Introduction
We write Base Metal every month with the intent that it stimulates, challenges, encourages and may even provoke coaches into thinking about and reflecting on their coaching. We write in a largely questioning mode that aims to encourage thinking and reflection.
We are passionate about the importance of coaches continually reflecting on what they do and how they do it, and even more about how they are being when acting as coaches.
Each month we write a short article about a topic we believe is of interest and ally it with an accompanying book review that is relevant or connected to the article.
In this e-book we have compiled all the articles and book reviews from the first twenty four months of Base Metal and we plan to repeat this every two years.
We hope that you find Base Metal useful and ask you to pass this bi-annual review on to anyone that you believe may be interested. Please also ask them to let us know if they would like to receive the monthly version of Base Metal.
The Alchemy teamIan, Ray, David, Melanie and Trevor
March 2015
Contents
2013
JanuaryBeing present as a coach – bringing your whole person to the coaching relationship
“Neuropsychology for Coaches – Understanding the basics”
Paul Brown and Virginia Brown, McGraw Hill Open University Press, 2012
FebruaryChoice and Behaviour: what underlies this?
“Presence-Based Coaching – Cultivating Self-Generative Leaders through Mind, Body, andHeart”
Doug Silsbee, Foreword by Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Jossey-Bass, 2008
MarchHow a coach can support their client?
“Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges – the Social Technology of Presencing”
C. Otto Scharmer, Foreword by Peter Senge, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2009
AprilFinding one’s source of energy for change
Deep Change – Discovering the Leader Within”
Robert E. Quinn, Jossey-Bass – a Wiley Imprint, 1996
MayPsychodynamic theory: relevance to coaching?
Pause for Breath - bringing the practices of mindfulness and dialogue to leadership conversations”
Amanda Ridings, Live It Publishing, 2011
June“What do we do when you notice we don’t know what to do?”
“Systemic Coaching and Constellations – an introduction to the principles, practices and application”
John Whittington, Kogan Page, 2012 Foreword by David Clutterbuck
JulyAct or be acted on
“The New Leadership Paradigm – leading self, leading others, leading an organisation, leading in society”
Richard Barrett, ISBN 978-1-4457-1672-5, 2010
AugustBeyond Freud – transpersonal psychology’s application to coaching
“The Talent Code – greatness isn’t born, it’s grown” Daniel Coyle, Random House, 2009
“Mastery – the keys to success and long-term fulfilment” George Leonard, Plume Penguin, 1992
SeptemberWhat is coaching and how do you define coaching?
“Relational Coaching – Journeys Towards Mastering One-To-One Coaching”
Erik de Haan, Translation by Sue Stewart, John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, 2008
OctoberWhat are the values and needs which underpin your coaching?
“Mojo – How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It”
Marshall Goldsmith, with Mark Reiter, Profile Books, 2010
NovemberHow can we and should we bring the whole of ourselves to the coaching relationship?
“Developmental Coaching: Working with the Self”
Tatiana Bachkirova, McGraw Hill Open University Press, 2011
December“From transactional to transformational coaching”
The art of learning, an inner journey to optimal performance
Josh Waitzkin, Free Press, 2007
2014
JanuaryIt’s this time of year
The Three Levels of Leadership – How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, James Scouller, Management Books 2000 Limited, 2011
FebruaryAwareness – a central component of great coaching
Full Spectrum Supervision: “who you are, is how you supervise”
Edited by Edna Murdoch and Jackie Arnold, Panoma Press, 2013
MarchSuccess – Be, Do and Have
“Source – The Inner Path of Knowledge Creation”
Joseph Jaworski. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 201
AprilLetting Go!
“Emotional Intelligence Coaching – Improving performance for leaders, coaches and the individual”
Stephen Neale, Lisa Spencer-Arnell and Liz Wilson, Kogan Page, 2009
MayBoundaries? Who needs them?
“Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others”
James Flaherty, Butterworth Heinemann, 1999
JuneWhat’s different about co-creative and transformational coaching?
“The HeartMath Solution”
Doc Childre and Howard Martin with Donna Beech, HarperOne, 2000
JulyDifference and differences – common to all coaching situations
“Diversity in Coaching – Working with Gender, Culture, Race and Age”, edited by Jonathan Passmore, Kogan Page, Second edition, 2013
AugustSelf-responsibility and coaching – metaphors for active grounding
“Metaphors We Live By”, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, University of Chicago Press, 2003
“Metaphors In Mind – Transformation Through Symbolic Modelling”, James Lawley and Penny Tompkins, The Developing Company Press, 2000
SeptemberPresence as a coach
“Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart”
Mary Beth O’Neill. Jossey-Bass, 2000
OctoberReflective dialogue and its value while coaching
“Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together”
William Isaacs, Introduction by Peter Senge, Currency Doubleday, 1999
NovemberThe relationship is everything!
“The People You Are - the New Science of Personality”
Rita Carter, Abacus, 2014
December“Conflict… useful or not?”
