Inner Agility First

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The other day I was sitting with a piece of paper sketching out the dynamics of a coaching conversation. One thing that struck me as I sat back and looked at it, was how agile our clients need to be in a coaching conversation; and how strengthening their inner agility may in fact be one of the greatest gifts of coaching.

I’ll take you to the piece of paper…

LOOKING NOW

When we first meet our clients we are curious about what brought them to coaching. They articulate their current reality and how they see/feel/relate to what’s happening right now around them. 

LOOKING FORWARD

We also want to know what our clients want from coaching. What is their desired future? What’s their end goal? This tension or gap between current and future is important because it provides the energy, momentum and drive for movement and change. Clients move their attention from the current state to dreaming about what they want and need to accomplish, and to become.

LOOKING BACK

We are also curious about the experience and perspective they bring from the past. We want to understand how they see the world and how that impacts their beliefs about themselves and others. While we don’t tread on the toes of therapy in any deep excavation of the past; we do want to get a sense of the stories our clients tell themselves and how they connect to what’s happening now.

LOOKING IN

As our clients stretch and focus attention on now, forward, and back, we would be remiss if we did not support our clients to tune in to the body. Clients needs to become aware of their nervous system, how reactivity shows itself in the body, how resilience is embodied, and what they need to let go of to move closer to what they want. 

Coaching conversations cover a broad terrain and our work is to support the inner agility of our clients to move fluidly, expansively, and courageously toward greater wholeness and meaningful results.