I’m finding as people get to better understand Intrinsic Coaching® they’re more open to exploring other areas of their life. I have been working with a coachee on a health issue. During one of our conversations the coachee, whom is a main leader in our organization, had a challenging work situation and I said, “If you want, we can coach on that a little and try and help you find a little more clarity and get some better thinking on that. Would you want to do that?” He agreed it would be beneficial. And in that conversation the coachee had some new thinking that came to a relationship between him and his supervisor. As I listened to him, I offered him something I was noticing. It was something as simple as, “It sounds like there’s more there that you’re thinking.” He stopped, thought for a moment and replied, “Yeah.” He went on from there and rea lized he wanted to have a conversation with his supervisor but was apprehensive to. We continued from there and explored what he was wanting until he thought he was at a good place. At that place you could tell there was an ah-ha moment for him when that intrinsic snapped into place and he was seeing things more clearly.
Until recently, I hadn’t seen him for a while. He came in and we were talking about the conversation and he said, “You know, I want to go back and share with you a little bit about what happened.” He continued, “It gave me the courage to have the conversation I needed to have.” He was so grateful for that coaching because he was really able to think more about the situation, gain clarity in what he was wanting and move forward from there. It was neat to hear how valuable the conversation was for him to get clear on that and how it gave him the courage to have a difficult conversation. He even said, “You didn’t judge me, you didn’t tell me I had to do anything.” It was really his conversation, his thinking, his outcome. He owned it.
Listening to him and the conversation we had, I know what an impact it had on the organization and probably the fifty other employees that are going to benefit from him being able to move forward. Taking an Intrinsic Coaching® approach to our conversation proved to be very powerful, both for me and for him.
Stephanie Downs, MS, Intrinsic Coach®
City of Ames, Health Promotion Coordinator
