CoachingDo: The Way of the Coach

The invitation to participate

2007-12-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a mail I'm sending out to masterful coaches, as I come across them on this quest; it captures the key kernels of my curiosity. If you happen to be a professional coach, of any hue, please feel free to let me know your interest, and we'll set up a chat:

Thanks for taking time to open this email. I need your help.

I would like to have a phone conversation with you for research purposes. I stumbled come across an inquiry which might become important in developing a teaching method that gets people to "simply decide" to be more loving to everyone. I believe the emergent disciplines of coaching are a great place to start looking for answers.

Bottom line: I'd like to "interview" you about your experiences as a coach. Please let me know what opportunities there are for me to do this (if at all) and I can schedule our time via email.

My research inquiry goes under the working title "The Way of the Coach" and I am curious to learn about, from masterful practitioners of transformative work like you:

What "way of being", "sensation of being" or "act of being" you experience when you are in full flow as the most magical, amazing, powerful coach you can be?

What kind of paradoxes do you encounter in being a masterful coach and what kind of reconciliation there might be of those?

How, as leaders, our way of being differs from that of being coaches

What commonalities exist across different coaching philosophies and traditions, or other transformative practices, in terms of ways of being the best coach possible.

Who else might be interested to contribute?

What other work is being done on this and by whom?

Where else might I be looking for clues?

My feeling is that, ultimately, the answers might point to one or more "distillates" for which could be developed teaching methods for the general population (maybe for schools).

Please get back to me, even if it to say "nay". Thank you for your time.

A disclaimer (excited) and Invitation

2007-11-29T11:05:00.000-08:00

Well, hey!

I had a eureka moment which I'll create a post about as soon as I make up a couple of illustrations.

I'll take this opportunity to write a disclaimer: Everything is ALL MADE UP. Although I hope to reveal some kind of fundamental, teachable truth, I concede that, coming from me, what is written here can only be a reflection of MY PERSPECTIVE on WHAT I PERCEIVE to be "the truth".

ALSO, what I write here probably exists in some form, somewhere else, by someone else. I believe it is a truism to state: "there is nothing new under the sun". My job is simply to listen to the messages that are already "out there" and convey what I perceive (i.e. judge - come on, I am human!) to be true.

Should you stop by a passage I have written and you see it similarly or differently, PLEASE FEEL INVITED to post a comment.

Thanks to Master Certified Coach Rick Tamlyn for teaching me "it's all made up".

At Chapter's Turn

2007-11-21T12:02:00.000-08:00

So here I am. A certified, practising professional leadership and life coach, knowing I have a place in the world as some kind of a leader, having many conversations throughout the course of a week, mostly with myself, often with other, some more powerful than others and curious about how I'm doing.

What's the context of my curiosity? Am I trying to benchmark myself against some third party standard of "what's right", or am I seeking to know MY truth? Or is it something else? My suspicion is the last one, because I have a sense that there is some fundamental common thread to what co-creates and maintains the safe, powerful, virtual space of transformative, leading edge coach-like conversations, and similarly powerful, transformative ways of living.

As a coach I often get my clients to look at their own definitions of what "good" or "success" look like, so here I am in this moment calling myself to do the same. And I believe the answer is both "out there" and "in here". "In here" I know stuff; I believe I know stuff, and I also suspect that this will be my piece of a much larger, more fundamental truth about the human experience of co-creative, powerful living. "Out there" is the opportunity to listen, and so I will be asking coaches of all ilks, both near the start of and at the top of their game, how they see it, how they feel it.

I want to see if it is possible to define some common thread or threads that crystallize into "the way of the coach".

"CoachingDo" is a playful reference to "budo", "the way of the warrior", from Japanese tradition, also a search for fundamental truth, through the practice of martial disciplines.

I'm starting my trip with some enquiries in my bag, curiosity and a sense of trusting that this will reveal something of importance.

Here's the enquiry, as it stands in this moment:

What are core attitudes, practices and paradoxes that make the greatest impact on our world, as coaches?
What might be fundamental to "The Way Of The Coach" (referred to hereafter as "The Way") that transcends "tradition" (e.g. sports vs life vs executive coaches, eastern vs western philosophies, religious beliefs, systems of connection with the divine, etc.)?
What are impacts commonly felt by the Followers of The Way and their clients and what does that have to do with anything?
What parallels might be drawn from other traditions that could serve to illuminate The Way (e.g. from martial arts, spiritual practices, philosophy, etc)?

My gut tells me to not only seek out those who've consciously been on The Way for a long time, but also those who are embarking on the start of their journey, who might have a sense of what's wanting to be in place rather than what is already there.

MY INVITATION TO YOU is to look into your own experience from great co-creative or appreciative moments in your own practice of life and share with me what comes to you from the questions I posed. Write in and share.

I'll be posting from time to time as pieces of the mystery become apparent, or not.