Let’s embrace!

The contours are becoming clearer

I have done a lot of cognitive coaching in my time.  The hardest first step was being able to listen.  This came in three stages: just keeping my mouth shut and letting the coachee freely respond to key questions.  Second was extinguishing the impulses I had to share my own experiences, or to follow my agenda not theirs.  The third was to notice things in them that were new to me and, to my surprise, found my own interior life reacting and modifying itself so that the connection between us deepened – things I noticed increased my own depth of knowing and connection.

I had already begun to say to people that coaching was at least as valuable to the coach as to the coachee.  Finally, I came to the view that I would continue to develop and deepen my knowing and understanding if I listened this way in other interactions, not just formal coaching ones.

As we have uncovered  the secrets of Constructive Mutualism we find the same mechanisms at play.  The same core capacities: Insight, Getting things done, Caring and Active Open-Mindedness.  With psychological safety being at the heart, providing the deep connection between both participants.

A knew being be opening up before us.  Let’s embrace it!

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation.  At the core of this work is the concept and practice of providing psychological safety and unfeigned lover through operating from the Constructive Mutualist rather than the Behaviourist paradigm.  Earlier blogs can be found here.