Every effective coaching interaction either has an apparent point
of entry, a doorway to spur the client to take action, or one must be
created. This is the concept of breakdown—and breakdown is essential
to breaking through. Although the word sounds destructive, at its core,
breakdown is generative. Breakdown provides the client with both the
possibility of a new way of seeing things and a desire for this by “break-
ing down” the barriers to seeing our lives from a new perspective, mak-
ing us question our spoken or unspoken assumptions about what’s pos-
sible or impossible, about what’s “true” for us and for others, and about
how the world works.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY BREAKDOWN?
Breakdown is what happens when the outcomes we experience don’t match

our expectations. We’re not talking about a “nervous breakdown” or
clinical levels of anxiety or depression—merely what most of us expe-
rience to varying degrees at different times as we move through life.
Clients may feel as if they’re breaking into pieces, and we have a chance
to help them see that they are actually breaking through a barrier into
greater capacity.
This experience is about seeing things that weren’t visible to us
before—sometimes an entirely different world. Think of the chick that
begins to crack the shell, to break through, and emerge into the world.
The shell was protective, but then becomes a barrier—the breakdown
is needed for the chick to continue to grow.
However, we don’t always notice the breakdown, much less its
upside, right away.
For humans, just as in the rest of the universe, inertia is a natural
law. We tend to keep doing what we’re doing. In addition, if we’re
not getting or creating what we want, we often do more of what we
have been doing, only faster or more intensely. We overlook the adage
that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and
expecting different results. One must overcome this inertia to effect
change.
Consider the “boiled frog syndrome.” According to research done
in the late 1800s, frogs’ nervous systems are unable to distinguish incre-
mental changes in temperature or pressure.2 Therefore, if you were to
put a frog in a pan of water and raise the temperature very gradually,
CONGRATULATIONS—YOU’RE IN BREAKDOWN! | 131
eventually the frog would boil to death without noticing that the water
was getting hotter. However, if you put a frog in a pot of water that is
already hot or increase the heat quickly, it will jump right out.
We humans tend to behave like the frog in a number of domains.
Many of us don’t pay close attention to slight changes in our emotional
state, health, or performance in our jobs. Raising (or cooling) the water
temperature gradually is like the slow version of breakdowns in our lives.
It’s the job that isn’t great, but isn’t awful. It’s the team that’s showing
signs of increasing difficulty, but it hasn’t really impacted the work— a
lot—yet. It’s the subtle signs that the organization isn’t overjoyed with
our work or our management style or our choices. Sometimes it’s the
coach’s job to step in and point out the breakdown, either by naming
the story we see being played out or by providing the opportunity for
the client to see the “hot water” in a different light.
Often we live with a low level of pain in one or more areas of our
lives, to the point that the pain becomes invisible to us. It is so familiar
that we no longer see it. On the surface, we may realize that things
aren’t quite what we want them to be or that we’re not as happy as we
expected to be, but we tell ourselves that that’s just the way life is—our
expectations were too high, and we just have to live with it.
Alternatively, we may think we can’t change what we perceive to
be “wrong.” We fear that it will take too much energy or risk, or change
who we fundamentally are. And all the while, the pain is sapping our
energy, keeping us from the future we desire and deserve.
Natalie shifted from shock at my congratulating her for being in
breakdown to joy in just a couple of conversations. She realized that
she had to make a major shift; she could no longer just get by, trying to
manage the pieces or change them incrementally. Once she achieved
this clarity, the energy that was being sapped by her situation (and her
angst about it) began to be freed up. She was able to envision a future
she truly desired and focus on it, and this continued to fuel her energy
and joy.
ENERGY FOR CHANGE
Energy for change comes from what pulls us forward—the vision—

and what drives us from behind—the desire to get rid of what we don’t
want. And when we’re creating the future, it is valuable to know what
we don’t want to include in it as well as to know what we do want.
The push (discomfort, dissonance, and pain) multiplied by the
pull (the vision) yields the energy available for change to occur (fi g-
ure 12.1).
Discomfort ⫻ Vision ⫽ Energy for Change
Figure 12.1 A formula for change
Our rising awareness of discomfort or dissonance helps us stop and

reflect on what we really want. Clear vision of the present allows us
then to have a point of comparison for our future vision and shows us
where we need to take action to create the situation we desire.
Several years ago, I was involved in a project that turned into a
much larger commitment than I had anticipated. It was also different
work than I had hoped, much of which I didn’t enjoy or experience
as bringing my value to the world. The longer-than-expected hours
on top of an already busy schedule came out of my nights (sleep),
weekends (recreation), and most importantly, my time with my hus-
band and young children. However, I had committed to the project,
and my story was that I had to continue, even though it was sapping
my energy. I told myself repeatedly that things would change once
we had gotten past the start-up phase, an ever-receding milestone. I
was so busy trying to get everything done so that I could spend some
time with my family, and perhaps get a bit of sleep, that I didn’t look
at what was happening, how out of line with my values my life was
becoming.
Fortunately, something happened to trigger an additional level of
pain. I received a call inviting me to be part of a significant project, one
that truly spoke to who I am, to my values, and to my continuing devel-
opment. The pain came from my initial reaction, which was that I had
to turn it down—there was no way I could add one more thing, even
something I dearly desired, to my already crazily overbooked life.
I experienced even greater pain as a colleague coached me, help-
ing me to explore and paint the picture of this future I desired in even
more vivid color. What a fit with my values, my vision! How nourish-
ing being part of this would be, in addition to helping others on their
path! As I thought about it more and more, the vividness of that image
and the contrasting pain of turning it down brought my life into sharp
relief. I started thinking more about the impact on my family, about
the percentage of my toddler’s life that had already been affected by
my being consumed with this earlier project—and I knew I had to
make a change. It was no longer a question of fi nding a way to add
this new project to my life—it became a question of how to remove the
other project to create open space for what I did want. Once I made
that shift in focus, two things began to happen immediately. First,
the pain became more real and much less tolerable. How had I been
downplaying or ignoring it all this time? Second, my energy became

focused both on creating the change—removing myself from this con-
tract—and also beyond that on exploring changes that would help me
continue to move closer to living my life according to my values and
dreams. This energy was positive—and generative. The process took
energy, but like a good workout, it left me stronger, energized, and
ready to take action.
Had I not experienced that trigger, the sharp rise in the level of
discomfort I was experiencing, who knows how much longer I would
have continued on the same, negative path. As it was, the increase in
the level of discomfort, combined with the increasingly clear vision and
draw of the future I desired, supplied the energy I needed to make the
change.
TYPES OF BREAKDOWN
Breakdowns come in all shapes and sizes (table 12.1). Some are exter-
nally induced or triggered (i.e., situational or crisis-related breakdowns).
This could be the loss of a job, being passed over for a promotion, a
team the client just can’t get to work together, or a bad performance
evaluation. It could be the death or illness of a loved one that causes
a client to question how he or she is spending his or her own life. On
the positive side, an unexpected promotion or new job opportunity can
also trigger breakdowns, raising fears of failure or success.
Some breakdowns are triggered internally. These can fall into a
few categories. On the negative side, we might notice the following:
• The client is experiencing pain or dissatisfaction, but doesn’t see

a clear way out. Sometimes clients just aren’t happy—they’re
tired, frustrated, or something just “isn’t right,” and they’re no
longer effective. Sometimes a seemingly positive transition didn’t
create the change in their life they believed it would.
• The client is feeling numb, empty—not connected to anything
they care about.
On the positive side, we might notice the following:
• The client is fairly content with the present, but knows there’s
more, a next step. In this case the breakdown is about what’s
next. The itch for growth, for continued transformation, has
reached awareness and is calling to be scratched.
Table 12.1 Types of breakdowns
External catalyst Internal catalyst

Positive Unexpected promotion, new Looking for the next step in
job/opportunity o anticipation development or transformation
or fear of failure or success
Negative Crisis-related, for example, Experiencing pain or
job loss, bad performance dissatisfaction but doesn’t see
evaluation, illness, death of a way out or feeling numb,
someone close disconnected
OK, SO NOW WE KNOW THERE’S A BREAKDOWN.

WHAT IS THE COACH’S ROLE?
The coach helps clients see or experience more fully the breakdown
they’re either in or headed for. How? By holding up the mirror that
reflects the breakdown as a breakdown. This may temporarily increase
the client’s perceived level of pain, though the intent is merely to see the
situation more accurately and free up energy to create the future the
client desires.
With any type of breakdown, it’s critical that the internal link is
driving the change. If the catalyst is external, then it’s important that
we help clients translate the breakdown and the subsequent change into
something that matters to them, that enlivens them, that has connec-
tion to something they truly value and believe in. That’s what allows
them to move beyond the pain of the breakdown into generating the
vision of the future that will focus their energy and pull them forward.
Therefore, as coaches we do the following:
• Invite our clients to see the breakdown more fully and experience its
impacts on different areas of their life. We might ask them to
self-observe for a week or two: “To what extent are you creating
the results you want, and what’s the story you’re telling yourself
about that?” Or we may invite more internal reflection: “Where is
the friction, where are the nagging, annoying, or empty places?”
To go back to the chick analogy, where is their shell becoming
too small? We focus on helping them to see their thoughts more
clearly as well as the emotions they’re experiencing, the physical
sensations, and the actions they take. What is the physical
“shape” of their breakdown?3
• Help our clients find spots of joy. Often the comparison or contrast
to the rest of the client’s life brings the pain in those areas into
sharp relief—and creates both an opening and energy for change.

This provides an oasis, a place to rest and recharge during the
process of change. When clients think of their joy, how do their
emotions shift? What do they notice in their body—sensations,
form, aliveness? We help them to own these and build on
them.
• Help them to author an alternative vision— an external story of a
truly compelling future, one that speaks to who they are and what
they value. We have them envision this fully—intellectually, and
in terms of their mood, emotions, and bearing. How does their
body feel as they put themselves in that new future? Shifting
attention to their embodied vision helps them to discern where
there are opportunities for change and growth and to notice
quickly when they get off track.
• Help our clients generate and live into an alternative story —an
internal vision—one that serves this external vision for the future
that they have created. What stories about themselves or the
world do they need to write or rewrite to be successful? We help
clients ground the new story in skills, but also in mood, presence,
and structures of support. Th is stage of the coaching process can
involve developing new moves and physical presence so clients
can step into the new vision powerfully and effectively.
• Help clients keep an eye on the speed limit. Sometimes when we’re
working through breakdown, the energy for change increases
so rapidly that a client can get carried away. At these times, we
offer the suggestion to brake gently, so the clients see the road
ahead and manage their speed to navigate the curves safely for
themselves and others around them.
• We must also develop the capacity in ourselves to hold a safe space for
clients in breakdown. If we are tense or get triggered, we make the
breakdown experience less safe for the client, and they can end
up shaming themselves. Our goal is to normalize what they’re
experiencing, help them feel it and honor it. Thus, we allow them
the space, light, and air for their lives to transform.
WHAT IF WE CAN SEE THE BREAKDOWN,

BUT THE CLIENT CAN’T?
We often gather information from our clients’ colleagues in addition to
what we hear directly from our clients, and this provides the opportunity
to use the colleagues’ experiences of our clients as a mirror. From here,
we can invite clients to consider a different perspective on the situation.
Often, clients have inklings about the issue that become much clearer
with additional perspectives and self-observation exercises. We must
also realize that clients may not be ready to address the issue at that
point in time—or that we may be off-base in our interpretations!
CONCLUSION
Coaches often fall into the trap of helping their clients feel better and
decreasing their level of pain. We care about our clients, and we don’t
like to see people suffer. Although this is a positive long-term goal,
sometimes it actually does clients a disservice. Easing discomfort can
leave them stuck in their current situation, robbing them of the energy
they need to make the move or to take the risk that will help them cre-
ate the life they truly want.
Sometimes we need to turn up their sensation of the heat by ask-
ing questions that focus their attention on the thermometer, providing
invitation and support for clients to experience their breakdown in a
transformative way. Clients don’t want to wake up five, ten, or twenty
years from now and say, “What happened? How did I get here?” We
help them wake up now, if they’re ready, to the gradually changing
temperatures in different areas of their lives and see new possibilities
for what they want to create.
We point out the breaking down of the coherence in their lives—
mind, body, emotions, and spirit—and help them see and take action
on new choices to make their lives whole. Therefore, as coaches, we
must become adept at both identifying and welcoming breakdown.
Our focus must be on how to create the space and the opportunities
for our clients to step into their breakdowns, experience them fully,
and use them as openings—as invitations to grow into and create the
future they desire.
NOTES
1. Name and some details have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
2. Edward Wheeler Scripture, The New Psychology (New York: Charles Scrib-
ner, 1897), 300.
3. The work of Richard Strozzi-Heckler is seminal in working through the
somatic shape of the client to effect and support change. See The Leader-
ship Dojo (Frog Books, 2007) and The Anatomy of Change (North Atlantic
Books, 1997).
CHAPTER 13
THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS

IN COACHING
KAREN CURNOW AND
RANDY CHITTUM
INTRODUCTION
In ontological coaching, leadership coaches seek to generate long-

term transformational learning for their clients by engaging with their
clients in the domains of language, body, and emotion. This chapter
focuses explicitly on the domain of emotion and the role of emotions in
coaching. We propose that without relevant emotional learning, last-
ing change does not take place for our clients.
Sometimes, leadership coaches bring emotions into their coach-
ing work superficially, using what some call a “cheerleader” approach
with emotions. In these situations, the coach seemingly helps the cli-
ent transform “bad” emotions into “good” ones, supposedly helping to
create a happy ending. While clients occasionally need encouragement,
the outcomes of cheerleading are short-lived because no habits of mind
and heart have been addressed. The real learning for clients almost
always lives in the very emotions the cheerleading coach is trying to
talk them out of. Deeper learning is possible if the coach and client
mine the emotions for what they reveal.
At other times, leadership coaches avoid working with emotions
in their coaching altogether because either they don’t know what to
do with emotions or they mistakenly believe that addressing emo-
tions oversteps the boundaries between coaching and counseling. It’s
138 | KAREN CURNOW AND RANDY CHITTUM
not a surprise that working with emotions is difficult for coaches. The
cultures of many organizations do not value expressions of emotion.
Emotions can be misunderstood and people labeled negatively for
expressing them. Tough-mindedness, which often seems to be pre-
ferred as a leadership quality, may be misconstrued as being devoid of
or unaffected by emotions.
The fact is emotions are always present. Even when someone is
feeling numb, that numbness is an emotion. The beauty is that emo-
tions reveal much about what matters. It is the job of a coach to pay
attention to emotions and to invite our clients to acknowledge, lis-
ten to, and learn from their emotions. While we aren’t in the business
of healing deep emotional wounds from the past (this is the work of
counseling or therapy), we can open new learning for our clients by
listening to and working with emotions. The question for leadership
coaches then becomes: what’s a coach to do with emotions?
WHAT DO EMOTIONS REVEAL?

Packaged with every emotion are beliefs and behavioral tendencies.
Philosophers have suggested that all emotion is propositional, that
emotions are connected to a proposition, a belief, an assessment.
One way coaches can work with emotions is to invite clients to
identify the assessments or beliefs that exist behind their emotions
and the actions they are most likely to take in the presence of those
emotions.
For example, when someone at work raises his or her voice, some
people might feel defensive, because their emotional experience of
defensiveness is rooted in the belief or assessment that they deserve
to be treated differently and that they can and will protect themselves.
Other people may respond to the same situation with overwhelming
fear because they believe that they may not be strong enough to handle
the situation. Each of these two assessments—the first being a belief
about one’s worthiness (and the right way to be treated) and the second
being a belief about one’s weakness—generates a different emotion,
which in turn influences what actions one would most likely take in
the situation.
These assessments matter because they can predict what people
are likely to do and not do. Emotions and the beliefs or assessments
connected to them predispose a person to act within a certain range of
behaviors. In fact, the word emotion derives from the Latin ēmovēre,
that which moves a person, that which puts someone in motion, into
action. In the previous example, people feeling defensive will likely
THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS IN COACHING | 139
explain or protect themselves, whereas those in fear will likely want to

run away or hide.
Helping our clients see this direct connection between their emo-
tions, beliefs, and behaviors can produce new awareness, helping them
see themselves more deeply and clearly. Th is deepened awareness
empowers clients and enables them to make intentional choices about
the actions they take.
There are three possible entry points then for the coach working
with a client in the domain of emotions: the client’s direct emotional
experience, the assessments the client holds, and the actions the client
wishes to take in the situation.
For clients who are able to articulate what emotions they are expe-
riencing, coaches can help them listen to their emotions by walking
them directly through the three portals, asking questions such as:
• What emotion or emotions are you experiencing?

• What beliefs or assessments are linked to that emotion for you?
• What do the emotions and assessments predispose you to want
to do?
These simple, direct questions can work very well with clients who can
specifically identify their emotions. Clients may not be that emotion-
ally fluent, however, and may need to explore their emotions in a less
direct way.
Sometimes, clients cannot pinpoint the emotion or emotions they
are experiencing, and coaches can support them by “backing in” to
reveal the emotion, starting with the assessments clients have about a
situation or by asking them to identify the actions they want to take.
Asking clients who are unaware of their emotions a question like
“What emotion are you experiencing?” (as suggested above) can leave
them stumped, resulting in the probable response, “I don’t know” or
the common one, “I’m feeling fine.” By identifying the assessments a
person is holding about a situation, the coach can help the client iden-
tify the underlying emotion that is driving the client’s reactions and
behaviors.
For example, one client was surprised to learn that she had lin-
gering resentment in a work situation—something she discovered
only after her coach helped her identify the story she told herself
(her assessments) and the actions she wanted to take in response
to the situation. Learning that resentment was present allowed the
coach and client to look at and test the client’s assessments about
the situation (as unfair), about her boss (whom she assessed as the
“tyrant”), about herself (the “victim”), and about how they both
“should” operate.
The client and coach also looked at the actions the client wanted
to take (largely about punishing her boss in subtle ways). While she
didn’t actually do these things, admitting what she wanted to do was
eye-opening for the client and helped her clearly see the resentment
and anger that had been brewing for some time.
As a result of this discovery and exploration of resentment (by
acknowledging her underlying assessments and predispositions for
action), the client was able to identify a way forward that took into
account what she cared most about (which included saying what she
needed and making requests, among other things). Her new ability to
work with her emotions instead of simply reacting without thought freed
the client from the grips of the formerly unacknowledged resentment.
Coaching is largely about helping clients see new possibilities.
Coaches who are less comfortable including emotions in their coach-
ing may be tempted to focus quickly or exclusively on the actions a cli-
ent should take. Their coaching sessions may involve having the client
articulate a concern and then having the two of them simply brain-
storm solutions and action steps.
Working with clients’ emotions, as opposed to only behaviors,
is more powerful in terms of creating lasting change. For example,
a client was given feedback that he needed to be more approachable.
Discussing how this client would act if he were more approachable
(behaviors such as smiling more and showing interest in others) is
likely to leave the client feeling incongruous and to lead to behavioral
changes that are not sustainable. However, when we look deeper into
the emotions that are present when the client appears unapproach-
able and uncover the beliefs or thoughts connected to those emotions,
we may interrupt the process at a deeper level and generate long-term
impact. In this real example, in his moments of appearing unapproach-
able, this client experienced irritation that was built on a belief that
others were not as smart as he. While it took time and practice to chal-
lenge that belief and replace it with a more generative and accurate one,
when the change came, it was a sea change.
A fundamental question the leadership coach can offer to leader-
clients is: Do you have your emotions or do your emotions have you?
This question asks leaders to consider to what extent they are aware of
their emotional experience. Coaching questions that focus on emotions,
beliefs, and behavioral leanings provide a pause in the knee-jerk reac-
tion that emotions often produce. This pause enables our clients to con-
sider their choices and then lead intentionally; in this way, they create
a better chance for achieving the outcome they want. Understanding

emotions, the beliefs underlying them, and the actions that are likely
to result creates leverage for sustainable change.
BEING EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT
When our clients get in the habit of looking at the stories behind their
emotions and their habitual reactions to events in their lives, they are
developing greater capacity for showing their emotional intelligence as
leaders. The most powerful leaders understand the power and impact of
emotions, including and especially their own. Emotional intelligence
experts tell us that decision-making and other key leadership compe-
tencies are only possible with the guidance provided by emotions.
You may find yourself working in an organization whose leadership
is attempting to practice emotional intelligence. The essence of emo-
tional intelligence is awareness of your own emotions, of the emotions
of others, and of the impact of these emotions. Emotionally intelligent
leaders know how to put this awareness into action. In an activity we
use in teaching leadership workshops, we ask the leaders in the room to
identify what makes the most respected leaders in their lives successful.
What we consistently find is that based on their own experience, they
report that the best leaders are caring, tuned in to the other person
and not just the task, able to appreciate and acknowledge others, and
inspiring to others to realize their potential. What seems to matter to
followers and colleagues is a leader’s ability to be emotionally intelli-
gent. While having academic intelligence or technical expertise is also
important for leaders, research shows that emotional intelligence is the
lever that makes for great leadership.
Many leaders are limited when it comes to accurately sensing and
then naming their emotions. They can often get stuck at “good” or
“frustrated.” Part of our work in helping our clients develop emotional
intelligence is to create greater differentiation in our language about
emotions. What distinguishes joy from happiness? Anger from rage?
Love from admiration? Some leaders claim that they do not have an
experience of emotion in normal settings, but being numb to or una-
ware of emotions is not the same as not having them. There is no emo-
tional neutrality since we are always experiencing some emotion, to a
greater or lesser degree.
Asking leaders to keep a log or journal of emotions they notice
during the day is one way to build their emotional self-awareness. (You
can give them a list of emotions as a starter for building their aware-
ness of emotions.) Regularly asking questions such as, “What emotion
were you experiencing when that occurred?” and “How do you think
that emotion made possible certain behaviors and limited you regard-
ing others?” can help our client leaders notice patterns that can lead to
especially powerful conversations.
Another practice that can help raise our clients’ awareness of emo-
tions is to have them tune into their physical experiences at different
moments since these body sensations actually reflect emotional states.
Most leaders have awareness of when they are hijacked emotionally—
and can report their physical reactions in the moment of the hijack
(sweating, heart racing, flushed face, etc.). They are often less attuned
to their physical responses at other moments. Having them take note
of their physical reactions at different moments can support them in
developing more fluency in naming their emotions.
Somatic or body-based coaching practices can also support clients
in expanding their capacity to be with and to access various emotions.
For example, one client with difficulty standing up to an abusive boss
developed a daily physical practice in which she shaped herself into
the “body of indignation” (which she created during a coaching ses-
sion, with feet planted solidly, shoulders squared, and an unwavering
and serious stare). This regular practice “reminded” her of what that
emotion “felt like” physically so that when called for, she could access
both the physical posture and the emotion. After doing this practice
for some time, this client discovered another emotion that must be in
place before indignation can show up: a sense of her own dignity. Using
body awareness as a vehicle to understand one’s emotions is exception-
ally powerful. More on the use of the body in coaching is covered in
chapter 14.
Having an awareness of the emotions of others can be daunting
for leaders. While coaches might have a natural affinity for attend-
ing to emotions, many leaders do not. Without the capacity to notice
and identify the emotions of others and to exercise empathy and care,
leaders can be blindsided in their efforts to lead. The good news is that
leaders who have developed their own emotional self-awareness often
become more attuned to the emotions of others as well.
For leaders who are challenged in this area, a helpful coaching
practice is to have them simply get in the regular habit of making their
best assessment regarding another’s emotional state, often by observ-
ing the other person’s nonverbal messages more carefully. In places and
relationships where it feels safe to do so, clients can then also check out
their “guess” as a way to calibrate their perception over time.
Finally, leading in an emotionally conscious way is the result of the
interplay of emotional awareness of oneself and others. For example,
a client got easily flustered and off track whenever she had to speak
truthfully to people in power. After focusing on her emotions in these
moments, she noted that she felt anxious and assessed these conversa-
tions as hopeless—that she had “learned” from past experiences that
nothing good would come from the risk she was taking. It is not hard
to see how an assessment of being hopeless would lead her to feeling
flustered. After a coaching conversation, she challenged her “hopeless”
story and chose to focus her attention and actions more on the future
(hopeful) and less on the past (resigned). While the coach and cli-
ent could have articulated those useful behaviors, the emotional work
of challenging her own assessments and taking actions from the new,
more optimistic story created a more sustainable change for her.
THE EMOTIONAL CONTEXT FOR

COACHING, LEARNING, AND LEADING
Context is essential in emotional learning. We can be fooled into
thinking that coaching is simply something we “do” to our clients,
just as the leaders we coach might think that leading is something
they “do” to their direct reports. In fact, an essential part of coaching
and leading is to cocreate with others the emotional context needed
for new direction and learning. Effective leaders are masterful in cre-
ating contexts adequate to the tasks they have at hand. Change the
emotional context, and you will change the learning and actions that
are possible.
In a context of deep trust, for example, people will speak about
things they wouldn’t otherwise bring up. If the environment is full
of anger, there will be limitations on what change is possible for the
group. Effective coaches and leaders recognize that much of their
work is helping to create an emotional context that will support the
future they have declared they want for themselves and others. In a
recent interview, Julio Olalla, founder of the Newfield Network, said,
“Emotional learning does not happen by command, but rather by
immersion. Context is essential in emotional learning. For example,
if you coach from a place of tenderness, or logic, or enthusiasm, or
resignation, it will show up in your coachee” (from Karen Curnow’s
interview with Julio Olalla on August 10, 2012.) Wise coaches note
their own emotional landscape while they are coaching, since their
embodied emotion, whatever it is, is contagious. The art of emotional
learning is connected to the art of creating emotional context.
How are these emotional contexts created? Creating a new emo-
tional context will always require stating or recognizing what is not
working, understanding the assessments and emotions that are lead-

ing to this undesired outcome, and creating a new story that will help
generate a different outcome.
SUMMARY
In our experience, the work of emotional intelligence and using emo-

tions in coaching is critical in creating long-term learning that mat-
ters for our clients. This learning ultimately affects those who work
with and for them. While we recognize the power of working with
emotions, we also know that it can feel risky to those who have not
engaged in such conversations before. We cannot emphasize enough
that coaches must do their own emotional work in order to truly help
their clients with understanding the emotions that are keeping them
stuck. Using emotion-based approaches can help coaches support their
clients in developing a deeper understanding of themselves and oth-
ers and in creating emotional contexts adequate to the organizational
changes they choose to lead. The result is a substantial and sustainable
return on investment—for the coach and the leader.
CHAPTER 14
USING SOMATICS TO
COACH LEADERS
MARGARET ECHOLS AND
SANDY MOBLEY
OUR LEADERSHIP COACHING APPROACH INCLUDES basic dis-

tinctions related to language, emotions, and body; we increase our
power as observers by obtaining more distinctions in language, deeper
and wider access to our range of emotions (and moods), and greater
awareness of our body. As our own leadership coaching experience has
grown, we have developed an increasing recognition and appreciation
of the rich possibilities in exploring more deeply the critical role the
body plays in the clients’ learning and in helping our clients transform.
It is routine for coaches to ask their clients, “What are you feeling?” but
rarely is the emotion or mood linked to the client’s body sensations or
body posture.
In working with somatics—that is, the domain of the body—
coaches learn to make deep connections between language, body, and
emotions, and they learn to become more powerful observers of oth-
ers and ourselves. We discern what the body can tell us about who we
are and how we are living. Before they can assist clients somatically,
coaches need to experience for themselves how they are in their own
bodies, where they are open and where they are contracted, and where
there is possibility and where there is limitation.
To work with leaders through the body, coaches learn to observe,
in themselves and then in others, when language, emotions, and body
146 | MARGARET ECHOLS AND SANDY MOBLEY
are congruent or aligned and when they are not. They learn to observe,
in themselves and others, reflexive ways in which people respond to
certain triggers or life events. Th rough awareness and somatic prac-
tices, we expand our capacity for action. As coaches practice and cul-
tivate the power of being centered (i.e., connected, present, open, and
focused) in more situations, more frequently, they also learn to recover
more quickly when off center. They shift from simply being coaches to
becoming embodied leadership coaches.
UNDERSTANDING THE GAP
An amazingly hard human lesson to grasp is how often we fail at

something we’ve set out to do. Think about the commitments that
you’ve made to keep your desk neat, to return phone calls or respond
to e-mails in one day, or to get to meetings on time. Since most of our
education had been biased toward cognitive learning (i.e., facts, theory,
etc.), we were shocked to learn in an initial Strozzi Institute leadership
course how often knowing doesn’t translate into doing.
In a physical (somatic) exercise designed to model making a request,
we were told to walk toward the person we were making a request of
with our hand out and touch the person just below the throat with an
open palm. One coach remembers: “With the best of intentions my hand
always ended up on the other person’s shoulder. I don’t have vision prob-
lems, and I could walk up to someone and touch them under the throat,
but in the context of making a request, I missed every time. That’s when
I saw my own gap. My body knew something my mind did not.”
For example, many people know the importance of making an
effective request and can even recite the criteria perfectly. However,
under pressure or in certain situations, they often fall into old inef-
fective patterns. Alternatively, they might say the right words, but
their tone of voice or body language conveys an undermining message.
Seeing this dilemma made us more aware that, in working with execu-
tives, we needed to look for and bridge this gap.
After the somatic exercise, the coach continues, “my awareness
was raised further as I listened to how I made requests. To staff I said,
‘Please make sure you include me in that client meeting.’ But with
the boss, the same ‘request’ sounded like, ‘It would be useful to me to
attend client meetings.’ I clearly knew how to make an effective request,
yet wasn’t able to do so in some situations. This made me curious about
what happens in that knowing-doing gap.”
Human beings are conditioned through upbringing and culture to
behave in ways that might have served at one time, but are no longer
USING SOMATICS TO COACH LEADERS | 147
effective. These behaviors are so ingrained that we don’t realize we

have a choice. For example, a leader we know was taught as a child to
not make direct requests of others. This behavior became so automatic
that it occurred whenever she wanted something; she had buried the
ability to make direct requests. “I can remember being at my aunt’s
house when I was eight years old, desperately wanting an Eskimo Pie
ice cream from her freezer and knowing that I dared not ask for it. I
could only make a series of hints. ‘My throat is burning up,’ I said,
prompting my aunt to offer water. ‘No,’ I responded, water won’t do
it; it needs to be colder than water. Perhaps some milk, she suggested.
‘No, milk won’t work; I don’t like the taste of it, but that is closer to
what I’m looking for.’ Finally, my aunt asked if I’d like an ice cream.”
Imagine the inefficiency and waste of time if someone used that proc-
ess at work!
Instead, the leader in our story above learned to make powerful
requests of the staff that left no room for interpretation. By bring-
ing this skill into her conversations with her superiors, she realized
she would save herself a lot of aggravation and disappointment when
they couldn’t decode her veiled requests. “Until I became aware of this
conditioned response, I could only hint and hope that others would
know what I desired and respond positively,” she says. To undo the
conditioning, awareness of the behavior had to come fi rst. To be effec-
tive, coaches must help leaders recognize the ingrained, habituated
responses that they can’t see and assist them in adopting more produc-
tive behaviors.
Clients aren’t disembodied heads, required only to think leader-
ship. Without the ability to act, leaders can’t motivate others, align
behavior, or influence change. Action occurs through the body. Action
follows awareness, so it is important to notice what we are paying
attention to. For example, if a leader is focusing on keeping others
happy, he may not make requests that he feels are unpopular. On the
fl ip side, if the leader is only concerned with getting the work done and
not how others feel about doing the work, he runs the risk of alienating
the workforce.
A key factor for effective leadership is authenticity—alignment
between saying and doing. People evaluate their leaders more by what
they do than what they say. Albert Mehrabian from UCLA studied
this behavioral difference. He found that when people communicated
feelings if there was dissonance between what was said and how that
person behaved, the audience judged the person’s actual words to have
only a 7 percent impact, while the person’s voice and body language
had much higher impact, at 38 percent and 55 percent respectively.1
Clearly a person’s actions and voice, with a 93 percent impact, carry far
more weight than the words a person uses.
In his book The Anatomy of Change, Richard Strozzi-Heckler writes,
“Somatics . . . defines the body as a functional, living whole rather than
as a mechanical structure. Somatics does not see a split between the
mind and body but views the soma as a unified expression of all that we
think, feel, perceive, and express.”2 Somatic coaches show clients how
their body language correlates with often hidden and limiting inner
feelings, narratives, and mindsets. Specifically designed, somatically
based practices allow these internal states to shift, enabling clients to
take new actions to achieve their goals. For example, if a man grew up
being told that “nice boys” don’t brag, he may drop his voice and look
away from his peers when asked to talk about his projects in a team
meeting. He may have no awareness that hiding his talent is limiting
his career progression. Once these behaviors are brought to his atten-
tion, he will still need time and somatic practices to keep his voice
strong and maintain eye contact when talking about his work.
GETTING CENTERED AND USING

SOMATICS FOR COACHING
To understand somatics and apply it to coaching, you must be attuned
to your own body and your feeling. Many people have become anes-
thetized to feelings and tell themselves—that is, tell their bodies—
what they can and can’t feel. A person may feel sad at the death of a
relative or the loss of a meaningful job, but feels compelled to put on a
happy face and dismiss the feelings. Another person whose boss yells
at her several times a week may say, “Oh, he is under pressure and
doesn’t really mean it.” For both people, their bodies ache nonethe-
less. Denying feelings doesn’t ease pain. In addition, numbing painful
feelings decreases the capacity to experience other feelings—joy, fear,
surprise, and so on.
On the other hand, some people can be overloaded by the inten-
sity of their feelings to the point that it becomes intolerable and they
boil over in rage or panic. Daniel Goleman refers to this in his book
Working with Emotional Intelligence as an amygdala hijack.3 In these
situations, the primal part of the brain senses an old and uncomfortable
emotion, and the person is thrown into one of three basic responses—
fight, fl ight, or freeze. The higher-functioning part of the brain is cut
off, and the behavior that results is seldom pretty.
To avoid having to swallow feelings or to be ruled by them, it helps
to have a place of safety inside oneself that allows time for choice and
greater ranges of possibilities. The first step to finding that internal

oasis in the body is to learn what it feels like to be centered. Being
centered in your body is like shifting to neutral in a car with a manual
transmission. It is the place of flexibility that allows for easy movement
in any direction. It is a place where you can access your power, focus
on what you care about, and tap into the inner wisdom of your body,
feelings, and emotions.
There are times when being centered can mean the difference
between life and death. Consider the police officer who has a split sec-
ond to decide whether the person in the heavy overcoat coming his
way is carrying a bomb, a weapon, or something harmless such as a cell
phone. Being centered can affect whether you win a negotiation, get a
job, or hear what is really bothering your teenager.
Somatics begins with you as a coach. It is important to be cen-
tered before beginning a coaching session. This allows you to be open
and connected to your client. You become a more powerful observer
because your focus is on your client and his needs, not your worries
about what to say next or whether you sound intelligent. Centering
keeps your internal chatter at bay and opens you to hear what the client
has to say. Your ability to center helps your client center as well. Th ink
about how one scared horse spooks the others in a corral, or the impact
on others of a hysterical person at the scene of an accident. Being open,
centered, and confident helps the client become open and calm, too.
To center, pay attention to your breath. Is it low in your belly and
moving fully through your body? Bringing your attention to your breath
helps you center. Notice your posture. Are you slouched or rigid? If
so, sit or stand tall with your weight evenly distributed on each side
and from front to back. What about your forehead—is it wrinkled or
relaxed? Notice your eyes. Are they staring fi xedly or wide open like a
deer in the headlights? Relax your eyes—let them soften and increase
your peripheral vision. How about your jaw? Is it held tightly? Are you
grinding your teeth? Open your mouth as wide as you can and then
relax your jaw. How about your shoulders? Are they pulled up tightly
near your ears as you carry the weight of the world? Tighten them more
and then relax them, feeling the tension slide away. These are some of
the key areas where we hold tension. Tension dilutes center. If we are
feeling tightness or pain, our attention goes to these areas and away
from feeling centered.
It may be useful to do a centering practice with your client at the
start of your session. Coaching sessions often take place in the middle
of a busy day. Helping your client get centered allows her to let go of
other concerns and be fully present for the session. The more you can
bring your client’s awareness to her stance and sensations, the better.
Pay attention to your client’s body. Are her shoulders high? It could
mean she is taking on too much responsibility. Notice tightness in the
jaw area. This may indicate the need to control things or that she is
chewing on a difficult problem. How is her eye contact? Do you see a
“deer in the headlights” look, an intense stare, a sleepy gaze? What
do these things mean to you? You are helping your client see what has
been invisible to her. For example, you may point out that she smiles
broadly when she is saying no. Then she wonders why people don’t
accept it when she turns down a request.
Rather than keep a checklist that says if you see this, it means that,
it is more useful to be curious. You might sometimes mirror what you
see to the client and ask what that posture or look provokes in her. That
tends to give you more insight about what the client is experiencing,
and she in turn sees herself from new perspectives.
HOW IT WORKS: SOMATICS IN ACTION
To illustrate how you, as a leadership coach, can incorporate an under-

standing of somatics into how you would coach a leader, here’s how one
coach we know recounts her own experience:
Carol is a senior government official in an important position with
the Department of Defense. I assumed she’d be somewhat rigid in
her posture, buttoned down and stern. When a slight woman dressed
in a flowered blouse and light blue skirt, with wispy blonde hair and a
shy demeanor, met me on our first appointment, I presumed she was
Carol’s administrative assistant coming to escort me through security.
Imagine my surprise when she introduced herself as Carol.
Carol possesses a brilliant mind and is one of only three women to
rise above the director level. I learned that she is an excellent project
leader, able to see the big picture while still keeping track of all the
details needed to make a project succeed. Possessing strong influencing
skills, she would thrive in a more collaborative work environment, but
her difficulty making direct requests allows others to take advantage
of her in this competitive workplace. Carol was referred to me because
to meet her goals, it is essential that she get other parts of the organi-
zation to work together. To do this she must learn to make requests
effectively.
When I asked Carol to show me how she makes requests, her body
and words betrayed her intent. She blinked her eyes nervously, her
mouth twitched, and her posture became slumped. She appeared to
be begging. Her language became indirect, prefacing her requests with
words like, “I would like it if . . .” or “We need . . .” or even “I wish . . .”

