What is a Clarity Coach, Anyway?
| Let’s start with Life Coaching. LIfe coaching gets plenty of time in the press. Articles like this one on Forbes.com or this one on lifehack.com outline the benefits and considerations of working with a coach. Articles about coaching appear in the New York Times and other newspapers. Life coaching even shows up in popular culture sometimes. Even Cookie Monster takes a turn in the coach’s chair. In an ad campaign a few years ago, a hapless man acquires a football helmet life coach who yells and badgers him. The sandwich company responsible for the ad concludes that you don’t need a life coach. You simply need one of their sandwiches. This represents a major misunderstanding about the role of a coach. It can be very confusing. What is the role of a coach? How does coaching work? And who needs a coach? I’m glad you asked. Here are a few quick reflections on these questions. |
| I love this video from PBS. Cookie Monster sits in the role of Life Coach while his clients present their challenges. As the conversation unfolds, it inevitably turns to…cookies. There is wisdom to be found in this discussion of the delicious, the precious and the rare in life. |
What is the Role of a Clarity Coach?
Coaching is defined by the International Coach Federation (the body who issued and oversees my accreditation) as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.
The role of the coach is to be a great partner. As a Clarity coach, I bring my skills of listening, pattern recognition, strategic thinking and communication into the partnership. I invest myself in being fully present with my client. The client brings their questions, their challenges, and opportunities and a deep curiosity about what’s possible. Together, we design the clarity that will move the client into action in order to create the desired transformation, to achieve the desired outcomes.
How Does Clarity Coaching Work?
In life, we take actions to get new results. Sometimes that doesn’t work and we don’t get the result we wanted. So we dust ourselves off and try a different action but we arrive at the same result. What is the reason for this frustrating cycle?
We get the same result because of a fundamental driver for our outcomes–the observer that we are. As an observer of our own life, we use habits of language, emotion, and body to understand what we experience and to decide what we believe is possible.
In Clarity Coaching, we work together to challenge those often hidden elements of our way of seeing the world to shift perspective. When that shift happens, new possibilities become clear. Together, we design experiments and tasks to take advantage of what is now available.
Using the Clarity Design Cycle™, we move through a process that opens up possibilities, allows us to prototype solutions, and analyze the results.
My clients have access to a framework of principles for transformation called the Prospects of Possiblity™. These principles allow us to discover new insights, explore new learning and create new possibilities in our lives.
Who Needs a Clarity Coach?
Everyone. We all have seasons of uncertainty, decision, transition or restlessness. That is a fruitful time to work with a coach.
Here are some of the ways that my clients benefit from Clarity Coaching
- Double Decade Club: Many of my clients are looking to create a stunning crescendo of their career. We want to make the most of our last years in the work world, to take advantage of the wisdom and skills we learned in order to create a legacy of personal, meaningful success. If you feel as though you have done everything right but that the success you’ve achieved just doesn’t feel personally fulfilling, Clarity Coaching is an essential component of path from the impersonal here to the meaningful there.
- Entrepreneurs: We become business owners so that we can navigate our own ship. Clarity is essential to avoid the reefs and treacherous shoals. As an entrepreneur, you are your business. Working with a coach can help you to maximize your potential and avoid unnecessary pitfalls. This is particularly helpful if your business is moving from one phase to another–startup, grow, sustain, prepare to sell.
- Times of Transition: You may provoke a transition (“I’m ready for a change–let’s go on an adventure.”). A transition may be necessary (“I’ve had enough. I must make a change.) Or a transition may be thrust upon you (“How did I get here? And what am I going to do now?”). All of these forms of transition require support. You will experience uncertainty and discomfort. You are also on the path to learning, growth, and transformation. Working with a Clarity Coach can help you to make the smoothest, most elegant transition. We can help you find your personal target and hit it.