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - a Leadership Fable
Patrick Lencioni, Jossey-Bass, 2002
January 2013
Being present as a coach – bringing your whole person to the coaching relationship
We (the Alchemy team) believe that bringing the whole person (coach) to the coaching relationship, and being completely present throughout each session, enhances the value that the coach can bring. In this short article we want to outline what we mean by whole person and being present and then suggest some reasons why this is not always achieved. Let us begin with simple definitions.
By whole person we mean everything about the coach: life experience, skills, style, personality and complete set of capabilities. By being present we mean remaining completely focused throughout the coaching on the client and their situation, attending to our own thoughts and responses judiciously, to inform us about some aspect of the client’s process.
Bringing the whole person to the coaching relationship means being very aware of our skills, personality and experience together with how these might manifest themselves with particular clients at particular times. This involves raising our levels of conscious understanding about what is going on at any moment during the coaching session, so that we can make clear judgements about what, when, how and if we should approach certain aspects. It is like running an internal review whilst we are actually with the client. This is very demanding and challenging. For the inexperienced coach, keeping models and processes in mind is often hard enough already.
Sometimes, coaches avoid bringing their whole person to the coaching relationship based on the notion that coaches should ‘keep themselves out of the way’. We want to propose that being prepared to bring in more of oneself, at the right time and in the right way, can be enormously helpful to the relationship. It enables me as a coach to access all of my experience and capabilities rather than just my coaching skills and experiences. Many coaches find it difficult to bring their whole person to the relationship through fear of doing the wrong thing with or for the client. We want to encourage you to build confidence in your ability to use your self-awareness, so that you can bring in ideas, experiences, even use big differences in personality, to positive effect. This takes practice and effort. It also requires us to gather feedback from our clients to check that it is working effectively.
Being present is generally accepted as a core skill for coaches. In most coach training there is active encouragement and skill development in active listening, using the client’s words and language as much as possible and building rapport and connection with clients. And we suspect that most coaches know that we lose focus, drift off, or lose rapport with our clients on occasions. Staying fully present is hard work. How can we do better? Is it just a matter of practice? We believe that it is more than practice. It requires us to develop ‘whole person’ awareness - that continually running inner review. It requires mental energy but, with practice, not enough to get in the way of remaining fully present.
So, we want to finish with three questions:
1. How can we continually bring more of ourselves, appropriately, to the service of our clients?
2. How can we utilise big differences between coach and client for the benefit of our clients?
3. How can we get our unconscious capabilities into the relationship more effectively and to better effect?
We know that this is easier said than done and worth the effort to develop these skills and intentions.
Book review
“Neuropsychology for Coaches – Understanding the basics”
Paul Brown and Virginia Brown, McGraw Hill Open University Press, 2012, Coaching in Practice Series
How the brain works is a rapidly expanding and deepening area of research of great relevance for coaches. The Association for Coaching chose for its Ten Year Anniversary Conference in June 2012 the theme “From Inner Game to Neuroscience”. Professor Paul Brown, a consulting clinical and organisational psychologist, delivered a keynote presentation, and led a workshop entitled “Starting with the brain: an Introduction to Neurobehavioural Modelling in Executive Coaching”. He and Virginia Brown (no relation), a practising executive coach, have produced an accessible book which sets out to explain current understanding of basic brain functioning and how this can inform and enable effective coaching.
The premise that feelings underlie decision-making provides the authors with a powerful focus for coaching: helping clients to establish intelligent emotions as the basis for their decision systems. I was particularly engaged by this idea, not of “emotional intelligence”, rather of “intelligent emotions”. Chapters include “Wondering: the basis for knowing and change”, “Behavioural change that sticks” and “Relationships that affect change and development”. Emphasis on facts about brain function is combined with recognition of individual difference and attention to coaching the whole person. Each chapter is concluded with a short, clear summary; there is a useful glossary, and a rich bibliography. I found the book stimulating, informative and challenging.
February 2013
Choice and Behaviour: what underlies this?
How much choice do we have as individuals when it comes to changing our behaviour? Do we believe in determinism or self-determination? As coaches, our thoughts about this are likely to influence our attitude towards our clients and the expectations we have of them.
There are vast numbers of philosophies and models of human behaviour and its origins, and theories about the degree to which we are shaped by our past, or free to be the architects of our present and future.
Cognitive behavioural approaches are increasingly finding their way into coaching. People sometimes mistakenly think that the cognitive behavioural model is mechanistic or even manipulative. In reality, when practised properly, this is far from the case. Collaboration is the essence of both CBT and CBC. The client is a co-explorer, working alongside the coach to understand the connections between four key domains: cognition (thinking), emotions, physiological states and behaviour.