She told me people would respond to her with nods, but rarely would
anyone take action. She was burning out from lack of support.
I asked her to give me examples of assertive people in her organiza-
tion. She described only men. I asked her to tell me about some asser-
tive females. She said there were two, both of whom she described as
aggressive, attacking terrors who frequently raised their voices, barked
out orders, and never listened. She could not identify a single woman
who was assertive in a positive way. In her world, women were either
vicious sharks or meek little mice. She felt revulsion at the thought of
being a shark.
I began by demonstrating a continuum of behaviors between Mouse
and Shark. First I made a request at the Mouse end. I rounded my
shoulders, crouched down, looked up through my eyelashes, avoided
eye contact, and said in a soft voice, “It would be nice, uh, uh, do you
think maybe we could finish the project today?” Carol observed that
the Mouse-me was so hesitant that she was unclear what my request
actually was and felt no urgency to comply. I asked her to match my
Mouse posture. She did it easily and said that this stance felt all too
familiar.
I then demonstrated the Shark-me. I puffed up my chest and
demanded, “I want the completed project on my desk by the end of the
day, or you can look for work elsewhere.” She took a step back, her face
froze into a mask, and the light went out in her eyes. I asked her what
she experienced and she said she felt afraid. “But,” she added in a feisty
voice, “if you didn’t have the authority, you could hold your breath
before I’d respond to a demand phrased like that.” I noted that she
sounded angry. She agreed and said, “People who abuse their power
really infuriate me.” I asked her to notice her posture. She was stand-
ing tall and making direct eye contact. “This is you stepping into your
power,” I said. “Notice how it feels.” I suggested there might be some
benefit to harnessing her inner Shark. “For example, you notice this
feeling when someone has stepped over a boundary. Instead of shrink-
ing, you can use the feeling to get in touch with your power and pre-
vent someone from pushing you where you don’t want to go.”
I then demonstrated a centered, confident, and direct request for
her. I stood with my feet shoulder-width apart, my back straight and
aligned with head over shoulders over hips over feet, all in one continu-
ous line. I made direct eye contact. Breathing in a relaxed manner, I
spoke in a strong, even voice, “Please have the project on my desk by the
end of the day.” As I made the request, I noticed that Carol also seemed
relaxed. She met my eye contact and her posture shifted from slouched
to more erect. She was surprised that I could be so strong without

being offensive, and she said she felt “invited” to hear my request.
For the rest of the session, I modeled and she practiced moving in
small increments along the Mouse-Shark continuum. Sometimes when
people make a change, they go too far in the opposite direction. My goal
was for Carol to know what degree of directness was appropriate for her.
Awareness is the first step toward making a change. At the end of the
session, Carol was aware not only of her inability to lead her organiza-
tion from the Mouse end of the spectrum but also of a range of responses
and their impact on her. As we walked toward the elevator, a colleague
walked by and called her Cheryl. I asked if her name was Carol or Cheryl.
She admitted it was Cheryl. She had let me call her Carol throughout
the entire first session because she was embarrassed to correct me.
Cheryl’s homework for the next week was to practice making
requests in a direct, not indirect, way—such as asking her change-
resistant secretary to redo the fi ling system or asking her coach to
call her by her correct name. When we met again, Cheryl had made
requests, and for her, that was a positive step forward. I began by calling
her Carol. She quickly asked me to call her Cheryl. As she described
successes, it became clear that she had made most requests of people
she thought would be amenable. For the following week, I challenged
her to make more difficult requests and to notice her body language
and what she was feeling and make notes for us to discuss at our next
session. My goal was to help Cheryl feel how to make requests from a
centered place and to notice her own and others’ responses when she
did so. I wanted her to embody making strong requests and not lapse
into her Mouse body, which made requests that were easy to ignore.
At our next meeting, she reported that she had been able to make
more challenging requests of her staff, such as asking them to take
on more project responsibilities. Most of her difficulty had occurred
when asking peers in other departments for help. She recounted many
instances when she had helped others with resources, provided support
for their proposals, and even times when she shared money from her
budget to help fund others’ projects. However, when she needed assist-
ance, her peers consistently failed to reciprocate. Two things became
evident: (1) she never let others know that helping them was a cost to
her, so they thought she had excess budget and resources, and (2) she
never stated her expectation that they reciprocate. She had set up an
expectation of a one-way relationship (she gave, they didn’t) and they
were happy to keep it that way.
Underlying Cheryl’s difficulty was her quaint notion that if she did
nice things, people would naturally reciprocate. She wouldn’t have to
make requests. I asked her how she would feel making a request of her
peers. She said she actually had several requests in mind. Her posture
was strong and I could see that she was harnessing her Sharkness. She
said that she was tired of their ignoring her and never offering help
with her projects. I asked her to remember the sensation in her body
when someone called her by the wrong name and instead of ignoring
the feeling, to use it to get in touch with how irritating it feels to be
dismissed and ignored.
Her homework for the next session was to continue making chal-
lenging requests and to pay attention to her feelings when she made
them.
When we met again we discussed requests she made to her peers.
She reported several successes and one devastating failure. She had
asked Tom, notoriously rude and the most alpha dog on the team, to
loan two people from his department to assist with a project that had
a tight deadline. He ignored her and simply walked away. She felt
angry and hurt, but rather than bury the feeling, she followed him to
his office and made the request again. He didn’t look away from his
computer as he said, “Look, my people are overworked. I can’t help
you.” She didn’t know what to say then. She felt so low she could have
slipped under the door.
I suggested we practice. I role-played Tom and asked her to make a
request of me. As direct as Cheryl had been in a previous session when
she asked me to call her by her correct name, her posture reverted to
Mouse with resigned body, slumped shoulders, and downcast eyes. I
asked her what she noticed. She said that as much as she wanted to
be strong, she felt all her emotions pulling her to be indirect. “What
feelings?” I asked. “Be specific.” “I think . . . just the pain of being
rejected,” she said. As a peer, she had no power to reverse his rejection.
Tom’s “no” represented disrespect and powerlessness and she feared
that when he rejected her request she looked even weaker for asking.
This was another layer that kept Cheryl from making direct requests.
It brought back all the shame she felt as a teen asking her father for
money when he said no, most painfully when she asked him for money
to go on a class trip and he said no. Moreover, it brought back as well
the sadness of having to tell her friends that she couldn’t go with them
and her loneliness the week they were gone.
I wondered if Cheryl realized that making a request means the
other person has the power to say no as well as yes. I asked her if she
was making a request or if she were demanding that he do something.
“I hoped he would agree, but realized he could say no.” She took a deep
breath and sighed. I asked what the sigh was about. “Maybe I never
feel that I can say no,” Cheryl admitted, “so I resent it from others.”
Now, another layer had surfaced. Cheryl didn’t allow herself to say no,
so she didn’t think others had the right to do so. Furthermore, she felt
someone saying no to her request was a sign of disrespect. Working
through the body is interesting because at each step, the body reveals
more of what is being held back.
The next step for Cheryl was to learn to accept a “no” without relaps-
ing into her internal story of disrespect and powerless. As in learning
to make direct requests, gaining the ability to accept a rejected request
took three sessions before Cheryl could maintain her poise without
crumbling into Mouse. One key to change for Cheryl was to recognize
that when her shoulders curled and her chest tightened, she could prac-
tice dropping her breath into her belly and get centered. From here,
she recognized that she felt less afraid. It brought back the memory of
how she anchored before a track meet in college—the crouch in the
blocks before the starting gun. Accessing her center deactivated her
Mouse-body, where her breath was high and her chest felt tight. As in
making requests, Cheryl found being centered made all the difference
in calibrating how forceful to be. Later that day, she asked her boss for
an additional person. Although he said no, she said the rejection wasn’t
hard to take at all. Moreover, she felt proud of herself for having the
courage to make the request.
A few weeks later, I got a surprise telephone call from Cheryl.
“This amazing thing happened,” she said. “Tom said no to me again.”
“Then why do you sound so happy?” I asked.
She related that while making the request she had been able to
drop her breath, stand tall, and stay centered the whole time. She felt
the strength of her stance made him pay attention to her. And even
though he said no, he looked up at her and said courteously, “Sorry, I
can’t help you this week.”
“He was so polite I thought maybe an alien had invaded his body,”
Cheryl joked.
I asked how she felt. She said she felt courageous and inspired
to ask for what she wanted and to say no when she needed to. “What
does that feel like in your body?” I asked. “I feel tall and powerful like
when I crossed the finish line in a race,” she said, “like I can take care
of myself.”
CONCLUSION
To achieve our goals or be who we long to be, we must be able to take
new actions. New ways of engaging can feel uncomfortable, sometimes
even unsafe. Being centered allows us to try new moves and to make
the moves in ways that work. Having a coach as an ally to weather
the discomfort of learning new actions and calibrating how far to go
makes it easier to take risks. Consider the pain Cheryl, in the story
earlier, felt at being taken advantage of and feeling unsupported by
her peers. To learn that she could get support by behaving differently
was a life-changing experience for her. Imagine how many possibili-
ties opened when she became able to make direct requests and decline
others’ requests.
When we consider that we all have behaviors that limit our effec-
tiveness, we gain an even greater appreciation of the power of somatics
to increase our awareness and capacity to change—both in our clients
and in ourselves. Th inking about a change is a necessity, not an end.
Change must be embodied. Over time new behavior becomes deeply
rooted and can be relied on to produce the results we want.
NOTES
1. Albert Mehrabian, Silent Messages (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1971), 77.
2. Richard Strozzi-Heckler, The Anatomy of Change: A Way to Move through
Life’s Transitions (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1984, 1993), 9.
3. Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence (New York: Bantam
Books, 1998), 74–76.
CHAPTER 15
DISTINCTIONS FOR
COACHING LEADERS
BETH BLOOMFIELD
COACHING LEADERS IS, IN MANY WAYS, different from coaching

everyone else; and yet, in many ways, it is much the same. Leaders
are, after all, human beings fi rst and foremost. What’s different is the
special pressure of being “in charge,” ultimately responsible for people
and results, which means they are “on” all the time, under constant
scrutiny, subject to endless second-guessing and their own impossibly
high standards. In my work with leaders in a variety of organizations,
I find that most of them struggle with the same issues of managing
themselves, characterized by the set of distinctions examined here.
Readers beware: There are no easy answers, only thoughts and ideas,
and of course, more questions.
MANAGEMENT VERSUS LEADERSHIP

Why do executives all want to be known as great “leaders” but worry
that the words “good manager” in their performance review are the kiss
of death to higher aspirations? The notion that management is bad and
leadership is somehow good has grown out of a decades-old idea that
there is a dichotomy between the two.1
Management skills are denigrated or completely overlooked in the
popular literature of business these days, while books on leadership
are perennial bestsellers. Management is frequently characterized as
old school and fear-driven, while leadership is seen as enlightened and
158 | BETH BLOOMFIELD
trust-based. Management is seen as the province of number-crunching

mid-level drones, while leadership is the creative work of extraordinary
or even heroic figures.
My own premise is that although there is a distinction, the dichot-
omy here is a false one. Management skills and leadership “jazz”2
are both essential elements in building and sustaining a healthy and
productive organization in today’s world, and good management is
complementary to, rather than opposed to, strong leadership. It’s curi-
ous that American businesses spend vast sums annually on leadership
development without any real evidence to show that it actually works,
while training in the fundamentals of management is neglected in
many organizations.
Management practices are what bring order and focus to an oth-
erwise chaotic environment, and good management is a distinct pro-
fessional set of knowledge and activities that is necessary to achieving
consistent and reproducible results. Successful leaders must be adept at
strategy and execution, vision and organization, creativity and struc-
ture, motivation and measurement.
Leaders can better align the organization by including a set of
core management practices along with core business processes and core
values. They should focus on developing a common set of management
practices that can be explained and taught to managers at all levels.
Here are a few questions to ask the leader you are coaching:
• What are the current management practices in your organiza-

tion? Where are the areas of commonality? Where are there dif-
ferences, and why?
• Is there a good understanding of management fundamentals by
all levels of managers? Are the fundamentals being practiced? If
not, why not?
• Are your management practices tied to your organization’s
strategy, goals, and expectations for its managers?
• What management practices need to be developed to address
key gaps in your organization’s performance and business
results?
• Is there a system in your organization for mentoring and coaching
managers in the fundamentals of good management, and how
to apply them to your particular organizational context?
Looking at management as a part of the whole system of the

organization will help the leader develop a more appreciative under-
standing of its value to the bottom line. Good management should fit
DISTINCTIONS FOR COACHING LEADERS | 159
hand-in-glove with a leader’s approach to leadership. Without one, the

other isn’t very likely to succeed.
POWER VERSUS INFLUENCE
One of the hardest lessons of leadership for those new to the role is
that practically everything they have to get done must be done by oth-
ers. For those accustomed to excelling as individual contributors, the
transition to leadership can be a bumpy ride, especially in today’s work-
place. They can no longer rely solely on the power of their position in
the hierarchy to command and control their employees because today’s
leaner organizations depend on more fluid structures and collaborative
processes. Effective leadership requires the ability to influence people
in a variety of ways, across a range of organizational structures.
We all influence others in some way, it’s just that we seldom real-
ize that we do or how we do it. By becoming more intentional in the
use of influence, and by practicing it more consciously, it’s possible for
a leader to build some extra “muscle” and get noticeably better results.
The foundation of influencing skill is “personal power,” as distinct
from the power of the leader’s position. Leaders are the ones in control
of their personal power. It’s up to them to build the necessary trust,
respect, and commitment of others.
To influence others to do something we want them to do, the fi rst
place most of us go is logic. We marshal the most logical and rational
arguments in favor of our proposal, in an effort to appeal to the intel-
lectual and analytical capacities of the stakeholders. To sweeten the
pot, we cite lots and lots of good data in our appeal to their minds. If
we’re especially shrewd, we make sure we make the pitch in terms of
the best choice for their interests or the most benefit to them. Most of
us are good at making rational arguments.
That would be fine if people decided what to do only on the basis
of logic. But of course, people are more complicated—they have emo-
tions, and they are frequently not aware of how much they rely on
emotion to make decisions. Therefore, if a leader wants to be a more
powerful influencer, she’ll also appeal to a person’s values, his or her
self-image and sense of belonging. She’ll couch her request in terms of
a larger purpose or vision and express confidence in the person’s ability
to accomplish the job. To be most effective, she’ll need to listen well for
clues about what really motivates them. Finally, she’d be wise to appeal
to the need for connection and relationship that we all share. By build-
ing connection, she invites a more solid and continuing commitment
by others to his proposal and his broader goals.
Begin coaching on influencing skills by asking the leader you are

coaching to notice the many ways in which he seeks to influence others
and to note which avenue he typically uses—logic, emotion, or rela-
tionship. If he relies too heavily on one, he’s missing opportunities to
bring people along. Ask him to practice extending his range in dif-
ferent situations, and notice how people respond. The objective is to
develop his own style of influence, and build his own personal power
to get things done.
INTELLIGENCE VERSUS CURIOSITY
What distinguishes the truly strategic thinkers from the larger group
of general managers in most organizations? Certainly well-honed ana-
lytic skills and intellectual sophistication are the price of admission.
We can also point to a recognized set of carefully cultivated habits
of thought and action and maybe to some innate qualities of being as
well. One thing I’ve noticed in my work, though, is that the biggest
thinkers are the habitually curious people.
In this day and age of specialization, niche marketing, and techni-
cal expertise, it can be tough to make the leap from “go-to” person in
one particular area to “big picture” player on a larger stage. It’s hard
to let go of the very thing that has made you so successful—up until
now. But strategic leadership lives in the very broad context of history,
culture, politics, economics, demographics, science—the rich broth in
which we all swim. To get strategy right, you have to be conversant in
all these domains.
Given the perpetual busyness of life today, that might seem impos-
sible, not to mention downright unappealing. That’s where curiosity
comes in. If a leader can reframe the question of how to manage the
torrent of information coming at him, to one of how to manage himself
in the midst of the flow, the entire picture changes. If he can remember
what it was like, at other times in his life, to have what some Eastern
cultures call “beginner’s mind,” he’s well-positioned to think big. Stay
curious about the world and all things in it, and the world will open
itself to you.
Here are six practices you can use in coaching a leader to build
healthy strategic thinking “muscle” by getting curious and getting
smart about her particular strategic context:
1. Become a “fi rst-class noticer,” as novelist Saul Bellow put it.

Survey the people and places in which you find yourself during
the course of your day. What’s different, unusual, or interesting
about them?
2. Develop your peripheral vision. Broaden your focus beyond

what’s in front of you. Cast your glance from side to side. What
do you notice that’s out there on the fringes?
3. Acquire a voracious appetite for knowledge and understanding.
There’s nothing too small or too subtle for you to notice and
learn from. What would it be like to see the world from these
various vantage points?
4. Cultivate a discerning eye, ear, and mind. Learn to tell the
difference between quality and quantity in news, information,
and opinion. Which sources are trustworthy, which providers
are reliable? Be mindful of what your purpose is, and where you
want to go. What criteria will you use to sort out the meaningful
from the merely interesting along the way?
5. Learn how to speed-read, both figuratively and literally. Build
your skills for scanning both the information environment as a
whole, and the mountain of reading material that’s available to
you. What’s the “take-away,” the one priceless nugget you want
to remember from any given book, article, program, speaker,
Web site?
6. Exercise ruthless editing. Cast your net widely, but be prepared
to cast off most of what you catch. Once you’ve read, seen, or
heard enough to form a strong impression, you can pare away
the nonessentials. What’s the simplest and most direct way to
describe something you have observed or learned?
BALANCE VERSUS INTEGRATION
I often hear requests for help in achieving better “work-life balance”

from senior executives who are stressed out by incredibly busy lives and
impossibly competing commitments. That sense of being constantly
out of balance between the demands of the job and the requirements
of the home and family seems to afflict women executives more than
men, but it certainly isn’t exclusive to them. Sometimes it seems as
though equality of the sexes in the workplace has just spread the pain
of being torn in different directions.
Usually, these busy leaders are looking for the magic bullet, for
some powerful methodology or practice that will neatly resolve the
dilemma for them. “I need a better time management system” is one
I hear a lot. Alternatively, “I need to figure out how to do more of my
work at home.” I usually point out that none of us can “manage” time,
time happens with or without us at the same rate of speed. It’s what
we choose to do with it that creates the problem, so what we have to
manage is ourselves.
There is another way to appreciate the balance question, found in

the distinction between living a “balanced” life and living an “inte-
grated” life. Webster’s defines the verb integrate as “to form, coordi-
nate, or blend into a functioning or unified whole.”
Applied to how we live our lives, that’s a powerful paradigm for
change. For leaders who can’t realistically set rigid boundaries in time
and space between work and home life, integration offers a model that
intuitively feels right.
Here are seven strategies you can introduce to the leaders you
coach—choices they can make for an integrated life:
1. Give up the idea that there’s “work” and there’s “life.” Isn’t it all
life?
2. Design your work to fit the life you want, and your life to
complement your work (versus to support it). Think about
when, where, and how you want to work so that it blends more
seamlessly into when, where, and how you do your life.
3. Be “out there,” in both work and life. Live as though you are
your work, versus your work defines who you are. Get curious
about your world and everything in it, and get comfortable with
not knowing all the answers all the time.
4. Decide what your life is about, and live all of it that way. What
is your purpose? Seek authenticity in all domains of life, be who
you really are, all the time.
5. Work with people you want to be with. Why not be friends with
your clients, colleagues, and customers? It’s less about setting
boundaries than it is about being respectful and compassionate
towards others, and being “clean” (honest and appropriate) in
your relationships.
6. Give up the idea that you can “achieve” balance (or integration!).
You will always be a work in progress, and you will never get
there. So? Forgive yourself for not being perfect.
7. Not everything in work and in life is that serious. It’s not all
about life and death. And, it’s not all about you, either. Try
thinking about “my life as a comedy” once in a while to bring
yourself back to earth.
STAMINA VERSUS RESILIENCE

Leaders at all levels these days are expected to have the stamina of an
Energizer Bunny, to “go the distance” and “stay the course” no matter
what. The physical and psychological demands of “extreme jobs” are
unquestioned in many organizations today, with little heed to what that

really means for the individual or the people he must lead. However,
as an older and much wiser colleague always used to say, “Nobody goes
through life unscathed.” If you live long enough, sooner or later “stuff
happens.” Why do some people snap back, while others snap under the
stress of unanticipated occurrences? The quality of resilience is very
often the determinant of success in work, as well as in life. Studies
show that resilience matters more to sustained high performance than
do education, experience, or training. Resilience, more than stamina,
is crucial to effective leadership.
Here’s the dictionary definition of “resilience”: (1) The ability to
recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune; buoyancy. (2) The
property of a material that enables it to resume its original shape or
position after being bent, stretched, or compressed; elasticity.
The important thing to note here is that we are not talking about
being unaffected by events and forces in our world but rather about
the capacity to move with them and then reestablish a working
balance.
According to experts, the main building blocks of resilience are the
capacity to accept reality and stand up to it; the ability to fi nd mean-
ing in life; and the ability to improvise. Other important factors are a
strong sense of self; the belief that you are the author of your own life;
and the ability to be flexible. It’s an interesting mix of mental, emo-
tional, physical, and spiritual qualities, all of which can be cultivated.
My own experience in coaching leaders in a variety of organizational
settings confirms the observation.
Authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz have researched how win-
ning athletes train for high performance, and they translate their find-
ings into practical strategies for corporate leaders in their book, The
Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High
Performance and Personal Renewal.3 Fundamental to their approach is
the idea that you can’t manage time—you only have a fi xed quantity—
but you can manage the energy available to you, and the quantity and
quality of that is not fi xed.
We build mental, emotional, and spiritual capacity in the same
way we build physical capacity—by expending energy beyond our
usual limits and then recovering. So, effective energy management in
all domains requires cycles of expenditure (stress) and renewal (recov-
ery) of energy. Building resilience means mastering the practice of
these rhythmic cycles. Resilient leaders have developed rituals that
help promote cycling—going to the gym at the same time every day,
for example, or sitting down to dinner with the family every night.
Loehr and Schwartz note that the demands on today’s executives

dwarf the challenges faced by professional athletes.4 Executives must
sustain peak performance while athletes play in relatively short bursts
of energy. Athletes spend most of their time training and very little
performing—executives just the opposite. Athletes have off-seasons,
while most executives are lucky to get three or four weeks of vacation.
An athlete’s career averages five to seven years, while most executives
will work for 40–50 years. As a coach of leaders and those aspiring to
leadership, it’s very important that you work with your clients to help
them develop lifelong habits that will support resilience in the face of
the inevitable personal and professional setbacks they will experience
in the course of that long career.
FOCUS VERSUS REFLECTION
Survey after survey, bolstered by anecdotal evidence from virtually all

my executive clients, indicates that work is expanding almost exponen-
tially. There’s no end to this trend in sight, and the stakes are increas-
ingly high for executives who must deliver solid business results from
whatever project or assignment they have taken on. Leaders need an
edge to keep up, and it had better be a sharp one if they want to sustain
peak performance.
The top three challenges faced by executives today are time pres-
sure, financial pressure, and the imbalance they feel between work
and life. They often feel out of control, as though they are perpetually
reacting to events. To help my leader/clients regain a sense of control,
of “authorship” of their own lives, I frequently begin with the develop-
ment of a critical skill: focus. The ability to focus on what’s important,
when it’s important, is one of the things that distinguish successful
from unsuccessful leaders.
Focus is a learned skill, and it also can be practiced until it becomes
habit. In addition, as with any other habit, it lives in the body, our bio-
logical being. That’s important, because most people tend to think that
focus is strictly a mental process and a matter of emotional self-discipline.
When we talk about someone being “unfocused,” we often conjure an
image of dishevelment and incompetence, almost a morally deficiency.
Focus, when practiced well, is not about homing in on one thing
to the exclusion of all others. It is an essential element in what is often
called “flow,” and it involves agility and grace, the ability to move
almost seamlessly from one thing to the next with a minimum of settle
time. The key to developing this kind of focus is what I call “attention
training”—the physical practice of mastering a mental shift. Here’s a
set of practices you can adapt for the leader you are coaching to help
him achieve better focus:
• To focus, you have to set aside all the things you are not going
to focus on—you have to define the universe of what’s important
by eliminating the unimportant. Begin by tracking all the
things you do in a day, a week, a month, and choosing not to pay
attention to the distractions.
• Choose one important matter to attend to for an hour or more
each day, working with a clearly articulated goal in mind, one
that includes both a time element and a quantitative measurable
outcome. While you are working, if something else comes up,
turn it away until your focused work session is complete.
• As you increase your ability to concentrate on this one matter for
a prescribed period, add another important matter, treating it in
the same way. Use physical actions—turning off your phone or
computer, closing your door, asking your assistant to screen calls
and visitors—to reinforce your focused attention.
• Limit the number of important matters you will attend to to
three, and as you reach your goal for one, move another new
matter to your set of three. As other matters come to your
attention, pass them on to others, or turn them away.
At the beginning, it may seem impossible to control this much of

the time in a day. If the leader treats this practice as a conscious choice,
though, and puts physical structures of support in place, she’ll begin
to build the muscle for focus. After a while, this way of attending to
what matters will become habitual, and the habit will be reinforced
when she enjoys the fruits of success. By training her attention, she’ll
develop a felt sense of greater autonomy and control in work and life,
and discover the secret to sustained peak performance.
The requisite partner to focus is reflection, the complement to the
reactive or “process” thinking that tends to govern our waking hours.
Reflection is necessary to cement the things you are continually learning
in your memory, because it enables you to assign meaning to the myriad
of experiences you have every day. Reflection is the “time out” your
brain needs to process the mix of sensory perceptions, emotions, and
communications you are being bombarded with all the time. Reflection
is how you figure out what you think, and therefore who you really are.
Frequently my leadership coaching clients tell me they can’t find
the time for reflection, or they don’t think they know how to do it. Very
often, when we probe what’s behind those assessments, we discover that
there’s another really huge or “master” assessment, namely that if you’re

not constantly in action you aren’t really accomplishing anything. This is
such a powerful assumption in these times that it is often literally impos-
sible for people to see how driven by it they are. It’s as though we were all
afflicted with some profound variety of attention deficit disorder.
Why are we so reluctant to sit quietly with our own thoughts?
Is it because of our modern existential phobia of inactivity as akin to
death? Alternatively, perhaps our physical addiction to the adrenalin
rush of constant busyness? Suffice it to say that if you aren’t reflecting
in a conscious way, your brain is doing it for you automatically, running
the program in the background—and you might not like the logic it
is using while unsupervised by you. Dedicated reflection practice will
raise the whole thought process to the conscious level, and it is a nec-
essary precursor to planful action. If you skip this step, you’re far less
likely to get to where you really want to go in business and in life.
The good news is that the leader you coach doesn’t have to retreat
to a mountaintop to bring more reflective thought into his life. Ask
him to start wherever he is and build some reflection time into his daily
routine. If he already exercises most days, suggest that he turn off the
iPod for five or ten minutes and turn his thoughts inward as he walks
or jogs on the treadmill. If he already keeps a journal or a “learning
log,” throw in a good question for deep reflection once a week or so. If
he does the dishes every evening, ask him to turn off the TV and enjoy
his time at the sink by spending it with his own thoughts.
Your coachee will soon see that reflection happens regardless of the
surroundings or the length of time he may devote to it. She may find
it adds to the experience to set up a regular reflection ritual, perhaps
settling into a favorite armchair with some soft music and a cup of hot
tea. However, the brain doesn’t require any of that. A good “quieting”
practice, such as taking a few deep breaths or centering himself, will
quickly put her into the posture for good reflective thought. Anywhere,
anytime.
NOTES
1. An influential thinker on this point was Abraham Zaleznik, a professor
at the Harvard Business School, who published an oft-cited article on the
social psychology of managers, “Managers and Leaders: Are They Differ-
ent?,” Harvard Business Review, May–June 1977, 67.
2. Max Depree, Leadership Jazz (New York: Currency Doubleday, 1992).
3. Jim Loehr, and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement: Manag-
ing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
(New York: Free Press, 2003).
4. Ibid., 8–9.
PART III
USING
CHAPTER 16
ALIFE™: A LISTENING
MODEL FOR COACHING
CHRISTINE WAHL AND NEIL STROUL
AGROUP OF COACHES, SITTING AROUND a conference table, shar-

ing their best practices. Batting ideas around. Getting juice from the
life in the discussion. One of them, Neil Stroul, offered up a frame-
work that he had developed to organize the stories he was hearing
from leaders, and he said that this framework helped him calibrate
how he listened. We talked about what a leader has to do, what and
how a leader thinks, and how a leader ought to learn. One of the other
coaches, Karen Gravenstine, mused aloud that these organizing prin-
ciples could be reordered to create an acronym “ALIFE.” We’ve used
it that way ever since.
ALIFE TM stands for Authenticity, Leadership, Intentionality,
Fear/Courage, and Execution. Each of these concepts has distinc-
tions that coaches can use to work with leaders. We have found that
just by listening through the lens of ALIFE TM when we listen to
leaders’ “stories,” we can zero in on areas that the leader may be
blind to.
Over time we have refined our thinking about these concepts and
offer it to our students as a grounding model for beginning coaching.
We have also presented it to a number of audiences—coaches, lead-
ers, HR managers, and OD consultants—that have given consistent
feedback on its usefulness. Th is chapter outlines key attributes of the
ALIFETM model.
170 | CHRISTINE WAHL AND NEIL STROUL
AUTHENTICITY—WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO

BE AN AUTHENTIC LEADER?
Authenticity is one of those terms that people hear and understand

on some level—but don’t really “get.” Many people think of it as just
being yourself—but we don’t see it that way. It’s deeper and bigger than
that.
As coaches, we are supremely interested in helping our clients
bring their authentic selves forward; at the deeper levels our cli-
ents need to learn who they are when they are showing up as their
“best self,” and our task as coaches is to help them identify what that
authentic, best self is capable of, and how to assist them in summon-
ing forth that best version of themselves. In our view, it is essential to
being a great leader. For most of us—coaches and leaders alike—it is
a lifelong process.
How can you tell an authentic leader? Most of us can feel it when
someone is authentic, and so we can say that it has something to do
with one’s presence. Moreover, we feel connected to them in some way.
An authentic leader creates trust. An authentic leader is generative. An
authentic leader draws from deep internal source material, understands
that people aren’t perfect, and works with them anyway.
An authentic leader tells his/her “truth” in such a way as to invite
dialogue that embraces the “truths” of others.
At a deeper level, being authentic means that we express our fun-
damental sense of purpose and that we are working, with awareness, to
be the person we aspire to be, the person we must be if we are truly to
feel that our deeper sense of purpose is being fulfi lled.
Most people in organizations learn to “play the game” at some
level, and they may push their own deeper needs to the background.
However, this is a story that does not serve the leader and inevitably
generates an inauthentic way of being. The human operating sys-
tem can support a certain amount of this, but over time, too much
of it leads to being out of synch with ourselves, and our authentic
self becomes buried. Another version of “playing the game” looks
like this: completely ignoring your own quiet voice in favor of those
louder ones, inside of you and outside of you, that encourage you
to do what everyone else does to get ahead—multitask, be acces-
sible nearly 24/7, work longer, harder, faster, get more done, stay
later, and come in earlier. You get the picture. These belief systems
that keep you in the more-harder-faster-better loop are debilitating
over time, and they override your authentic voice. When we hit a
crisis of burnout, illness, or some other sort of suffering, it may be
our authentic self demanding our attention. The coach’s job is to
ALIFE™ | 171
help clients notice their fl agging energy and see opportunities to

more fully express themselves, so their authenticity begins to come
forward.
A leader striving to be more authentic has the pull to stay in touch
with the vision of the person s/he aspires to be, and to challenge him/
herself more and more to be that person by noticing daily exactly what
life is calling for. The coach’s job is to encourage and support the leader
to live in the question, “am I bringing my best self forward?”
Our belief is that every day, each of us has the chance to greet life
from a more authentic stance. That’s the beauty of it—we get opportu-
nity after opportunity to show up as the person we aspire to be.
As coaches, we listen to our leader clients tell us about the obsta-
cles they face at work, what they want to get done, and what makes it
so hard. In many cases, what they are describing is their desire to bring
their fuller self forward. We listen for those places where their authen-
ticity is thwarted, where their presence diminishes, and where they feel
no power. Th is is always an opening for coaching.
The poet David Whyte1 offered the concept that the soul would
rather fail doing what it must do, than succeed doing what someone
else thinks it ought to do. Th is is the mission deep within our operat-
ing system, the one that helps us bring our authentic voice forward.
Awareness is the first step on this path.
LEADERSHIP
In listening to stories that leaders tell us, we are discerning how this
person sees him/herself as a leader. We are wondering what distinc-
tions related to leadership exist in the client’s mind. Is he a leader in
title? Is he a leader in spirit? Does he embody leadership? Does he
walk his talk? Does he communicate his leadership, both in speech and
action? Do others perceive him as a leader? What does he know about
the demands of being a leader? To what extent, does he operate with a
“leader’s mindset?”
Let’s look at leadership as a series of public acts. In our minds, being
able to be a leader is based on reflection and self-knowledge, and
executives “show up” as leaders when they move into action. It does
no good to just think grand leadership thoughts. Every leader has
chances, both big and small, to embody leadership through their daily
actions. Another distinction important to consider is that leadership
moves more toward the future than management, which stays more in
the present. Leading often requires a strategic focus, while managing
requires an operational focus. The question we are wondering as we
listen is how is this client showing up daily? Is this client “out there”
acting as a leader? Is this client focusing on the future, on what is pos-
sible? Is this client thinking strategically?
Now, let’s view leadership as a mindset. Actions that a leader takes
will be fueled by the context she is in and the story she tells her-
self about that context. If a leader lives in a story of possibility, her
actions will reflect that. If a leader lives in a story of resignation, her
actions will reflect that. In each case, the possible outcomes can have
a dramatic impact on the leader’s organization. A leader’s actions are
informed and supported by the amount and quality of self-reflection
she engages in, how well she knows her “self,” and how well she takes
lessons from feedback.
Powerful leaders today are those who can read a situation and
know how to act within it. They do not assume that their “style” is
applicable to every challenging situation. There are times to be auto-
cratic, authoritarian, supportive, inspirational, and logical. Coaches
need to listen to the leader’s distinctions about being a leader and help
the leader shore them up wherever necessary.
INTENTIONALITY
Leadership without intentionality will lead you to move in a direc-

tion that may well be contrary to where you actually want to go.
Notwithstanding the occasional magic of serendipity, we believe
intentionality is key to great leadership and is based on integrity
and authenticity. Intentionality is also integral to achieving a vision.
Intentional means purposeful, focused clearly on an outcome. Most
of us have worked for leaders who lacked intentionality—and the
result was chaos. It reflects the classic metaphor of a ship adrift,
with no one at the helm.
One client we worked with needed to discover the power of
intention. He did not have a big goal; instead, he blew with the wind.
Whatever the organization needed, he would try to mold himself
into that. In the process, he lost a sense of energy and gained a sense
of resignation. His authentic self was buried somewhere under the
external expectations he was trying to meet. He clearly needed a
sense of intention. When his team was faltering, he tried something
new. He declared the intention of pulling them together and inspiring
them to do better. He became willing to step up to the plate and envi-
sion a new kind of success: intention in action.
We have frequently encountered executives who have inherited an
agenda from a predecessor or senior executive and have not worked out
ALIFE™ | 173
a way to integrate the previous mission with their own aspirations. As

a result, their intentions become vague and lack potency. The coach’s
task is to help leaders attain the requisite clarity so that they can then
become intentional.
Think of intention as the point around which a leader can rally
energy and ignite the energy of followers. A leader can have intentions
around just about anything, such as:
• personal development as a leader

• commitment to develop others
• commitment to wholeness, for yourself, and others
• commitment to clear communication
• commitment to partner with colleagues
• commitment to increase market share
• desire to bring the organization to a new way of thinking
• desire to create an image of your organization that is admired
and valued by others
• desire to create an organization that is respectful, innovative,
and welcoming for everyone who works there
The list can be endless. Coaches listen for a leader’s intention or lack
of it and help the leader choose those areas to focus on that will create
energy and leverage for self and for the organization. Coaches help
leaders create a crystal-clear intention, make a commitment to it, and
live it! As a result, the leader will be quicker to make decisions (inten-
tion is a compass pointing north), will generate creativity, and will
stretch beyond what was thought possible.
FEAR/COURAGE
Fear—it is often difficult to admit that we feel afraid. We try to sup-

press its insidious hijack of our purpose, and regardless, fear will hold
us in its thrall. Humans (even leaders) are hardwired to be fearful. It
rightfully protects us from threats that we feel. Yet, sometimes the
threats are not real. The famous quote, “there is nothing to fear but fear
itself ” may ring truer than most of us imagine, partly because when we
imagine the worst, it’s easy for us to see how possible “the worst” could
be, and we begin to believe the imagined scenario.
Fear keeps us small. Courage helps us live larger. Courage is not
the opposite of fear, but it helps us past our fears. Imagine a great
leader acting out of fear. What if, for example, Churchill had acted out
of fear? Or Roosevelt? Acting courageously is something every leader
must do. Powerful people are able to transform their fear into courage.
Leaders must find courage to lead, make the hard decisions, and move
past their fears, all in service of preserving an organization’s integrity
and supporting its future.
Coaches who listen for the leader’s fear, however hidden or nuanced
it may be, can help the leader step to the other side of the fear to lead
more courageously. In many instances, leaders are simply unable to rec-
ognize that they are fearful. It is the coach’s task not only to help the
leader “put her hand in the flame,” but also to give the fear a name.
Naming a fear allows a leader to claim (own) the fear that is the first
step in regaining their personal power and moving into courage.
Personal courage is necessary for leaders. There are times when
the demands of work life unabashedly trounce on boundaries of bal-
ance—little or no time for personal pursuits outside of work, for fam-
ily, for reflection. In many systems, it takes courage to model balance
and effectively nourish an ability to be present. “Systems” will take as
much as a leader is willing to give them. Who sets the limits?
From a coaching perspective, fear takes many forms. Fear shows
up when a person has to speak publicly, have a difficult conversation,
defend an argument, stand up to authority, or go against the norm.
Leaders can have a fearful response to e-mail! It matters not if it’s a big
thing or a little thing that causes fear; the point is to recognize ways
past it whenever possible. Getting to the other side of fear is empower-
ing and energizing.
We had a client who needed to hire a second-in-command. The
client procrastinated, made excuses, laid blame for not hiring at the
feet of the HR recruiters she was working with. Months went by, and
the position was still vacant. Although she lamented her workload and
verbally wished for a strong leader under her, the truth was that she
was afraid that if she hired someone strong, they would take over her
position and she would be out of a job. Once this fear was identified,
and the client could come to terms with the dragons that were manag-
ing her mind around this issue, she was able to comfortably hire some-
one remarkable and reap the benefits of strong leadership supporting
her vision and mission.
EXECUTION
Execution is key to the cycle of action and key to leading others.

Anyone who is a leader undoubtedly has a mandate to create a future
and make things happen. Leaders who are unable themselves to move
into action and get others to move into action fail to deliver on their
ALIFE™ | 175
mandates. Recognizing what is and what needs to be is the first step.

