Staying Sharp
Practical skills, techniques and insights that enhance coaching competence.
One of my own developmental edges in life is to surrender control, to go with the flow. I came across a useful model from improv that is supporting me in that. And I’m using it with my aspiring MCC mentor coachees in my Lock-in to support them in their letting go in their coaching:
Letting go of knowing, of driving, of finding the perfect question. Letting go of pre-prescribed direction and outcomes. You name it, it’s worth figuring out how to let it go!
This model came from a handy little book by Robert Poynton. I’ve previously mentioned his book Do/Pause, which is one of my favourites. This one, Do/Improvise, is a wonderful companion to that. The model looks like this.
Not only does it cover letting go, but also noticing more and using everything – both necessary skills for masterful coaching. What do you make of it, for your own practice?
Staying Safe
Ethics, boundaries, professional standards, risk management.
How often do you think about conflicts of interest in your practice? Our code of ethics talks about it in the abstract, but what do you do when you notice conflicts in your own practice? I’d hope that you take it to supervision to talk through. I think they are more prevalent than we might think.
I’ve come across several recently. One was in relation to mentor coaching – the conflict of interest I felt deep in my bones about holding both a developmental stance and wearing an assessor’s hat.
Another came up when someone brought something to supervision about someone I knew, and we needed to re-contract in the moment for how to work with that.
Yet another was a wonderful LinkedIn post by Christi Byerly about whether and how we can coach friends and partners.
I suspect that most people see conflicts of interest as being about finances, for example, whether I have an interest in selling you something that you don’t really need. But as you’ll see from the examples above, it goes far beyond that. Where might you be glossing over conflicts of interest in your own practice?
Staying Sane
Self-care, sustainability, emotional resilience, perspective
I wonder whether I might bring us back to the difficult stuff that’s going on in the world. The things that many of us would rather not face into. But they are happening, whether we – or our clients – like it or not. I’ve been asking supervision groups more systemic questions lately, born of an article I read by Rita Symonds: White Paper – From Bystander to Activist. We’ve had some remarkably deep and rich conversations, and coaches have felt able to bring more of themselves and their worries into the supervision room. One question was
What do you notice in your coaching sessions about the dominant growth-based narratives of our Western way of seeing things?
How do you work with that? What might you choose to do differently going forward?
How does this connect with your sanity? Maybe that’s a question for you to ponder too.
That is it for this month. I hope there is something here that sparks a reflection, a conversation with a peer, or a small experiment in your next session.
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Until next time,
Clare
