Gaining Perspective

I was at a recent local chapter coaching event where again I had reinforced for me the concept of “gaining perspective”.  The session itself introduced to those present a coaching model that many of us had not seen before.  It included seven different chairs, each with a label as to a role a coach might take on when working with and questioning their client.  The purpose of the presentation was to make the coaches who both participated in the demonstration of the model or observed the session using it, to be aware of whom we are, in the moment, when we are working with our clients.  Additionally, who we are often changes depending on the responses the client has provided to us and what they may need from us as their coach in that moment.
The session, while educational and eye opening for the coach, was also one of gaining perspective for our client.  Her previous exposure to coaching had been to help support the development and growth of her staff.  She herself had never previously been a coaching client.  However, she had a situation in her life involving her business where she was encouraged that through coaching she might gain some new insights in terms of getting answers to what was troubling her.  She definitely came to the session ready to explore possible suggestions and to move forward with some new possibilities to address the situation that was causing a dilemma for her.
At the completion of the 45 minute session both the client and coaches present gained insights that they did not have previously.  For the client, she realized that one of the things that had been holding her back in making a decision was her pride in having been the top office for her company in instituting new technologies and methods in the past.  A new application was once again being introduced, and while she had quickly taken to it to learn how it worked and how it would make business run more effectively, she was concerned that her staff would not see the same benefit.  The coaches present gained perspectives of where their thought process may go during a coaching session, and how in doing so they struggle with the battle of staying present on the client’s agenda, while at the same time not making the session be about their own agenda.
For me, the largest lesson that came from the evening was one of how perspectives can often remain hidden until we allow for thoughts to come out of our own head and out in the open.   Bringing thoughts out in the open, while often make an individual feel vulnerable, can also be very liberating.  Perhaps bringing those thoughts out can happen in a one on one non-judgmental session with a coach.  It is also possible to do so through a friend or acquaintance that is willing to question you “strategically”.  When I say strategically, if that friend can ask you questions that begin with the word, “WHAT”, get you answering and talking outside of your head, more through your body, and especially most of all from your heart, that is when new perspectives are gained.  If you find that you are by yourself, or are not so willing to share openly in a conversation with another, try asking yourself questions beginning with the word “What”, and write down your answers.  By writing your answers down either to paper, or recording them onto your computer, you are bringing those thoughts out of your head and into the open so as to investigate what may be at the heart of what you are trying to get past.
The thoughts that go through our mind are with us constantly.  Many are actually unconscious to us (often as many as 98% of them), in the ways we act go about our day to day lives.  Others, while being developed from our conscious action, still are only internally with us if they get no further than our mind and not into action.  It is in the true sharing of our thoughts, the forming of them to convey to others in verbal or written expression, where we often gain the perspective of why we believe the way we do and gain the knowledge to take the actions which truly address what it is we choose to do.