Filling the gap to get to what needs to be is where execution or action
is necessary.
Execution, therefore, is necessary to leadership.
Leaders do not have the luxury to just sit and think big thoughts.
Though thinking big thoughts is necessary (we encourage every
leader to find time—and hold it sacred—to kick back and think big),
thoughts and ideas need to be translated into action. Declaring a
big thought—a new future, for instance, is not enough. Though the
declaration is the fi rst step, it is not the only step. Leaders need to
execute on their ideas and engage others in moving forward. The job
of a coach is to listen for the ways that the leader moves into action,
such as balanced versus rushed, thoughtful versus spontaneous, in
partnership versus lone-ranger-like, and networked or system-ori-
ented versus tunnel-visioned. Then, a coach helps the leader notice
the timing of the action and its effects on the leader’s organization.
We have found over time that this model offers a very deep and
rich way to listen to a leader’s story. We share ALIFE TM with the
leaders that we coach. As the coaching progresses, our coachees
often start our conversations by saying, “today, we will talk about
fear” or “today, I need help refocusing on intention.” And off we go.
The richness that comes from listening through this lens never fails
to show an opening where the leader can respond to a development
opportunity.
Below are some questions for reflection in each area of the
ALIFETM model. They can be used for conversation, journaling, or
daily reflection, and we encourage our readers to share them with lead-
ers to deepen their understanding and commitment to leading authen-
tically, courageously, intentionally, and producing amazing results.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
AUTHENTICITY
• When I’m experiencing “life is at its best,” what am I able to

notice about how I’m feeling, what I’m doing, what’s happening
around me?
• If I could hear others eulogize me at my funeral, for what
would I want to be remembered and how would I want to be
described?
• What talents or abilities do I possess, that, when I’m applying
them, I feel a sense of rightness or wholeness?
LEADERSHIP
• Who lives in my memory or imagination as examples of great

leadership? What qualities do those leaders embody?
• What am I able to notice about my own experiences as a follower?
Are there universal principles of leading that inspire others to
follow?
• What do I stand for? Do I hold key values that could form the
basis for a leadership agenda?
INTENTIONALITY
• When I reflect on possibilities, is there a particular future that I

could be committed to creating?
• What do I know about my key stakeholders? What do they want/
need from me?
• If I’m feeling thwarted or bogged down, what do I know about
the obstacles to success?
• What would it take for me to declare an intention, find support
for fulfilling it, and stay committed to it?
FEAR/COURAGE
• Am I able to recognize where fear lives in my body? Am I able

to recognize when I’m afraid?
• What do I know about my own defensive habits? Are there
patterns I follow when I’m afraid?
• Am I able to recollect episodes from my own history when I suc-
cessfully converted fear into courage? What allowed me to shift?
EXECUTION
• Is it possible that I am my own source of interference? In what

way? Are there actions in which I need to stop engaging in order
to be more effective?
• What do I know about my own sources of resistance and
avoidance? Might there be actions that I need to initiate that I
have been procrastinating?
• Are there actions I have not taken because I am insufficiently
competent? What might I need to learn?
NOTE
1. David Whyte, “The Th ree Marriages: Work, Self and Other” (presenta-
tion, Georgetown University Coaching Reunion, Sterling, VA, 2005).
CHAPTER 17
BEHAVIORAL PRACTICES
MADE SIMPLE
SCOTT EBLIN
IN ESSENCE, OUR PRIMARY FUNCTION as leadership coaches is to

help our clients make behavioral changes to achieve new or different
results. Of course, we can’t do this for our clients; we can only help
them identify and stay on the path to get there. Like coaches in other
fields of life, we can increase the likelihood of success for our clients by
structuring and making the most of practice. In our case, the practice
focuses on behavior.
The idea of getting better through behavioral practice goes back to
at least the ancient Greeks. They had a word “praxis,” which, roughly
translated, means the act of becoming a certain way by doing the spe-
cific things that someone who is known for that characteristic regularly
does. For instance, if your goal was to be more loving, you would come
up with a list of loving behaviors and do a few of those things every
day. Eventually, you would actually be more loving.
Aristotle captured this idea in a nutshell when he said, “We are
what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”
(http://www.quotationsbook.com). Breaking a goal down into dis-
crete, tangible behavioral practices is not a practice that is exclusive
to Western thought, however. The Japanese manufacturing process of
kaizen relies on the same idea. It’s based on the principle of continuous
improvement through small steps.
One of the greatest coaches of all time, the late UCLA basketball
coach John Wooden, applied the same principle in leading his teams to
178 | SCOTT EBLIN
ten NCAA championships. In explaining how he consistently turned

green freshmen into national champions, Wooden said, “When you
improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. Seek the small
improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens, and
when it happens, it lasts” (http://www.hoopsu.com/99-wisdoms-from-
wooden).1
So, there’s a lot of heavy-duty philosophical and experiential
grounding in behavioral practices. Interestingly, all of that insight can
be found on the back of a shampoo bottle on the part of the label that
says, “Lather, rinse, and repeat.” In its simplest form, that’s all a behav-
ioral practice is—doing something like lathering up, rinsing it out to
observe and learn from the effect, and then repeating the process until
you own it. If a leader does that often enough, ideally with some help-
ful guidance from a coach, then, voilà, she’s the proud owner of a new
habit that helps her achieve a different result.
THE SCHOOL OF REAL LIFE

It can be that simple and, these days, most likely needs to be. One of
my primary observations in over a decade of executive coaching is that
leaders have more and more on their plate every year. The economic
and technological realities of the marketplace require them to do more
with less and do it faster. More often than not, their calendars are
racked and stacked with very little white space between commitments.
As much as we would like for that not to be the case, that’s the real-
ity for most of our clients. To help them at all, we have to meet them
where they are and make it as easy as possible for them to get started
with the behavioral practices that will have the biggest impact on the
results they’re trying to achieve.
A solid behavioral practice, therefore, will rely on what’s going on
in our client’s calendar. Indeed, most likely they have to do all of the
stuff on their calendar (at least that’s the assumption they start from).
You may therefore want to ask your client, “If you’re going to do all of
the stuff on your calendar anyway, why don’t we look for one or two
habits you can practice in your daily life that will help make you an even
more effective leader in achieving the results you’re trying to get?”
There are a couple of points I want to make about the way I framed
that question. The first is that you probably noticed I used the word
“habits” rather than the term “behavioral practice.” That’s because I
think we have to do everything we can as coaches to avoid using “coach
speak” with our clients. Busy people with a lot on their plates are turned
off by jargon. As coaches, we have to make our language accessible and
BEHAVIORAL PRACTICES MADE SIMPLE | 179
easy to understand. The second point regarding the question is embed-

ded in the way it ends—“achieving the results you’re trying to get.”
Busy people usually need to understand the payoff immediately before
they agree to take on additional work. A behavioral practice cannot be
an end in itself. To matter to our client, it has to be a means to an end.
That’s why it’s so important to tie the practice to the results the client
wants to achieve.
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that all of the above can sound
really tactical and small ball. On first blush, it doesn’t seem to address
the more transformative outcomes we’d love to see for our clients. That
might be true, but remember the words of Coach Wooden, “When you
improve a little each day, eventually big things occur.” We have to meet
our clients where they are, and that usually means addressing their
most immediate and obvious pain points. We can do this by guiding
them into practices forming the habits that will help them with their
biggest challenges. Th is is what I call coaching in the school of real life.
If we help our clients master the little things that will help them right
away, there’s a good chance they’ll form the habits that will eventually
lead to bigger, transformative results. We all have to start somewhere,
so let’s start with helping our clients use their calendars as an opportu-
nity to try some new things that will make a difference and help them
learn in the school of real life.
FIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF
AN EFFECTIVE BEHAVIORAL PRACTICE
If there were an overarching principle of helping a client to identify an

effective behavioral practice, it would have to be to keep it simple. If
clients can’t remember the practice, they won’t do it. Simplicity, there-
fore, rules. To break this down a little further, here are five character-
istics of effective behavioral practices:
1. They involve doing something on a regular basis. There’s a reason

that the first word in the term is “behavioral.” An effective
practice requires the client to actually do something different.
The strong assumption is they’ll have to do it on a regular basis
over a period of time. That’s how habits are formed. If they
don’t follow through, nothing will change. One of our primary
functions as coaches is to encourage clients to follow through
and learn something in the process.
2. Other people can see them. Since behavioral practices involve
doing something different over time in the school of real life, the
180 | SCOTT EBLIN
client’s colleagues should be able to see what the client is doing

differently. This takes practices such as journaling off the list.
That practice might have great reflective value for the client, but
no one else is going to see that.
3. They are simple, practical, and immediately applicable. One
way to determine if a behavioral practice meets the principle of
simplicity is to check whether the client considers it practical
and immediately applicable to the work that must be done every
day. If the practice doesn’t seem practical and applicable, a busy
leader is unlikely to follow through on practicing it long enough
to build a new habit.
4. They are easy to do and likely to make a difference. It’s actually
possible to graph whether or not a behavioral practice meets the
criteria of simplicity, practicality, and applicability. Here’s how
to do it.
a. Label the vertical axis “Easy to Do.”
b. Label the horizontal axis “Likely to Make a Difference.”
c. The scale for both axes is low to high.
We want to help our clients come up with practices that they
consider to be in the upper right hand corner of the graph—
highly easy to do and highly likely to make a difference.
Experience shows that those are the practices on which busy
people are going to follow through.
5. Less is more. One of the benefits of using the approach of easy
to do and likely to make a difference is that it helps clients build
some “quick win” momentum that gives them the confidence
and foundation to take on more challenging practices later.
Reinforce that momentum by insisting that your clients limit
themselves to one or two new practices at a time. Less is more.
They’ll make a lot more progress by going deep on one or two
new behaviors than by trying to spread their time and attention
across five or six practices. If you want, keep a list of things to
get to later, but sequence the work. Busy leaders will likely need
your help with that.
REAL LIFE EXAMPLES THAT SHOW HOW IT WORKS
By now you may be thinking, “OK, principles and characteristics are

all well and good, but how does the simple approach to behavioral
practices work in real life?” I’ll share a couple of real-world examples
(with names changed to protect client confidentiality) to illustrate the
points I’ve made so far.
SUE’S STORY
The first story is about a project manager named Sue. When I coached
her, she was leading a team working on a $20 million project that
was deep red on a green, yellow, red status reporting system. When
I conducted a 360-degree assessment for Sue, one of her lowest rated
behaviors from her direct reports was “Demonstrates an understand-
ing of the effect of his/her comments and actions on the morale of
the organization and makes appropriate choices.” In the open-ended
comments part of the report, a few direct reports mentioned that Sue
was basically “Debbie Downer” in the weekly project status meetings.
It didn’t matter if there were some things that were going right; Sue
focused primarily on the things that were going wrong. As a result, the
morale of the project team was in the basement.
To her credit, Sue owned the feedback. With my encouragement,
she shared the results of her 360-degree assessment with her team and
asked: “What could anyone who was working on doing a better job of
managing the impact of their comments on group morale do to be bet-
ter?” The team had a lot of ideas, but the one that really stuck and that
Sue agreed to follow through on got her team involved in the process.
Sue and her team agreed that if she started to become totally nega-
tive in a project meeting, the team members were allowed to hold up
three fingers as a sign that she was doing it again. (We all agreed that
three fingers were better than one particular finger!) In the first couple
of weeks of this practice, Sue was surprised by how often she saw the
three-fingered salute. In the next couple of weeks, Sue noticed that
she wasn’t getting the sign as often. She also noticed that the meetings
were improving. Encouraged by that, she started thinking before the
meetings about positive points she wanted to emphasize in addition
to calling out the problems that needed to be solved. The team started
participating more. Ideas flowed. After a few months, there was no
need for the signal from the team. Was the practice easy to do? Yes,
definitely. Did it make a difference? Apparently so. By the end of Sue’s
six-month coaching engagement, the project status was green, and her
team gave her much higher scores on her overall and behavioral effec-
tiveness in a follow-up survey.
BOB’S STORY
Another story comes from a senior manager named Bob. Trained as an

engineer, Bob was the kind of manager who really wanted to get into
the details. In his 360-degree assessment, he scored low on most of the
behaviors that a micromanager would score low on.
182 | SCOTT EBLIN
As I did with Sue, I asked Bob to follow up with his team to learn
more about what was going on. He reported back to me that one of
the things that came up more than once was the frequency of what
his team had come to call V-Bobs. It turned out that a V-Bob was the
name for the version of a PowerPoint deck or a memo that Bob would
send back to his team after he had reviewed it and made comments. It
was not uncommon for a revised deck or memo to get up to V-Bob.5 on
the way to a final product. He was driving his team crazy.
Fortunately, Bob realized that there were many downsides to this
and was willing to work on changing his ways. In a follow-up coach-
ing conversation, I asked him how many V-Bobs he thought he sent
out in an average week. His guess was five or six. I asked him what
he thought a reasonable weekly limit would be. His answer was two. I
then said, “So, how about we get your team in on this. What if you told
them that for every V-Bob over two a week that you’ll put twenty-five
dollars in a team party pot that will pay out three months from now?
You could still have multiple V-Bobs a week, it would just cost you
twenty-five bucks for every V-Bob over two.” I could hear Bob gulping
over the phone as he said, “How about five bucks?” With a chuckle, I
told him five bucks wasn’t enough; it had to be a big enough number
to make him ask: “Is this worth it?” He said he’d have to run it by his
wife. She gave her OK, and Bob let his team in on the deal.
Every week for the next three months, his team was waiting for
the third V-Bob of the week and jokingly goading him to send one.
He never did. The practice of asking himself, “Is this worth twenty-
five bucks?” changed his behavior. In the process, Bob learned that his
team actually operated pretty well without so much of his input. With
the time he freed up by not writing V-Bobs, he got involved in some
cross-functional initiatives that made a difference for the company and
strengthened his profi le as an organizational leader. And, by the way,
he threw a party for his team a few months later even though he never
had to put twenty-five bucks in the pot.
SOME BEHAVIORAL PRACTICE BEST PRACTICES
There are some best practices embedded in the Sue and Bob stories that
can help make just about any behavioral practice more effective:
CALL IT OUT
Leaders don’t work in a vacuum; they work in a system including

other people. For behavioral practices to make the biggest possible
difference they have to be noticed by the other people in the system.

Whenever I have clients who don’t agree with the conclusions of a
360-degree feedback report or who start justifying why they do what
they do, I’ll usually let them vent for a while and then say, “Everything
you’re saying may be right, but the fact is their perception is your real-
ity. For you to be fully effective, you’re going to have to change their
perception.” One of the most effective ways for leaders to do that is
to tell people what they’re working on and then ask for their help.
Perception change almost always lags behind actual behavior change.
We can help our clients accelerate the rate of change on both fronts by
encouraging them to name the behavior they want to change (often
based on 360-degree feedback from colleagues) and then asking col-
leagues to watch for (or observe) the behavior change.
GET COLLEAGUES INVOLVED
As coaches, we have a limited perspective on how our clients actually

show up day in and day out on the job. That’s why it’s so important that
clients get their colleagues involved in helping them follow through on
their behavioral intentions. With a little guidance from us professional
coaches, clients can develop a cadre of peer coaches at work who can
provide ideas on the behavioral practices that would make a difference
and keep our clients honest in following through on their intentions.
MAKE IT FUN
Life is too short to not have a little fun. A behavioral practice does
not have to be a superserious slog in order to be effective. In fact, it’s
probably not going to be effective if it is a slog. One of the real gifts
we as coaches can bring to the process of changing behavior is to help
make it fun. Adults of a certain age likely remember reading Highlights
magazine in the waiting room of the doctor’s office when they were a
kid. The slogan of Highlights was “Fun with a purpose.” Those are good
watchwords for us as we help our clients identify and follow through
on behavioral practices.
SUMMARY
I’ve been using the simple approach to behavioral practices for over
six years as I write this and have the metrics to prove that it works.
In follow-up 360-degree surveys for over 500 clients that are com-
ing to the end of a six- to seven-month coaching engagement, over
184 | SCOTT EBLIN
85 percent of their colleagues agree that the leader was significantly

more effective in the behaviors worked on. The average assessed
change in behavioral effectiveness is 53 percent of the maximum on
the assessment scale.
As Coach Wooden might say, if we support our clients in accom-
plishing little things each day, eventually big things occur.
NOTE
1. John Wooden was basketball coach at UCLA for 27 years, from 1948 to
1975.
CHAPTER 18
COACHING IN ORGANIZATIONS
RANDY CHITTUM
IN THE SAME WAYS THAT COACHES and clients come in all shapes
and sizes, the environments in which coaching occurs are all different.
For the sake of discussion, there is a distinction that needs to be drawn.
The first type of coaching is “life” coaching. This type of coaching is
more likely to focus on the client’s life ambitions, which may or may
not be related to work, career, and leadership success. The second type
of coaching is “organizational,” or “leadership” coaching, and it is the
focus of this chapter.
It is a misnomer to suggest that life coaches and their clients do not
deal with living and working in systems and organizations. It is simi-
larly misleading to suggest that leadership coaches do not deal with
“life” and issues greater than the role of leadership. That said, for the
coach whose expressed interest is in coaching in organizations, there
are implications beyond mastering the art and skill of coaching. This
coach must also give due diligence to understanding organizational
systems in general, and the client’s system in particular.
This chapter attempts first to outline and discuss some of the con-
siderations of coaching leaders in organizations, and second to address
some of the issues related to entry or contracting.
ISSUES RELATED TO WORKING IN ORGANIZATIONS

ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS
Coaches, like the leaders being coached, are subject to the power-
ful influences of organizational systems. By their nature, systems are
186 | RANDY CHITTUM
complex and nuanced and often serve primarily the continued survival
of the system. Social psychologists led by Lewin, argue that we con-
sistently and significantly underestimate the impact of the environ-
ment on our behavior. This is called fundamental attribution error. I
would suggest that coaches, with our focus and even fascination with
the person, could be especially ignorant of our tendency to err in this
way. In organizational development parlance, there is the notion of
being “co-opted” by the system. When someone becomes co-opted,
she begins to unknowingly act in ways that are consistent with system
influences and expectations. She is likely unaware of this co-opting
process because of its very power. It speaks to our desire to fit in and to
be accepted, among other things. Coaches who work in organizations
can be co-opted and may be likely to underestimate the power of the
system and environment on their clients.
ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS
Bolman and Deal (1984) suggest that to understand an organization,

four perspectives must be considered. The first is structural. Most
organizations have an organizational structure that details reporting
relationships, roles and responsibilities, authority and so forth. For the
novice, there can be a temptation to stop at the structural understand-
ing. It all seems so clear and easy to understand when you print the
strategic plan, business plan, and organization chart! The coach with
deeper distinctions about organizations will understand that this lens,
although useful, is far from a complete picture.
The second perspective is the political. Simply defined as competition
for scarce resources, politics are an important part of how organizations
work. Who has budget authority? Who makes decisions about resource
allocation? How are alliances formed and utilized? Where is there missing
transparency in the organization and who benefits and who is harmed?
What topics are off limits, and with whom? These types of questions will
help you understand the political landscape of an organization.
The third perspective is human resources. Th is perspective addresses
how people are tended to. How are employees recruited and hired?
How are they oriented and trained? Evaluated? Rewarded? What is
the philosophy of succession and development? What is the stated
goal related to diversity and what is the reality? How are employees
treated formally (benefits, policies, and procedures)? How are employ-
ees treated by managers?
Finally, understanding an organization requires attention to the
culture or spirit of the organization. What stories are told that create
COACHING IN ORGANIZATIONS | 187
a sense of organizational identity? What rituals and celebrations exist

and what do they teach us about what the organization truly values?
For example, what would it tell you if a “performance-based” culture
celebrated only longevity? Reading organizational culture takes a great
deal of mindfulness and time in the organization.
The leadership coach in an organization may not have to fully
diagnose the organization in the ways described earlier. However, the
basic distinctions are important because this is the world in which you
work. Given our tendency for fundamental attribution error, it seems
even more important that we acknowledge the sway of the systems in
which our clients work.
TEAMS
Teams are ubiquitous in today’s organizations. You can almost cer-

tainly expect that any leader you coach will both be a part of a team,
and probably lead a team, if not more than one. The extensive use of
teams has aided organizations to be more effective through better use
of human capital and more clear opportunities to strategically align
efforts. However, being a leader or member of a team increases the level
of complexity. There are several important distinctions to notice when
working with leaders in the context of a team-based environment.
The first issue is that leading a team is different than leading a group
of individuals, more commonly thought of as a functional department,
or perhaps a working group. A team implies shared purpose and inter-
dependence. The strength of teamwork is found when synergy is created,
thereby making the team greater than the sum of its parts. Therefore,
leading a team is dramatically different from leading a collection of peo-
ple. The team leader has to have the capability to balance declarations with
consensus, manage relationships among others, enroll others in a shared
vision, and manage planning processes. Also, since the work of teams
happens through meetings, the leader of teams should be a skilled facili-
tator, with a strong understanding of group dynamics and processes.
The second issue to consider is that teams are sometimes com-
pensated differently. Team members may be rewarded for individual
performance and for team performance and success. Managing com-
pensation and rewards is a unique and perhaps necessary skill for the
leader of teams.
ORGANIZATION INITIATIVES
When you enter an organization, you may find yourself in the middle
of any number of organizational initiatives. In fact, you may be there
188 | RANDY CHITTUM
to help a leader engage in one or more of those initiatives. Some of the

more common possibilities are listed here.
Strategic planning is a common organizational effort that con-
sumes much energy from leaders. You may encounter leaders who are
immersed in that process. Having broader strategic vision is one of the
most cited developmental needs for leaders, particularly those who are
being developed for more senior leadership positions. Strategic plan-
ning processes are often a wonderful time to be coaching because it
is all about creating a new future, which coincides nicely with most
coaching philosophies. It is also an interesting time to be coaching
because it is often stressful for the leader, giving you a glimpse into how
the leader handles stress.
Succession planning is becoming ever more popular as organiza-
tions realize that the demographics of retiring leaders do not support
the need for long-term leadership at the very top levels of the organiza-
tion. Many organizations are preparing for the expected competition
for leaders as current leaders retire. The most likely intersection for
the coach is that you may be coaching a leader who is in a succession
management program. This coaching may not vary significantly from
coaching a leader who is not in a succession management program. The
possible sources of interference include the awareness of greater evalu-
ation by senior leaders, the potential feeling of competition between
leaders, and the desire to impress decision makers.
It seems that organizations are in constant change, some planned
and some not. Leaders today must excel at leading change efforts. It is
likely that the leader you are coaching is either responsible for, or influ-
enced by, or both, a significant change effort. The midst of this uncer-
tainty presents great opportunities for coaching. Some would argue
that leading in change is the best test of leadership. As the coach, you
get to see the client in all sorts of challenging situations. It will be in
your best interests to have some distinctions about managing organi-
zational change.
ASSESSMENTS
One of the great benefits of coaching in organizations is that you have

ready access to feedback about the client. It may take the form of past
performance reviews, or leadership assessments that you might do or
others might have already done. It is increasingly popular to do a ver-
bal 360 review in which the coach interviews direct reports and other
people in key relationships with the client. All this data is available to
the coach and client. There is a danger in thinking that what you hear
from a client while sitting in his/her office is the whole picture. The
leadership coach often needs additional information to be effective.
For example, I have had many clients who had stories or mental mod-
els that limited what they could notice. What clients notice is often
significantly impacted by his/her beliefs. In one case a client was com-
pletely convinced that he listened well and made others feel included.
As he described his view, I found it very compelling, in part because of
the conviction of his beliefs. Had I not looked other places for contrary
data I might have headed down a less fruitful path. Th is client was
shocked to hear that others did not share his view of his listening skill
and quickly became committed to improving.
Many organizations have leadership competency models that have
been developed to paint a picture of the effective leader in that organi-
zation. Competency models are often the framework used for promo-
tion and hiring, performance reviews, and compensation. Competency
models are behavior-based, researched models that typically explain
the difference between very high performers and average performers.
The behavioral evaluation is often multirater, or 360 in nature. It is
an excellent opportunity for leaders to learn how others perceive their
leadership on a variety of dimensions. The organizational implication is
to get more people to behave more like the high performers. For those
reasons, they can be of great importance to the person being coached.
Although the idea of such a model has an appeal, there is a poten-
tial downside. To the extent that the model becomes that which the cli-
ent must become, possibilities are limited. There is much evidence that
truly effective leadership is an “inside-out” process. Coaching or teach-
ing to the model is the opposite, an “outside-in” process. Each coach
must find for him/herself the balance between using organizational
tools such as competency models and a more generative approach.
An organization may request that a leadership assessment be per-
formed using a standardized assessment tool. The advantage to this
method is that these assessments often provide a benchmark against
other leaders. Leaders often like to know how they “measure up.” It is
important when using a tool such as this that the client know exactly
what questions will be asked and of whom. It is beyond the scope of
this chapter to recommend specific assessment tools. Reliability and
validity studies should be readily available for the more reputable tools.
Perhaps most important, be sure to choose an instrument that will be
consistent with the organizational culture and will speak to the client.
The reports are usually very formal, with lots of graphs and data
to be absorbed. It may take both coach and client some time to ascer-
tain the implications of such a report. There is one word of caution
190 | RANDY CHITTUM
when using these tools. Clients can sometime assign great importance
to these reports, in part because they look so official. Be mindful that
they are one view into one aspect of a very complex person!
There is ample, and growing, evidence to suggest that there is
greater leverage in focusing on developing a few clear strengths as
opposed to trying to develop every possible dimension of leadership.
For example, Zenger and Folkman (2002) in The Extraordinary Leader
write, “Our research has led us to conclude that great leaders are not
defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear
strengths.”1 They go on to say that 84 percent of the leaders they stud-
ied have no clear weaknesses but are not perceived to be strong leaders.
This is a very important concept to discuss when debriefing a leader-
ship feedback report. I find that leaders are generally fi rst interested
in improving in areas of weakness and find the “strengths” movement
counter-intuitive.
ISSUES RELATED TO ENTRY AND CONTRACTING

ACCOUNTABILITY
The coach in an organization quickly learns the importance of trans-

parency around accountability. Consider the possible complexity of a
coach hired by the human resources officer, to work with the leader
of a division, who reports to a vice president. For whom do you work?
Who is your real client? It is naïve to assume that you work only for
the person you are coaching. Organizations invest in coaching with the
expectation of seeing a positive result. You and your client are bound
by those expectations.
I have recently heard organizations defi ned as “collections of agree-
ments.” This is one place where the coach can be a good role model for
establishing clear agreements. What constitutes that agreement will
differ for each of us, based on our need for certainty and our coaching
offer.
One school of thought is total transparency. Meet with everyone
at once and clarify the relationships and expectations. Clarify your role
with each person so that all are clear. Be especially careful to reach
an agreement about confidentiality. You can make any agreement you
want, but make sure it is clear, transparent, and that you honor it. I
generally try to make the agreement that the only way I will discuss the
coaching is if the person being coached is in the room at the time. Th is
provides some assurance to the person being coached that he/she will
always be aware of any discussions of his/her performance.
Finally, here are two specific words of caution. First, be very care-
ful of being used by the boss to deliver news that he/she was unwilling
to deliver. In addition to leaving the person being coached more effec-
tive, I would like to leave the relationship with her boss more effective.
That is best accomplished by helping the client and supervisor learn
how to have a meaningful and truthful dialogue. Second, beware of
being asked to fi x “broken” clients. My experience, and that of most
coaches I know, is that this is a risky proposition. The temptation to
help is strong. The danger is rooted in the possibility that this person
has essentially already failed and you are the last effort to prove that
the person cannot be “fi xed.” The timelines for change may be unrea-
sonable. The possibilities are severely limited. The emotions are often
so overwhelming that purposeful, future-based coaching can hardly
occur at all.
The story of one of my very fi rst coaching clients comes to mind.
I was hired by the board to coach the executive director of a nonprofit
organization. Her performance had suffered for years and a frustrated
board had reached the point of bringing in outside help. Convinced I
could help, I agreed to the six-month window for her to show “signifi-
cant improvement.” Unclear as to what that meant, she and I moved
heroically down the path of self-discovery. Six months later the board
deemed her cured and all was well. Three months after the coaching
engagement ended she was fired. What I failed to understand was the
extent to which the “coaching” had deteriorated into “managing per-
ceptions.” Although this felt and looked good at the time, six months
was not long enough for her to recover emotionally and make signifi-
cant transformative change.
OUTCOMES
Today’s organizations want to measure everything. The mantra seems to

be, “that which is measured, gets done.” This organizational edict may
wend its way to your coaching relationships. You may be asked to dem-
onstrate ROI, or speak to how the organization will benefit from your
coaching presence. In fairness, remember that the organization does not
exist to provide you with opportunities to coach! They are rightly inter-
ested in how you can help them to achieve their organizational mission,
through enhanced leadership capacity. This is another area in which
there is no right answer. You will have to determine what your coaching
offer means in light of expressed goals on the part of the organization.
Here are a few things to consider. How will you respond if the
desired goals do not match up with the client’s interests? What if the
192 | RANDY CHITTUM
client is seriously considering leaving the organization? Knowing that

transformative work involves the client exploring new possibilities and
reaching his/her own conclusions, how will you proceed if those possi-
bilities will take the client further from the organization’s stated objec-
tives? How will you respond to the internal pull to “teach to the test?”
Your responses to these, and other questions like these, should be part
of your offer and discussed up front. The ultimate question at stake here
is, “Who is my client?” If my client is the person I am coaching, I will
likely respond one way. If my client is the organization, I may respond
differently. The most harmful wrong answer is to not have an answer
in advance.
The organization into which you enter will have an assessment of
the value of coaching long before you arrive. That assessment might
include how open one should be about having a coach; in other words,
whether it is a bad thing to have a coach or a good thing to have a
coach. Either assessment will open certain possibilities for the coach-
ing and close down others. I have found it useful to explore this issue
early in the relationship, often in contracting. Some of that exploration
is factual—how many leaders in this organization have coaches? For
what reasons are coaches typically hired? What have been the out-
comes of the last three or four coaching engagements? Some of that
exploration is emotional—how does it feel to have a coach? How do
you imagine feeling if others know you have a coach?
CONCLUSION
This chapter has likely raised more questions than it has answered.
One key issue is being clear about who you are as a coach and about
your coaching offer. Another is to stay mindful of the organization
and its influence on you and your client. Chris Argyris is noted for,
among other things, his writings about “espoused theory” and “theory
in action.” He suggests that we have two theories, the one we state
to the public and likely believe, and the one that actually guides our
actions. I believe that these differences are explained in large part by
the power of the environment. Beyond your own mindfulness, I find
it useful to have coaching partners with whom I confidentially share
coaching experiences. Sometimes the brilliant insight to which I seem
blind is right there in front of me.
Coaching leaders in organizations is a rich and rewarding expe-
rience. This coaching allows for the opportunity to use context and
backdrop to enhance the coaching relationship. The opportunities for
significant learning are endless.
NOTE
1. Zenger and Folkman, The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers
into Great Leaders, 20.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Argyris, Chris and Donald A. Schon. Theory in Practice. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass, 1974.
Bolman, Lee and Terrence Deal. Modern Approaches to Understanding and
Managing Organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1984.
Lewin, Kurt. A Dynamic Theory of Personality. New York: McGraw-Hill,
1935.
Zenger, John and Joseph Folkman. The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good
Managers into Great Leaders. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002, 20.
CHAPTER 19
MOVING THE CLIENT

FORWARD: DESIGNING
EFFECTIVE ACTIONS
FRANK BALL AND BETH BLOOMFIELD
AS COACHES OF LEADERS, we are quite skilled and practiced in

building rapport with our leader/clients, asking penetrating ques-
tions, listening deeply, and understanding our clients and the worlds
in which they live. When we’re with them, great things often happen.
A new distinction is seen, a helpful insight is grasped, and the leader
can often begin to write a new story for himself during the meet-
ing. Powerful though those interactions may be, the question remains,
“how do we keep the momentum moving forward between sessions?”
One of the most critical skills of a coach is the ability to design
effective, purposeful activities for clients to engage in between coach-
ing sessions. Th is is how the coach helps the client continue to move
the action forward when the coach isn’t there. If our work with our
leader/clients is to be more than the sum of the individual meetings,
we need to think beyond those conversations.
In this chapter we introduce a process to link the coach’s assess-
ment of the client’s current state and coaching goals to specific activi-
ties to help close the gap between them. We also explore five specific
types of activities coaches can ask their clients to engage in between
coaching sessions, during the middle part of the coaching “Life Cycle.”
We define and describe each activity in turn, provide examples, and
show how they produce the desired results. These activities are unique
196 | FRANK BALL AND BETH BLOOMFIELD
Beginning Middle End
Up-front work Program design The coaching itself Closing
Contracting • Current state During the Session: • Pre/Postcoaching

• Duration • Goals/Objectives • Purposeful conversations comparisons
• Frequency • Grounded • Immediate concerns • Action plan
• Payment assessments • Exploring the story • Next steps
• Agreements • Format • Staying in the question • Evaluation of program
• Other terms • Timeline • Models, tools, role-plays, • Feedback for coach
• Conditioning etc. • Ritual/gifts
Rapport & Trust • Methodologies • Congruence of mind,
Building body, emotions
• “Intake” • Reviewing commitments
• The Story • Results of insights;
learnings
• Feedback for coach and
Investigating client
• Presenting • Recontracting/new
issues agreements
• Assessment • Noticing & offering
instruments distinctions
• Interviews Between Sessions:
• Workplace • Inquiry
observations • Self-observations
• Practices
• Exercises
• Resources (books,
poems, videos, etc.)
• Structures of support
(day planners, exercise
buddies, etc.)
Figure 19.1 The flow of coaching

Source: ©Frank Ball & Beth Bloomfield
to coaching and distinguish the skillful coach from those whose impact
is more limited.
In the “Life Cycle” of coaching every coaching engagement has
a beginning, a middle, and an end (figure 19.1). If you think of the
beginning only as contracting, intake, investigating, and rapport
building, you’ll miss an important opportunity to be purposeful and
intentional in your coaching through design of an individual coaching
program using coaching-specific activities. Why should you as a lead-
ership coach be thinking in terms of a “program” for your leader/client?
Working programmatically provides structure to the engagement, ties
the coaching to measurable outcomes, and places coaching in a systems
context—all important aspects of coaching leaders in organizations.
THE ELEMENTS OF PROGRAM DESIGN

We can identify five key characteristics of a well-designed coaching
program for a leader/client:
MOVING THE CLIENT FORWARD | 197
• Purposefulness: “Begin with the end in mind.”

• Rigor : This makes possible purposeful conversations (versus
merely interesting).
• Impact : Purposeful conversations are what give coaching its
impact and distinguish it from other approaches to personal and
professional development for leaders.
• Consistency: Through the rigor of good design, you achieve
consistent results for the leader.
• Breakthrough results: Good design is the only way you can be sure
of getting breakthrough out of “breakdown.”
Program design is done together by coach and leader/client, in a

process of “co-creation.” Both work together to describe the leader’s
current state, using the information and insight derived from the up-
front work of investigation and assessment (whether through means of
formal assessment instruments or a more organic process of inquiry).
As a coach, you help the leader see “the way things are,” focusing espe-
cially on what’s missing and what’s getting in the way of the leader
reaching his goals. The leader has the prerogative of describing his
own desired end state, although the coach can help ensure that the
goals are realistic and attainable, while at the same time big enough
to stretch the leader and build his capacity for continuing growth and
development.
Out of this work, the coach must formulate theories or working
hypotheses for why the leader is who he is, why he behaves as he does,
and how change might happen for him. These are actually “grounded
assessments” of where the gaps are between current state and desired
outcome. As the coach, you may choose to make these assessments
together with the leader or keep them to yourself until later on in the
coaching process, if you assess that the leader’s tolerance for hearing
potentially unwelcome news is low. In that case, part of your work will
be to increase his capacity for receiving feedback, however unfl attering
to his ego. We should add that our preference is for direct communi-
cation with the leader/client from the beginning of the engagement;
a key coaching competency is delivering feedback and well-grounded
assessments in a way that is respectful, useful, and kind.
Up until this point, we have been working with the “what” of the
individual coaching program design. Now we will move to the “how”—
how are you, the coach, going to help the leader/client bridge the gaps?
This is where the design of effective actions is integrated into the struc-
ture of the overall coaching program. Key elements of this part of the
design include those that mainly involve your effort as the coach and
those that mainly involve the leader’s effort. The coach is responsible
for determining the sequencing of coaching-specific activities—what’s
the order, what are the milestones—and for conditioning the client—is
he “in shape” for coaching? If not, what actions will you request he take
to get himself ready for the hard work ahead?
The leader, on the other hand, is in charge of his own learning
style—what does he know about what works best for him, and how
does he communicate that to the coach? He is in the best position
to assess his own learning gradient—how quickly can he integrate
change? How steep is the slope? In addition, both coach and leader/
client should seek some early wins, to give them both a strong founda-
tion to build on as the coaching progresses.
With all these elements in mind, it’s up to the coach to plot a path-
way, using coach-specific methodologies, including learning activities
specific to coaching. It’s good practice to share the roadmap with your
client, and to invite his comment and reactions to it. That way, the coach-
ing process becomes more transparent and the coaching program you
have designed together becomes a touchstone that you can both return
to periodically to gauge your progress along the path, and if necessary,
to change your route. Remember the ultimate purpose of coaching is to
build capacity for learning and self-generation in the client.
DESIGNING ACTIONS
At last! You’re coaching! You have entered the middle phase of the
coaching engagement, and it’s time to put your program design to the
test. And now, also, you are called upon to supplement your power-
ful coaching conversations with some powerful activities for the leader
to use to continue and perhaps to accelerate her learning between ses-
sions. During the program design process, you should have thought
through the types of activities that you want to use, but the commit-
ments you ask the leader to make—whether you call them “homework”
or “fieldwork”—should be specific to the issues and concerns raised in
the coaching itself, and so may be difficult to anticipate ahead of time.
For that reason, most leadership coaches maintain a “toolkit” of
activities they can turn to and adapt to the particular needs of the
individual leader/client at that point in her coaching. We categorize
these activities, specific to the middle of coaching programs, into five
basic types:
• Self-observations
• Practices
• Inquiries
• Exercises
• Structures of support
SELF-OBSERVATIONS
To the extent that leadership coaching is about helping the leader see
differently so that he can then act differently, becoming able to observe
oneself more skillfully is the fi rst step leading to change (table 19.1).
This enhanced ability to observe oneself is also the source of the leader’s
ability to self-correct and is the ultimate source of sustained excellent
performance. Well-designed self-observations are a key tool coaches
use to take the first step of creating insights. We define them as:
A precisely defined set of observations that a client performs over

a period of time, whose purpose is to create self-awareness, pro-
vide grounded assessments for decision making, and build capac-
ity for self-correction.
Self-observations can be focused on either the leader’s interior land-

scape of thoughts and emotions or his exterior landscape of actions and
results. For example, the leader might be asked to notice his thoughts
and feelings when in certain situations. On the other hand, the leader
could be asked to notice the volume of his voice, his rate of speech,
posture, and gestures in certain situations. The intention is to focus the
leader’s attention on a place where he is not now focusing to bring new
things into his awareness.
Shifting and increasing awareness is the first step leading to change.
For example, if a client declares that he intends to lose weight this year
and doesn’t start to pay attention to what and how much he puts into
his mouth differently than before, it’s unlikely that he will lose weight.
The new practice of dieting is reinforced through observation of him-
self in action (what and how much he eats). Th rough observing himself
in action he develops the means to self-correct and self-manage in a
Table 19.1 Steps to create self-observations
1. Identify an opening or situation you want to know more about.

2. List questions on how you think, show up, and act in that situation.
3. Split yourself in halves: an observer and an actor.
4. In real life, have the observer watch the actor using one or more of the questions
in step 2.
5. Record what you observe and learn. Look for patterns and trends.
way that supports the change he has declared he wants to call into
being.
Details that contribute to the effectiveness of self-observations
include specifying times or occasions when the observations are to be
made. The leader/client will be asked to collect data over time. Th is is
where the practice of journaling comes in; the two support each other.
By keeping a record of his observations, the leader will be able to dis-
cern patterns and trends in his own behavior and what prompts it. Over
time the leader will be able to notice what works and what doesn’t, and
when he is effective and when he is not. Many of our leader/clients may
have difficulty slowing down enough to self-observe.
Often the coach will ask the leader to engage in a practice of “not
doing,” such as meditation, to slow the leader down and support the
self-observation.
PRACTICES
To the extent that self-observation leads to insight and new under-

standing, the next coaching-specific activities that build on this
learning are practices (table 19.2). They are focused on building the
leader’s ability to take effective actions through embodying the learn-
ing self-observations and other activities described in this chapter. A
practice is:
a behavior that is performed iteratively with the intention of

improving a quality or competence, and building automaticity
and transparency in the client.
Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent that

which is practiced.
In addition to building new capacities for effective actions within
our leader/clients, practice can also be used to interrupt the action or
cause a break in the leader’s automaticity. For example, a leader who is
working to include others more into her decision making may adopt a
Table 19.2 Steps to create practices
1. Gather data (observe).

2. Set a goal: What do you want to change, learn about, or deepen?
3. Create a practice to do often (at least daily).
4. Reflect periodically on what you’re learning.
5. Self-correct—fine-tune the practice or create a new one.
practice of asking “what do you think?” whenever a colleague presents

a problem needing resolution. By stopping her automatic response to
answer the question right away, the leader creates the possibility of
a different outcome. When accompanied with a self-observation to
notice when it is easy or difficult to engage in the practice, the leader
can learn more about those factors that affect her ability to act with
purposefulness and skillfulness. Practices and self-observations, then,
support each other.
Often in the beginning of the coaching relationship the coach may
ask the leader to begin one or more practices of self-care regardless of
any other practices agreed upon. These contribute to the process of get-
ting the leader into condition to be coached.
In contrast to self-observations that can focus on thoughts and
emotions as well as actions and results, practices usually involve the
domain of the body and have the leader doing something in the physi-
cal world. In a sense they can be thought of as the means through
which learning is made permanent through embodiment of the learn-
ing. This is what happens when you learn any new skill—playing the
piano, or tennis, or riding a bike—you can read or hear about it, you
can watch it being done, but not until you practice it repeatedly do you
build the muscle for it.
INQUIRIES
The capacity for reflective thought is a hallmark of an effective leader,

yet in today’s blur of events and activity, few of us have the opportunity
to engage in it. We hear repeatedly from our executive clients that
allowing themselves to pause for reflection is one of the great benefits
of coaching. Part of our role as coaches is to help them make the space
for reflection in their lives well past the conclusion of the coaching
engagement.
Inquiries are the tools we use to open up the leader for reflective
thought (table 19.3). We define an inquiry as:
an investigation of values and beliefs; moods and emotions;

behaviors and actions; connections and relationships; and social,
cultural, and historical contexts, in order to build awareness and
understanding of a client’s situation and ultimately to build the
client’s capacity for self-correction and self-generation.
Inquiries are questions coaches ask leaders to “sit with” between

coaching sessions and often over an extended period. One of the key
Table 19.3 Steps to create an inquiry
1. Identify an opening or situation you want to know more about.