Although the interaction between these four domains is central to CBC, attention is also paid to life experience and the impact this has had on our thoughts and beliefs, and the assumptions we make about ourselves, others and the world around us. These will in turn influence our feelings, behaviour and even our physical selves. In the CB model, past experience is seen as relevant inasmuch as it sets the tone and direction of our thoughts and feelings. However, the process of deconstructing the system gives us insight, so that new choices can be made.
Clearly, this is not always as easy as it sounds. We humans often tend towards the familiar in terms of our responses in all four domains. The extent to which we have internalised the views, voices and expectations of those around throughout our lives will determine a lot about the way we think, feel and behave. However, gaining an understanding of our own patterns, how they might have originated, and how and why we maintain them, can enable us not only to make more informed choices but also to be more compassionate towards ourselves and others.
Book review
“Presence-Based Coaching – Cultivating Self-Generative Leaders through Mind, Body, and Heart”
Doug Silsbee, Foreword by Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Jossey-Bass, 2008
Doug Silsbee has studied with James Flaherty, is accredited by the ICF, and is the author of “The Mindful Coach” (2004).
“Presence-Based Coaching” reflects the author’s involvement in coaching, facilitation, leadership development, O.D. and experiential learning. This is not an introductory book for coaches; it assumes previous coaching experience and “a healthy appetite for your own learning and growth”. The book seeks to balance and integrate two core threads: presence as an essential ingredient of life-long personal development; and how presence can evoke change in others in the context of developing leaders – and be an essential quality both of leading and of living.
There are four parts to the book, exploring and linking: the nature of presence; the coaching context; generative practices; and relational moves. Each chapter is prefaced by one or more evocative quotations and concluded with a summary. There are many exercises and practices to assist the reader’s learning. The somatic nature of development - that “every action originates in the body” - is a core premise. For coaches whose practice is characterised by a cerebral approach and an awakening emotional reach, their application of Doug Silsbee’s insights will be of particular value. He stimulates resonances with the writing of Erich Fromm, Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Wendy Palmer. “Presence-Based Coaching” is a book punctuated by the “Presence Pause” – a frequent invitation to reflective silence which has value in reading and digesting the text and equally in the practice of coaching and facilitation. This book is deeply about being.
March 2013
How a coach can support their client?
How can the coach support a client in their journey to transform their capability for leadership? Is there an optimum way? To transform ones’ ability is to succeed at something important and strongly desired that appears at the beginning to be out of reach.
There are few things more engaging, more challenging than the archetypal journey of heart, mind and spirit to fulfil potential, a journey at once unique and universal in its intensity.
From the start, the coach has to live willingly with the unfathomable and mostly unseen complexity of both him- or herself, and that of the client. In accepting that we can never know ourselves fully, the coach can allow ‘not-knowing’: a state of stillness which allows powerful curiosity and delight in discovery – a state of being that is most helpful for the client.
A colleague recently reached a turning point in his closest relationships; a turning point towards happiness. At the level of everyday observation - from my standpoint, if you like - it was simply a matter of choice. At a moment in time he consciously enacted a different pattern of behaviour from his usual one. And he felt elated and happy. Big deal?
Yes, for him it was a very big deal indeed. For the very first time in his life – a life full of creative brilliance, wise and compassionate humanity and exceptional achievement - he had overturned a coercive pattern of behaviour that for years beyond memory had crushed him and those near to him with hurt and negative feelings. Yet - in a moment of insight and active choice - he had transformed this emotional burden from dark subjugation to bright leadership… As he said, it was a victory!
At the core of this lies a simple, yet often profoundly challenging, shift - or series of shifts, perhaps - in the perspective and preoccupations of emotional awareness. When leading anything, the inner focus of awareness and curiosity moves beyond the customarily personal (safeguarding of self) towards exploring potential in the self and in others for something new and transformative. A quest through emotionally and practically perceived limitations.
The coach can offer primarily a context, a safe space of trustful and hopeful not-knowing, in which the client can focus upon and follow their own particular quest of self-revelation, intuitive discovery and experiment. Into this the coach can also introduce, collaboratively, questions, processes and tools that the client can choose to learn with. However, the coachhas to suspend their urge to help and to guide, for that invades the ‘sacred’ space of trust and openness so necessary for the client’s personal quest.
Living entails, among many things, creating and embedding patterns – physical, conceptual, emotional, social, etc., etc. that work repetitively to keep us safe and resourceful, reducing demands upon awareness. Conscious awareness is special and consumes energy. With attention, insight and desire, patterns of learning and behaviour can rise to awareness, become adapted and transformed, to become ‘second nature’ when learnt and practiced.
Successful humans are good patternmakers. To lead is, in part, to lay down creative and fruitful patterns in self and in the field of endeavour, that enable people and organisations to engage in patterns of productive enterprise.
A vital part of the transformative process can be to recognise and accept the reality of patterns that no longer serve. This opens opportunities for change which may otherwise remain closed. By accepting completely the current reality of the client, the coach helps to open a non-judgemental space in which the client can fully awaken their own curiosity for self-awareness.