In search of patterns
Coaching has been described as a journey in search of patterns. As leaders and professionals the more aware we are of our automatic responses the more choice we have over how we respond.
Coaching helps us explore what happens in the gap between stimulus and response. It guides us to pay attention to our senses, our feelings, internal dialogue and emotions. When we bring our unconscious responses into conscious awareness the more choice and the more power we have.
Systemic approach to executive coaching
Many of the issues clients bring to coaching are perceived to be caused by a breakdown in the relationships between people. Working with a coach helps us to stand back and look at our issue within the context of what might be playing out in the wider system.
We cannot see the forces of the systems that we are in. Coaching helps to explore our issues holistically and begin to see the systems as patterns of relationship. Once we are aware of what is happening we have the choice to accept or change.
Somatic approach to executive coaching
I am a psychological coach and an NLP master practitioner and have over a decade of experience of working somatically with my clients. What this means for you is that I will guide your awareness to bodily sensations and support you to tune in and explore the intelligence that is held within the body. What happens when you feel stressed? What’s the sensation? Where is it in the body and what happens when you pay attention to it? Clients develop a somatic awareness that helps them develop a familiarity with their somatic markers. Identify them at the trigger point and choose to respond differently.
Meaning Making
Humans are meaning making animals. Sometimes we make assumptions that can negatively impact on the outcome we want. Coaching helps us explore our assumptions and the meaning that we are making of our world. Once we recognise limiting assumptions and beliefs we can expand our meaning making to increase possibilities and opportunities available to us.
Looking at issues through different lenses
As your coach I will be your mirror and your thinking partner. I will listen attentively and with your permission I will ask insightful questions and respectfully reflect back to you what I notice in your body language, posture, breathing, tone of voice and choice of words. Working together we will experiment using many different psychological and systemic lenses to notice and explore what might be going on beneath the surface and in the wider system.
Identifying successful and limiting strategies
We all have successful and unsuccessful strategies that are running on auto pilot in our unconscious minds. Once we recognise what triggers these unwanted patterns of behaviour, thinking or feeling we are empowered with choice. We can take a pause and interrupt our automatic reaction and then choose a more appropriate empowered response.
Sounds simple but yet this work is difficult if not impossible to do alone as these automatic responses are our blind spots. Thats why successful executives work with a coach.
Today the value of coaching and the return on investment is widely acknowledged. It is a highly valued intervention in the development of people at all levels in the organisation. Individuals perceive it as an honour to be assigned a coach. It is received as a recognition that the company is investing in them. Developmental coaching takes a more holistic approach to developing performance and skills and focusses on developing the person to reach their full potential.
Clients contact Igniting Minds when they are feeling a bit stuck. They know they want things to be different and they recognise that they need to do some things differently to achieve this. They are often amazed at how quickly the world around them changes with coaching. Of course the world hasn’t changed. The way they make meaning of their experiences and the choices they have to see things and respond differently has changed.
A deep signature presence
Neuroscience has now proven that we do our best thinking when we are in a calm, meditative, mindful state. To ensure our clients get the most from our programmes we utilise our expert skills in mindfulness, meditation and Gestalt practice and in all our work be it coaching, training or strategic or project planning we bring a deep signature presence to create an empowering container.
Contact us to arrange a free 30-minute discovery session email Jackie or text 07803171697
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