2. List questions on how you and others show up, behave, and interact in that
situation.
3. Observe and ask, “What’s behind that?” (at least 3 times).
4. Record what you observe and learn. Look for patterns and trends.
5. Ask new questions.
elements of an inquiry is that its purpose is not so much for the leader
to find an answer to the question asked as it is to inhabit the question
in a way that heightens understanding. In some ways, asking a leader
to “sit with the question” is like a coach using silence during a coaching
session rather than speaking or asking. Much richness can arise when
the space is afforded for that possibility.
It has been our experience that people lose all their curiosity about
a thing (i.e., stop learning) when they think they have the answer. One
key, we’ve found, to the effectiveness and impact of an inquiry is to ask
the leader to avoid answering the question to permit new thoughts and
alternative explanations to surface.
EXERCISES
We have noticed a fair amount of confusion among both our leadership

coaching students and sometimes our executive clients about the use of
the term “exercise” as distinct from self-observation or practice. To be
clear, in the coaching context we view an exercise as having a specific
meaning stemming from its function; an exercise is:
a focused activity, finite in scope, that a client performs with the

purpose of gaining clarity or understanding, in preparation for (or
in support of) a shift in the client’s consciousness or behavior.
As distinct from practices, which are repeated over time, exer-

cises generally tend to be one-off activities used to provide the cli-
ent with new information or new understanding—clarity. Examples
include written exercises such as the “Future Self ” exercise described
in Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People toward Success in
Work and Life1 or a “Day in the Life” written exercise.
STRUCTURES OF SUPPORT
Finally, we recognize one other category of activity, the creation or

adoption of what we call a structure of support (table 19.4), defined as:
Table 19.4 Creating a structure of support
• Who
• What
• When/how often
• Where
• How
A mechanism, object, social construct, or person(s) that supports

a client in putting new practices or behaviors in place.
Frequently, a structure of support builds in accountability for the

leader in staying with new practices and behaviors. Examples might
include calendars and planners, an exercise buddy or trainer, an assist-
ant, or a traditional support group. Some would say that hiring a coach
is a structure of support in itself!
Structures of support can be as simple as a post-it note on the com-
puter screen to remind the leader to self-observe or a sign on the desk
with “WAIT” written on it to remind him to ask “W hy Am I Talking?”
In our dieting example earlier in this chapter, attending weight watch-
ers meetings could be a structure of support for the client.
A FEW OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
It’s always best when the leadership coach and client can cocreate
the various activities the leader will commit to engage in between
sessions. There will be occasions, though, when the leader will be
so stuck in his story that he will not be able to imagine an exercise
that will yield a new insight or build the capacity to act in new, more
effective ways. The coach must be prepared to step in and design
an activity, using one of the five methods presented here, to get the
leader unstuck and moving forward with new eyes and new actions.
Moreover, even if you aren’t feeling particularly brilliant in the
moment, you can always promise to research and send one along soon
after the coaching session.
It’s important to be clear here that we are not advocating the use of
“tips and tools” in some sort of cookbook recipe for good and effective
coaching for leaders. Absent a fundamental grasp of the distinctions
of leadership coaching and some meaningful experience in their appli-
cation to real leaders with real coachable issues, the kinds of coaching
activities we describe here are little better than interesting diversions.
Coaching is both science and art, and the skillful practitioner brings
both to the design of coaching programs and actions that are unique
for each individual being coached.
What’s required is a thorough understanding of the mechanisms

at work in each type of coaching activity, and a dash of inspiration
that can come from virtually anywhere. Some of our favorite sources
of inspiration, beyond the ubiquitous self-help and business books,
include interview questions asked by thoughtful journalists, stories
told in novels or fi lms, metaphors suggested by poetry, and even games
played by children. Lightness and wonder help set the stage for learn-
ing, and both should inform your design of coaching activities for your
executive clients.
The five coaching-specific activities described earlier are often
combined to great effect. For example, a new leader/client might be
asked to complete the “Future Self ” exercise described in Co-Active
Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and
Life.2 Based on the results of that exercise, the coach might assign a
specific inquiry for the leader to sit with over time, collecting thoughts
and insights using a journal (a structure of support.) Based on the
insights gained through inquiry and journaling, the leader and coach
might codesign a series of practices and self-observations through
which the leader can build the capacity to take new, more eff ective
actions and observe himself in action in a way that permits self-cor-
rection and thereby sustained excellent performance. Finally, struc-
tures of support can assist the leader in the journey from where and
who they are now to where and who they aspire to become.
Something to consider is the gradient of the learning curve you are
asking your client to climb. Your leader/client is already living a life full
of other commitments, and anything you request he take on in support
of his learning and growth will be competing for space in an already very
full schedule. So one aspect of gradient is the quantity of the additional
work we ask our executive clients to do between coaching sessions.
The second aspect of gradient is the degree of difficulty of the activi-
ties we’re asking them to complete. For example, journaling or starting a
practice of seated meditation may be very easy for some clients and very
difficult for others. We must gauge our clients’ receptivity and readiness
to take on and be successful at those activities we assign them.
Likewise, it’s important to pause periodically, perhaps at mutu-
ally agreed milestones in the coaching engagement, to recalibrate the
program with the leader, to check your assessments about him, and if
necessary, to revise your design or change your planned activities and
methodologies.
Another consideration for the coach is to make sure that the activi-
ties you ask the leader to engage in address all domains of learning—
the cognitive, the emotional, and the body. This is especially important
if the client is dramatically underdeveloped in one or more of the

domains. Big breakthroughs are possible if the coach has the courage
to take the leader where he hasn’t spent much time before. Sometimes
it’s also easier to work in the less familiar domains because the person
is less well-defended there—his story that is keeping him stuck isn’t as
strongly entrenched there.
When asking leaders to engage in specified activities between
coaching conversations, the coach is wise to have them complete the
activities over an extended period before either adding more practices
or changing them. In the case of self-observations, for example, their
impact is much greater if the leader self-observes over an extended
period to allow for trends and inconsistencies to emerge. Using a journal
to capture those observations as they occur then provides a sound basis
for insight, learning, and growth. Although insight can occur in a fl ash
in “coaching time,” deep change of the sort coaching seeks to bring
about takes a long time and a lot of hard work to become permanent.
In a coaching relationship, growth and learning occur over time
in a way that is cumulative. One of the roles of the leadership coach, in
addition to designing and assigning great activities for the leader/client
to engage in between sessions, is to insure progress and accountability.
Coaches often dedicate a specific portion of their coaching ses-
sions to a check-in around the assignments since the last time they
met with their client. Key aspects of the discussion include whether
the assignment was done, what difficulty (ease) the leader experienced
in completing the assignment, what outcomes the leader achieved, and
what he learned about the topic, himself, or coaching. This conversa-
tion is where key learnings are identified, where the efficacy of assign-
ments can be measured, where course corrections can be made, and
where progress can be noticed and celebrated.
The coach and leader then have a sound basis to either drop,
modify, or continue the assigned between-session work to continue
the learning and growth experienced in the direction of the coaching
goals agreed upon at the beginning of the relationship. Th is process is
yet another way in which rigor is insured, and the leadership coaching
relationship is purposeful and not merely interesting.
NOTES
1. Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, and Phil Sandahl, Co-Active
Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People toward Success in Work and Life.
(Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black, 1998), 216–221.
2. Ibid.
CHAPTER 20
ASSESSMENTS FOR
INSIGHT, LEARNING, AND
CHOICE IN COACHING
SUE E. MCLEOD
YOU’VE PROBABLY HAD THE EXPERIENCE of coaching a leader

when you were sure that how they saw themselves wasn’t consistent
with their behavior or what you believed was authentic for them. These
people seem to be playing a role, or focus on their intentions—what
they meant to do, what they were thinking at the time, or the story
that they tell about themselves—rather than what actually happened.
Assessments can play an important role in generating self-awareness
in the leaders we coach, and provide information, beyond the leader’s
self-perceptions, that can be directly applied to their most challenging
situations.
As coaches, we create opportunities for new insights that open the
doors for improved performance and authentic leadership. Assessment
data can open new ways of thinking or behaving, by bringing to light
new information that the leader couldn’t see before. It can also affi rm
what the leader already knows, but thought was hidden or invisible to
others. It often provides a powerful mirror to allow the leader to say,
“Yes, that’s me” and to take more responsibility for his or her own behav-
ior and how it impacts the people and results of their organizations.
We seem to expect that leaders will be unaware of their weak-
nesses and the negative impacts they have on others. I have seen
this quite a bit in my experience. However, I’m always struck by the
208 | SUE E. MCLEOD
leaders who do not fully know their strengths and their natural gifts,
or appreciate how their gifts help to make them successful. By giv-
ing an objective and neutral perspective, assessments can be power-
ful tools for “accentuating the positive” as well as “eliminating the
negative.”
WHAT ARE ASSESSMENTS?
Assessments are, in general, information that assesses selected aspects

of the leader’s behavior, skills, performance, styles, or preferences. In
this chapter, I’ll refer to using the following types of assessments in
coaching1:
• Self-assessments of personality and style assessments that

indicate preferences for behaviors, thought patterns, attitudes,
or approaches under normal or stress situations. I’ll refer to the
results of these assessments as preferences. I like that language
because it implies choice and flexibility, which is what we’re
trying to engender in the leaders we coach.
• External assessments of behavior or results that use data from
sources other than the leader, such as 360-degree assessments
with data.
It’s important to note that these assessments are just that—assess-

ments. They are one view of the leader, from the leader’s own eyes or
from the eyes of selected others, created at a particular point in time
using a particular frame of reference. They are not “the truth,” they are
not the definition of the whole person, nor do they completely describe
the past or predict the future. Given that perspective, I take the results
seriously—they have meaning and are valuable—and hold them lightly,
especially when using them to create new actions in the future.
FROM “AUTOMATIC” TO CHOICE
In my coaching, I first want to understand the leader’s “automatic”

approach. “Automatic” is the way the leader reacts without advance
planning or thinking. For example, as an intuitive type, my automatic
response to new information is to ask, “Why is this important? What’s
new and different about this approach?” Someone with an automatic
approach that is more analytical might ask, “Where’s the proof that this
will work? What’s missing?” These are two very different responses to
hearing new information.
INSIGHT, LEARNING, AND CHOICE IN COACHING | 209
Once we understand the “automatic,” we start noticing whether it

works or not, or, more specifically, when it works and when it doesn’t.
For example, my automatic response doesn’t work well when the situa-
tion requires a critical eye for the details. The analytical approach may
not work well when it’s time to brainstorm creative, new approaches.
In situations where the automatic isn’t working, the leader and I
can turn our attention to new choices that might change the results.
Assessments are tools that can be used for each step of this proc-
ess. They tell us about the leader’s past and current behavior. They pro-
vide data about what the leader is doing well—what’s working—and
where the leader may have difficulties or challenges. They present this
information in an objective and neutral way, taking out the judgments
and negative (or positive) connotations that we associate with certain
traits. Assessments also give leaders new insights into how they are
seen by others. This can uncover the gap between their intentions and
the impact they are really having. Finally, many assessments provide a
well-researched conceptual model of human behavior that can be used
to generate new options for action.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
There is a wide variety of self-assessments on the market today, many

with strong research behind them. They measure many things—per-
sonality types, thinking style preference, values, leadership traits, criti-
cal thinking skills, emotional intelligence, body and energy patterns,
behavior patterns, and so on. The most effective assessments will be the
ones that you, as coach, can use effectively. Th is means you should be
trained or well studied in the conceptual model, have practice inter-
preting the results and applying it in the coaching context of creating
new awareness and new future behaviors.
The training and study in the assessments you use should prepare
you to introduce the assessment and interpret the results with the
leader. Here we focus on the coaching aspects—creating distinctions
and insights and finding openings for new actions.
INSIGHTS FOR THE LEADERS
What insights can you create for your leaders with these self-assess-
ments? First you can develop an understanding of their “automatic”
responses or behaviors. Some assessments even include measures of
responses to stress. In your coaching, explore the stories of how they
see their preferences day to day. Can they distinguish their preferences
210 | SUE E. MCLEOD
from the set of possible preferences in the assessment? Can they

describe and recognize the preferences of others? With your guidance,
they can understand the distinctions of styles, types, or preferences in
the conceptual model behind the assessment.
Another insight to create for leaders is how their automatic prefer-
ences translate to behavior. You want them to “see” their preferences
in action, so they can recognize their behavior when it happens. For
example, understanding how I process information gave me more
insight into how I conducted meetings. My agenda follows my prefer-
ence for information to be presented in a particular order. When others
present information to me using their own preferences, different from
mine, I find myself bored, disengaged, or frustrated because they didn’t
give me the “foundation” information that I wanted.
Finally, the ability to step out of their “automatic” to choose
another response requires your leaders to be able to think about a situ-
ation objectively before behaving. Use the assessment model to discuss
some of the challenging situations they find themselves in. Ask what
style is appropriate that might be very different from what they want
to do. I have one leader who has a strong preference for creating new
ideas, seeing the big picture, and being innovative. Th is doesn’t work
in some of the things he needs to do well to be successful, such as
managing budgets or executing a structured decision-making process
that is working well. Make the connection between his preference and
the less-than-stellar results, and you have an opening for new action.
By having your leaders think about what’s needed is a situation, then
mapping their own preferences and behaviors against what’s needed,
you can help them see how their preferences impact their success.
PATH TO UNDERSTANDING OTHERS
The assessment that you use for the leader to understand herself can
also help her understand others. Sometimes just the awareness that
other styles exist and that people think and behave differently is an
important thing for leaders to understand. Without that understand-
ing, they can carry unstated expectations that others think, feel, and
behave the same as the leader, with the resulting frustration when
those expectations are not met.
I hear so many complaints about people who “should have” done
something or used a different approach. I’ve found this reflects the
leader’s assumption that others would approach the situation the same
way he or she would. Yet, most of us use our most comfortable styles
when we approach our work. Our intention is to do our best, not to
frustrate others by doing it a different way. For example, the person

who seems to be sabotaging the new policy by repeatedly bringing up
how people who are affected might feel during the change may just
be asking that his preference for considering people and feelings be
included in the decision making.
The assessment puts a neutral and objective picture of human-
ness on the table. Once you can see that someone is operating out of a
preference for a different approach, the emotion can subside. Then it’s
easier to consider the other point of view, ask what the situation needs,
and make a choice. In the earlier example, considering how people
will feel is an important component of developing and communicating
a policy change. Changing the perception of “sabotage” to “adding a
valuable perspective” can make a tremendous difference in the success
of the policy change, as well as smooth the relationship between the
“saboteur” and the leader.
Here are the basic questions to ask your leader when coaching using a
self-assessment:
1. How do you want to act, given your preferences?

2. What can you expect from others, given their preferences?
3. What’s needed in this situation for the project, initiative, or task
to be successful?
4. How will you act and what will you ask of others, to be successful?
EXTERNAL ASSESSMENTS
External assessments provide a different view of the leader’s behavior,

impact, and results within the organization. This view is a valuable addi-
tion to the leader’s self-perception. The external view gives both leader
and coach more information about the impact of the leader’s behavior
on the people with whom she works most closely. These assessments can
also give an organizational or leadership context for the coaching.
Three-hundred-sixty-degree assessments collect information from
all sides of the leader—self, supervisor, direct reports, and peers. Some
are even designed to get the perspectives of other key people with expe-
rience and insight into the leader, including friends, family members,
customers, and suppliers.
THE VALUE OF AN OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVE
It’s important to remember that the inside perspective (from inside

the leader) is just one perspective and is often clouded by the leader’s
212 | SUE E. MCLEOD
knowledge of his or her intentions and internal standards of behav-

ior or performance. Ability to gauge impact on others depends on the
level of awareness and the amount of time spent reflecting on how
others reacted. By gathering information from other people in the
organization, the coach and leader discover how other people see the
leader, what expectations they have, and how the leader is measuring
up to those expectations. Hearing about performance and impact from
outside also makes it more difficult for the leader to “hide” from the
impact and implications. We all have the illusion that our mistakes and
faults are overlooked—it’s often an awakening for the leader to real-
ize that everyone sees his weak points, in action! Alternatively, some
leaders’ performance doesn’t measure up to their own incredibly high
standards. It can be a relief to find that others are satisfied with their
performance.
Getting multiple perspectives is also valuable. Each person’s view
of the leader is colored by his or her own filters and experiences of the
world. By gathering data from multiple sources, the coach and leader
will begin to see patterns in the feedback—what’s consistent, what’s
different among the people asked. The areas where there are consist-
ent messages are more difficult to ignore. As one of my leaders used
to say—if one person calls you a horse, you can think about it; if three
people call you a horse, you might consider buying a saddle.
Another advantage to multiple perspectives is insight into how the
leader is perceived in different layers in the organization. Is this someone
who “manages up,” spending time and energy impressing the boss while
ignoring direct reports? Or is the leader protective of direct reports to
the detriment of building relationships with key peer organizations?
TYPES OF ASSESSMENTS
Three-hundred-sixty-degree assessments can be formal instruments

developed and scored by companies who specialize in studying and
assessing leadership behavior. These can be “off-the-shelf,” that is,
commercially available for use in any organization, or they can be cus-
tom designed for an organization, often based on a model of compe-
tencies that the organization deems are necessary for success. Like the
self-assessments, I recommend that you be well-versed in these formal
assessments before using them in your coaching.
If a formal assessment isn’t available, or doesn’t seem appropriate
with the leader you are coaching, you can offer to collect 360-degree
feedback using a set of structured interviews. Th is method allows you to
tailor the information you collect to the specifics of the leader’s situation.
You’re also likely to get some interesting insights through these conver-
sations that don’t usually come out of the more formal instruments. For
example, in one set of interviews, I heard about the leader’s behavior
that was causing difficulties for her staff, but they also talked about their
perceptions of her attitude toward them. This made for a much richer
conversation, and more impactful coaching, because these attitudes were
affecting her ability to lead, much more than the actual behaviors.
Interviewing the people who work with your leader has some addi-
tional benefits. First, it lets these people know that your leader is work-
ing with a coach and working to improve performance and results. A
leader who models self-development and introspection can create an
environment in which others will do the same. Second, it lets people
know what areas your leader is focused on and gives them the oppor-
tunity to suggest additional areas for improvement. This can generate
a feeling of respect and empowerment among these people, as they are
being asked to provide valuable information that may impact the leader
and the organization. Third, it may cause them to reflect on their own
performance. Just by interviewing people about the organization’s per-
formance, there is an opening created for others to take action because
they see that the leader is supportive of changed behavior.
Work with your leader to prepare for the interview or the survey.
Discuss the areas to focus on and what information would be helpful.
Work together to generate open-ended questions that explore how the
leader is perceived, what actual behaviors are noticed, and the impact
the leader is having—positive and negative.
Some basic questions you can ask are:
• What does this leader need to do well to be successful in this

position and to get to the next level?
• What strengths does this leader demonstrate that helps her to
be successful?
• What would you like to see this leader do differently? Do more
of? Do less of?
After the prepared interview questions, I ask “What haven’t I

asked that is important for this leader to know?” I’ve often seen leaders
get the most value from these “free-form” comments (these are often
included in the formal 360-degree survey instruments, too). For exam-
ple, one leader knew that she was working too hard and not taking care
of her physical health, and, she thought those sacrifices were important
to help her team succeed. It was only when she read one of these com-
ments that she realized how concerned her employees were about her
214 | SUE E. MCLEOD
health. They liked working for her and were worried that she would
leave because of burnout or some other effect of being overworked.
Once she saw the negative impact of her “sacrifices” on her employees,
she was willing to take some time off of work for self-care.
When the interviews are complete, you will need to generate a
report of findings that conveys the feedback in a neutral and objective
way and preserves the confidentiality of the people who were inter-
viewed. Look for themes and patterns, and specific examples to ground
the feedback (especially if you think it will be difficult to hear). Some
categories I’ve used include:
• People describe you as . . . followed by a list of adjectives that I

heard in the interview.
• What’s expected of you in this position and how to get to the
next level?
• Strengths people see.
• What people would like to see more of in the future?
By keeping it simple and focused on what’s needed for them to

achieve their development goals, it makes the messages more mean-
ingful and useful for the coaching to come.
REVIEWING THE DATA
Once the data has been collected, the coach and leader should each
have the opportunity to review the information before discussing it.
There are some good questions to pose to the leader for them to con-
sider while they review the data, such as:
• What surprises you about this data?

• What patterns do you see?
• Where are your strengths?
• What’s most important to address now?
The coach, too, needs to approach the data with some specific
questions—and be open to discovering new insights that the data may
show. Here are some areas that I look for:
• Consistent messages—from within groups or across groups of

people who completed the assessment.
• Confl icting message —do different groups see the leader
differently?
• Outliers—if data about individual responses are available, look

for the “spread” of responses. Some very high and some very
low scores within groups could indicate “in group/out group”
distinctions held by the leader.
• Leader’s self-perceptions relative to others’ perceptions—does
the leader consistently over or under rate himself?
• Clear strengths—what are the areas where everyone (even the
leader) sees they have strengths? These are areas that you may
want the leader to take full advantage of and “claim” as their
own.
• Clear blind spots—similarly, areas that everyone (including the
leader) sees as a weakness can point to something the leader may
want to address, with the caveat that he should understand the
impact of that weakness and consider options for fi lling that gap
in his leadership.
The coach’s role is not to draw any conclusions, but to look for
new questions to pose to the leader, new avenues to explore, and new
insights into the working relationships and environment that can help
to focus the leader on how to be more successful.
Most important, however, is to note the areas where you are curious
about something or where your intuition tells you there is something
interesting to explore with the leader. One leader I worked with had
very strong results overall and just a few of his direct reports who said
that he didn’t listen to them. My intuition told me this was a place to
explore, although I had no idea why. When I brought it up, the leader
denied that he exhibited this behavior. He always listened to everyone.
As he went on protesting, I pointed out that he wasn’t listening to me
or to what the data (his direct reports) were telling him. He protested
some more, and we dropped the subject. In our next session, he told me
that I had really hit on something. He didn’t really listen, and he did
keep people at a distance and, from there, we began the exploration of
why and what were the impacts on his staff and his leadership and how
he might want to change in the future.
In your conversations with the leader about the feedback, it’s
important to remember your job as coach. You are not expected to have
answers, but to create opportunities for self-exploration, learning, and
action in the areas that are the most relevant for the leader.
Let the leader know that you’ve looked at and thought about the
data. Give her an overview of what you saw. Since most of my leaders
focus on the negatives, I start with the positives, telling them where
I see their strengths, affirming where others see them as performing
216 | SUE E. MCLEOD
well. I give them my overall sense of their leadership. “You are a leader
who sets clear direction and holds people to high standards. You’re
tough, and your boss is satisfied with your business results.”
Then I ask them for their perceptions and for what they’ve learned
by looking at the data. I ask questions about where I’m curious. “You
have two bosses who rate you very differently. What’s going on?”
Leaders have much more insight into the working environment than I
do, so I avoid drawing any conclusions before I hear their story about
the data.
Then I ask, “What’s most important to focus on here?” Moreover,
we follow that path. Connecting the feedback to what’s most important
to the leader at this time—maybe a particularly challenging project or
relationship—will give the feedback life beyond the feedback session.
I give myself permission to come back to items that I think are being
avoided and that I believe are important. One leader, for example, again
had strong scores and one peer score that was consistently lower than
the others. When I fi rst pointed this out and asked about it, he admit-
ted that there was one peer with whom he had a very strained relation-
ship. He wasn’t willing to look at changing it; he was OK with the
way it was. When that relationship came up again in another coaching
session, I came back to the feedback and asked about the impact of
this strained relationship on his direct reports. How did it affect their
ability to do their jobs? What kind of example was he setting about
collaboration within the company? After looking at these impacts, he
saw the importance of improving this relationship and added that to
his action plan.
GOAL SETTING AND ACTION PLANNING
In leadership coaching, we want our leaders to be moving toward spe-

cific results. The 360-degree data can give very specific areas for goal
setting. By analyzing the feedback and connecting it to real situations
the leader is facing, you can create specific goals for changing behavior
and perceptions. The assessment itself can become a mechanism for
evaluating results if the assessment can be repeated in six to twelve
months.
None of us can change too many things at one time. I ask leaders
to choose no more than three areas of focus for their action plan based
on the feedback. I ask that they be relevant to their main responsibili-
ties, the organization’s goals, or the leader’s personal goals. We don’t
just focus on improving areas where they are weak. I also ask them to
look at areas where they can use their strengths more prominently.
The action steps can be “doing” focused, for example “hold meet-
ings with your staff more regularly, particularly the ones who are feeling
out of the loop.” They can be “being” focused, for example “be present
when your direct reports come to your office to talk with you. Give
them your full attention so they feel heard and appreciated.” They can
focus on the leader’s inner thoughts and attitudes, for example “turn
off the inner critic for a week, and watch the impact you are really hav-
ing on your people. Learn to appreciate the ‘good enough’ rather than
constantly striving for perfection.”
Give your leaders every opportunity to embrace what the assess-
ment data says and be successful at making the shifts and changes that
will help them be successful. Understand that receiving feedback is
often difficult and our natural tendency is to explain it away, defend
ourselves, and look for reasons to maintain the status quo. Be gen-
tle and understanding as you work with this feedback. Moreover, be
challenging and hold firm to the belief that you are this leader’s coach
because he or she wants to change.
NOTE
1. There are other types of assessments—including tests of skills and abilities,
external assessments from just direct reports, and others. The approach to
using all of these tools is similar. I focus on these types here to stay focused
on the coaching, rather than the assessments themselves.
CHAPTER 21
THE ART AND PRACTICE OF

GROUNDED ASSESSMENTS
LEE ANN WURSTER-NAEFE
AND JULIE SHOWS
I can’t believe I have this meeting with my boss’s boss about some-
thing that is so critical to me and this organization, yet I can’t
seem to get the time of day with him. He comes into this organi-
zation like a know-it-all, and he is just trying to make his way
to the top skimming over the really important stuff. Everybody
knows that if you aren’t connected to someone who matters to
him, you don’t get his ear. I am so frustrated and angry.
Now my boss has gotten this meeting with him, and she is
all excited and wants me to be the one to pitch our proposal. I
keep thinking it is a waste of time because this dude isn’t paying
attention to me and what I do. He barely acknowledges me in
meetings and walks right past me in the hallway without saying a
word. But I don’t want to let my boss down. I really do want this
proposal to fly, but I feel like it is a waste of time. It doesn’t really
matter how I feel, though, because the meeting is Friday, and I
need to buck up and get it done. I can’t put my best foot forward
when all of this is going on. No one understands the importance
of this project, especially him.
I’d like to get my act together. I’d like to organize my thoughts
so I can be articulate and influential in this meeting. This is, after
all, one of my major goal areas for coaching—to communicate
better with senior-level leaders.
220 | LEE ANN WURSTER-NAEFE AND JULIE SHOWS
THIS WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE coaching session with Sue. After
this painful monologue from her, as the coach, I had to gather my thoughts
about what I had just heard and observed and reflect on what is appropri-
ate to share with her. I noticed whenever she talked about the upcoming
meeting, her shoulders rounded, she slumped down several inches in her
chair, and her voice grew soft and monotonous. When she let out several
deep sighs and threw her hands up in the air, I felt her exasperation. I
understood her sense of hopelessness and resignation: that she had given
up before she had even started the conversation with the boss’s boss.
I thought sharing this impression with Sue might add to her frus-
tration, yet I knew this was a safe space for us to pull things apart so
she could gain greater awareness and check to ensure alignment with
her intentions. I decided to tell Sue what I noticed about her slumping
posture, gestures, and monotonous voice. I also played back phrases
she used a few times: “waste of time”; “it doesn’t matter”; “I’m angry
and frustrated.” I told her what she evoked in me was a feeling of resig-
nation. I then asked how she felt and if this aligned with her intention
for how she wants to show up as a leader in this upcoming meeting.
Does this situation sound familiar? Have you found yourself
experiencing or observing something significant about your clients in
real time while they discuss one of their focus areas for coaching? As
coaches, we have a wide variety of “moves” to make during the conver-
sation, such as mirroring back what we just heard, serving as a brain-
storming partner, making a request, suggesting a resource/tool, and
making grounded assessments, to name a few. In this chapter, we will
focus on the art and craft of making grounded assessments.
We have found making grounded assessments to be one of the most
powerful and least understood and utilized moves by new and practic-
ing coaches. When we proactively name what we see, hear, observe, or
sense in the moment with our client, we can help the client see some-
thing she was unable to see before. Helping our clients to ground their
assessments and sharing our grounded assessments as coaches widens
the lens, and this facilitates new possibilities for understanding and new
action. This is often a gift to our clients, for they may not have another
person or venue for obtaining this level of candor and feedback.
So let’s cover a few basic definitions and see how we might use
grounded assessments more skillfully and confidently as coaches.
WHAT ARE GROUNDED ASSESSMENTS AND

WHY DO THEY MATTER?
Assessments are our own personal interpretations, opinions, and judg-

ments. We as humans live in assessments. They are an important part
ART AND PRACTICE OF GROUNDED ASSESSMENTS | 221
of how we make meaning of the world and how we relate to it. This
is true for the coach as well as the client. A grounded assessment pro-
vides the evidence, data, and facts upon which the assessment is based.
What did I see or hear that led me to this conclusion? We make these
assessments externally by what we say and how we hold our bodies, our
presence. We make these assessments internally by what the voice in
our head says to us and how we feel.
Assessments are often confused with feedback. We hear begin-
ning coaches ask permission to share an assessment with the client.
Yet, what they are actually providing is feedback, a suggestion on what
the client can do better or differently the next time. Feedback is an
effective coaching move and core coaching competency. However, it’s
important to be clear with yourself and your client when you are giving
feedback and when you are giving an assessment.
As we listen to our clients, we are observing the internal and exter-
nal landscapes and looking for alignment (or lack of it) between body,
language, and emotions. Th is produces assessments in you as coach/
observer. (This is what happens in the workplace and in life with your
leader client, too.) The job of the coach is to sift through the incom-
ing data and the myriad of assessments she is making and select one
that syncs up and supports the client’s ultimate intention/focus area for
change.
This is important. The assessment is not about calling out everything
the coach sees or experiences. This can be confusing and/or irrelevant to
clients in the context of their coaching goal(s). Coaches must first con-
sider why they are offering the assessment. What’s the value to clients in
the context of what they are trying to bring about in their life? For the
sake of what purpose does the coach offer this insight, feedback, or intui-
tive reaction? Is it to create awareness? Is it to disrupt or break the coher-
ence of the client’s story? Or is it because the coach wants to look smart,
competent, or in control of the session? Answer this question honestly,
and you will stay in service to your client. When intention equals impact,
there is success. When intention and impact are incongruent, there is
interference, and the coach can now work with the client to explore and
eliminate this gap.
GROUNDING ASSESSMENTS IN
THE DOMAIN OF LANGUAGE
Assessments live in our language, emotions, and body, and they are
observed in all these domains. In accordance with the work of Fernando
Flores and the foundation of ontological coaching, we base ourselves
on the belief that language is pivotal in helping humans create their
reality. In this understanding of language, how we speak to each other

and how we speak to ourselves in our heads determines what is possible
in our world. Along with this view that language generates possibilities
comes the responsibility of coaches to develop their listening as well.
Speaking and listening are inseparable. Learning to listen at a deep
level to the language clients use and the meaning they are making
allows coaches to ground the assessment they hear the client making
with the client.
Grounding assessments gives our clients the opportunity to observe
for themselves whether the language they are listening to inside their
heads is: creating the outcome they want in the world. They can then
decide whether their actions support or limit their ability to create what
they want. When they can see the incoherence or coherence, they can
make a choice to act differently to open up different possibilities.
As a coach, you should be aware of two perspectives when ground-
ing assessments. First, what assessments are you noticing in the client,
and second, what assessments are you noticing about yourself?
Let’s look first at the assessments by Sue in the example above.
What assessments are you hearing in the language that Sue is using?
What are the descriptive words that you hear in her story? What are
the generalizations that you hear Sue making? What in her language
might give you a hint about the story she is telling herself internally?
How is she making meaning of this situation? What are you notic-
ing about Sue’s underlying story? What assessments might be driving
her behavior? What are the standards that Sue is holding herself to?
What is it that Sue wants to accomplish? Do you sense coherence or
incoherence?
Your answers to these questions will determine how you would
ground the assessments with Sue.
Another internal story is about the assessment that Sue has about
her boss’s boss. Asking the same questions might allow Sue to become
aware of whether or not the assessment that she is living in about her
boss is supporting her or limiting her options.
In the domain of language, let’s start to ground Sue’s assessments.
Once Sue gives her permission, you might say, “As I listen to you, I am
noticing an underlying message that you might be telling yourself. It
sounds like: ‘I am going to be ignored’ or ‘I don’t matter.’ What might
that mean to you?”
Another example you might point out to her is her statement that
“no one understands this project.” Does she mean no one? What is
true about the situation? Sometimes when we can get our clients to
realize that the story they are telling themselves is not the truth, new
possibilities open up. When you hear generalizations, for example,

“Everybody knows” and “No one understands,” there is an opportu-
nity to inquire into what is true. You might also inquire into the story
you are hearing about her boss: “I hear that your boss is a know-it-all.
What has he done that makes you say that? Or you say that you can’t
get the time of day from him, what have you tried?”
At the same time, you have to be aware of the language you are
listening to in your own head. As you read the story about Sue, what
were you telling yourself? What’s going on with you? What are you
listening to? Where are you listening from? How might your assess-
ments be interfering with your listening? Were you thinking that Sue
was a victim, a capable woman, or a whiner? Or were you thinking that
Sue was a very successful leader who would be able to meet her goal
of having this proposal accepted? What about this story is similar to
a story in your life? Notice how your questions might come from very
different places depending on what assessment you are in and what you
are listening to internally.
There are limits to dealing with assessments only in language.
Lasting change requires a shift in your way of being. Th is also involves
a change in the domains of emotion and body.
THE DOMAIN OF EMOTIONS
People are always in a mood or emotion. We are listening for the emo-
tion in our clients’ stories, and we must also be aware of the emotion
that we are listening from. The power of emotions and moods is that
they influence action. They play into the opinions and judgments that
form our assessments and these, in turn, affect the results that are pos-
sible for us to create. Our assessments, especially our core assessments,
have a strong emotional grip. To be able to change our way of being,
we have to be able to change our moods and emotions. That process
starts with awareness.
Sue told us she felt as though what she was doing was a waste of
time. She was angry and frustrated. How is anger and frustration sup-
porting Sue in this situation? How might these emotions interfere?
How does the emotion of anger appear in her communications and
overall leadership presence? What other emotions do you sense?
As coach, you might ask, “What is the emotion you are experi-
encing right now? From that emotion, what is possible for you in this
situation? What emotion would allow you to be at your best in this
situation? How might you move into that emotion and embody it?”
It’s important to remember that as coaches we must be aware of

the emotions and moods we are in as well. The emotion we are in will
predispose us to listen in a certain way. What emotion are you in right
now? What was your mood as you read the story of Sue? How did
that influence the assessment you made about Sue? Being able to be an
observer of your own emotions in the moment will allow you to shift
your way of being so that you are in service to your client.
Taking the art of grounding assessments further, we often find emo-
tions show up in our client’s energy, presence, and the somatic domain.
THE DOMAIN OF SOMATICS
What is a somatic assessment? “Soma” (from Greek origins) means
“the living body in its wholeness.” The somatic domain includes all of
who we are—the mind, our mood and emotions, the physical aspects of
the body, such as posture, gestures, facial expressions, breath, energy,
actions, how we move in the world, as well as the quality of our being-
ness or presence. For you as a coach, it is critical to hone your aware-
ness and distinctions in the somatic domain for yourself and with your
clients. It’s another piece of data coming through your senses to inform
you and your client of roadblocks and possibilities. When your think-
ing and speaking can no longer propel a shift in action, it’s the body—
where action resides—that can be a useful and exhilarating means for
self-awareness and transformation.
As you sit with your client face-to-face or listen to his or her voice
over the phone, there are two places to notice: your body and the cli-
ent’s. There are also two dimensions to observe: the interior and the
exterior. (Note: If you are phone coaching, you will need to listen
deeply and invite your client to self-report.) Questions to assess the
internal dimension include:
• What’s the quality of your client’s presence? Is it open or

closed? Is there an inward or outward focus? Is she centered and
connected? Or is she off-center and disconnected? How would
you answer these questions for yourself?
• Where is the breath located in your client’s body? Is it high up in
the throat or upper chest? Is it lower in the heart center or coming
up from the belly? What is the pace of the breath? Overall, what
does this state of breathing produce in the client? What do you
notice about your own breath? What about your breath’s location
and pacing? What state does that evoke in you?
• What sensations does your client experience, e.g. tightness/

constriction or openness/flow; numbness or pain; hot or cold;
pulsations; others? What sensations do you experience?
• What is your client’s self-talk? What is your self-talk?
• What emotion(s) is your client experiencing? What emotion(s)
are you experiencing?
Often, we move from one conversation or meeting or task to

another without checking in with our whole self in this way. As
coaches, we believe an ongoing cycle of self-checks or self-scans is nec-
essary throughout a coaching conversation because the body is always
present and receiving and responding to external stimuli. However,
our mind may be so focused on spoken words that we miss, override, or
discount cues and information coming to us from the neck down. The
same holds true for our clients.
Questions to assess the exterior dimension include:
• Overall shape—how would you describe your client’s physical

presence? How would you describe your own?
• What’s the volume, pace, and pitch of the voice?
• As your client stands or sits, is he or she extending to full height
or collapsed? How about you?
• Is your client leaning forward, backward, or to the side? How
about you?
• How much space does your client take up from side to side?
How much space are you taking up from side to side?
• What do you notice about the eyes, forehead, and jaw? Are they
relaxed or constricted?
• Are the arms and hands open, closed, or clenched?
• What do you notice about your client’s gestures and movements?
How do they sync with and support what she or he is saying? Or
is there a disconnect or incongruence? How about you?
• What’s the quality of your client’s overall energy? What words
come to mind? What’s the quality of your overall energy?
Let’s go back to Sue. I offered a grounded assessment that included

the emotion and somatic domains. We now have two places to inter-
vene—the story or assessment Sue is holding for herself in this situ-
ation (“I am going to be ignored” and “I don’t matter”) and the body,
which is holding and revealing the resignation and hopelessness. Could
I be successful and effective in working with Sue solely in the language
domain? Possibly. But what if Sue’s intention is to communicate in
this meeting and project with confidence and passion? Then she will
need to build the body to support these thoughts and emotions. What
does the body of confidence and passion look like for her? How will
she move and speak with confidence and passion? And what practices
can she develop to anchor and embody these qualities so that they are
available to her not only for this immediate conversation and project,
but also for future leadership opportunities?
CONCLUSION
Returning to the conversation with Sue, by grounding the assessments,
Sue was able to step back and see where her actions were not in align-
ment with what she wanted to accomplish. Sue realized that the story
she was telling herself was limiting her possibilities, and she was then
able to make a more empowering choice. She could observe that she
had been hijacked by her anger and frustration but was less tuned into
her overall mood of resignation. From this new awareness, Sue was able
to facilitate the meeting and achieve her goal of being articulate and
influential with senior-level leaders. Th is was an example of a coach
being courageous and delivering a grounded assessment involving all
three domains: language, body, and emotion.
The following is a three-step framework to help you ground assess-
ments with your clients in the same way I did with Sue:
1. I notice _______________________.
Name what you hear, see, or experience in the client.
2. I want to share this because ____________________.
State the purpose of your observation. How does it relate to the
bigger picture for the client and what the client is trying to bring
about?
3. I notice for me ___________________________.
Name what you notice about your self-talk, emotions or body –
posture, energy, presence.
Remember, as you practice making grounded assessments:
• As humans, we do not live in one domain alone. Develop your

ability to become aware of assessments in all domains.
• Your assessment is your truth—your interpretation—your
viewpoint. So hold it as one possibility for your client and let go
of the need for perfection! We make assessments all the time.
If you offer a grounded assessment, and it does not resonate

with the client, let it go. You will have other opportunities.
And remember that it may take the client time to process what
you are offering. Days or weeks later, the client may advise that
your assessment provoked awareness and movement in a new
direction.
• Assessments are most powerful when they are short, simple, and
direct; our clients can only absorb so much information.
• Name specifically and clearly the evidence for your assessment.
• Share your observations with your client. Help your client to
recognize their own assessments, so that they will be able to
make choices that help them create the reality that supports
their goals in life, in business, and in leadership.
We hope that you will discover there is real magic in the art and
practice of grounded assessments.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brothers, Chalmers. Language and the Pursuit of Happiness. Naples, FL: New
Possibilities Press, 2005.
Flaherty, James. Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others. 3rd ed. Burlington,
MA: Elsevier, 2010.
Kimsey-House, Henry, Karen Kimsey-House, Phil Sanford, and Laura
Whitworth. Co-Active Coaching. Boston, MA: Nicholas Brealey, 2011.
Sieler, Alan. Coaching to the Human Soul. Blackburn, Victoria: Newfield
Australia, 2003.
Strozzi-Heckler, Richard. The Leadership Dojo. Berkeley, CA: Frog, 2007.
CHAPTER 22
COACHING AND LEADING

