Letting go of knowing: new article in 'Coaching at Work'
I find that clients and potential clients respond with more energy to their experience of how I am than to what I know – and equally, who I am, and how my ‘being’ shows up, have a significantly greater impact on my coaching than what I do.
I believe that as a coach I need to cultivate a high tolerance of uncertainty and of the unknown, a lack of intent, and a diminished need to be right: in short, to be present without letting my knowledge get in the way. I need to to let go of ‘knowing’ while at the same time my coaching depends on knowing something about the process of change.
My article ‘Letting go of knowing’ in ‘Coaching at Work’ of March/April 2017 explores this tricky balance. E-mail me at lw@lindsaywittenberg.co.uk for a pdf, or download it here if you’re a subscriber to ‘Coaching at Work’.
Love your latest article Lindsay. You have articulated perfectly a phenomena that I have been experiencing recently in some of my group coaching work. My greatest fear is that I will somehow lose the respect of my participants if I don’t know everything, and it causes me to over – prepare sometimes. Yet, when I just take a few breaths, relax and become fully present, and allow myself to sit in the unknown comfortably, real magic tends to happen. I see my participants have insights and realisations that are perfect for their journey and they seem to arise quite naturally. So I am going to keep experimenting with it and take your words as encouragement!
Love your latest article Lindsay. You have articulated perfectly a phenomena that I have been experiencing recently in some of my group coaching work. My greatest fear is that I will somehow lose the respect of my participants if I don’t know everything, and it causes me to over – prepare sometimes. Yet, when I just take a few breaths, relax and become fully present, and allow myself to sit in the unknown comfortably, real magic tends to happen. I see my participants have insights and realisations that are perfect for their journey and they seem to arise quite naturally. So I am going to keep experimenting with it and take your words as encouragement!