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The coaching wrap-up conversation over coffee quickly turned uncomfortable, at least for me. \u201cYou touched me,\u201d said my client, \u201cyou really touched me.\u201d With a quick \u201cthank you\u201d in return, I tried to quickly change the topic to something much more benign. (My mind is racing\u2026Is he a football fan? Will a comment about last weekend\u2019s games provide a quick detour in the conversation?) He was not to be dissuaded. \u201cYou are not hearing me, Gregg. You touched me here.\u201d This time he pointed directly at the middle of his chest. \u201cRight here!\u201d<\/p>
It seems that I have spent many years positioning leadership coaching as a practical and potent performance improvement process (and it clearly is that) while minimizing the more personal aspects of this work. After all, we are coaches, not counselors. And not just regular coaches for that matter. We are leadership coaches whose clients are primarily senior business managers. We use words like \u201cpartnership\u201d and \u201cchallenges\u201d, not \u201cintimacy\u201d and \u201ccompassion.\u201d We ask our clients to step up to a bigger game, not get in touch with their feelings. And now, sitting right in front of me is the seasoned COO of a major manufacturing enterprise telling me that our coaching work has not only rekindled his passion for leadership, but for life itself. * He continues, \u201cI have made three commitments, and I am living these every day. First, I have committed to have a positive impact on the jobs, careers and lives of every single person in our organization, regardless of their position. Second, I have recommitted myself to be a genuine servant leader in my family. Third, I have committed to leave this planet a better place in some way when my time is done.\u201d And then he said the words to which I had no response: \u201cMy heart has opened up to a whole new world.\u201d<\/p>
In this column I often provide a few insights or aphorisms for those readers who are interested in the leadership development field. This time I simply have some reminders for myself:<\/p>
When I am coaching I need to remember that:<\/em><\/p> Coaches give little advice. We mostly remind our clients of their talents, their passions, their aspirations and their potential. That day over coffee, my client reminded me so clearly of one of the most important tenets of this work \u2013 it is impossible to fully explore leadership potential without touching the heart along the way.<\/p> *I rarely write about my coaching conversations much less quote my clients, however in this case, my client not only gave me his permission, he encouraged me to write the article. I thank him for his thoughtfulness and generosity.<\/p> by Gregg Thompson |The coaching wrap-up conversation over coffee quickly turned uncomfortable, at least for me. \u201cYou touched me,\u201d said my client, \u201cyou really touched me.\u201d With a quick \u201cthank you\u201d in return, I tried to quickly change the topic to something much more benign. (My mind is racing\u2026Is he a football fan? Will a comment about last weekend\u2019s games provide a quick detour in the conversation?) He was not to be dissuaded. \u201cYou are not hearing me, Gregg. You touched me here.\u201d This time he pointed directly at theSEE DETAILS <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[225],"class_list":["post-6924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-leadership-coaching-leader"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpoint.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
by Gregg Thompson, President of Bluepoint Leadership Development.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"