AS STEWARDS FOR
SUSTAINABILITY
LLOYD RAINES
COACHING, LIKE LEADING, lends itself to endless innovations and

evolution. The evolution of leadership has covered a lot of territory—
Theory X, Theory Y, situational, values-driven, emotionally intelligent,
and Level 5 leadership, among others. Likewise, coaching has evolved
over time, including performance-based, behavioral, cognitive, sys-
tems thinking, neurolinguistics, emotional intelligence, somatic, and
holistic coaching, to name a few prominent ones. One of the beauties
of evolutionary biology is that in any of its forms it builds on what is,
innovates, experiments, and evolves. It’s nature’s gift to life—continual
awareness, feedback, learning, and experimentation.
I see in the progression of coaching and leadership a parallel theme.
Each in its own way is about stewardship and sustainability. What
coaches and leaders do is steward vital resources. To be a steward is
to care for and cultivate the things that matter in life and work. What
we are here to do with our lives is to be stewards of that which we are
given—whether it be as responsible stewards of our bodies, emotions,
minds, spirits, families, communities, nations, global human com-
munity, wildlife, domesticated critters, or natural resources. When
we steward these domains well, we act not only from a sense of self-
interest, but from an enlightened self-interest—holding the long view—
for individual sustainability as we live nested within, and inseparable
from, the health and well-being of larger life-supporting systems.
230 | LLOYD RAINES
Stewardship is a mental model: an orientation held toward work and

life. It assumes care for the integrity of social life that includes working
to ensure dignity, health, mutual accountability, and fair opportunities
(including access, development, and rewards). In doing so, lives are nour-
ished in ways that support our resilience and sustainability within the
broader world. Stewardship is a basic life orientation, and sustainability is
its goal. In adopting this mental model in my coaching, I’ve noticed shifts
in the ways I observe, listen, and engage in inquiry with leaders. I now
see any aspect of coaching as an element or factor in the leader’s overall
sustainability—as a person, leader, and organizational contributor.
Common sense and self-interest call us to care for what matters
and is meaningful in life, and more and more we’re seeing how global
factors affect local conditions (the human and financial costs of war,
terrorism, energy prices, pollution, global warming, etc.). When we,
as coaches and leaders, connect the local and global, the part and the
whole, then our self-interest matures into an enlightened self-interest,
bringing us into conversations that are bigger than the personal and
organizational. Grasping the interconnectedness of humans worldwide
and the open-loop systems of nations and nature, we can engage in the
conversations and challenges of our time.
Since the late 1990s, books such as A Roadmap for Natural Capitalism
(Hawkins, Lovins, and Lovins), The Natural Step for Business (Nattrass
and Altomare), Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (Benyus), Green
to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate,
Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage (Esty and Winston), and
the annual editions of State of the World (Worldwatch Institute) have pro-
vided business and government leaders with the trends, statistics, guid-
ing principles, and new conceptual maps needed to address the collision
path between our economies and the sustainability of the natural world.
These principles and maps are familiar to coaches who have studied Meg
Wheatley, Peter Senge, Joe Jaworski, Fritjof Capra, E. O. Wilson, and
Elisabet Sahtouris. Holistic systems thinkers address the broader context
of organizational life and leadership, drawing from insights embedded in
nature and articulated through chaos and complexity theories.1
Just as coaches are evolving toward a more holistic approach,
leaders too have moved beyond bottom-line considerations and com-
mand and control leadership. Many well-known corporate leaders are
stepping forward in the absence of political leadership and assuming
stewardship responsibilities that go well beyond compliance with regu-
lations and environmental law. Scores of major companies, including
Nike, 3M, GE, Starbucks, and DuPont have moved to double or triple
bottom-line (financial, social, and environmental) integrated strate-
gies. They see their enlightened self-interest in care that goes beyond
COACHING AND LEADING AS STEWARDS | 231
maximizing quarterly shareholder returns.2 Today, given what we’ve

been seeing in terms of global warming and environmental tipping
points, it seems essential that we add another integral element—the
environment—that is the context within which life, work, and culture
take place. In coaching and leading, stewardship is an active holistic
application of care and love for the value of our inheritance and contin-
ued contributions as we pass it along to future generations through the
ways we choose to work and live in nature.
In coaching, the following four interdependent dimensions of
stewardship can be explored with leaders:
• Care for one’s self

• Care for others
• Care for work
• Care for nature
Taken together, these four stewardship relationships (figure 22.1)

comprise a basic infrastructure of life, offering a simple yet robust lens
for holistic coaching.
As a coach or leader, how do you

care for your physical, emotional,
mental, and spiritual well-being?
How do you advocate for your As a coach or leader, how do
needs, wants, and desires in a you care for yourself, for
balanced way with those of others? others, for how you work, and
Are you happy, healthy, and for nature—in your physical,
leading a fulfilling and sustainable emotional, mental, and
life? How do you help your clients spiritual domains? Do you help
to do the same? clients be active stewards of
these relationships?
As a coach or leader, how are you As a coach or leader, how do

caring for the health and you experience and respond to
sustainability of the earth's land, the suffering and joys, the
water, air, wildlife, and living human kinship and longings of
systems within and from which you other people across the
live? How will you leave future organization, across the aisle,
generations with an ecological and across the land, across the
wildlife inheritance as diverse and globe? How do you want others
bountiful as now? Is care for nature to treat you when you are in
a part of your coaching and need?
leading?
Is your work meaningful? Does it Respect, fairness, compassion,

lessen the suffering or increase the truth, and love—are they present
good, true, and beautiful in the and strong within each of these four
world? Are you treated fairly and relationships? When there is
do you treat others fairly? Is there underdevelopment or breakdown in
dignity in the conditions of your one or more of these four relation-
work that uplift the spirit? Do all ships, what impact does that have
aspects of your work and its on you as a coach or leader and
byproducts strengthen the human your customers and stakeholders
community and the environment? whose lives you touch?
Figure 22.1 Four stewardship relationships

Source: © Lloyd Raines, 2004+
232 | LLOYD RAINES
CARE FOR THE SELF

In the first few sessions of coaching a new leader, I’m eager to learn
about her relationship with herself. Leaders, by and large, are hard
drivers—of themselves and others. They tend to work long hours, put
the organization first, and overlook some basic awareness regarding
self-care. For me, coaching from a holistic perspective begins with
addressing the presenting issues while listening and observing in other
dimensions to discern connections (and disconnections) in the leader’s
self-awareness and self-care. This is a process of raising the leader’s
awareness about what matters—from the inside out, around the indi-
vidual’s personal and professional effectiveness, health, and well-being.
And, in turn, I’m probing how this person’s behaviors impact the effec-
tiveness, health, and well-being of others.
Whatever is being expressed through a leader’s language, body,
emotions, and spirit is a window through which I begin to learn about
his or her world. Being in the interior of many leaders’ worlds is a
chance to notice similarities. After a while, I’ve come to notice a kind
of universality, that leaders have roughly similar needs, wants, desires,
and challenges in common, as well as with their stakeholders. What
leaders (and people) have in common outweighs their diff erences. This
is comforting. Sometimes I see this commonality when leaders are in
crisis mode or when they are in a period of relative stasis. There are
many similarities in the look and feel of angst and calm from one leader
to the next. A kind of simplicity and complexity is present in each con-
versation with fresh puzzles awaiting exploration and discovery.
For many leaders, their overall health is not a concern until it
becomes so. In my initial sessions with new clients, I do a compre-
hensive assessment of their self-care and ask questions such as the fol-
lowing: When is the last time you had a full physical check-up? What
is your diet like? How much sleep are you getting? On average, how
many hours a week are you putting in at work or on work? How are
your caffeine, sugar, and alcohol intake? What is your exercise regi-
men? What time of the day are you most alert and, do you do your best
work? How is your general state of mind? How would you describe
your mental health? What mood do you find you are in most often?
What emotions seem to be the most challenging for you to handle?
Are you finding a deeper sense of meaning in your work?
Initially, leaders are caught off-guard by some of these questions,
yet soon they begin to see the obvious connections between their
physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being and their overall
leadership fitness. They see where their self-care (or lack thereof) either
adds or drains energy from their being, affecting in turn their capacity
for doing the work of leadership. Each question draws their awareness
and focus to the ecology of their energy—where and when their energy
is high and low, stable and frazzled. By paying attention to what affects
their energy, leaders are able to be more intentional in building their
overall resilience and sustainability.
Asking questions that evoke reflection on the connections between
body, emotions, mind, spirit, and social relationships, leaders can exper-
iment with self-observations or behavioral practices that bring about
slight or significant shifts in their awareness and self-care. Those shifts
can have immediate benefits for their health and well-being, includ-
ing enhanced emotional resilience for difficult, tense situations at work
and at home. If exploring connections and disconnections stopped at
the personal level, however, it would be an inadequate picture of the
leader’s reality.
A leader’s self-care also includes the well being of her or his impor-
tant relationships—the ones that nurture her health and stability in
her private and professional spheres. Care for oneself shares a perme-
able boundary with care for others. Reciprocity and mutuality in our
relationships help balance and make life meaningful, cultivate empa-
thy and compassion, and transform transactional life into intimate life.
This sense of mutual accountability is positive and generative and not
a burden.
Our personal integration and development as human beings does
not occur in social isolation. Self-realization without social realiza-
tion warps the ego, making it difficult to manage and self-correct one’s
weaknesses and personality shadows. The brilliant contributor who
lacks empathy or is unable to listen to or collaborate with others is not
likely to remain sustainable over time in an organization, or if he or she
does, others will be forced to leave in his or her wake.
CARE FOR OTHERS

Beyond the leader’s care for family and friends are the relationships
with her or his organization’s employees and stakeholders—those
internally and externally affected by the leader’s and organization’s
behaviors (including actions and inactions).
To gain insights into leaders’ thinking regarding care for others, I
might ask them questions like these: How are you regularly inviting
the ideas and feedback of people throughout the organization? How
are you making decisions that respect the dignity, health, well-being,
desire for inclusion, and capacity for contributions from not just those
234 | LLOYD RAINES
with influence but also the less visible, less powerful stakeholders?
What are the ways you reach out and strategically build trust and
confidence with internal and external stakeholders? How does your
organization reflect the broader demographics of the population and
how does it benefit (or not) from diverse representation in the leader-
ship ranks and throughout the organization? What recruitment, devel-
opment, and reward policies reinforce a diverse workforce? How does
your organization help develop and give voice to leaders at all levels?
What do you do to regularly, informally solicit feedback from a wide
range of stakeholders to learn how to improve as a leader? How do you
make it safe for employees to speak truthfully and easily to those in
positions of power?
To assess the effectiveness of a leader’s social relationships, I con-
duct half-hour interviews with five to ten key stakeholders to gather
anecdotes and data to help me understand current perceptions about
the leader’s strengths, midrange abilities, and areas in need of devel-
opment. In addition to any questions the leader may want me to ask,
I pose two other questions: What is Laura currently doing well as a
leader that you would like to acknowledge and reinforce? And what
could Laura be doing more of, less of, or differently to be even more
effective as a leader? These questions have a positive, safe, and genera-
tive tone and mindset. It is easier for a stakeholder to suggest a few
things Laura could do more of or less of than it is to say what Laura is
doing wrong.
To explore a leader’s mindset around care for others, I ask: What
differences, if any, are there in the ways you approach conversations
with each stakeholder group? What assumptions do you make about
your power and authority and how you think about and interact with
external customers, supervisors, peers, direct reports, and other sup-
port personnel? How do you express care for others interpersonally, in
team meetings, in larger organizational settings, in decision-making
practices, and in other areas of organizational life?
When leaders are good stewards of their internal ecologies (mind,
body, emotions, and spirit) and their social relationships, they are more
likely to be experienced as centered, trustworthy, humble, curious,
confident, and nonjudgmental. These simple elements of congruence
and social connection express a kind of leadership presence that attracts
the confidence, commitment, and loyalty of others.
When leaders are good stewards of their external ecologies, they
model leadership presence on a larger stage with broader impact.
There are many conscientious, socially attuned leaders we can look to
as models. Industry leaders at Patagonia, The Body Shop, and UPS
have strategically integrated sustainability and social well-being into

their core principles, values, and goals. They conduct their businesses
with care for the quality of human life (locally and globally), for the
environment, and for profits. Their employees know their daily work
contributes to a better world, and it inspires them. These are high per-
formance organizations with high morale, low turnover, and superior
customer service.3 Moving from being a steward for healthy profits
alone to a steward for people, planet, and profits is complex for leaders
and their organizations and requires a redesign of a company’s vision,
identity, systems, knowledge integration, practices, relationships, and
culture.
We affect each other; our actions and inactions are contagious.
Permeable boundaries absorb from and emit influences into our shared
domains of life. The flux and flow of life, leadership, and coaching
are alive in a jitterbug of polarities between creation and destruction,
emergence and dissipation, stability and change, certainty and ambi-
guity, abundance and scarcity, courage and timidity, love and fear. That
dynamism is also reflected in the evolution of the stories we live—how
we react to life and fashion the story of who we are as individuals (as
nations and as a world community), how we relate to and work with
others, the substance of our contributions in our communities, the
mood we absorb and feed into our subcultures and into the broader
mainstream culture.
CARE FOR NATURE

Individual leadership behaviors are nested in and influenced by many
other factors. Every dimension of a leader’s world is informed by many
systems and ecologies: culture, politics, economics, geography, loca-
tion, contemporary mindset, family, health, emotions, spirit, set of
social relationships, generation, gender, nationality, and so on. As
obvious as it seems, all of these ecologies are ultimately dependent on
the health and well-being of nature’s ecological systems (air, water,
land, resources, critters large and small, and biosphere) and the stabili-
ties or instabilities of weather and climate. Like our health, nature’s
primacy is invisible until some basic condition that had previously been
taken for granted is no longer stable. Consider the impact and social
and financial costs associated with increasing rates and severity of vio-
lent storms, droughts, floods, and heat waves. Our survival and well-
being are directly, inextricably tied to nature and our care or abuse of
nature and the biosphere. To the degree that we act with an impover-
ished sense of stewardship, instabilities in climate will in turn wipe out
236 | LLOYD RAINES
homes and infrastructure and impoverish us in real terms. Our health

and nature’s health are bound up with each other. Humans are sustain-
able only if nature is healthy, stable, and sustainable.
Since the early 1970s and the advent of the environmental move-
ment, early adopter companies like those mentioned earlier have been
designing green (environmentally sustainable) organizations. The coach-
ing profession is gradually expanding beyond its holistic focus on the
individual to include a broader whole systems view, seeing care for nature
as naturally integrated into leadership coaching—and with good reason.
We have never been so aware of the intimate connection between the
state of our environment and our individual and social well-being.
As coaches and citizens we have long been aware of trends regard-
ing global warming, the deterioration of the environment, and pollu-
tion as well as the gap between the rich and poor and the persistence of
poverty and homelessness. Yet, for the most part, we have seemed not
to know what to do with that information or how to incorporate it into
our work. These pressing moral and professional challenges are often
alien to our job descriptions, workplace concerns, and our coaching
conversations. Our world is fragmented to the point that we see these
problems as externalities to our daily work and as the responsibilities of
others: government agencies, social services, nonprofits, and volunteer
organizations.
At the same time, there are growing numbers of leaders in the
private and public sectors developing a comprehensive green approach
in their organizations. They have found ways to tap into the natural
symbiosis of financial, social, and environmental drivers and have seen
that it is in their long-term self-interest to go beyond the single bottom
line to a triple bottom line commitment. Well-known companies such
as 3M, Unilever, Shell, Proctor & Gamble, and a growing number
of others have designed for synergy and discovered ways to combine
the best for people, prosperity, and the planet.4 As one example, the
US Environmental Protection Agency created the “3P” focus—peo-
ple, prosperity, and planet—to spur an integrated strategic approach to
conversations in government agencies.5
As leadership coaches, we also have a choice to stretch our profes-
sional awareness to what is going on around us and actively partnering
with that evolving story. This is the great challenge of our era: the
alignment of human activities to be in harmony with the natural world
and social care for those who are vulnerable, dispossessed, and unable
to enjoy the blessings of democratic life.
Leadership coaches and leaders are able to stretch and even trans-
form their mindset and worldviews, and the range of expressions and
connections they look and listen for. It is one of the primary reasons we
as coaches engage in learning and developmental activities. We attend
conferences, take additional coursework, write articles, engage in learn-
ing communities or communities of practice, and other methods of
continuous learning. Our awareness and action can tend toward being
relatively small and self-interested or large and in service to the global
well-being. Where once coaching was primarily focused on linguis-
tics, psychology, and performance behaviors, it now has an expanded
perspective that includes domains such as the emotions, somatics, care
for the environment, and care for stakeholders near and far. And, of
course, coaching and leadership are continuing to evolve. Just as the
shift to a green perspective in the business world continues, bringing
sustainability conversations into the business mainstream, something
similar may happen with leadership coaching. And with that progres-
sion, a worldview that was broken into fragments by the scientific
and industrial revolutions may regain its wholeness in an integrated,
socially focused cosmology.
CARE FOR WORK

We live and work in global interdependence—dressing in clothes made
in China, Pakistan, the Philippines; eating fruits and drinking cof-
fee imported from South America; driving to work in our internation-
ally made cars with foreign oil and gas. Once there, we power up our
computers made with parts produced worldwide, and “google” into the
global brain for information in an instant. Since we anchor ourselves in
the social world through work and the sharing of products and services
produced worldwide, we are in a global network of relationships. To
the degree we choose to be conscious of those relationships and inter-
dependencies, we awaken to a fundamental dimension of stewardship.
We engage in commerce and civil relations with others as partners for
mutual benefit instead of some exploiting others for gain.
When coaches and leaders are attentive stewards at work, we rein-
force values of dignity, meaning, and community while also benefiting
prosperity and the planet. Stewardship values inform and guide lead-
ers throughout an organization in strategically using and deploying
the organization’s resources. A holistic approach to coaching leaders
is curious about leaders’ sense of fulfi llment, dignity, health, and well-
being in relation to the work they do as well as the effect of their deci-
sions and organizational policies on others and the planet as a whole.
For leaders, coaches can press them with direct questions such as
these that go to core values: In the face of the challenges of the day,
238 | LLOYD RAINES
how does your work and your organization’s vision and stance in the
world bring meaning and honor to your contributions? In what ways
does your work inspire you? How do you feel that your work is making
a difference in the quality of life for other people in the world?
Leaders can be attuned with themselves, with others, and with
nature—yet, if they are not also attuned with the work they are doing,
they will not likely be living to their full potential. Because leaders
(like people anywhere) are designed for continual growth, work that
once was engaging and fully satisfying may be less so after three or
four years. Old questions need new answers as leaders continue to scan
the horizon of their own lives and of the larger world around them for
motivation, meaning, and creativity. It is common for leaders reaching
their professional high-water marks to look for opportunities in which
they really believe. Holistic coaching probes a leader’s opportunities
for introducing into his or her current leadership work and into his or
her organization new ideas, principles, and values that could make a
difference in the meaningfulness of the work right now.
Here’s an example of how holistic leadership transformation
can happen. At Interface, a billion-dollar global company, CEO
Ray Anderson read Paul Hawken’s book, The Ecology of Commerce: A
Declaration of Sustainability, and had an epiphany. Virtually overnight,
he became convinced that his company’s way of working and producing
carpet and office supplies had to change. He committed to transform-
ing Interface from oil-based carpet production into completely natural,
recyclable carpets. Further, he engaged his entire company of employ-
ees in an education around sustainability that was far beyond what was
currently going on in almost any other company.6 When Anderson and
his employees committed to sustainability goals together, they captured
a kind of “lightning in a bottle.” Employees are excited about what they
do because they know they’re working for a better world every day, and
this inspires them. Leaders who capture a vision that inspires the dedi-
cation of their workforce garner the advantage of intrinsic employee
motivation along with tapping their collective intelligence. The con-
cepts of stewardship and sustainability have the potential to engage
deeper levels of commitment, innovation, meaning, and productivity
at all levels of organizational life.
When coaches are aware of these innovative movements in mar-
ketplace and leadership development, coaching conversations can
explore more expansive possibilities. By probing, inquiring, and pro-
voking new ways of observing what’s possible or by introducing an
article or book at the right moment, coaches can help fundamentally
shift a leader’s core mental model.
HOLISTIC COACHING AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT

For leaders, leadership coaching is an invitation for growth by design. In
the ways we as coaches hold nonjudgmental safe space, listen, inquire,
challenge, and trust, we enable leaders to coax from themselves their
human potential, wisdom, and courage, and in turn help them under-
stand how to cultivate that in others.
Like any profession, coaching is constantly evolving and growing
in ways to awaken more breadth and depth in us and in leaders to act
responsibly through our actions with a growing moral sensibility. This
process moves developmentally toward greater integration, in moral
and spiritual terms through stages. In my coaching conversations with
leaders, I initially use a three-stage model developed by Carol Gilligan
that clients find easily accessible and useful.7
At the first moral stage (preconventional), we encounter behavior
that is self-interested and selfish. This stage “looks out for Number One,”
with little concern for what this means for others. “I am the center of
the universe, and I act accordingly.”
The second moral stage (conventional) encounters behavior that
expresses care. When my circle of concern expands, I see my self-
interest as being directly tied up with the self-interests of others in my
close-in tribes (based on some particular likeness, belief, or affi liation).
“We’re in this together—what helps you helps me. The group can count
on me and I can count on the group for support.” A tribe has an insular
feel, with members identifying closely with other tribal members, and
not with those of other tribes. It has both internal cohesion and a sense
of insiders and outsiders, the chosen and the not chosen.
At the third moral stage (postconventional), we experience inter-
connections with people everywhere and with nature and its myriad
life forms. This level is expressed by behaviors that spring from a sense
of universal or global care. At this level, the entire global community
and ecology are seen in an “I-Thou” relationship. “I’m part of every-
thing and everyone and it all is an integral part of me.” This stage
acknowledges and behaves as if people anywhere are part of one tribe,
inseparable, experiencing the joys and suffering of others as akin to
their own. “I hold reverence for and an active stewardship with the
ecological commons and the global human community.”
Once I’ve introduced Gilligan’s basic developmental distinctions
to a leader, it is easy to introduce and contextualize other readings
on moral and leadership developmental stages. I have found Joiner
and Joseph’s book, Leadership Agility, to be an accessible, effective
framework for leaders to assess their current stage and undertake
240 | LLOYD RAINES
ongoing conscious development through the authors’ framework and

taxonomy. Coaches using stages as a framework for self-understand-
ing learn where they have come from, where they are, and what their
next areas of development are. When they use it with other lead-
ers, those leaders benefit from insights into their mindset and how
that mindset affects their view of leadership, power, possibilities, and
social interactions.
BEARING WITNESS
When coaching, the concept of bearing witness entails holding active
awareness of the current conditions of joy and sorrow, well-being and
suffering, of stakeholders near and far. I can bear witness to the pain,
confusion, and suffering as well as the joy, love, and satisfaction of the
leader I’m with. At the same time I can bear witness to what I know
is going on in the daily lives of people in other parts of the organiza-
tion and the world, and at an appropriate moment I can introduce that
broader awareness to the leader in front of me. And at other moments,
I may bear witness to the impact of business actions (or inactions) on
employees, the environment, on suppliers or the environment upstream
or on consumers and nature downstream.
As leadership coaches, our professional obligations require us to
be in continuous personal and professional development. With disci-
plined, active engagement in any dimension of development (somatic,
emotional, cognitive, spiritual, social, humanities, social sciences,
natural sciences, etc.), we expand the subtlety of the sensibilities that
inform and shape our mindset and worldview. From that place of devel-
opment, we listen with more complexity and openness, make distinc-
tions, ask questions, and offer provocations for leaders. In broad terms,
then, we coach and bear witness from predominantly one of three lev-
els. We may coach and bear witness from a level that begins and ends
with a focus on the leader’s individual self-interest (and, perhaps, the
coach’s self-interest, as well). Or we may coach and bear witness from
a perspective of care for the leader and the organization’s stakeholders.
Or we may coach and bear witness from a perspective of global care for
the health and well-being of the global community.
What a holistic framework provides for leadership coaches and
leadership coaching is a way to see the actual wholeness of the play-
ing field we enter every time we engage in coaching relationships. By
developing a framework that sees the leader within a much broader
context, we can be more attentive, careful, and caring about what we
listen for and inquire about with leaders. It enables us to have a balanced
awareness and approach to supporting the broadest and deepest per-

sonal flourishing of leaders in service to the responsibilities and oppor-
tunities that accompany their position and ours.
NOTES
1. The books, authors, and thinkers referenced in this paragraph are listed,
along with some of their seminal works, in the bibliography.
2. Esty and Winston, Green to Gold, 7–29.
3. Anderson, Mid-Course Correction, 149–181.
4. See note 2 above, 25, 126, 150–156, 229–233, 314.
5. US Environmental Protection Agency, “P3: People, Prosperity, and the
Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability,” http://es.epa.gov/
ncer/p3/fact_sheet.html (accessed November 13, 2007).
6. See note 4 above, 43–61, 139–181.
7. K. Wilber, Integral Psychology, 45–208.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, Ray. Mid-Course Correction. Atlanta, GA: Peregrinzilla Press,
1998.
Benyus, J. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. New York: Perennial,
1997.
Capra, F. The Hidden Connections: Integrating the Biological, Cognitive, and So-
cial Dimensions of Life into a Science of Sustainability. New York: Double-
day Books, 2002.
Cook-Greuter, S. “Making the Case for a Developmental Perspective.” Indus-
trial and Commercial Training 36, no. 7 (2004): 275–281.
Diamond, J. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Pen-
guin Books, 2005.
Esty, D., and Winston, A. Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environ-
mental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advan-
tage. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
Gilligan, C. In a Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1982.
Hawken, P. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. New York,
NY: HarperBusiness, 1993.
Hawken, P., A. Lovins, and L. Lovins. “A Roadmap for Natural Capitalism.”
Harvard Business Review 77 (May/June 1999), 78–81.
Hawken, P., A. Lovins, and L. Lovins. Natural Capitalism. New York, NY:
Little, Brown, 1999.
HM Treasury. Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change. 2006.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_
economics_climate_change/stern_review_report.cfm.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change. 2007. http://
www.ipcc.ch/
242 | LLOYD RAINES
Jaworski, J. Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership. San Francisco, CA:

Barrett-Koehler, 1996.
Joiner, B., and S. Josephs. Leadership Agility, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass,
2007.
Kegan, R. In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life. Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.
Kohlberg, L. The Philosophy of Moral Development. San Francisco, CA: Harper
& Row, 1976.
Maslow, A. Toward A Psychology of Being. Princeton, N.J.: D. Van Nostrand,
1962.
Nattrass, B., and M. Altomare. The Natural Step for Business. Gabriola Island,
British Columbia: New Society Publishers, 1999.
Sahtouris, E. “The Biology of Business: New Laws of Nature Reveal a Better
Way for Business.” VIA Journal 3, no. 1 (2005). http://via-visioninaction.
org/Sahtouris_BiologyOfBusiness-full_version.pdf
Senge, P. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization.
New York: Currency Doubleday, 1990.
Senge, P., B. Smith, S. Schley, and J. Laur. The Necessary Revolution: How
Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable
World. New York: Doubleday, 2008.
Wheatley, M. Leadership and the New Science. San Francisco, CA: Barrett-
Koehler, 1992.
Wilber, K. Integral Psychology. Boston, MA: Shambala, 2000.
Wilson, E. O. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1998.
Wilson, E. O. The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. New York: Nor-
ton, 2006.
Worldwatch Institute. State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable
Prosperity. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2012.
CHAPTER 23
THE THINKING PATH

ALEXANDER CAILLET
INTRODUCTION
The CEO of a bottling company toured a plant whose employees were

demoralized. The tour proved extremely successful, and the CEO’s
approval of what he saw generated a visible lift of mood. Once the
CEO had departed, the plant manager addressed the employees: “The
boss really liked what he saw. He said it was the best he had ever seen.
But why did you have the order of the products reversed in the coolers?
It was embarrassing!” The employees’ mood instantly slumped.
Afterward, my colleague asked the plant manager why he dwelled
on the negative. He replied: “They won’t be motivated toward perfec-
tion if you don’t keep finding something they did that they can improve.
You always have to find something wrong. Good feelings don’t drive
productivity and performance.”
Sound familiar? Unfortunately, it is very common, and examples
like this litter the organizational landscape.
This chapter presents a framework called the Thinking Path that
is useful in leadership coaching and that can be used to help leaders
understand and manage situations like the one described above.
The Thinking Path stipulates that people’s conscious and uncon-
scious thought processes (thinking) generate emotional/physical states
(their feelings), which in turn drive behaviors (their actions) that pro-
duce outcomes (their results). Figure 23.1 illustrates the Thinking Path
framework.
244 | ALEXANDER CAILLET
Results
Actions
Feelings
Thinking
Figure 23.1 The Thinking Path

Source: Used with permission © Accompli, LLC, 2011.
Three questions inspired the creation of the Th inking Path:
1. How do human beings change?

2. What causes sustained change in human beings?
3. Why do some individuals succeed in changing their behaviors
and results, and why do others fail?
The answers to these questions came to me after years of study,

research, personal work, and client engagements all over the world.
And the answers pointed to a deeper phenomenon called thinking and
the impact of thinking on our moment-to-moment experience of life.
The Thinking Path provides a simple, yet powerful framework to
help clients understand and work with their thinking in a way that can
yield three outcomes:
1. Clients realize that their thinking is linked to their feelings and

that by changing their thinking, their feelings also change.
2. Clients realize that their thinking and feelings drive their actions
and results and that by changing their thinking and feelings,
their actions shift and their results change.
3. Clients take greater responsibility for generating sustained
improvements in their actions and results by intentionally
shifting their thinking and their feelings.
FROM THINKING TO RESULTS

Most observers would agree that the plant manager’s speech (his action)
produced lower employee morale (his result). To the plant manager,
THE THINKING PATH | 245
however, the speech felt “right” and he delivered it intentionally to

produce the exact outcome that was experienced and witnessed by all.
Interestingly, a month earlier this same individual had received fairly
negative feedback about these types of behaviors on his 360-degree
performance review. And although this was the first time the organi-
zation had deployed a 360-degree feedback program, it was not the
first time he had heard this feedback.
What could a coach do to help this plant manager and how could
the Thinking Path be of service? The obvious answer is that the coach
would help the plant manager avoid producing such negative results by
shifting his actions. To achieve this, the coach would help him change
the source of his actions and results: his thinking and feelings.
Consider that the origin of the plant manager’s actions lies in his
thinking. His answer to my colleague’s question makes his think-
ing visible: “You always have to find something wrong. Good feel-
ings don’t drive productivity and performance.” Furthermore, my
colleague noticed that just prior to making his statement the plant
manager appeared somewhat anxious and impatient. The Thinking
Path framework suggests that these feelings of anxiety and impatience
were a product of his thinking.
THINKING
Human beings think. We think all the time. It is a central factor in our
lives; our experience of reality is shaped by the moment-to-moment
flow of our thoughts. One way to define thinking is as the reception and
processing of external and internal data in order to assess and interpret
the world within and around us. Of course, thinking also encompasses
the much broader phenomena of human consciousness or awareness.
Because of my long study of neuroscience, however, I am inclined to
emphasize the cognitive aspect of thinking and the mechanical func-
tioning of the brain that underlies it.
It is said that the human body—not only the brain but also the
nervous system and all the sensory apparatus connected to it—processes
billions of bits of data every minute. These data are received through
our senses and are immediately assessed so that we can interpret the
world around us. New data are received and can be held as archival
memory for later use. Familiar data are matched to the archival mem-
ory information in order to be interpreted.
The brain’s primary function is to receive and store data within its
networks and to activate specific networks once the data is presented.
From the moment our brain is formed in the fetus, it uses the neurons
resident within the brain to begin the process of coding the data it
receives by creating neural pathways within predisposed regions of the

brain. When specific units of data—such as a visual image, a sound,
an odor, or a physical sensation—are received repeatedly throughout
one’s life, specific neural pathways corresponding to these units of data
become stronger, creating hard-wired paths of neural circuits. From
this point on, when data are presented to a human being, the brain
responds by activating or “fi ring” specific neural pathways across the
various regions of the brain that are predisposed to interpret these data.
These neural pathways provide a perception of the data, which can then
be interpreted and understood. Th is process occurs continuously in real
time, providing us with the ability to make sense of our surroundings.
The advantage of thinking is that we can use what we already know
to make sense of confusing and complex data instantly. As we do this,
we create meaning, make decisions, and then take action. Thinking is
what allows us to function and produce results.
Thinking is highly complex phenomenon, and it would be imprac-
tical to provide a comprehensive review of all that is known about it in
this chapter. I also find that most clients are not interested in such a
review and seek a simple and practical way to work with their think-
ing. To this end, I would like to introduce a short-hand, nonscientific,
and practical term, thought habits, that allows clients to work with their
thinking in terms of specific units of thought such as beliefs, knowl-
edge, perceptions, assumptions, conclusions, etc.
From the moment we are conceived in the womb and throughout
our lives, we constantly acquire new thought habits as a result of our
ongoing experiences. The more we experience, the more data the brain
codes. The more the brain codes, the more thought habits we have. The
more thought habits we have, the more we can perceive and interpret.
In the end, we develop a large storehouse of thought habits that allows
us to process and interpret vast amounts of data.
In the case of the sales manager, the thought habit in play was:
“You always have to find something wrong. Good feelings don’t drive
productivity and performance.”
FEELINGS
One way to define feelings is as emotional and physiological manifes-

tations experienced throughout the body. There is a great deal of debate
as to which comes first, thinking or feelings. I believe thinking occurs
first and feelings follow. This is supported by research that points to the
fact that data is processed fi rst in the brain and in the body triggering
key organs within the center of the brain that, in turn, launch a series
of chemical reactions that occur within the body to create emotional

and physiological reactions.
As such, feelings provide the most reliable indicator of the char-
acteristics of the thought habits we are generating. Insecure, chaotic,
resentful thought habits generate feelings of anxiety, confusion and
anger; secure, focused, composed thought habits generate feelings of
clarity, calmness, and confidence.
Note that the plant manager had observable feelings—anxiety and
impatience—prior to blurting out his statement. Upon further inves-
tigation, my colleague learned that as the morning went on, he began
to feel anxious that the event was becoming “too much of a mutual
admiration event,” and he felt a need to reign in the group. To him, his
feelings of anxiety were a normal consequence of the CEO’s very posi-
tive remarks. This justified his negative statement to the workers. As he
perceived the events unfolding, he was matching the incoming data to
what he had archived in his brain from the past: “Good feelings don’t
drive productivity and performance.” He did not realize that his own
thought habit was triggering a feeling.
The challenge is that much of the time we do not notice our think-
ing. By contrast, we do feel our feelings as they become manifest as
emotional and physiological reactions. So we may believe that our feel-
ings are causing us to act in certain ways, but actually we are being
driven by our thought habits.
It is important to understand that it is the combination of our
moment-to-moment thinking and feelings that create what we experi-
ence as reality. Whether or not we have interpreted the data correctly
does not matter; our inner experience feels like reality.
The Thinking Path helps clients understand the mechanism that
generates what they perceive as reality. This is important because an
individual’s subjective reality may not reflect the objective situation.
Instead, it might be based upon thought habits that are questionable,
unnecessarily negative, or simply untrue. If a client’s reality is based
upon such thought habits, he/she may take actions that produce unde-
sirable results.
ACTIONS AND RESULTS
One way to define actions is as the behaviors we manifest in the form of

what we say and do. Our actions lead to results, which can be defined
as the outcomes and achievements we produce. So each action we take
produces results, and it is on the basis of our actions and results that we
ultimately are assessed.
In the case of the plant manager, the action was a statement: “But
why did you have the order of the products reversed in the coolers? It
was embarrassing!” The result he produced was a mood of disempower-
ment and resignation among the workers. He may not have seen the
connection between action and result, but it was unmistakable from
the observer’s standpoint.
COACHING WITH THE THINKING PATH
Coaches can use the Thinking Path in their coaching sessions to help
their clients gain a much deeper and clearer understanding of what is at
the source of the issues and challenges they are facing and to define dif-
ferent scenarios that will generate sustainable improvements regarding
these issues and challenges. The Thinking Path methodology requires
clients to explore what is happening in the issue and challenge they are
facing by completing a Current State Thinking Path, including results,
actions, feelings, and thinking. They then imagine a more desirable
scenario and complete a Desired Current State Thinking Path.
To accomplish this, coach and client can use the Thinking Path
template provided in figure 23.2. The instructions are simple:
1. The client selects a real issue or challenge.

2. With the guidance of the coach, the client identifies his/her
thinking, feelings, actions, and results as they are occurring
presently in the issue or challenge—this is the current state.
3. The client also defines his/her thinking, feelings, actions, and
results as they could be—this is the desired state.
4. Coach and client may begin with either the current or desired
state, and jump back and forth if they wish.
5. Coach and client may begin at any level of the Thinking Path
within both the current and desired states and proceed through
the other levels using any sequence they wish.
6. Coach and client may use the starter phrases provided above the
blank lines in the template.
7. The client may choose to write his/her responses down in the
blank spaces or simply speak them.
A coaching session using the Thinking Path may take 30 min-

utes to several hours and may occur over the course of several sessions.
Figure 23.3 provides an example of an executive who completed both the
current and desired states during several coaching sessions. This 38-year-
old leader engaged in coaching due to recent criticism of his performance
Current State Desired State
I achieve/accomplish … I would achieve/accomplish …
The outcome/result is … Results Results The outcome/result would be …
I (verb) … I do … I say … I would (verb) … I would do …

I behave like … Actions Actions I would say … I would behave
like …
I feel … My emotions are … I would feel … My emotions

My state of mind is … Feelings Feelings would be …
My state of mind would be …
My thinking/thought habits is/are … My thinking/thought habits would

My beliefs/assumptions are … Thinking Thinking be … My beliefs/assumptions
My reasoning is … would be …
My reasoning would be …
Figure 23.2 The Thinking Path Template

Current State Desired State

• I am in poor health and have • I am in good health and receive
begun to experience head spins excellent checkups
• I often look down and tired and • I look healthy and relaxed
Results get upset frequently • My colleagues say that they enjoy Results
• My colleagues have complained working with me
about my negativity • My family says that they enjoy
• My family does not enjoy my having me at home
presence
• I work overtime and often into • I know when to take time off
the night from work to be with my family– I
• I often do not show up for make family events a priority
family events and often withdraw • I eat well and exercise regularly
Actions when I am at home • I request support from my Actions
• I have a poor diet, do not exercise, colleagues
and drink up to seven cups of • I acknowledge and apologize
coffee a day when I have snapped at a
• I am snapping at my colleagues colleague
• I feel constantly out of whack • I feel a sense of work/life

with my family and feel guilt balance
and sadness about it • I feel grateful for my family
Feelings • I feel dizzy and have tightness • I maintain my inner balance Feelings
in my chest in face of the pressure
• I am angry about my job and • I feel comfortable and relaxed
am upset with my lack of discipline at work
• I believe that time with my family • I believe that time with my

must be sacrificed for the sake family is a priority
of work • I believe that I must do my
• I believe that I must do whatever best to reach my goals
Thinking it takes to reach my goals • I believe that I can solicit and Thinking
• I believe that receiving help accept support from my
from my colleagues is a sign colleagues
of weakness • I believe that health is the
• I believe I can damage my key to a good life and it needs
health now and regain it later in life to be cultivated
Figure 23.3 The Current and Desired States

as a manager with the organization and due to his deteriorating health.

