Reflecting on our coaching practice activities of the last couple of days at our MSLOC 451 onsite, I was so grateful to feel a tad more comfortable and mindful as a coach. My team met with a non-profit Executive Director for a brainstorming session to approach the challenges in his organization. It looked to be an emotionally complex meeting, and our team did not exactly know what to expect. When sitting down as part of our team’s and client’s circle, I made the conscious effort to sit in a way that would signal non-verbally that I was open and ready to listen (e.g., no crossed legs or arms, etc.). I meant to do this to non-verbally communicate my openness to the client but noticed immediately how much easier my open posture made it for me to actively listen. Low and behold, curious questions did come to me with ease and I was more comfortable and tuned into a conversation as I have ever been! It felt like the questions flowed from my “being” and not my “doing.”
After the meeting, I was thinking about the client and what he shared with us, and thought of various questions that I was sad not to have asked. These were questions appearing to come from my intuition and would have challenged the client’s thinking. How can learn to follow my intuition quicker? I started to explore the intuition chapter in Kimsey-House’s Coactive Coaching and read that there is a natural tendency to hold back and first analyze and validate what intuition tells us. Unfortunately, by the time we analyze and validate, the conversation moved on and the opportunity passed. “Intution is like a small flash of light that is already beginning to fade as soon as it appears. (Kimsey-House, et al., 2018)” The advice was for coaches to be willing to risk and jump with their intuition. My plan is to lean into myself to better notice flashes of intuition as they come. One day, as I become more experienced, I commit to take the risk and jump with my intuition.
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