He found the sessions challenging but made the discovery that underly-
ing his actions and results was a set of thought habits—which he called
core beliefs—he had never before seen with such clarity.
As stated above, coaching with the Th inking Path can yield solid
results. Yet, it is important to remember that this is only a framework,
and like any framework, it best serves those who invest in study and
practice, and it will not be appropriate in every situation. Therefore,
give yourself time to learn how to use the Th inking Path. Try it on
yourself first or with a person in your life who is not a client and who
is willing to experiment with you. When you try it for the first time
with a client, apply it to an issue or challenge that is not too complex;
you can apply it to more complex issues later on after you have gained
experience with the model.
When you begin using the Thinking Path with clients, remain alert
to the client’s responsiveness and reactions. If the client seems disinter-
ested or is resisting the approach, be ready to let go of the framework.
You may choose to come back to it later or drop it altogether. The key is
to remain flexible and to always meet your client where he/she is.
CHANGING THINKING
Up to this point, the Thinking Path has provided us with an effective

approach to understand our current state and define our desired state.
It has allowed us to peer into our thinking and identify the thought
habits that we use today and those we wish to use tomorrow. But is
this enough to help our clients really change their thought habits? The
answer is no. In my experience, most clients need something more to
help them change their thought habits in a sustained manner. What is
needed is an action plan comprised of a set of goals and practices that
transform the desired state into reality.
Most coaches know how to build action plans and most clients
appreciate action planning. However, when building action plans, most
coaches focus primarily on behaviors and results and construct a set of
goals related to the new results and a set of behaviors to achieve these
results. For most coaches and clients, this may feel like it is enough.
I believe this is not enough as too often simply setting a new goal
and identifying new behaviors to reach the goal leads only to short-
term, unsustainable shifts. The New Year’s resolution is the most glar-
ing example of these types of shifts. What is needed is another action
plan aimed at sustaining the new thinking described in the desired
state—an action plan that can ensure that the necessary change in
thought habits actually does occur. We call this action plan a Thinking
Path Plan; it is a combination of traditional planning oriented toward
behaviors and results and planning focused on the thought habits in
order to enhance the possibility of sustained change.
Fortunately, we can make changes to our thought habits if we
choose to do so, and we can do so throughout our entire lives. New
research in neuroplasticity confi rms this statement. We now under-
stand that the brain’s primary function of receiving and storing data
within its networks continues throughout our lives. As such, the brain
can create new neural pathways within predisposed areas of the brain
based on new data. These new pathways can be built in addition to
the original neural pathways and over time can become stronger than
the old pathways, providing us with alternatives. These alternatives are
critical for a very important reason: the brain does its work extraor-
dinarily quickly, and it is impossible to intercept the fi ring sequence
of specific neural pathways in response to data. As such, our inter-
pretations are almost immediate. That said, we can choose to keep or
change the thoughts we have made, once we have made them. And if
we choose to change the thought habit, we can select the alternative.
And if we consistently choose the alternative, we have the possibility
of building this alternative as a new pathway and quieting down the
original pathways or extinguishing them altogether. As long as we can
learn, we can acquire new thought habits and even change or eliminate
old thought habits.
A question now emerges: How do we encode the new thought
habits from the desired state into our neural pathways so that they
become viable alternatives the next time the original pathways fire?
Not surprisingly, we must engage in an activity most of us experience
throughout our lives: learning. It is through learning that we acquired
most of our thought habits. And it is through learning that we can
encode new thought habits into our neural pathways so that they
become viable alternatives
There are many approaches used in learning, and everyone has a
preferred approach that works best for the individual. When using the
Thinking Path, there are five approaches that are particularly helpful in
creating new and sustained neural pathways: (1) repetition, (2) educa-
tion, (3) visualization, (4) writing, and (5) conversation. Most clients will
want to use more than one approach, but may not use all five at once.
REPETITION
Repetition, also known as affirmation, involves repeating new

thought habits like mantras. In the same manner we memorized our
multiplication tables, the act of repeating a thought habit increases the

chances that it will be encoded in our brains. In neuroscience, this is
called long-term potentiation and can be described as a long-lasting
period of signal transmission between two neurons, and this increases
the strength of their connection to one another and thus also the prob-
ability that they will fire together in the future. Long-term potentia-
tion is widely believed to be at the basis of learning and memory build-
ing and has led to the well-known adage that neurons that fire together
wire together.
With this in mind, a coach might suggest that as part of a client’s
Thinking Path Plan, he/she could quietly affirm a new thought habit
several times a day. The client could continue to do this until he or
she experienced greater facility in choosing the new thought habit as
an alternative to the original, and/or began to feel or act differently
when he/she affirmed the new thought habit. Let’s now take the case
of the executive in figure 23.3 and focus for the rest of this chapter on
building a Thinking Path Plan to encode and sustain one of his four
new thought habits: “I believe that health is the key to a good life and
it needs to be cultivated.” If we focus on repetition, one part of his
Thinking Path Plan could be to affi rm this thought habit every morn-
ing, afternoon, and evening for a period of time.
One challenge to be aware of is that some clients will give up on
repetition because it may seem artificial and shallow to them. The new
thought habit may seem foreign, questionable, or simply untrue, and
affirming it over and over again may not yield tangible results. As such,
repetition works best when it is coupled with other learning approaches
that will give the thought habit a greater chance of becoming encoded
as a new neural pathway and become the basis for a new reality.
EDUCATION
I define education broadly to include any active engagement in activities

such reading, watching TV, videos and film, listening to experts, going
to events and shows, and attending workshops and courses. It goes
without saying that one of the essential components of learning is the
acquisition and processing of new data and information either individu-
ally or in collective settings. From a neuroscience perspective, when we
actively engage in educational activities related to a new thought habit,
we experience a significant increase in neural activation relative to that
thought habit. The more complex and collective the activity is, the more
neural landscape we use, the more neural pathways are formed, and the
greater likelihood that new thought habits are encoded and sustained.

Thinking Path Plan, he/she could read articles or books related to the
thought habit, watch a specific documentary or fi lm that incorporates
the thought habit, or attend a specific lecture, course, or workshop that
further expounded upon the thought habit. In the case of the executive
in the example, another part of his Thinking Path Plan could be to read
articles on exercise and fitness, watch a documentary on the adverse
effects of stress, attend a course on stress management, or consult a
nutritionist. If these practices were coupled with daily affi rmations,
the probability that the thought habit would be sustained would be
increased.
VISUALIZATION
Visualization, also known as mental rehearsal, involves quietly think-

ing about a thought habit and imagining how it might play out in real
life. Recent research has revealed that the brain responds similarly to
the thought of an action and to the real action. Athletes who have
submitted themselves to electromyography have demonstrated that
when they mentally rehearsed their moves, the electrical currents sent
to their muscles by their brains were similar to the impulses sent when
they were physically performing the moves. These experiments dem-
onstrate that whether an activity is mentally imagined or is actively
performed, the same neural pathways are stimulated, the same physi-
ological changes are present, and the neural pathways are ultimately
strengthened.
Thinking Path Plan, he/she could take a few minutes during the day
or evening and quietly visualize how a thought habit could play out in
real life. This is especially powerful if the client has been doing daily
affirmations of the thought habit and has engaged in various educa-
tional activities. In the case of the executive in the example, another
part of his Thinking Path Plan could be to take a few minutes each
day for a week to quietly visualize being at the gym, engaging in stress
management practices, or living a joyful and happy life. The executive
would effectively be imagining prior to acting. Th is would strengthen
the impact of the affi rmations and educational activities.
One challenge to be aware of is that most clients prefer to close
their eyes when performing visualizations in order to avoid distrac-
tions. As a consequence, many may feel uncomfortable closing their
eyes and performing visualizations during the workday or even during
a coaching session in the workplace. It is important to allow clients to
perform visualizations when they feel most comfortable and this may
be in a place other than the workplace.
WRITING
Writing, also known as journaling, involves writing about the thought

habit. The client can use the Thinking Path framework to write about
the thought habit including where it comes from, what it means, what
it feels like to use it, and what behaviors and results emerge when it is
used. Much has been written on the benefits of journaling as a medi-
tative and reflective practice, including enhancing self-awareness and
self-understanding, discovering meaning in specific events, making
connections between different ideas and events, gaining perspective
and clarity, and developing critical thinking skills. From the perspec-
tive of neuroscience, the act of writing activates a broader neural land-
scape and causes a multitude of neural pathways to form and fi re around
the new thought habit. Writing also translates the thought habit into
a motor skill by activating a sequence of neurons that ultimately fi re
motor neurons that activate the skeleton and muscles of our shoulders,
arms, and hands. This not only strengthens the original thought habit
but encodes the sequence within the broader landscape of the body.
Thinking Path Plan, he/she could take a moment each week to journal
about a particular thought habit using the Thinking Path framework as
described above. In the case of the executive in the example, another
part of his Thinking Path Plan could be to take half an hour every week
to journal about the thought habit. The subject of the journaling could
be specific to one aspect of living healthy lifestyles or it could be gen-
eral. As you can imagine, if journaling is added to daily affirmations,
educational activities, and occasional visualizations, the probability that
the thought habit would be encoded and sustained is even greater.
One challenge to be aware of is that some clients do not enjoy writ-
ing, and many shy away from the practice of journaling. It is important
to allow clients to find their own approach and rhythm, including the
frequency and duration of their journaling periods. It is also important
to accept that some clients will simply not do it.
CONVERSATION
Conversations with others about a specific thought habit can generate a

remarkable amount of learning quickly. From the perspective of neuro-
science, conversations, like writing, activate a broader neural landscape
and cause a multitude of neural pathways to form and fi re around the

new thought habit. Conversations also translate the thought habit into
a series of motor skills by activating several sequences of neurons that
also ultimately fire motor neurons. This also encodes the sequence
within the broader landscape of the body and strengthens the original
thought habit. We often remember great conversations and their con-
tent. And if the client is willing to remain curious and open and to use
inquiry and actively listen, he/she can only enhance the number of new
neural connections that can be made relative to the thought habit.
Thinking Path Plan, he/she could select certain people in both the per-
sonal and professional spheres to have conversations with. These con-
versations could be about the thought habit itself or about applications
of the thought habit in everyday life. In the case of the executive in
the example, another part of his Thinking Path Plan could be to have
specific conversations about his desire to live a healthy lifestyle with his
wife, several friends, his doctor, and one or more of the experts he lis-
tened to in his education activities. He could also have conversations or
even work sessions with his boss and his team about what it would take
to engage in a healthy lifestyle at work. Conversations are an excellent
way to transform affirmations, educational activities, visualizations,
and journaling into an interactive experience. They can be powerful in
their ability to sustain change.
One challenge to be aware of is that some clients are more reserved,
may lack conversational skills, may be uneasy having these types of
conversations, or may have issues speaking with certain people. It is
important to gain a clear understanding of any reservations a client
may have and to strategize accordingly. There are many different ways
to have conversations and many different types of people with whom
to have conversations.
THE THINKING PATH PLAN
Let’s now examine how the Thinking Path Plan actually did support
the executive. Figure 23.4 provides one of the Thinking Path Plans
developed by the executive and his coach. Th is particular plan focuses
on the executives health and lifestyle. When the executive and his
coach began the action planning process, they completed a first level
of planning focused on establishing a set of goals (results) to achieve
the desired state and a set of actions to achieve these goals. These goals
and actions are located on the left-hand side of the plan. The executive
and his coach then selected the thought habit “I believe that health is
THINKING PATH PLAN
NEW THOUGHT H ABIT: I believe that health is the key to a
good life and it needs to be cultivated.
GOALS (R ESULTS) LEARNING PRACTICES

1. Reduce my weight to 180 pounds AFFIRMATIONS
2. Improve my lipids profi le: ● Repeat ‘A good life is a healthy life’ several times
● Total cholesterol = 190 upon waking, at lunch and before bed
● LDL = < 125 EDUCATION
● HDL = 35 - 80 ● Read: Cholesterol Down by Janet Brill
3. Get a full 7 hours of restful sleep at least ● Attend NYU course on Stress Management
three nights a week ● Read Meditation by Eknath Easwaran
4. Eliminate my emotional hijacks
5. Feel more joy and happiness in my life VISUALIZATION
● Visualize going to the gym the morning of each
ACTIONS day I plan on going to the gym
● Visualize feeling joy and happiness as often as possible
1. Go the gym at least twice a week for one hour
2. Eat a low-cholesterol diet as prescribed by my WRITING
physician ● Journal 30 minutes each week on the benefits
3. Leave work at 6:00 p.m. at least twice a week I am experiencing from shifting to a healthy lifestyle
4. Go for a bike ride or a hike once every weekend CONVERSATIONS
5. Get to bed before 11:00 p.m. at least three nights ● Speak with my team at work about what it would
a week take to promote a healthy lifestyle at work
6. Engage in my meditation practice at least twice ● Speak with my wife about changing the way
a week for 15–20 minutes each session we eat as a family
7. Listen to my favorite music on the weekends ● Speak with a nutritionist about the right diet for me
Figure 23.4 Partial Thinking Path Plan

the key to a good life and it needs to be cultivated” and developed a set
of learning practices designed to fully encode and sustain this thought
habit in order to more powerfully support the fulfi llment of the actions
and the achievement of the goals. These are located on the right-hand
side of the plan. The full plan took two coaching sessions to complete.
And although it only took two sessions to complete the plan, it
took several years for this executive to fully live a healthy lifestyle. Th e
change was not immediate, and there were many relapses. Although
neuroplasticity informs us that as long as we can learn, we can acquire
new thought habits and even change or eliminate old thought habits, it
does not inform us on the time it takes to do so. Changing our think-
ing can and, in most cases, will take time.
The good news is that the executive ultimately did change, and when
he did, he was not just acting out a new healthy lifestyle; he was being a
new healthy lifestyle. He believed in living a healthy lifestyle, and this
new way of thinking led to significant changes in his life and had an
impact not just on him, but also on his team at work and ultimately on
his personal life at home. He continues this lifestyle to this day, making
continuous improvements and enjoying the benefits he receives.
CONCLUSION
How do human beings change? What causes sustained change in

human beings? Why do some individuals succeed in changing their
behaviors and results, and why do others fail? These were the three
questions that inspired the creation of the Th inking Path over 20 years
ago. Today, hundreds of coaches and a multitude of clients from around
the world have benefited from this simple yet effective framework.
Many coaches describe it as an essential component of their coaching
toolkit and one of the lenses through which they engage with their
clients. Many clients speak of the deep insights they acquired and the
sustained thinking and behavioral changes they made using it.
I have personally witnessed deep and lasting transformation in
many leaders who have used the Thinking Path in their coaching work.
Whether working in large corporations, small businesses, government
institutions, NGO’s or nonprofit organizations, these leaders were able
to clearly understand the current source of their limitations. They were
able to recognize that their thinking is linked to their feelings and
that by changing their thinking, they also change their feelings. They
realized that their thinking and feelings drive their actions and results
and that when they change their thinking and feelings, their actions
shift, and their results change. And they took greater responsibility
for generating sustained improvements in their actions and results by

intentionally shifting their thinking and their feelings and creating
new realities that better serve them and the people they serve.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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(2010): 180–184.
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CHAPTER 24
COACHING FOR
LEADERSHIP PRESENCE
CLARICE SCRIBER
LEADERSHIP PRESENCE IS a common coaching concern for aspir-

ing leaders in organizations where technically savvy leaders—and even
brilliant ones—climb the corporate ladder and fi nd that they are navi-
gating unfamiliar terrain and that the stakes are high. To succeed at
this level, leaders must develop a strong leadership voice with peers,
superiors, and subordinates. Many also must round off sharp edges
that make them ineffective.
Valued and rewarded for their subject matter expertise and their
ability to achieve results, these rising stars frequently have neglected
the people skills necessary for success in the executive ranks. When
newly promoted leaders get feedback in their initial performance
review about their own lack of leadership presence, more than a few are
perplexed by the fact that it’s not just the work that counts. After all,
mastering their domain was the hallmark of their success so far. Th ese
leaders are mystified about feedback critical of the way they engage and
show up. Here, many realize they are facing the challenge of “executive
presence.”
The difficulty in meeting this challenge is that executive presence
is an elusive concept, shaped by an organization’s culture and presence
in the marketplace and by its region and reach. From my perspective,
presence is a mélange of a number of qualities, including awareness
of self and others, courage, passion and commitment, clear, resonant
communication, energy that inspires and motivates, and connection
260 | CLARICE SCRIBER
and focus. Few leaders exemplify all these qualities at any one time.
What seems to be important is for the leader to intuitively know and
understand when these characteristics are needed and to embody the
quality that is needed. In any one organization, one or more of these
qualities may be prized more than others, and leadership presence is
often defined by how the organization views itself and characterizes
leaders who are successful. For example, in company A, a leader with
presence may be defined as one who is authoritative and decisive. In
company B, the prototype may be openness, ease of engagement, and
the capacity to enroll and influence others. In company C, presence
may be defined as the leader’s ability to think well on his or her feet and
to demonstrate grace under pressure in stressful times.
In this chapter, I will examine the qualities that support a leader’s
effectiveness, ones that I have noticed and assessed when engaging
with leaders regarding their executive presence.
The qualities I’ve mentioned above are not the only ones a leader
must embody by any means, and they are not always the ones a com-
pany measures in the year-end review. However, I do believe that these
are ones that emanate from leaders who have developed mature rela-
tionship skills and who have thought carefully and intentionally about
how they want to lead. These qualities support leaders’ stance and are
among the soft skills that—when missing—can derail leaders. These
qualities are frequently among those traits I am asked to help leaders
develop. To develop them, we sometimes have to look at how they
show up in the leader’s day-to-day life.
CLIENT READINESS
When I receive a call from a leader to initiate coaching, I listen deeply
so that I can understand the leader’s commitment to coaching that
will require him to examine some issues that may fundamentally speak
to that person’s identity. Unlike coaching to enhance management
skills, coaching to change one’s way of being in the world involves ego
development, and a shift in perception of one’s being in relationship
with others. That change is transformative. Can the leader commit to
regular reflection and self-observation to understand how he or she is
showing up? Can the leader scrutinize long-held beliefs about his or
her ways of being in the world and how he or she is in the workplace?
Can the client engage in a reflective conversation and take on practices
that may upend his or her self-image?
All these are questions clients and coaches alike are wise to con-
sider. Why? Some clients are ready to do this work; others may not
COACHING FOR LEADERSHIP PRESENCE | 261
see the need. When the client is ready, the coaching alliance can be
productive and satisfying for both client and coach.
MAXINE
Take Maxine for example. A quiet, introverted thinker, Maxine was

well respected and liked by the people who worked with her, particu-
larly by direct reports. She was great at delivery, and enjoyed rallying
her team to partner IT projects. Maxine was eager to progress to the
next level in her organization. However, the feedback she received at
review time indicated that her boss’s peers and other superiors weren’t
sure she was ready. Although her company appreciated her work ethic
and ability to perform, her bosses wanted more. In meetings, her boss
wanted her to speak up more, speak strategically, and engage more
robustly in conversations. What was Maxine’s point of view, they won-
dered? How did Maxine think about the work? When there was con-
troversy, where did she stand? Where was her passion? These questions
pointed to the level of leadership Maxine’s company wants its leaders to
demonstrate. For Maxine’s company, it is important for leaders to show
they have some skin in the game.
Until this point in her career, Maxine had been a good lieuten-
ant, largely carrying out the vision of others. Now, the requirements
had changed. Maxine was being asked not only to articulate her vision
but to do this on a more public stage. She was now being asked to
engage in dialogue with others without the benefit of having the time
to think things through; she had to respond in the heat of the discus-
sion. Finally, there was an observation about Maxine’s level of energy.
No matter what the event, Maxine was always calm and collected.
Maxine believed that appearing calm was a strength, especially during
a fire drill. However, others viewed it as a lack of passion and convic-
tion on her part.
In our coaching sessions, Maxine proved curious about the feed-
back and was eager to explore possibilities for building her leadership
capacity. “I chose you because I was intrigued by your comments about
‘developing my leadership voice,’ ” she said. At the end of coaching,
Maxine was more comfortable speaking up about her vision for the
organization. With a great deal of practice and by using visual imagery,
she was able to manage her energy to express greater enthusiasm when
situations warranted it.
Maxine may never be an ebullient leader. She realized that grace
under pressure was an asset. To be authentic, she needed to keep integ-
rity with herself. At the same time, she was able to confidently express
her opinion in meetings, which put her on the road to changing her
colleagues’ perception of her as a wallflower. She took the time to flesh
out her point of view, and she practiced speaking about her thoughts
until it became easier for her to express them.
JACK
My coaching conversations with Jack had a very different tenor from

my conversations with Maxine, although both were deeply immersed
in the tactical approach to leading. Jack was an up-and-coming, twen-
tysomething midlevel executive. He was considered brilliant by peers
as well as by colleagues senior to him. By training, he was an economist,
responsible for creating sophisticated analytical models. Energized by
his work and by the intellectual conversations that occurred when he
was engaged with his colleagues, he was oblivious to whether the cli-
ent or colleague was able to keep up with his thinking or the concepts
he was trying to convey. He saw himself as an intellectual and equal
to those in positions higher in the chain of command, and he did not
defer to hierarchy. This quality set him apart from peers and helped
him to earn the respect of superiors. Some managers thought it was
refreshing and useful for Jack to challenge their views.
Jack did not suffer fools gladly—an assessment his staff, his peers,
and his boss all made. Jack’s manner was often abrupt, even curt,
particularly when he was under pressure. A mentor said: “When you
encounter Jack and his energy and appearance, you might think, ‘Oh, a
grad student or a professor.’ ” He does not look like an up-and-coming
leader; what matters most to him is thinking about ideas, solving prob-
lems, and getting the work done.
The company regarded Jack as having “high potential,” someone
who would climb the ladder more quickly than others because of his
knowledge, contribution, and creativity. At the same time, his sponsors
recognized Jack’s manner was not always welcome, and they noted that
he needed to adapt his communications style, his appearance, and his
interpersonal style to be less abrasive and more open to others’ opinions
and ideas. The reality is that what had served Jack well in the past could
derail him at the next rung of the career ladder. To help him, Jack’s
boss offered him the opportunity to work with a coach.
Jack’s story has a different ending from Maxine’s. From the start,
Jack knew he wanted something more for himself, but in the end he
was not developmentally ready to take on the kind of practice required
to change the way he engaged with others. Although he acknowledged
that he was getting in his own way and recognized the desirability of
change, he wanted the coach to give him a template of behaviors he

could adapt. Ultimately, it was the work product that intrigued him,
not changing his way of working and engaging with others, particu-
larly with peers and subordinates. At this time in his development, Jack
was not ready to let go of the person he believed himself to be. The call
to commit to self-reflection was secondary to his tendency to do and
his reliance on being the expert. In time, Jack could decide to connect,
collaborate, and be more humble and engaged with peers and reports.
These two illustrations deal with the readiness of clients to engage
in changes that affect how others view them. Early in the coaching
alliance, both coach and client should be satisfied that the client is
clear about the “why” of the coaching—the larger consideration. Who
am I as a leader, and how do I want to show up as a leader?
UNPACKING THE INSTITUTIONAL FEEDBACK
Once the client-leader and I forge a coaching alliance, we engage the

client’s manager or sponsor in a conversation to further clarify the
feedback. Just as the conversation with the client-leader must be utterly
candid, the one with the boss must be so also. Here, I work with the
client to help him make sense of the intangibles. The clearer the feed-
back, the more specific we can be identifying what should be addressed
in the coaching.
To begin, I want clients to understand what is at stake and what
differences will occur when they transform their style. I often ask cli-
ents and also their managers about the nature of success and what it
looks like to the organization. In other words, I press for a concrete
picture of what the sponsor or boss is looking for and make sure the
client believes that the new way of showing up meets both parties’
perception of who the client is striving to be. A total picture is not
always easy to obtain, but in many cases clients have an idea of what is
missing. What is most important is for the client to have a clear sense
of what change the sponsor needs to see as a signal that the desired
leadership qualities have been achieved. The skillful coach will ask for
clear examples and expectations and will ask about the support the
client-leader can expect from the manager and from those within the
client-leader’s sphere of influence.
Finally, a coach’s conversation with the sponsor might result in
greater clarity about what is at stake for the client-leader and discern
what the client-leader truly needs to demonstrate to broaden that lead-
ership capacity. Another effective way (which also leads the client to
powerful discovery) is to get a read on how the client-leader is doing
by interviewing peers and other stakeholders to see where the client’s

leadership style is working and what changes need to occur. Peers and
subordinates can provide specific feedback about the client-leader’s
ability to articulate a vision, to influence without formal authority, and
to motivate effectively.
When leadership presence is an issue, the most important feed-
back often comes from superiors or seasoned peers. For example, if the
issue is around presence with groups, the coach might inquire about
how the leader is showing up in meetings.
Observations from colleagues can include, but are not limited to,
questions like these:
• Does the leader have a vision that is elegant and easily conveyed?
• Does the leader communicate strategically about matters
concerning the organization?
• Does the leader take a stand and articulate a point of view?
• Does the leader manage his or her energy well?
• Does the leader command the room when speaking?
• Does the leader look the part? In some organizations, the right
tie and sleeve length, hair cut, and color choices for attire matter
and signal whether the leader is part of the team or not.
Although such matters may seem superficial to the client-leader,

the question remains: how do these factors affect the leader’s ability to
connect and to be viewed and accepted as a member of the executive
team?
When the coach interviews multiple stakeholders and peers, those
interviews can help clarify whether the feedback is an idiosyncratic
preference on the part of the boss or whether others hold the same
perceptions. Thus, having a conversation with the boss about what the
boss is seeing and which leadership issues should be addressed can be
critical in helping the leader determine which goals to address.
COACHING THE LEADER
Because of the tender nature of coaching for presence, it’s critical for
the coach to hold the space without judgment and to inspire trust in
the client-leader. When that happens, the client becomes a more con-
nected, inspirational, committed, and intentional leader. Making that
choice will be life-enhancing if it is meaningful. Then, the client takes
charge of enhancing his or her leadership voice or presence or both
when dealing with colleagues and those he or she wants to influence.
When you begin with the premise that your clients are compe-
tent and whole, the opportunity to broaden their capacity provides an
immense opportunity for both leadership and personal growth. It is
essential for the leader to retain integrity with personal values as the
leader changes. Coaching for leadership presence works best when
wholesale change is not required. We assume here that our clients
are competent to do their job. With coaching, the coach and client
reimagine and reshape the way the leader relates to others, influ-
ences, communicates, or self-manages to have greater effect in the
organization.
MARTIN
When Martin began working with me as a coach, he had been leading

teams for five years. He was organized, precise, and authoritative in his
approach to getting the work done. His last couple of projects had broad
impact on the organization, and his sphere of influence spanned mul-
tiple divisions instead of just one. Managing down, he’d always been
directive. Managing across, he found that his “just do it” style was not
as effective. His peers ignored his calls, waited until the last minute to
weigh in on decisions, and were lackadaisical about his requests and his
desire to meet established deadlines. At the same time, Martin’s new
boss valued collaboration and was assessing Martin’s performance, not
only by the quality of the deliverable, but also by how he worked with
his peers.
When I started working with Martin, he was indignant about his
peers, casting blame and feeling frustrated by his inability to get things
moving. He just wanted his colleagues to “get off the dime” and work
as hard as he did, be as invested in the work and “deliver the goods.”
Feedback interviews with Martin’s boss and his peers revealed that
his colleagues viewed him as a leader who was distant until he wanted
something and then relentless in trying to get it; they thought he was
extremely bright but unappreciative of input from others and a micro-
manager with his subordinates.
As you might imagine, Martin had a totally different interpreta-
tion of the situation. He viewed himself as capable, committed to the
task—driven by a strong work ethic and strong desire to change things
within the organization. In the feedback conversation, we talked about
how we see ourselves and how others see us—how others and we might
interpret the same data differently. We discussed how strengths when
overused can derail us. We discussed intention versus impact. I asked
Martin what leadership meant to him, how he wanted to lead, and
what his peers had to offer in the accomplishment of work. He said,

“You know, I thought it was my job to delegate the work and deliver on
the project. It never occurred to me that I might have to take a different
approach with my peers. They are right. I don’t know them, and they
probably don’t know me. I never thought that really mattered. We’re
here to get the work done. Not to be social.”
It took time for Martin to digest the data and to accept that his
assumptions about his leadership might not be well grounded. In the
end, he reexamined not only his relationships with his peers, but also
his relationships and leadership with subordinates. When we started
our work together, Martin was entirely focused on getting things done.
On the basis of a carefully crafted development plan shaped by Martin’s
desired outcome to work collaboratively with others, Martin made
changes. He took responsibility for his part in the dynamic between
himself and clients. As he began to extend himself more to peers, his
peers came to know him, and they were able to see how much he cared
about the work. He started to listen to what they wanted and to notice
their strengths and what mattered to them. The work became easier,
and Martin’s energy shifted from tightly wound to greater ease. The
use of 360-degree feedback, self-observation, clear goals, willingness
to examine and let go of old assumptions as well as practices and sup-
port, all contributed to Martin’s growth as a leader. An introvert, he
had to make an effort to reach out and build relationships, but he now
is seeing the payoff. His boss has taken note and encouraged him to go
beyond his comfort zone. Martin began spending time engaging his
team to seek input. He has developed listening skills. Martin reported
that it was stressful trying to get everything done all by himself. Now
that he sees himself more as a part of the team, he enjoys his work in a
way he had not before.
Working with a client-leader who is challenged with developing
or modifying his or her leadership presence is more effective when the
coach is knowledgeable and experienced in adult developmental the-
ory. It helps when the coach is cognizant about how leaders grow and
change and when she or he understands emotional intelligence and can
offer practices that engender intentionality, awareness, and change. The
works of Kegan, Basseches, Torbert, Cook-Grueter, Laske, and oth-
ers can help the coach become more conversant in the stages of adult
development.1
The leader is often required to adapt a leadership stance to fit the
challenges at hand. Changing how we are requires us to be attuned
to the organization in a way that is different from the way the leader
previously perceived it. Thus, coaching occurs in the space between
leaders’ current locus of control, their assumptions and story, and their
desire and capacity to change. Martin believed he had the wherewithal
to change and to interact with his peers differently. On the other hand,
Jack needed to manage his energy, listen, and enroll others so they
understand his vision, and he did not feel it was important to do so.
Another leader might need the fl ip side of the coin: to speak with
greater authority and conviction.
To make an authentic change, leaders must buy into the notion
that their way of being—their identity in the organization—can be a
means of accomplishing more than the current reality. That is, their
role is only part of the equation. This concept is often difficult for a
leader to fathom, especially one who depends on hierarchy to influence.
What may make the issue even more difficult is when leaders have
relied on their commitment to work and have given scant attention to
developing relationships and an astute view of the political aspects of
organizational life.
In the initial conversation, I want to understand how the cli-
ent-leaders are motivated, whether their perception of who they are
matches how others see them and whether they are ready to examine
how their style affects their relationships. Does the leader see the value
in finding a voice and a strategy for leadership that reflects that stance?
Does the leader view the feedback as an opportunity to work more eas-
ily and successfully with colleagues? Does the leader feel diminished
or supported in such efforts because the coach is in the mix? Can the
leader take charge of his destiny, or does he or she see the organiza-
tion’s request as threatening?
At the heart of leadership presence is authenticity and genuine
respect for oneself and for others. Knowledge, technical ability, expe-
rience, and accomplishment are important, but the ability to connect
with others and to be genuinely present is an essential part of strong
leadership. When respect is present and consistently demonstrated,
others can receive us more fully, and this creates space for a genuine
exchange of ideas. The new leader can be more emboldened to articu-
late ideas and to elicit the truth from others. The goal should be to
articulate vision, challenge current thinking, contribute to the con-
versation regarding future possibilities, move action forward, make
difficult decisions public, and lead. Listening is a key ingredient in
this mixture because it keeps the leader in touch with what is going
on; listening also provides a way for gathering new ideas from others.
Listening keeps the leader in touch with the reality. It says to others
that “I” do not have all the answers, and it offers relief from being solely
responsible for information and solutions.
It takes courage on the part of the coach and the client-leader to

engage in coaching with a focus on presence. Often clients who are
striving to find their leadership voice are new leaders who prefer time
to think before they speak, who find they cannot get a word in when in
a group setting, or who are at a loss for words when they are questioned
about a topic they don’t know.
SUMMARY
It is crucial for both leader and coach to be clear about the overarch-
ing goal of coaching when presence is the issue. When coaching con-
cludes, we’ve been successful if the client walks away from the engage-
ment feeling whole and intact and more confident about his or her
impact on the organization and colleagues. The balance between the
organization’s request that the client-leader shifts and adapts a stronger
leadership presence and the leader’s capacity to be more comfortable
and skillful in navigating in the organizational setting is not always
easy to achieve. At the end of the day, leaders want to retain integrity
and remain in harmony with their own core values and sense of them-
selves. The ultimate goal is not only about results the client will get
from a change in behavior. If coaching is successful, the client-leader
will grow and understand a great deal more about his or her purpose of
having greater impact on the organization.
NOTE
1. Robert Kegan, The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Develop-
ment and In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life; Laske,
Measuring Hidden Dimensions: The Art and Science of Fully Engaging Adults;
Torbert and Cook-Greuter Action Inquiry: The Secret of Timely and Trans-
forming Leadership.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kegan, Robert. The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.
———. In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1994
Laske, Otto E. Measuring Hidden Dimensions: The Art and Science of Fully
Engaging Adults. Medford, MA: Interdevelopmental Institute Press, 2006.
Torbert, Bill, and Susanne R. Cook-Greuter, et al. Action Inquiry: The Secret of
Timely and Transforming Leadership. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koeh-
ler, 2004.
CHAPTER 25
COACHING FOR LEVERAGE:

HELPING CLIENTS TO
MANAGE PRIORITIES, TIME,
ENERGY, AND RESOURCES
KATHERINE EBNER
The young woman is perched on the edge of her chair in my

office. Her face is pale, shoulders slumped. She emanates stress
as she describes a crushing list of deadlines and commitments,
and I have the sense that she might jump up any minute and
run out the door to get back to work. “The worst part,” she tells
me, looking distraught, “is that I fainted at work last week and
again during the weekend. I went to the hospital for blood tests,
but they didn’t find anything. The doctor said that I have to deal
with my stress.” As I listened to her, I noticed that, when she
finished speaking, she held her breath. I counted silently to see
how long she would hold it. After about ten seconds, she spoke.
“I don’t know what to do. I need this job, but I have no work/life
balance.” Again she held her breath. “Are you aware that you’re
holding your breath?” I asked her. “No!” she said, startled. As
I described my observation, she began to smile. “Are you tell-
ing me that the reason I fainted is that I’m holding my breath?”
“Could be,” I said. “Would you mind observing this to see if it
is happening consistently?” Three days later, she called. “Yes. I’m
holding my breath all the time. I have so much going on at work
270 | KATHERINE EBNER
and outside of work that I seem to just keep bracing myself by

holding my breath.”
THIS EXAMPLE SEEMS EXTREME, yet many people who describe

their commitments do so in the same kind of breathless rush, run-
ning through lists of “to do’s,” creating mental piles of commitments.
As coaches, we meet people like this young woman frequently—
high achievers who have gotten far in life by exceeding expectations.
Eventually, they achieve a level of challenge that forces them to face up
to the limitations of time, energy, and resources. There are too many
priorities. Everything is urgent. Nothing can be set aside or removed
from the towering stack of “must-do’s.” At this point, an individual
realizes that something is terribly wrong. “I can’t go on like this,” one
of my clients said recently. “Even when I accomplish something impor-
tant, there are three more things I haven’t gotten to. I need help sorting
out my priorities and finding some work/life balance.”
For the coach, the goal of “work/life balance” may seem at fi rst
simply like a call for help with time-planning. Indeed, this is an impor-
tant skill for leaders to master. However, to truly help a client make a
transformational shift in the way she manages herself, the coach must
also help the client to look at behavior and attitudes in three other
areas: priorities, energy, and resources. In this chapter, we explore con-
cepts and strategies for helping clients to move from a state of being
overwhelmed to a healthier way of living and working.
PRELIMINARY CONVERSATION
Before beginning to work with a client who is overwhelmed, the coach
and the client must have a preliminary conversation in which the coach
invites the client to tell his story and describe his current challenges.
During this conversation, the coach listens for:
• the external requirements and standards that the client currently

faces, with attention to areas that need the client’s immediate
attention;
• the client’s contribution to the situation, including history,
beliefs, and personal standards that may be contributing to the
situation;
• the client’s emotional, mental, and physical state, which provides
information about what is realistic for the client to undertake in
the near term, as well as where the client may need to attend to
his own needs;
COACHING FOR LEVERAGE | 271
• ideas the client may already have about how to identify top
priorities and work for better balance.
This conversation may also give the coach an opportunity to

address the mistaken belief—not uncommon among high achievers—
that the habit of overwork is one of the key reasons for their success.
Many people believe that they risk losing rewards, status, and the sup-
port and admiration of others if they do not exhibit this type of “work
ethic.” Choosing to live a more balanced life feels like the fi rst step off
the fast track—an invitation to relinquish control of career success.
To coach such a client, the coach fi rst must help the client to become
aware of the debilitating consequences of overwork—including dimin-
ished performance over time, loss of perspective, loss of stamina and
health, and the inability to demonstrate self-mastery. Thus, the client’s
call for coaching on “work/life balance” is an invitation to work with
clients, not simply at the level of tactics, but also at the deeper level of
self-awareness and self-mastery.
COACHING FOR LEVERAGE
The concept of “leverage” is well known in business, where it is associ-

ated with strategies that achieve equal or better results with less eff ort
and stress. Designed to help the client “work smarter, not harder,” the
Leverage Coaching Model (figure 25.1) looks at the client’s life through
four interrelated lenses: priorities, time, energy, and resources.
To gain the full picture of the client’s immediate challenges and
options, the coach asks the client a series of questions in each quadrant
(table 25.1). Typically, the coach will select the four or five questions
from each quadrant that seem most appropriate for the client, rather
PRIORITIES TIME
ENERGY RESOURCES
Figure 25.1 Leverage coaching framework

Table 25.1 Priorities interview—Sample questions
• What has heart and meaning for you in your life?

• Who are the most important people in your life? How do they factor into your
daily life right now? Are you satisfied with how it is working?
• Identify the priorities in your private life and in your work life.
• Rank the priorities in each category and then explain the ranking.
• What prevents you from focusing on these priorities?
• For each priority, indicate:
• what is important to you about this priority,
• what you will have accomplished if you achieve this priority,
• how your days would be different if you were observing this priority
faithfully.
• If you could only do two things in each category, what would they be?
• If you don’t allow yourself to set priorities, what will happen?
than putting the client through a long questionnaire that may feel like
an interrogation.
By developing an understanding of the relationships among these
four aspects of the client’s life, the coach can readily assess what is
foremost in the client’s mind and what the internal and external pres-
sures are.
Our priorities are the commitments that we believe deserve our
most immediate and constant attention. Busy professionals juggle an
astonishing mix of work and life priorities every day. They feel respon-
sible for delivering “results,” not only at work, but also in their personal
lives. Moreover, as businesses struggle to meet quarterly goals under
the scrutiny of shareholders, the pressure on employees at all levels
mounts. High achievers internalize the expectations of their employers
and add them to their own personal standards and life goals. The result
is a continuous sense of urgency and responsibility, with little differen-
tiation between major priorities and minor ones and with little or no
time to celebrate accomplishments.
As coaches, we know that the priority list that is most meaning-
ful for the client is one that includes the whole of life. In fact, if cli-
ent and coach focus only on one arena—work or private life—to the
exclusion of the other, it is likely that pressures and priorities in the
other arena will derail the client’s attempts to deliver on priorities.
When we explore priorities with clients, we tap into several levels
of commitment and beliefs, from the daily “to do” list to the entire
life plan.
The chance to think about all of life can catch a driven profes-
sional by surprise. One executive made a startling discovery when
she wrote down her priorities during a recent coaching session. In
less than 10 minutes, she generated a list of 20 priorities at work.

When she worked on listing her priorities for her personal life, how-
ever, she became confused. “Are these priorities or goals?” she asked.
“Does it matter if I’m not actually doing any of them?” Slowly, she
produced a list of priorities for her private life that included time
with her husband and with each of her two children, time to practice
yoga, and a work schedule that allowed her to be home by 6:00 p.m.
to have dinner with her young family. “I’m not doing it, though,” she
said, thoughtfully. “Every single day I get up at 5:00 a.m. to get to
work, so that I can supposedly leave by 5:15 p.m. and have dinner
with my family. The truth is, I rarely leave the office before 6:30. The
kids are already in bed by the time I get home. My real priority must
be work. I am not acting like family is a real priority, even though
I say it is.” Looking at priorities with a client invites a moment of
truth.
A good way to get a clear picture of what someone’s priorities actu-
ally are is to ask them to track how they are spending time for one week
(table 25.2). Since there is a difference between intentions and actual
behavior, by collecting the “data,” the true priorities become clear.
Once the client has done this self-observation, she is usually ready to
talk about how to make changes to live in a way that truly reflects her
personal values.
For high achievers, one particular barrier that may stand in the
way of changing their behavior is a highly developed sense of respon-
sibility to others (company, family, and colleagues), which often
causes them to put their own needs last. They believe they are only
allowed to give attention to what matters to them after they have
satisfied the needs and expectations of their boss, their workplace,
and their family. In the coaching conversation, when these clients
Table 25.2 Time interview—Sample questions
• Describe an ideal day/week.

• What prevents you from having that kind of day/week?
• What deadlines are you facing in the next six weeks?
• How do you budget time for projects and priorities?
• How do you use your calendar to manage your time?
• Look at this week’s calendar. Is it realistic?
• Does your calendar reflect your top priorities? If not, how will you find time
for important work?
• Is your personal life included in your calendar?
• If you could make three changes in how you expect to spend your time this
week, what would they be?
identify their priorities and actual daily experience, they are often
revealing to themselves deeply held beliefs about what success means.
Their actual behavior reveals what they are willing to do—and sacri-
fice—to achieve it.
A client who puts her own needs last is often out of “sync” with
her values and suffers not only from overcommitment, but also from
trying to achieve success on terms that are important to other people
rather than to herself. When prioritization leaves out considerations of
the health and well being of the person making the priorities list, that
person is working long and hard, with dwindling energy, motivation,
and hope. For the client to place herself at the top of the list takes cour-
age and a willingness to make substantive changes in the commitments
she makes—and the leaders who do this are held up as “authentic” and
as admirable role models for the rest of us.
Executives at all levels of the organization experience problems
with saying no to unrealistic workloads. I notice that many of my
clients believe that, if they could just manage time better, they could
succeed more easily. A conversation about how they spend their time
reveals the rationale behind the work habits. Some confess to staying
late to micromanage the work of others (“I just can’t trust anyone else
to do the job right.”) or to being a perfectionist who procrastinates on
complex projects because it seems that “there isn’t enough time to do
it properly.”
As the coach works with the client on time-planning and match-
ing priorities with time allocation, the coach will be able to observe the
client’s “mode of operating”—what she believes is necessary for her to
do and to be in order to succeed. The coach will also see where the cli-
ent may be sabotaging herself as a result of unrealistic (or nonexistent)
planning.
By attending to time-management early in the coaching proc-
ess, the client will experience a greater sense of control and focus and
will most likely deliver better results in the days ahead. These early
wins build credibility for coaching as a helpful learning process and
for the coach as someone who can provide real value and benefit for
the client.
People focus on mastering many competencies on their way to
“the top,” but the most successful senior executives—those who have
learned to sustain high performance over years and who have a confi-
dent, energetic presence—know that the key to success is to pay atten-
tion to energy (table 25.3). By doing work that is energizing and by
making time for activities that refuel their energy, these leaders are
able to sustain their focus and to thrive.
Table 25.3 Energy interview—Sample questions
• What gives you energy?

• What drains your energy away?
• What do you love about your work?
• What do you love doing when you aren’t at work?
• What are your top work priorities this week?
• Which things on the list do you look forward to?
• Which ones give you a sense of dread? What could you do to increase your
enthusiasm and energy for those you dread?
• What is your typical energy level in the morning? Midday? Evening?
• What do you do to refuel your energy? What are your daily habits?
• Do you take care of your health through diet, exercise, and sleep?
To discover what is energizing to the client, the coach and client

must examine what truly motivates him. We are most motivated to
work on challenges that are aligned with our values. Thus, this conver-
sation is a critical part of linking personal values and life vision with
priorities.
When the client sees the difference between where he has pas-
sion and where he is just tolerating his existence—and understands
how passion is linked with energy—he will begin to use as a criterion
in managing his responsibilities, “does this give me energy or take it
away?” This key distinction can lead the client to see new possibilities
and to let go of old responsibilities, relationships, and habits that are
unproductive and unsustainable.
As the coach helps the client appreciate the importance of man-
aging energy to sustain performance, stamina, and health, the client
will be able to make heartfelt commitments to improved health and
stick with those commitments. He will make adjustments to take care
of his health and energy with the new awareness that peak perform-
ance requires attention to passion, health, and energy. He also is likely
to feel better physically, which increases motivation and well-being in
all areas of life. This attention to the physical self often addresses a
long-held regret in a busy person, who knows that he needs to change
his habits but hitherto has not had a strong enough rationale to com-
mit to it.
Busy people often tell me that “it would take too much time” to
delegate work to others or to renegotiate deadlines. Instead, they apply
themselves to the tasks at hand, working in isolation to keep all the
balls in the air. By overlooking the available resources (table 25.4) or
not taking the time to use them effectively, a leader is on a course to fall
short of expectations and burn out in the process.
Table 25.4 Resources interview—Sample questions
• Make a list of your commitments. For each item, identify your responsibilities
and others’ responsibilities.
• What special knowledge/information/skills are needed to complete each item?
Do you know anyone with these skills who can help you? What would you
need to do to get that help?
• Is there anyone on your team who has a passion for one of these projects and
would benefit from taking on a bigger piece of it?
• What keeps you from delegating?
• What do you need to request from your family right now to handle this
situation?
• If you tackle a project by yourself, can you describe what is likely to happen?
The question “What resources are available right now?” signals to

the client that help is available—or at least, it could be. In the Leverage
Coaching Model, the concept of “resources” includes:
• people who can provide support at work and at home;

• published resources, such as books and articles;
• experts or consultants who can provide specialized assistance;
• technologies that can make work processes more efficient;
• financial resources; and
• competencies, experiences, and skills of the client himself.
As the client’s situation is made clear to the coach in the “Resources”

portion of the Leverage Interview, the coach can begin to test the cli-
ent’s assessment of the situation, to determine how much support is
actually available to the client. Often, the client realizes that he hasn’t
actually made others aware of his challenges and has not made a
clear request for help. The Resources Interview helps the client think
more creatively about his current use of resources and about available
resources that may have been overlooked.
Occasionally, a client will demonstrate that he is truly alone in
having to handle a big responsibility. In this case, coach and client
might work together to frame requests that enable the client to deliver
on commitments or to renegotiate expectations.
Paying attention to available resources whenever possible will free
up time and energy for the priorities that matter most.
SUMMARY AND STRATEGIES FOR USING THE

LEVERAGE COACHING MODEL
After completing the four-part Leverage Interview, the client and

coach have a solid, richly detailed body of information and plenty of
areas where the client can begin self-observation and practice. Coach
and client can continue to work together to design practices and actions
that give “leverage” to the client and dramatically improve the way that
he functions at work and in life in general.
There are many other applications of the model. Its usefulness
relies on the coach’s creativity in integrating the activities and ideas
from each quadrant.
The following strategies provide examples of how a coach might
work with the Leverage Coaching Model. These approaches can be
used independently or simultaneously, depending on the client and the
situation.
STRATEGY ONE: FOCUS ON THE CALENDAR
The purpose of this strategy is to encourage the client to use the cal-
endar to reflect priorities accurately and manage resources efficiently.
The coach begins by reviewing the client’s priorities with him and
then asking him to block out time on the calendar for priority projects
and goals. For example, if the client’s goal is to sell $1 million in con-
sulting services within the next six months, he needs to map out the
steps necessary to achieve that goal and then plan the time needed for
each step, blocking out appropriate periods in the calendar to accom-
plish each.
Focusing on the calendar should get the client thinking well beyond
the next month. It is possible, and frequently desirable, to ask the client
to plan as far out as twelve or eighteen months. At minimum, the cli-
ent should look ahead three months to anticipate future deadlines. The
calendar should reflect such things as travel plans, important meetings,
performance assessments of staff, personal appointments (dentist, doc-
tor, school events, accountant, etc.), management meetings with staff,
and vacation plans.
As the client begins to treat the calendar as a helpful tool for
achieving priorities, she will begin to experience a sense of relief. The
calendar exercise will also show the client when her commitments add
up to “impossible,” forcing her to a moment of truth about her defini-
tion of a successful life.
STRATEGY TWO: FOCUS ON ENERGY AND PASSION
Building on the Energy Interview, the coach can provide resources

and encouragement to the client to invest in increasing his energy and
passion. The fi rst step is to educate the client about the demonstrable
difference that passion and energy make in performance. The Power
of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High
Performance and Personal Renewal 1 by Loehr and Schwartz, or the

article “The Making of the Corporate Athlete”2 by the same authors,
are outstanding resources for helping the client to understand this
link. In these works, the authors share their research on what dis-
tinguishes top performing athletes from average athletes, and they
apply their findings to the performance of executives in the corporate
environment.
Once the client has accepted the idea that managing energy is the
key to sustaining performance, coach and client can begin to explore
how passion (or lack of it) is affecting performance. As the client begins
to observe his energy level and its link with passion, the coach can ask
the client to give priority to activities that bring him energy.
The focus on energy also opens the door to a discussion about
health and happiness, allowing the coach to talk about the domain
of the body. I frequently ask my clients to commit to at least one
practice that fosters physical health. Clients quickly sign up for the
yoga class or resolve to jog three times per week—activities that they
have wanted to do, but previously saw as superfluous rather than
essential.
To make room for this new activity, the coach and client must
revisit priorities and time-planning, a conversation that strengthens
the client’s understanding of the relationships among the quadrants of
the Leverage Model.
Additionally, the coach can work with the client to identify his
life mission, values, and personal needs. This work reveals the client to
himself in a way that gives the current challenges a larger, more mean-
ingful context. The mission and values exercises will help the client to
understand what his passion really is, while the personal needs exercise
will show him what “hooks” distract him from acting with passion and
integrity.
STRATEGY THREE: FOCUS ON REDUCING PRIORITIES
When someone suffers from overcommitment, reducing the number or

scope of priorities is essential.
Once the client has identified personal and professional priori-
ties broadly, the coach can work with her to select those that are most
urgent or perhaps are the foundation for achieving other goals. The
client is able to find a good starting point for progress by prioritizing
the priorities.
The coach’s first question might be, “What is on this list that
only you can do?” encouraging the client to accept the idea that not
everything must be “owned” by her. Next, the client could begin to

narrow the list by assigning each priority a number in terms of its
importance to her well-being. The coach might then suggest that the
client set priorities within a specific timeframe (the next week, month,
six months, etc.), narrowing the list even more. Suddenly, the path
forward is clear and better organized. It is time to identify the tasks
related to achieving each priority and slot them into the calendar—
including the time needed to enlist the right resources.
At the end of this exercise, the client should have a focused and
streamlined picture of what must be accomplished in a defined time
period and at least a preliminary plan for accomplishing it.
CONCLUSION
As it examines four aspects of performance—priorities, time, energy,

and resources—the Leverage Coaching Model gives the coach an
excellent opportunity to work with the client on three levels—tactical,
strategic, and transformational. Of particular value is the inclusion of
an energy assessment, which allows the coach to call attention to the
crucial relationships among health, energy, and performance. By focus-
ing on the ways in which the client determines priorities, manages
time, maintains energy, and uses resources, the Leverage Coaching
Model can make a critical difference in whether the client can achieve
his goals, stay focused on his priorities, and have a fulfilling private
life. A client who understands the relationship between priorities, time,
energy, and resources—and can manage these variables effectively—is
well on his way to mastering essential skills for leadership and sustain-
able high performance.
NOTES
1. Loehr, Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement.
2. Loehr, Schwartz, “The Making of the Corporate Athlete,” Harvard Busi-
ness Review, January 2001.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1989.
The Grove Consults International and Joan McIntosh. Personal Compass: A
Workbook for Visioning and Goal Setting. San Francisco, CA: Grove Con-
sults International, 2002.
Loehr, Jim and Tony Schwartz. The Power of Full Engagement: Managing
Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.
New York: Free Press, 2003.
Strozzi-Heckler, R. The Anatomy of Change: A Way to Move through Life’s Tran-
sitions. Berkley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1993.
Watkins, Michael. The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders
at All Levels. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003.
CHAPTER 26
ACTION LEARNING:
AN APPROACH TO
TEAM COACHING
JENNIFER WHITCOMB
AS SOMEONE WHO COACHES INDIVIDUALS, you might be

intrigued to learn about an approach that uses your existing skills to
coach a group or team effectively. Organizations all over the world are
using action learning as a group-coaching method to develop teams,
enhance leadership skills, solve complex problems, and improve organ-
izational efficiency. Action learning is fast becoming a popular group-
coaching method as groups work on real-time challenges and apply
learning and action at the same time.
ACTION-LEARNING OVERVIEW
Action learning is a group-coaching approach that uses real people to

solve real problems, in real time, to obtain real results. It is a process
that brings people together to solve challenges, learn through reflec-
tion, and take action. Action-learning groups can work on a single
problem or challenge that affects the entire group or on several prob-
lems presented by individual group members.
Reg Revans first introduced this approach when working with
coal mine managers in the United Kingdom in the 1940s. Miners
became involved and energized by solving their own problems and
282 | JENNIFER WHITCOMB
were successful at solving problems at each other’s sites. The min-

ers who participated in the action-learning process found their
mines’ performance increased, compared with the mines that did not
participate.
This method emphasizes defining the problem accurately so the
actual problem is solved. The group focuses on what it is learning, and
how this learning applies to the group’s individual members and to the
organization. Action learning helps people look at the way they ana-
lyze a problem, work together as a team, take action, and get results.
Given our rapidly changing work environment, action learning can be
considered a just-in-time approach to leadership and team develop-
ment that individuals may not get in a training program. A training
program may not be offered at the right time or provide the relevant
content.
Action learning uses many of the same skills that are used in
individual coaching: asking powerful questions, creating reflection,
enhancing learning, and taking action. With this group-coaching
approach you will be able to use and transfer many of the individual
coaching skills that you have honed.
The role of the coach is to use the process of listening and ask-
ing questions to help the group optimize its performance. An action-
learning coach intervenes at various points to help the group improve
its process, take action, and capture group learning.
COMPONENTS OF ACTION LEARNING

Action learning has six components and two ground rules. The six
components are:
1. problem or challenge
2. group or team
3. questions and reflection
4. focus on learning
5. action
6. the coach
For a conceptual view, see figure 26.1.

The two ground rules are these:
1. Statements can be used only in response to questions.

2. The action-learning coach can intervene at any time.
ACTION LEARNING | 283
GROUP
ACTION QUESTIONS
LEARNING PROBLEM AND REFLECTION
COACH
TAKING FOCUS ON
ACTION LEARNING
Figure 26.1 Components of action learning
PROBLEM OR CHALLENGE
Ideally, the presenting problem should have these qualities:
• It should be urgent.
• It should not be a puzzle.
• It should be complex.
• It should be solvable.
• It should be something that has not been worked on already.
The types of problems, challenges, or opportunities that can be

explored include improving a process, creating a new product, cutting
costs, increasing business, resolving difficult workplace dynamics, han-
dling leadership challenges, creating a new structure, improving com-
munications, and so forth. For an individual presenting a problem, it
can be anything meeting the earlier criteria that are keeping him or
her up at night.
A number of people can present individual problems in a session, or
one problem can be taken on by the entire group. At an action-learning
session offered for executive directors of nonprofits, each executive direc-
tor came to the session with a problem important to that director. The
schedule allowed three people to present their problems during each ses-
sion. Another organization using action learning for leadership develop-
ment had two teams work on two different organizational issues.
GROUP OR TEAM
An action-learning group or team ideally comprises six to eight partic-

ipants. Groups smaller than six may not generate enough participation,
and groups larger than eight may make it difficult for everyone to par-
ticipate. Bringing diversity to the group through experience, back-
ground, age, gender, culture, and organizational level will generate a
variety of viewpoints and perspectives.
At least one member of the action-learning group should have the
authority to implement solutions discovered during the action-learning
sessions.
QUESTIONS AND REFLECTION
One of the ground rules in action learning is that statements can only
be used in response to questions, thus making questions the major tool
in this approach. The group works together by asking questions of each
other, and the coach intervenes by asking questions at various points to
help facilitate the process.
As with individual coaching, questions can be a powerful tool to gain
clarity, build dialogue, create shared understanding, and enhance aware-
ness. Questions help the group focus on the problem to gain clarity, get
to the nut of the problem, and avoid the temptation to rush to a solution
too soon and potentially solve the wrong problem. Questions help create
an opportunity for reflection and for group members to step back and
think. By creating this pause, group members can challenge their own
assessments, open up perspectives, and possibly think about the problem
in a different way. It’s very common for the presenting problem to shift
and be reframed after the group has started to ask questions. The group
is responsible to ask questions either of the problem presenter or of each
other. Group members often develop better coaching skills themselves
as they begin to ask better questions and to listen more. Asking better
questions is a skill that often gets transferred back to the work environ-
ment as group members learn the benefit of inquiry.
FOCUS ON LEARNING
Being engaged in solving a complex problem creates individual, group,

and organizational learning. Individuals learn about themselves: how
they tackle a problem, how they assess themselves, and how they oper-
ate in a group. They may develop and strengthen a leadership com-
petency, enhance awareness of their behavior in a group, or become
better at solving problems. One person in an action-learning session
realized he was monopolizing the process after the action-learning
coach asked, “What are we doing well?” and “How could we be better
as a group?” By reflecting on those questions, this person realized he
tended to monopolize the process at other points in the workplace and
in his personal life. He became more attuned to listening to others,

and at work he became more likely to ask questions than to offer his
opinion, thus helping improve his work relationships.
The group learns to improve and enhance its functioning. Group
members begin to slow down their questioning process by listening
more to other questions and building on those questions.
ACTION
Taking action is a key component in action-learning coaching, as it is

with individual coaching. Group members take action by testing and
implementing ideas. Taking action can involve doing research, gather-
ing information, designing a process, or trying out a new idea or piece of
a process. Individual team or group members take action on the prob-
lem between meetings. This is what makes action learning different
from other problem-solving methods because the group is responsible
for more than providing recommendations or reports. When the group
has the authority to take action on its ideas, it remains committed and
energized to solve the problem. Taking action provides a great oppor-
tunity to learn what action steps work and what needs to be improved.
These action steps will form the basis for implementing the solution.
THE COACH
As when working with an individual, the action-learning coach is a

neutral party who creates the spirit of inquiry, reflection, learning, and
action. The action-learning coach does not comment on the content of
the session; otherwise, the credibility and neutrality may be lost and
the group then may grow too dependent on the coach.
The coach intervenes at various points in the process, when he or
she sees an opportunity for the group to learn about its process. One of
the ground rules is that the action-learning coach has the authority to
intervene at any time. Often the coach will sit a bit removed from the
group and move in to intervene.
THE ROLE OF THE COACH

The action-learning coach acts in four main areas of the process:
1. helping the group define the problem

2. enhancing the group process
3. taking action
4. capturing learning
HELPING THE GROUP DEFINE THE PROBLEM
The action-learning coach asks the person presenting the problem to

describe the problem in a couple of minutes. If the presenter speaks
much longer than that, he or she begins to get into too much detail or
begins to solve the problem.
When the problem has been described, the group can begin ask-
ing questions about the definition. The time for the coach to intervene
is when the group uses statements rather than questions, asks leading
questions, asks solution-embedded questions, or when the group seems
challenged. The first time the coach intervenes is usually approximately
ten minutes into the session. The kinds of questions to ask toward the
beginning of a session are:
• How are we doing as a group?

• What is the quality of our questions so far?
• What is the balance between statements and questions?
• How could we be better?
• What questions have been useful so far?
After the group has spent some more time asking questions, the
coach may intervene to see whether the group has clarity on the prob-
lem. This step often works best when the coach says, “Write down in
a couple of sentences what the problem is.” This gives each person a
moment to pause and reflect, and gives the group an opportunity to see
if it is in agreement on the problem definition so far.
Debrief by asking each participant to read his or her statement. If
there is one problem presenter, you may ask that person to go last. Ask
the group if there is agreement on the problem. Most of the time, the
group is either not clear about the specific problem or lacks agreement.
Have the group ask questions again; then intervene again by repeating
the exercise of writing down the problem statement and reading each
statement to the group.
At this point, ask, “Do we have agreement on the problem?” If
there is more than one problem for consideration, ask which problem
the group would like to focus on.
ENHANCING THE GROUP PROCESS
The action-learning coach intervenes when needed to improve the

functioning and effectiveness of the group. However, it’s just as
important to intervene when things are progressing well to keep that
momentum going as it is to intervene when things are not going well.

The approach to the interventions with the group is often more appre-
ciative in nature, focusing on making things better and improving
its process. For example, the coach will ask, “What’s working well?”
versus “What’s not working well?” When someone in the group says,
“That’s a great question,” it is a good time to intervene to find out what
made that a good question so that the group can continue in that line
of thought. The action-learning coach can intervene when one person
is dominating, when the rate of questions is not allowing for enough
reflection time, when the questions are not building on one another, or
when the group is not making progress. Here are some questions that
the coach can ask:
• How are we doing as a team?

• What would improve our process?
• Are we building on each other’s questions?
• What’s working well?
• What could we do better?
The interventions are done by asking these very simple questions.

It sometimes can be tempting to comment on the process or ask a
longer question, but these simple, tried-and-true questions really help
the coach and the group.
TAKING ACTION
When the group has agreement on the problem statement, it can

move into this phase. The coach needs to make sure that the group has
enough time in the session to come up with strategies and action steps.
The coach may need to intervene to remind the group of the session’s
timeline, or to tell the group to begin developing strategies and action
steps.
Group members will begin suggesting strategies and action steps—
what to do and how to do it. When one individual presents a problem,
the group develops suggested strategies and action steps for that person
to consider. When the group is working on a problem affecting the
entire group, it needs to come to agreement on what strategies will
be helpful, how action will be taken, and who will take responsibility
between now and the next meeting.
As in individual coaching, the coach will ask what action steps will
be taken as a result of the session. This question may be asked of the
individual presenting a problem or of the entire group. Th is question
typically is asked at the end of the session in the phase focused on

capturing learning. Each group member will volunteer to take on spe-
cific action steps between sessions. The coach typically begins by ask-
ing, “What action steps are you going to take as a result of today’s
session?”
Ideally, each group member will take some responsibility for an
action between meetings. Group members need to capture these action
steps because the coach will ask what progress has been made on these
steps at the next meeting.
CAPTURING LEARNING
The coach needs to plan for enough time to capture the group’s learning
adequately. Reminding the group that he or she will be stopping the
process to allow for this will make the coach’s job easier. Sometimes it’s
hard to bring the group to a close when it is making progress, but it’s
just as important to capture the learning as it is to solve the problem.
It’s advisable to plan at least fi fteen minutes for this step.
Questions can be tailored to the purpose of the action-learning
session. If the focus of the sessions is leadership development, then
there may be more questions on the requisite skills and qualities
of leaders. The action-learning coach needs to choose which ques-
tions will be most valuable to the group and will provide the most
learning.
If there is one person presenting the problem, then the first three
questions will be asked of that individual initially. If the group is work-
ing on a problem affecting the whole group, then these questions can
be asked of the entire group. Here are questions to capture the lessons
learned from the experience:
• What actions are you (we) going to take as a result of today’s

session?
• Were you/we helped? How?
• What did you learn about yourself?
• What did you learn about the problem?
• What did you learn about problem solving?
• What did you learn about leadership?
• How did we do as a team?
• What did we do well?
• What could we do better?
• What helped us make progress?
• What might we do differently next time?

• How can we transfer today’s learning to us personally or to other
parts of the organization?
TIMING AND LOGISTICS OF THE

ACTION-LEARNING PROCESS
Action-learning groups may meet once or twice a month over a six-
month stretch or may meet for longer sessions over a couple of days.
Most groups work well for up to a two-hour period. The length of time
the group meets may depend on the complexity and the urgency of the
problem.
Action learning tends to work best when members can meet face
to face; however, many groups are composed of members in diverse
locations. When working with groups whose members live in differ-
ent locations, it’s possible to use teleconferencing or videoconferenc-
ing; but at least for the fi rst session, the group should meet in one
location. When working with a group of executive directors for non-
profits, we hosted the fi rst meeting in a retreat center. At our opening
session in the afternoon, we introduced the concept of action learn-
ing, and we provided an overview and initial practice. The evening
offered time for group members to get to know each other. The next
morning three people volunteered their problems in forty-five-minute
sessions. Half an hour of each session was dedicated to the problem,
and 15 minutes were given to capturing learning. Th is group met
for a period of six months using a balance of face-to-face meetings
and teleconferences, with group members rotating the presentation
of their problems. We noticed that providing the initial face-to-face
meeting and allowing time for the group to get to know each other
helped the group bond well. The group was very willing to help indi-
vidual group members.
BENEFITS OF USING THIS COACHING APPROACH
Some benefits resulting from this coaching approach include:
• greater diversity of ideas

• improved employee collaboration and engagement
• solutions to complex problems
• potential cost savings from solving complex problems
• group ownership of the problem
• leadership development
• team building
• transfer of individual coaching skills to group-coaching skills
CONCLUSION
Action learning may be one form of coaching that you wish to try to
expand your portfolio of coaching skills. Many of the skills that you
already have will help you with this method of coaching.
Your ability to be a neutral presence is the skill that transfers most
easily to group coaching. Your staying objective and neutral helps the
group become much more self-sufficient and productive. Another skill
that easily transfers to group coaching is the use of powerful ques-
tions and reflection. Your familiarity with these kinds of questions will
make it easier for you to create space for the group to reflect on both
its process and its progress. Another skill that we learn in individual
coaching is to facilitate learning and create awareness in our clients.
As the action-learning coach intervenes at various points within the
process, the group members learn about themselves, problem solving,
teamwork, and transfer of learning to other parts of the organization.
Of course, the ability to help our clients take action and move for-
ward is another skill that transfers to group coaching. Without this
critical step, we would not be able to help our clients learn from the
actions they have taken or to help them implement the solution in the
organization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, Marilee G. Change Your Questions Change Your Life: 7 Powerful Tools
for Life and Work. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2004.
M.J. Marquardt. Action Learning in Action: Transforming Problems and People
for World-Class Organizational Learning. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black,
1999.
———. “Harnessing the Power of Action Learning.” Training and Develop-
ment Journal, June 2004, 26–32.
———. Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by
Knowing What to Ask. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
———. Optimizing the Power of Action Learning: Solving Problems and Build-
ing Leaders in Real Time. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black, 2004.
For more information on Action Learning: The World Institute of Action
Learning, www.wial.org
CHAPTER 27
COACHING NEW TEAMS

PATRICIA A. MATHEWS
SUCCESSFUL TEAMS, WHETHER NEW OR EXISTING, need con-

tinuing support from the leader and the organization. A team coach
can intensify this support by observing the team’s current functioning,
assessing the team’s strengths and weaknesses, and, in collaboration
with the leader, developing a plan for addressing any needed changes.
Brand new teams in new situations require extra care and feeding.
There are various “new” team categories. For example, an existing
team with a new leader is a team that has already been formed and
worked together when a new leader is appointed and enters the mix. If
members join an existing team and/or a new leader is appointed, the
hybrid team is actually an existing team gaining new members and/or
a new leader. In either case, the end result is a “new” team—different
from the original team.
A third example is the brand new team. Here the team is new to
the organization and/or its members who may have never worked on a
team before. This chapter discusses the specific strategies a team coach
can use when working with brand new teams.
THE BRAND NEW TEAM: A CASE STUDY

Meet John Post. He’s just been hired as the superintendent of a large
public school system. He wants to form a team of senior staff to work
together to accomplish great things for the school district. John is new
to the area and in the first weeks of his job he observes that there is not
292 | PATRICIA A. MATHEWS
a true senior leadership team in place. He spends several weeks observ-

ing staff members who serve in administrative roles and determines
which staffers should be part of the senior team. After he identifies the
members of the team, he decides to hire a team coach to work with him
and the team to get them all off to a good start. John interviews me and
decides that I would be right for the job.
John and his team are a good example of the benefits of utilizing
team coaching with a brand new team. John was committed to leading
this team to produce results in a school district where the previous leader
had been in place for more than twenty years. Previously, the admin-
istrative staff members had never worked together as a team and they
did not understand John’s expectations of them. He brought a different
leadership style to the school district and the potential team members
had no experience working as a team or with their new leader.
Workplace teams are not new and have been part of organizational
culture for years. What is becoming more apparent is that how new
teams are managed can make the difference between successful teams
and those that fail miserably. John was committed to making his brand
new team one of the success stories.
One of the critical distinctions between successful and unsuccess-
ful teams is the role of the leader. Some team leaders act like “bosses”
and tell team members what to do and how and when to do it. Others
maintain a “hands-off ” policy and believe that this approach is best for
the team. In our initial conversations, John confided that he was quick
to make decisions, was great at vision, urged people to act quickly, and
that he often floated ideas to team members, but wasn’t good at follow-
ing up on whether team members took action.
We discussed my role as team coach. John wanted help for himself
as leader and for the team members to form a cohesive and productive
team from disparate individuals. In our initial meeting, we discussed
how I might help him with three of the most critical indicators for
team success:
1. Focus on performance
2. Define a set of goals
3. Agree on methods to achieve the goals
INITIAL CONTRACTING AND COACHING THE LEADER

In the case of a brand new team and before meeting with the team
members, the team coach spends time with the leader to chart the
team course. This includes:
COACHING NEW TEAMS | 293
• Team mission and goals

• Roles and responsibilities of team members
• Ground rules for the team
When I met with John initially to help him clarify these important
foundational items, I asked him the following:
• Why should this new team exist?

• What does the team have to do to accomplish its purpose?
• What kind of decisions can the team make?
• How will the team make decisions?
• How often and how long will the team meet?
• Where and when will the team meet?
• What have you learned from leading other teams that you want
to bring to this one?
• What do you already know about the team members?
• What do you need to know?
• How will you get the information you need?
Once John identified his answers to these questions, he decided

to use some of the questions in this vital formative work with his
team. In addition, John and I discussed the role of the team coach
distinguishing between team coaching and team building. My role in
working with his team would include some teaching, consulting, and
coaching and would focus on helping the team to work together to
achieve their goals, as well as on strengthening John’s role as leader.
We were clear about the distinctions between team coaching and team
building. We were not planning simulations, games, or other means of
building his team. We decided on a four-month initial contract with
continued team coaching to be contracted after evaluating the fi rst
four months.
TEAM MEMBER INTERVIEWS
Once John and I had completed several meetings and he achieved

some clarity about the team’s purpose, I scheduled an interview with
each member of the team. I often do these interviews via telephone,
partly because of geographic and schedule concerns, and because team
members may feel more comfortable on the telephone. I stress that
these interviews are confidential and that the information helps me to
understand each member better. I also clearly indicate that the overall
results of the interviews will be shared with the leader and the team at
our first joint meeting, explaining that I give this feedback in the form
of general themes, never using direct quotes or indicating which team
member contributed the information.
The questions I used for this interview were:
• What do you think will be the strengths of this team and

leader?
• What strengths do you personally bring to the team?
• What weaknesses do you think the team and leader might
have?
• What areas would you personally need to improve to be a good
team member?
• What do you hope will be the results of working with a team
coach?
• Is there anything else that I have not asked, by way of background
or information gathering, but should know to help me do my job
better when I work with you?
I compiled the results of the interviews and shared general feed-

back with the leader before the first team event.
USING ASSESSMENTS DURING THE

START-UP PHASE OF A TEAM
The next step I take in coaching new teams is to have each team member
complete the Success Insights1 team assessment. This statistically valid and
reliable instrument uses the DISC model, and it is completed by each
team member and the leader via an Internet delivery system. Each team
member signs on and completes an assessment. I use it with team leaders
and members for several reasons: it identifies their natural style of behav-
ior, it highlights challenges they might have with people of a different
style, and it gives me as the team coach a foundational understanding of
how to coach the leader and the team. I print all the reports so that they
are kept confidential until the first team meeting. I also compile a team
report that maps each individual profile on a team wheel.
Applications for this assessment in coaching a new team include
identifying team and individual strengths (and comparing them to the
interview answers), uncovering stress areas for individuals and poten-
tial confl icts between team members, identifying potential blind spots
among team members, providing a neutral tool for self-discovery of
natural talent and behavior and providing a behavior-based tool for
assessing behavior shifts.
There are other assessments that are constructive for those teams
that have already been working together because they assess the cur-
rent state of the team, but I find that the Success Insights team version
is the most beneficial for brand new teams as they have not yet expe-
rienced how the team works together. Later in their development as a
team, other assessments may be used.
When the team is new, it is helpful for members to complete an
assessment that advances each member’s understanding of his/her own
behavior and how it fits with the rest of the team. Th is is important
during the start-up phase because it helps members understand that
their intention (based on their style) may not be showing up in their
behavior.
This team assessment contains the following sections:
• Basic characteristics
• Work characteristics
• Value to the team
• Value to the organization
• Effective communication
• Team effectiveness factors
• Perceptions
• Descriptors
• Action plan
Before I met with the entire team, I debriefed John’s assessment

with him. This step both helped John understand his style and also
established the foundation for him to use the results of the instrument
when working with the rest of the team. I did not share the results of
the individual assessments with the leader.
I coached John to conduct the portion of the team meeting that
utilizes the results of the assessment. He would facilitate a conversa-
tion about these specific topics:
• Similarities and differences in behavioral style

• How the similarities and differences affect team behavior
THE FIRST TEAM MEETING
Once the background work with the leader and the interviews with the
team were complete, John scheduled the first team meeting.
At this meeting, John reintroduced me as the team coach and
stated that I would be working with him and with the group both
collectively and individually during this meeting and in the coming

months. Explaining how the fi rst meeting helps the team to recog-
nize their strengths and to identify objectives for their work together, I
shared the general results of the interviews and talked about my role as
both coach and occasional facilitator for this first meeting.
I distributed all of the assessments and conducted a brief session
about the Success Insights assessment to help the team members first
understand their individual styles and then to determine their team
composition. The value of the assessment is not in the results alone.
The true value comes from the feedback conversations, acknowledge-
ment of styles and strengths as well as the follow-through on the com-
mitments of just how the team will work together.
First team members read their individual reports. I conducted
another short session on understanding behavioral styles and the inter-
pretation of the graphs in the report. Then, in small groups, the team
members answered a series of questions, posed by the leader. John and
I agreed on these questions before the meeting:
• What three to five things from your report should other team
members remember to do/not do to best communicate with
you?
• What are some of the similarities and differences you are
discovering in your group?
• Based on these similarities and differences, how/when do you see
confl icts and misunderstandings in communication occurring
between team members?
• What are three to five words you think other people would use
to describe you?
• How would you check these perceptions out to see if they are
on target?
John facilitated a conversation among the team members about

their answers. I observed how he conducted this part of the meet-
ing and recorded my observations, but I did not intervene during this
exchange.
After team members had a chance to work in the initial small group
conversation, I did another brief teaching piece—sharing the graphic
depicting the team members’ behavioral styles so that they could see
the style of each member in relationship to each other. I then had them
reform into small groups according to their styles.
John resumed leadership of the team. He asked these new groups
to discuss the following questions:
• What six to eight general characteristics do you all have in

common?
• List six to eight things you believe people value about all of you.
• Name three to five ways you believe people have difficulty
working with all of you.
• Pick one or two of the behaviors in your DISC analysis. How are
these behaviors demonstrated at work?
• How have these behaviors made you successful?
• Have any of these behaviors created problems for you or your
staff ? How?
• How do these behaviors match up with the other team members?
John facilitated a conversation in which team members shared

their discoveries with each other. Again, I observed his facilitation.
During this portion, I noticed that John was allowing too much side
conversation (people were excited about their learning). Requesting
permission to coach, I asked John how he thought the meeting was
going. He turned the question back to the team, and several members
identified that they thought the team was off track. He asked their help
in staying on task and proceeded with the meeting.
I could see that some of the team members were surprised by this
exchange. Later one of them told me that she was encouraged by John’s
method of handling the question and the team. Encouraging these
conversations between the leader and the team is part of the role of
the team coach. For a team to establish the trust that it takes to work
together to accomplish their goals, team members, beginning with the
leader, must be willing to step up and be vulnerable. Once team mem-
bers see that the leader is willing to be vulnerable, they are more likely
to express their own opinions and consider others’ points of view.
Following this conversation, John worked with the team to develop
the mission, roles, responsibilities, and ground rules. This phase of
team development allowed me to serve in a traditional coaching role,
observing the leader and the team members, asking for permission to
share observations and asking key questions.
Katzenbach and Smith 2 define a team as “a small number of people
with complimentary skills who are committed to a common purpose,
set of performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves
mutually accountable.” Helping the team get clarity about mission,
roles, responsibilities, and ground rules is important formative work
for the leader. Teams that operate with a solid understanding of these
critical elements produce significantly better results than teams who
must find their way without the right foundation.
John worked with the team to establish a set of group norms. The
group decided to meet weekly on Monday mornings from 7:30 a.m.
and finish by 9 a.m. Norms included the following:
• Start and end meetings on time.

• Submit agenda items the Friday before the meeting.
• Include the time needed and the expected outcome for each
agenda item.
• Recap action items at the end of the meeting.
• Evaluate the meeting at the end and course correct for the next
meeting.
• Keep meeting information confidential.
• Discuss how to cascade communication to the rest of the
organization at the end of each meeting.
Each team member agreed to hold each other to these norms. My

role as coach was to coach the team to follow through on their commit-
ment to the norms and to each other. I got permission to step in both
to have them notice when they were doing this well and when they
needed to relook at how they were honoring their norms. The team
members became more comfortable with giving each other feedback
and realized that by holding back, they were hurting the team and also
their teammates.
CONTINUING WORK WITH THE NEW TEAM
My ongoing work with a new team consists of attending team meet-

ings, continued coaching with the leader, and coaching individual
team members. In this case, after the initial team session, I attended
weekly leadership meetings for three months, coached the leader every
two weeks, and met with individual team members every month. I was
also available between meetings for conversations with the leader and
team members. After the initial three months, I attended occasional
leadership meetings and continued coaching the leader and several
team members.
During the team meetings, I helped John pose well-structured
questions rather than offering definitive answers as he initially stated
he had a tendency to do. John’s style is fast paced, results oriented, and
competitive as well as visionary. In the past, he said he lost the support
of coworkers when he became impatient and moved ahead with his
own agenda. During our individual coaching sessions, John recalled
the times he had been successful in team meetings—realizing he had
more success as a leader when he enabled the team members to develop

their own ideas instead of directing them to his.
A major piece of work for this new team was focusing on their
results and not the next “great idea” that the leader (or another team
member) came up with. John asked the team members to each identify
the most important initiative in his/her department. He then facil-
itated a group discussion of how each team member would need to
contribute to these initiatives for organizational results. Each member
committed publicly to what the team needed to achieve, and John is
in the process of developing a scorecard to review progress against the
expected achievements.
Successful teams focus on both task and process. The task of the
team is the specific work the team does toward defined objective—the
“what” question. The way the individuals work together to complete
the work process is the “how” question. To keep success in focus, John
has two questions posted on his wall that he asks the team to consider
at every meeting:
• Are we working on what we should be working on (mission,

strategy, goals, and objectives)?
• Are we working how we should be working (roles, responsibilities,
and following ground rules)?
CONCLUSION
As the case study shows, team coaches need to shift into consulting,
teaching, and facilitation to help the new team understand its behav-
ioral dynamics, maintain open communication, productivity, and
effectiveness. The purpose of team coaching, however, doesn’t change.
As noted by Alexander Caillet,3 team coaching strives to increase the
performance level of a team as it works toward a specific outcome. It
strives to promote the individual growth of team members along the
way with the intention of creating capacity within the team for sustain-
ing quality and generating excellence.
John’s team is certainly not typical of all teams and the coaching
approach is not the only model that could be used for a brand new
team. There are many approaches to team coaching and many types
of teams that may contract for team coaching. Workplace teams ena-
ble groups of people to respond to workplace challenges and goals in
unique and creative ways, but they can be challenging to manage in the
best of circumstances and can easily develop into a quagmire if things
go wrong.
Coaching is often used as an effective means of helping new teams

draw out the wisdom and experience of each individual while help-
ing them take responsibility for collectively achieving results for the
organization. When coaching new teams, it is critically important to
coach the leader to create a safe environment for open communication
and to support the team members in their own individual development
as well as to meet the team’s task-related goals. Remember, many lead-
ers are skilled at focusing on task (what), but not on process (how). A
masterful coach helps the leader and the team pull together to clarify
the goal, develop a plan of action, and overcome the barriers along
the way.
NOTES
1. Target Training International, Ltd., TI Success Insights (team assessment
program, 2007).
2. Jon R. Katzenbach, and Douglas K., Smith (March–April 1993), “The
Discipline of Teams,” Harvard Business Review, July 2005, 162.
3. Alexander Caillet, “Coaching Teams and Groups in Organizations”
(manuscript, 2007).
EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
EDITORS
Beth Bloomfield is the founder and principal of Bloomfield Associates,
LLC. Beth is an experienced certified executive coach, strategic con-
sultant, and former senior executive whose clients include leaders in
the business, nonprofit, and public sectors. Beth received her coach
training through the Newfield Network and also earned a certificate
in organizational learning from George Mason University. Beth has
earned the distinction of professional certified coach (PCC) from the
International Coach Federation (ICF), and she serves on the leader-
ship team of the New Mexico chapter of the ICF. Beth graduated from
Barnard College and earned an MA from Columbia University. She
is a learning circle adviser in the Georgetown University Leadership
Coaching Program.
Clarice Scriber, president and CEO of Clarity Consulting, has more
than a dozen years of experience coaching executives and leaders in
the corporate, public, and private sectors who want to enhance their
interpersonal skills and executive presence. Clarice holds the master
certified coach designation from the International Coach Federation,
a certificate in coaching from the New Ventures West Professional
Coaching course and a certificate in adult development from the
Interdevelopmental Institute. Clarice earned her coaching certifica-
tion through the New Ventures West Professional Coaching Course.
She holds an MS degree in clinical psychology from Loyola University
in Maryland, and an MA in communications from the Annenberg
School of Communications, University of Pennsylvania.
Christine Wahl, founder of Miro Group Consulting, is a master cer-
tified coach with the International Coach Federation. Her coaching
practice spans numerous industries and is focused on coaching leaders
302 | EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
and their teams as well as on helping organizations build internal

coaching cadres in their human resource departments. She holds a BA
in psychology and an MA in counseling. Christine is the creator and
former director of the Georgetown University Leadership Coaching
Certificate Program, where she continues to teach. Christine is a certi-
fied professional effectiveness coach (New Ventures West) as well as
a certified developmental coach (Interdevelopmental Institute). She is
a frequent contributor to journals and a speaker about coaching, and
she teaches courses for coaches on the topics of transitions, coaching
teams, and working with the stages of adult development.
CONTRIBUTORS
Frank Ball has been an independent executive coach and organi-

zational consultant for more than 10 years. Before starting his own
practice, he was manager and leader in a number of large organiza-
tions for more than two decades. Frank holds a BA in economics from
Davidson College, an MS in financial management from George
Washington University, and a certificate in organization develop-
ment from Georgetown University. He completed the yearlong profes-
sional coaching course presented by New Ventures West and shorter,
more focused professional coaching courses presented by the Newfield
Network, the Strozzi Institute, the Interdevelopmental Institute, and
the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. He has been designated a master
certified coach by the International Coach Federation.
Alexander Caillet is the founder of One21Five, Inc., an organizational
consulting and coaching firm dedicated to helping leaders in organiza-
tions around the world achieve significant transformations by balanc-
ing the business and people aspects of change. In addition, Alexander
is on the faculty of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching
Certification Program and is a guest lecturer at several US universities.
He is a frequent international speaker on the subjects of change, teams,
coaching, and leadership. Alexander completed his BS in psychology
at the University of Michigan and his MA in organization psychology
at Columbia University.
Randy Chittum is the vice president for leadership development at
PSS/World Medical in Jacksonville, Florida. In this role, he coaches
executives and other leaders, provides learning opportunities for all
leaders, and manages the succession management program. Prior to
taking this position, Randy managed a consulting and coaching prac-
tice that was primarily dedicated to developing leaders. Randy has a
EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS | 303
PhD in psychology from the University of Northern Colorado. He has

taught leadership at multiple universities, including the MBA program
at Georgetown University. At the core of Randy’s coaching philosophy
is a belief in creating a new perspective, using lightness and play, and
tapping the fundamental human urge to “be” more.
William Courville is an executive coach, consultant, and educa-
tor with extensive managerial and executive experience. He is on the
adjunct faculty at Georgetown University, American University, the
University of Maryland University College, the National Leadership
Institute, and the Center for Creative Leadership. Bill has a PhD from
the University of Ottawa (Ontario, Canada). His dissertation exam-
ined the role of meaning, value, and purpose in executive coaching. He
holds an MEd in counseling from Loyola University (New Orleans).
He received his BA in philosophy from Loyola University and his BS
in business administration from Louisiana State University. He cur-
rently focuses on executive coaching and leadership development.
Karen Curnow is managing director of Compass International, a con-
sulting company helping corporate and federal clients develop their
leaders, work effectively across cultures, and manage individuals and
teams internationally. With over 30 years of experience, Karen coaches
senior leaders and managers, facilitates team development, and provides
training and consulting services, all to inspire transformative change
built on authenticity, respect, and collective wisdom. Having worked
and lived in France, Turkey, Kenya, Austria, and New York prior to her
work in the DC area, Karen earned her MBA in international manage-
ment and marketing from US International University and her BS in
business administration and French at Houghton College and at the
Sorbonne/University of Paris. She received her certification in coach-
ing and organizational learning from the Newfield Network-USA and
George Mason University.
Katherine Ebner is the founder and principal of the Nebo Company,
a leadership development firm based in Washington, DC. Katherine
helped found the Institute for Transformational Leadership at
Georgetown University and serves as the institute’s codirector.
Katherine earned a BA in English/creative writing from Middlebury
College in 1987 and has completed graduate work in English literature
at the Bread Loaf School of English. She holds a certificate in leader-
ship coaching from Georgetown University.
Margaret Echols has been assisting individuals, groups, and organiza-
tions in taking steps toward transformation for nearly 20 years. Before
creating the Development Consortium, Margaret was a senior man-

ager in executive development at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Margaret’s
academic background includes an MBA from George Washington
University with concentrations in international business and organi-
zational behavior and BA and MA degrees in education and adminis-
tration from the University of Florida. She is a master certified coach
(International Coach Federation), a certified professional effectiveness
coach (New Ventures West), and has completed a graduate coaching
program with the Newfield Network. Margaret also has extensive
training in somatic coaching and is certified as a somatic coach by the
Strozzi Institute.
Karen Gravenstine has been a master certified coach and organiza-
tion effectiveness consultant, engaged in coaching and development
of executives, rising leaders, and members of boards of directors and
their teams for over 25 years. She is a founding faculty member of
Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program, where she
continues to teach. Karen holds the International Coach Federation’s
master certified coach designation, a mentor coach certificate from
Invite Change, an advanced ontological coaching certificate from
the Newfield Network, and a personal effectiveness coach certificate
from New Ventures West. Karen earned an MA from the Catholic
University of America in Washington, DC.
Steve Heller is an independent leadership coach whose clients have

included corporate executives, entrepreneurs, public sector leaders,
educators, nonprofit executives, attorneys, scientists, coaching stu-
dents, and established coaches. In addition, Steve is on the faculty of
Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Certificate Program.
He holds a BSE from Johns Hopkins University, an MSE from the
University of Pennsylvania, and a certificate in leadership coaching
from Georgetown University. Steve is a past president of the board of
directors of the Washington, DC, chapter of the International Coach
Federation (ICF), and holds an ICF professional certified coach (PCC)
credential.
Roselyn (Roz) Kay is managing partner of New Heights Group, a

strategy and leadership development firm working with corporate,
nonprofit, and government organizations. She seeks to help her clients
embody the change they seek. Roz was a senior leader in banking and
financial services before transitioning into the fields of organization
development (OD) and executive coaching. She holds an MS in OD
from American University and a certificate in leadership coaching from
Georgetown. Roz is a faculty member of the Georgetown Leadership

Coaching Program and a Practicum Advisor for American University’s
MS in Organization Development program. Roz is a professional cer-
tified coach with ICF and a master somatic coach with the Strozzi
Institute.
Kelly Lewis is the founder and principal of The Bounce Collective, a
leadership development firm based in Richmond, VA. In 2011, Kelly
was honored as one of Workforce Management’s Game Changer
award recipients for a cutting-edge learning model that provides a
meaningful way for leaders to develop while bringing communities
together. Before starting Bounce, Kelly spent 15 years as an executive
and change leader at Capital One. Kelly earned her coaching certifi-
cation through Georgetown University and is a professional certified
coach (International Coaching Federation). She holds a BS in business
management from Virginia Tech University.
Patricia (Pat) A. Mathews is a master certified coach (International
Coach Federation) and president of Mathews Associates, her leader-
ship and executive coaching and consulting business. Pat is dedicated
to supporting leaders as they build productive partnerships, teams, and
workplaces. Her work as a coach includes leaders in all fields, and she
is especially drawn to health care. Her health care experience includes
clinical, management, and educational roles in acute care, outpatient,
and educational settings. She is a registered nurse and has an MA in
health administration from Jersey City State College and a certificate
in leadership coaching from Georgetown University. Pat currently
serves as program director of the Georgetown University Leadership
Coaching Program and is a member of the Global Board of Directors
of the International Coach Federation.
Sue E. McLeod is a professional certified coach (International Coach
Federation), is a certified professional co-active coach (The Coaches
Training Institute), and a certified mentor coach (InviteChange). Sue
brings 12 years of experience in coaching and leadership development
and over 20 years of experience in leadership in high-tech consulting to
her work with leaders and organizations. She has held numerous leader-
ship and management positions in technology consulting firms, run her
own consulting company, and worked as a consultant with Hay Group,
a global management consulting firm. Sue holds a BA in mathematics
from Colby College, Waterville, ME.
Sandy Mobley, founder of the Learning Advantage, LLC, has been
providing leadership and team coaching for over 25 years. Before
starting her company in 1992, she worked as an executive at Hewlett

Packard, Watson Wyatt, and McKinsey. Sandy has an MBA from
Harvard Business School and an MA in mathematics. She was a
founding faculty member of the Georgetown University’s Leadership
Coaching Program. Her book Juicy Work: Creating Fruitful Careers and
Cultivating Nourishing Workplaces was published May 2012. Sandy is
designated a master certified coach (International Coach Federation), a
master somatic coach by the Strozzi Institute, and a professional effec-
tiveness coach by New Ventures West.
Eric de Nijs coaches executives and coaches to become better leaders.
His specializations include leadership presence, talent development,
coaching, relationship building, and training. He focuses on helping
leaders establish their personal brand and presence within their organ-
izations and articulate their business strategies and models. Eric is
principal of the de Nijs Company, a management consulting company,
and serves as a program codirector and instructor for Georgetown
University’s Leadership Coaching Program. Eric has a PhD in human
resource development and two master’s degrees. Eric also holds a cer-
tificate in coaching from Georgetown University and a certificate in
corporate coaching from Corporate Coach University. He is the author
of Playing in a Bigger Space (2011).
Lloyd Raines is a seasoned executive master certified coach (ICF),
leadership development consultant, and educator. As principal of
Integral Focus, he brings a holistic, systems-oriented approach to “lead-
ership as stewardship” in service to the financial, social, and ecological
sustainability of vital resources. Lloyd was a founding faculty men-
tor in the Federal Judicial Center’s Leadership Program and a found-
ing faculty member of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching
Program, where he continues to teach. He helped conceive and launch
Georgetown’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. He has an
MA in justice from American University and a BA in psychology from
the University of Maryland.
Neil Stroul is a professional psychologist, who left the therapy world for
organizational consulting and training in 1979. A partner in Kenning
Associates, Neil has devoted his entire career to helping organizations
foster a developmental culture. Focusing on leadership coaching dur-
ing the past 10 years has been his most recent discovery about how to
help organizations become more developmental.
Julie Shows is the president and founder of the Coaching Connection.
She focuses on coaching midlevel and senior managers who have
been identified by their companies as having high potential. Julie is

recognized as a master certified coach, a designation awarded to the
most experienced coaches by the International Coach Federation.
She has completed coaching certification programs from Georgetown
University and Success Unlimited Network and is a certified mentor
coach. She holds a BA from Miami University in Ohio. She has been
on the faculty of the Georgetown Coaching Certificate Program since
2003 and is currently program director.
Jennifer Sinek has over two decades of experience working with indi-
viduals, teams, and organizations, helping them see and be excited by
the possibilities open to them—and then make them happen. Utilizing
conversational and somatic practices, she helps clients step into their
power as leaders—and authors—of their professional and personal lives.
Jennifer earned her MA in public and private management from Yale
University and her BA in psychology from Colgate University, designa-
tions of MCC from the ICF, master somatic coach from the Strozzi
Institute, and CPEC from New Ventures West.
Dave Snapp was a union organizer for more than 20 years before
becoming a consultant and coach. As part of his practice, Dave is a core
faculty member of the SEIU Institute for Change. He holds a BA from
Brown University and an MPH from the University of Michigan. He
has completed certificate programs in organization development, change
leadership, and leadership coaching at Georgetown University.
Jennifer Whitcomb, a master certified coach (International Coach
Federation), is principal of the Trillium Group, a fi rm focusing on
helping leaders bring their best self forward. Jennifer is an executive,
team, and group coach. She has an MA in human resource develop-
ment and certificates in coaching from Newfield Network and the
Coaches Training Institute. She is a certified action learning coach and
certified mentor coach. She is a previous director of the Organization
Development Certificate Program at Georgetown University.
Lee Ann Wurster-Naefe brings a practical managerial perspective to
her work as an organizational consultant and leadership coach. She has
30 years of experience in first-line through senior-level leadership posi-
tions in insurance and financial services, health care, education, and the
federal government. Lee Ann has an MA in business administration
from Frostburg State University and certificates in leadership coach-
ing and organization development from Georgetown University. She
is a professional certified coach (ICF) and certified somatic coach™
through the Strozzi Institute.
INDEX
Note: Page numbers followed by an “f ” or a “t” indicate a figure or table,

respectively.
ability to connect quality of ALIFE model
coaching, 48 authenticity, 170–171, 175
acceptance, 71–72 execution, 174–175, 176
achieving balance, 70–71 fear/courage, 173–174, 176
action learning intentionality, 172–173, 176
action component, 285 leadership, 171–172, 176
benefits of approach, 289–290 Allport, Gordon, 4
capturing learning, 288–289 American Psychological Association
coaches’ role, 285–289 (APA), 20
coaching skills that can be amygdala hijack, 148
applied, 290 Anatomy of Change (Heckler), 148
enhancing the group process, Anderson, Ray, 238
286–287 Argyris, Chris, 192
ground rules, 282, 284 assessments in coaching
group or team component, automatic versus chosen
283–284 responses, 208–209
helping the group define the creating insights for the leader,
problem, 286 209–210
helping the group take action, data review, 214–216
287–288 definition and types, 208
learning focus component, goal setting and action planning,
284–285 216–217
overview, 281–282, 283f grounded, see grounded
problem or challenge assessments
component, 283 in organizational coaching,
questions and reflection 188–190
component, 284 role of, 207–208, 215
timing and logistics of the self-assessment of coaching
process, 289 readiness, 209
affirmation, 251–252 structured interviews use, 212–214
310 | INDEX
assessments in coaching—Continued behavioral practice and, 178–179

understanding others through Eastern influence on coaching
self-assessment, 210–211 and, 68, 70
using in program design, 197 emotional self-awareness and, 141
value of outside perspectives, journey to embodiment and, see
211–212 embodying change
attachment and letting go, 71–72 learning new habits, see Th inking
attention training, 164–165 Path Plan
Authentic Happiness (Seligman), 20 see also stewardship and
authenticity sustainability
in ALIFE model, 170–171, 175 “being” element of becoming a
authentic leaders, 31 coach
G.R.A.C.E. at Work model, conceptual tools, 5–7
103, 104 “doing” versus, 67
leadership presence and, 267 Eastern influence on coaching
Authenticity, Leadership, and, 67–69
Intentionality, Fear/Courage, interior agenda of the coach,
and Execution, see ALIFE 79–80
model interior agenda of the leader,
77–78
balance in life key principles, 4–5
coaching clients about, see listening skills and, 8–9
Leverage Coaching Model sacred space and, 46
goal of achieving, 70–71 self-knowledge and, 94
versus integration when coaching Belf, Teri, 24, 35
leaders, 161–162 Bennett, John, 22
work/life balance, 249f Bennis, Warren, 31, 93
Ball, Frank, 33 Beyond Culture (Hall), 60
bearing witness concept, 240–241 Bloch, Susana, 63
becoming a leadership coach bodies of distinction
being, 4–7, 5 about, 5
doing, 8–9 awareness of own emotions and, 7
professional demands on concept of stories, 6–7
leadership coaches, 3–4 uniqueness to individuals, 6
questions to ask of yourself, 11 using tools and frameworks
using tools and frameworks, 9–11 and, 11
behavioral practice body-based coaching practices, see
basic principle of, 177–178 somatics use in coaching
calling out the problem, “boiled frog syndrome,” 130–131
182–183 boundary awareness, 8–9
characteristics of effective brain-based approach in professional
practices, 179–180 coaching, 28
examples of practice at work, Brantley, Mary Ellen, 22
180–182 breakdowns
forming new habits and, 178–179 coach’s role after identifying, 122,
getting colleagues involved, 183 134–135, 136
behavior and sustainable change described, 130–131
INDEX | 311
energy for change from, 131–133 systems aspect of organizations

helping clients embrace, and, 185–186
129–130, 131 teams and, 187
helping the client see, 135–136 coaching leaders
triggers and, 133 balance versus integration,
types, 133, 134t 161–162
Bregman, Lucy, 30 content and scope of, 30–33
Brown, Brené, 97 focus versus reflection, 164–166
intelligence versus curiosity,
Caillet, Alexander, 299 160–161
calendar focus strategy, 277 leadership presence and,
Campbell, Joseph, 115 see leadership presence
Capuzzi, Simon, 35 listening model for coaching,
care for nature dimension of see ALIFE model
stewardship, 235–237 management versus leadership,
care for others dimension of 157–159
stewardship, 233–235 power versus influence, 159–160
care for self dimension of stamina versus resilience,
stewardship, 232–233 162–164
care for work dimension of coaching new teams
stewardship, 237–238 case situation, 291–292
Cashman, Kevin, 31, 32 charting the team’s course,
Center for Creative Leadership 292–293
(CCL), 16–17 coaches’ role, 298, 299–300
centering the body, 148–150, 155, elements of successful teams, 299
see also somatics use in coaching feedback conversations, 296
change, see breakdowns; embodying group norms establishment, 298
change leader’s facilitation of feedback,
Choice, 3 296–297
Coaches Training Institute (CTI), mirror concept applied to being a
18, 27 coach, 99
Coaching Across Cultures start-up phase assessments,
(Rosinski), 61 294–295
Coaching: Evoking Excellence in team member interviews,
Others (Flaherty), 19, 24 293–294
coaching for leverage, see Leverage coaching relationship
Coaching Model accepting an invitation to acquire
coaching in organizations self-knowledge, 94–96
accountability of the coach, listening with your heart, 97–99
190–191 mirror concept applied to being a
assessments use, 188–190 coach, 93–94, 99
clarifying desired outcomes, seeing yourself and being seen,
191–192 96–97
dynamics of an organization and, Coaching with Spirit (Belf), 24
186–187 coach training schools, 17–19
organization initiatives Coach U, 15
consideration, 187–188 Co-Active Coaching, 202, 204
312 | INDEX
coactive coaching model in Divine, Laura, 54

professional coaching, 27 “doing” element of becoming a
Code of Ethics, ICF, 126–127 coach
Collins, Jim, 31 being present to the client, 8
competency models, 189–190 “being” versus, 67
confidentiality when coaching, 49 boundaries and the coaching
connection relationship, 8, 9
coaching the whole person and, concept of stories, 9
69–71 exterior agenda of the coach,
communicating with the client 78–79
and, 48 exterior agenda of the leader,
connectivity in the G.R.A.C.E. at 76–77
Work model, 105 listening skills and, 8–9
consulting versus coaching, 37 sacred space and, 46
conversations stories in coaching and, 8–9
used to learn new habits, 254–255 Donahoe, John, 32
value in purposeful, 8, 197
Corporate Leadership Council, 104 Eastern influence on coaching
Corporate Legends & Lore acceptance, 71–72
(Neuhauser), 111 achieving balance and, 70–71
courage, 97, 173–174, 268 attachment and letting go, 71–72
Covey, Stephen, 31 being, 67–69
Crainer, S., 22, 33 connection and wholeness, 69–71
CTI (Coaches Training Institute), Eastern versus Western
18, 27 thinking, 68t
cultural perspective of an journey, 72–73
organization, 186–187 lightness, 72
cultures in coaching mindfulness, 73–74
cross-cultural skills to use, 62–63 promise of stillness, 68–69
cultural blindness, 57–58 simplicity, 73
iceberg model, 60, 61–62 Ecology of Commerce (Hawken), 238
multi-cultural nature of lives, 58 education used to learn new habits,
nonverbal messages and, 63–64 252–253
recognizing cultural conditioning, Ekman, Paul, 63
58–59 embodying change
shift from ethnocentric to choice and commitment in, 88–90
ethnorelative perspective, elevating consciousness through
60–61 the body, 86
strategies for using, 61–64 habits and, 84–85
summary, 64–65 helping clients embrace, 88
curiosity versus intelligence, journey to embodiment, 83–84
160–161 mindset and bodyset, 87
story about mindset and bodyset
Dearlove, D., 22, 33 exploration, 87–88
Dellamore, Carol, 16–17, 28, 32 story of realizing an embodied
designing effective actions, see habit, 85–86
program design emotional intelligence, 141–143
INDEX | 313
emotions and coaching False Evidence that Appears Real

awareness of own emotions, 4–5, 7 (fear), 96
building emotional self- fear/courage in ALIFE model,
awareness, 141–143 173–174, 176
considering during assessments, feedback coaches, 17
223–224 Fehmi, Les, 77
emotional context creation, Fielding Institute, 20
143–144 Flaherty, James, 17, 19, 24, 25, 27
emotional intelligence and, 141 focus versus reflection, 164–166
emotional learning’s place in Folkman, Joseph, 190
coaching, 137–138 Friedman, Lynn, 36
entry points for the coach, fundamental attribution error,
139–140 186, 187
fundamental question to ask
clients, 140–141 Gallwey, Tim, 17, 25, 26, 73
identifying assessments or beliefs George, Bill, 31
behind emotions, 138–139 Georgetown Leadership Coaching
somatic or body-based coaching program, 20–21, 28, 32
practices, 142 Gilligan, Carol, 239
emotions domain of assessments, Goleman, Daniel, 148
223–224 goodwill, 103, 106
empowerment, 105–106 G.R.A.C.E. at Work model
energy authenticity, 104–105
for change from breakdowns, coaching checklist, 106, 107–109f
131–133 connectivity, 105
derived through purposeful connotations of grace, 110
practice, 89 empowerment, 105–106
interviewing a client about theirs, goodwill, 103, 106
274–275 importance of developing
in the Leverage Coaching Model, relationships in coaching,
277–278 101–102
ethnorelative perspective, 60–61 leading and coaching using,
execution in ALIFE model, 106, 110
174–175, 176 premise of, 102
executive coach, 17 results and reason, 104
executive presence, see leadership Grant, A.M., 36, 39
presence Gravenstine, Karen, 169
exercises in a coaching program, see Greenleaf, Robert, 30
program design grounded assessments
experience, 73 description and importance of,
Extraordinary Leader, The (Zenger 220–221
and Folkman), 190 domain of emotions and,
223–224
Face Everything And Release domain of language and, 221–223
(fear), 96 domain of somatics, 224–226
facilitator model in professional example of using with a client,
coaching, 26 219–220
314 | INDEX
grounded assessments—Continued working in organizational

framework for, 226–227 contexts and, 122–123
value in, 220 influence versus power, 159–160
group coaching, see action learning; Institute for Life Coach
coaching new teams Training, 22
GROW model in professional integrated life, 162
coaching, 26–27 integration versus balance, 161–162
intelligence versus curiosity,
habits 160–161
behavioral practice and forming intentionality in ALIFE model,
new, 178–179 172–173, 176
embodying change and, 84–85 Interface, 238
using the Th inking Path Plan to International Coach Federation
learn new, 250–255 (ICF)
Hall, Edward T., 60 code of ethics, 126–127
Handbook of Coaching, definition of coaching, 22–23
The (Hudson), 20 establishment of, 15–16
Hart, Wayne, 17 interviews
Hawken, Paul, 238 energy, 274–275
Heckler, Richard Strozzi, 148 priorities, 272–274
Heifetz, Ronald, 76 resources, 275–276
hero’s journey as a story format, 115 structured interviews use for
Hillman, James, 26, 31 assessments, 212–214
holistic approach to coaching, 230, time management, 273t, 274
232–233, 237, 238, 239–240 when coaching new teams,
Hudson, Frederick, 17, 20 293–294
Hudson Institute of Santa
Barbara, 20 Jaworski, Joseph, 30
human resources perspective of an journaling
organization, 186 as a reflective practice, 53, 54
Hunt, Joanne, 54 used to learn new habits, 254
journey, 72–73
iceberg model of cultures, 60,
61–62 Kampa-Kokesch, Sheila, 22, 38
ICF, see International Coach Katzenbach, J., 297
Federation Kilburg, R.R., 22
identification with clients Kimsey-House, Henry, 18, 26, 27
negative effects on coaching, Kimsey-House, Karen, 27
121–122 Kirkland, Karen, 17
potential problems with, 120
reason it occurs, 120–121 language domain of assessments,
self-awareness and, 124–125, 221–223
126–127 Laske, Otto, 30, 32
“shadow side” of leadership, leadership
127–128 in ALIFE model, 171–172, 176
steps to self-correct, 125–126 authenticity and, 31, 267
warning signs of charged, 121 management versus, 157–159
INDEX | 315
presence quality of, see leadership Loehr, Jim, 34, 55, 163, 164
presence Lord of the Dance pose, 99
“shadow side” of, 127–128
stories in coaching and, 31–32 “Making of the Corporate Athlete”
unique aspects of coaching (Loehr and Schwartz), 278
leaders, see coaching leaders management consulting fi rms, 16
Leadership Agility (Joiner and management versus leadership,
Joseph), 239–240 157–159
leadership in ALIFE model, Martin, David, 19
171–172, 176 Maturana, Humberto, 6
Leadership on the Line (Heifetz and Mayer, Diana, 31
Linsky), 76 McLean, Andrew, 31
leadership presence McNamara, Shelley, 22
assessing client readiness for Mehrabian, Albert, 147
coaching, 260–263 mental rehearsal, 253–254
authenticity’s importance, 267 MentorCoach, 18
coaching the leader, 264–266 mentoring versus coaching, 36–37
courage and, 268 metaphors in storytelling, 115–116
gathering feedback about the mindfulness, 73–74
sponsor’s goals, 263–264 mindset and bodyset, 87–88
knowledge useful for the mirror concept in coaching,
coach, 266 93–94, 99
leadership voice, 259, 261, 264, models of professional coaching
267, 268 brain-based approach, 28
qualities embodying, 259–260 coactive coaching model, 27
Leonard, Thomas, 15–16 facilitator model, 26
letting go versus attachment, 71–72 GROW model, 26–27
Leverage Coaching Model main players, 25–26
calendar focus strategy, 277 narrative constructivist
energy and passion focus strategy, approach, 28
277–278 ontological view model, 27
energy interview, 274–275 phenomenological view
example of an overwhelmed model, 27
client, 269–270 moral stages of development, 239
framework, 271f
preliminary conversation with the “Name, Claim, Reframe,” 9
client, 270–271 narrative constructivist approach in
priorities interview, 272–274 professional coaching, 28
reducing priorities focus strategy, narrative medicine programs, 113
278–279 National Leadership Institute
resources interview, 275–276 (NLI), 16–17
time interview, 273t, 274 Native American Indian culture, 112
Life Cycle of coaching, 196 Neuhauser, Peg, 111
lightness, 72 Newfield Network, 18–19
Linsky, Marty, 76 New Ventures West, 19, 27
listening model for coaching, see nonverbal messages and cultures,
ALIFE model 63–64
316 | INDEX
Olalla, Julio, 17, 18, 25, 27, 59, present-moment self-awareness

61, 143 exterior agenda of the coach,
ontological view model in 78–79
professional coaching, 27 exterior agenda of the leader,
Open-Focus Brain, The (Fehmi and 76–77
Robbins), 77 fundamental importance of,
organizational coaching, see 75–76, 81
coaching in organizations interior agenda of the coach,
organizational development 79–80
(OD), 15 interior agenda of the leader,
77–78
P = P - I model (performance, questions for the coach to
potential, interference) by consider, 80–81
Gallwey, 26 questions for the leader to
Palmer, Parker J., 127 consider, 78
Personnel Decisions International professional coaching
(PDI), 16 agreement on the definition, 25
phenomenological view model in basic tenets and distinctions,
professional coaching, 27 37–38
philosophical framework in blended program at Georgetown,
professional coaching, 18–19 20–21
phone coaching, 224 coaching versus therapy, 34–36
political perspective of an coaching versus training,
organization, 186 consulting, mentoring, 36–37
positive psychology, 19–20 concerns about the field, 38–39
Power of Full Engagement, The developmental approach, 20
(Loehr and Schwartz), 163, 277 distinctions among popular forms
power versus influence, 159–160 of coaching, 28–30
practices distinctions between it and
to achieve continuous similar interventions, 18
improvement, see behavioral diversity of definitions, 21–25
practice emergence and scope of the field,
body-based, see somatics use in 13–14
coaching etiology of the field, 14–15
characteristics of effective, introduction as an organizational
179–180 intervention, 16–17
coaching survey of, 52t introduction of coaching as a
to create a sacred space, 51–55 profession, 15–16
exercises versus, 202 lack of agreement on effectiveness
incorporating into a program, of coaching, 39
200–201 leadership coaching, 30–33
learning new habits, see Th inking models of, 25–28
Path Plan number of coaches worldwide, 16
praying as a reflective practice, 53 phenomenological approach, 19
presence of a leader, see leadership philosophical framework, 18–19
presence professional schools of thought
presence quality of coaching, 49–50 development, 17–18
INDEX | 317
psychological framework, 19–20 mirror concept applied to being a

spiritual coaching, 33–34 coach, 93–94, 99
program design seeing yourself and being seen,
assessments/reviews use, 197 96–97
checking-in with the client, 205 repetition used to learn new habits,
combining activities, 204 251–252
consideration of domains resilience versus stamina, 162–164
addressed, 204–205 results and reason, 104
critical nature of, 195 Revans, Reg, 281
exercises versus practices, 202 Robbins, Jim, 77
inquiries as tools for thought, Rock, David, 28
201–202 Rosen, Liora, 60
as a joint client/coach effort, 197, Rosinski, Philippe, 61
203, 205 Rossett, Allison, 22
key characteristics, 196–197
key elements, 197–198 sacred bundle stories, 111, 117–118
learning curve gradient and, 204 sacred space
Life Cycle of coaching, 196 ability to connect quality, 48
practices, 200–201 coaching survey of practices, 52t
self-observation activities, coaching survey of qualities, 47t
199–200 personalized practices used to
sources of inspiration, 204 create, 51–52
stories in coaching and, 115–116 presence quality, 49–50
structures of support use, qualities embodying, 46–47
202–203 self-awareness quality, 50
psychological framework in trust quality, 48–49
professional coaching, 19–20 types of practices, 53–55
psychometric instruments, 16–17 value in creating, 46, 55
wisdom quality, 50–51
reading as a reflective practice, 53 Sandahl, Phil, 26
reducing priorities focus strategy, SCAN model, 114f
278–279 Schwartz, Tony, 34, 55, 163, 164
reflection component of action self-assessments in coaching, 209,
learning, 284 210–211
reflection versus focus, 164–166 self-awareness
relationships awareness of own emotions,
accepting an invitation to acquire 4–5, 7
self-knowledge, 94–96 building emotional self-
boundaries and the coaching awareness, 141–143
relationship, 8, 9 identification with clients and,
coaching the whole person and, 124–125, 126–127
69–71 in the present moment, see
communicating with the client present-moment self-awareness
and, 48 quality of coaching, 50
importance of developing in somatics used to help the client
coaching, 101–102 achieve, 152, 153
listening with your heart, 97–99 self-observation activities, 199–200
318 | INDEX
Seligman, Martin, 17, 19–20 doing and, 8–9

Senge, Peter, 30 encouraging clients to tell theirs,
Servant Leadership (Greenleaf), 30 113–114
“shadow side” of leadership, 127–128 in leadership, 31–32
simplicity, 73 in organizations, 114–115
Sims, Peter, 31 for personal transformation,
Smith, D., 297 112–113
Socrates, 14–15 sacred bundle, 111, 117–118
Somatic Coach training program, 83 SCAN model, 114f
somatics use in coaching strategic leadership, 160–161
centering the body, 148–150, 155 strategic planning, 188
emotions and coaching and, 142 Stroul, Neil, 28, 169
goal of achieving awareness, 152 Strozzi, Richard Heckler, 83, 99n2
incorporating into coaching, Strozzi Institute, 83
150–154 structural determinism, 6
insights gained by considering structural perspective of an
somatics, 145–146 organization, 186
knowing-doing gap and, 146–148 structures of support in a coaching
role playing to facilitate program, 202–203
awareness, 153 Success Insights, 294, 295
somatics defined, 148 succession planning, 188
somatics domain of assessments, sustainable change, see behavior and
224–226 sustainable change; stewardship
Soul’s Code, The (Hillman), 31 and sustainability
spiritual coaching, 33–34 Synchronicity: The Inner Path of
stamina versus resilience, 162–164 Leadership (Jaworski), 30
Stern, Lewis, 15, 22, 28
stewardship and sustainability teams
bearing witness concept, 240–241 coaching in organizations and, 187
care for nature, 235–237 coaching new, see coaching new
care for others, 233–235 teams
care for self, 232–233 coaching using real problems and
care for work, 237–238 challenges, see action learning
dimensions summary, 231f therapy versus coaching, 34–36
holistic coaching and moral Th inking Path Plan
development, 230, 238, 239–240 actions and results described,
meaning of, 229–231 247–248
see also behavior and sustainable changing thought habits, 250–251
change coaching using, 248
stillness, 68–69 conversation used to learn new
stopping as a reflective practice, habits, 254–255
53–55 current and desired states,
stories in coaching 248, 249f
of becoming, 111–112 education used to learn new
bodies of distinction and, 6–7 habits, 252–253
coaching exercises for the client, example of how thinking leads to
115–116 results, 244–245
INDEX | 319
feelings described, 246–247 quality in coaching, 48–49, 51,

framework, 243, 244f 94, 264
illustration of use, 255–257 teams’ need for, 297
outcomes from, 244, 257
repetition used to learn new US Environmental Protection
habits, 251–252 Agency, 236
template and instructions, 248, “using” element of becoming a coach
249f, 250 care in choosing a tool and, 9–10
thinking described, 245–246 coach’s body of distinctions and, 11
visualization used to learn new listening skills importance, 10
habits, 253–254 Using your Executive Coach (Hart
writing used to learn new and Kirkland), 17
habits, 254
thought habits, 246 Varela, Francisco, 6
360-degree feedback, 15, 16, visualization used to learn new
181–183, 208, 212, 216 habits, 253–254
3P focus, 236 voice, leadership, 259, 261, 264,
time management interviews, 267, 268
273t, 274 voice in coaching, 4, 97–98
training versus coaching, 36
transactional coaching, 32–33 Wahl, Chris, 20–21
transformational coaching, 32–33 walking as a reflective practice, 53
triggers Whitmore, John, 17, 25, 26
breakdowns and, 133 Whitworth, Laura, 17, 18, 26, 27
recognizing and responding to, Whyte, David, 171
see present-moment Williams, Patrick, 22
self-awareness wisdom quality of coaching, 50–51
trust Wooden, John, 177–178
authenticity and, 104, 170 Working with Emotional Intelligence
cultural blindness’s impact on, (Goleman), 148
57–58 work/life balance, 249f, see also
emotional learning and, 143 Leverage Coaching Model
empowerment and, 105–106 writing
goodwill and, 103 as a reflective practice, 53
interaction model that facilitates, used to learn new habits, 254
see G.R.A.C.E. at Work
model Zenger, John, 190
leadership and, 158, 159, 170, 234 Zuckerman, Ethan, 61

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ON BECOMING A

List of Figures and Tables xi

CHAPTER 9 G.R.A.C.E. at Work: Strong Relationships

Part III Using

CHAPTER 23 The Thinking Path 243

About the Editors and Contributors 301

9.1 G.R.A.C.E. at Work: Playing in a bigger space 103

3.1 Leadership coaching survey: Qualities 47

Possibility. Sustainability. Agility. Reality. Opportunity. Quality.

MEANINGS THAT WE ASSOCIATE WITH the words above

them clear and forge a path. So, consultants, psychologists, leaders,

challenge, and kindness into the world of achieving in the workplace,

THE OPERATIVE WORD IN THE TITLE of this chapter is “becom-

business acumen to have any credibility with leaders in today’s organi-

ON BECOMING A COACH: BEING

Emerging awareness, seeing new perspectives, and noticing how

The ﬁ rst concept is “body of distinctions,” which is a widely used

Generally, our bodies of distinction work in the background,

ON BECOMING A COACH: DOING

Coaching is a highly personalized process for development in which the

ON BECOMING A COACH: USING

or, “I am ‘very red’ when I am at my best, and so I can’t really do plan-

• What am I learning about myself?

2. Gordon W. Allport, Becoming: Basic Considerations for a Psychology of

MAPPING THE TERRAIN:

THE FIELD OF PROFESSIONAL COACHING IS an often misunder-

Professional coaching, as a new therapeutic intervention, arose

FOUNDATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL COACHING

TRAVELING THE COACHING ROUTE:

2006). Socrates employed the ﬁction of “not knowing” in order to elicit

Thus, he began the process of creating procedures and setting stand-

Seligman, the father of the new ﬁeld of positive psychology, partnered

illuminate wasteful habits.” In the Newﬁeld approach, the language

movement” (Grant 2006). “There have been long-standing calls for

the program was centered around a particular theory and a particular

Anderson 2001). Anthony Grant maintains that “deﬁnitions of coach-

A helping relationship formed between a client who has manage-

Kampa-Kokesch adds “that it [coaching] can be used for both develop-

Witherspoon and White 1996a)” (Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson

Executive coaching is a facilitative one-to-one, mutually designed

own; focus their clients better to more quickly produce results;

Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and

association that attempts to govern the field. “The difficulty of defining

Central to most deﬁnitions are the assumptions of an absence

“Coaching is thus collaborative, individualized, solution-focused,

APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL COACHING

In addition to drawing from the psychological models of cognitive

and Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, and Phil Sandahl

GROW model gives them a method to apply basic coaching techniques

Dr. Neil Stroul (Stroul 2001), a psychologist on the faculty of

SOME VARIATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL COACHING

Now that we’ve looked at the diﬀerent approaches to coaching and

Personal or life coaching primarily focuses on an individual’s

dynamics and eﬀectiveness to work together with the leader and

Peter Senge (Senge 1994) in his introduction to Joseph Jaworski’s

world. Ultimately, leadership is about creating new values” (Jaworski

Georgetown University has developed a certiﬁcate program for

There seem to be two ways of describing what is called “spiritual coach-

In spite of the evidence of a spirituality discourse in the world