I spent the last couple of weeks working with leaders from two multinational companies.
As usual, I learned as much from them as they learned from working with me.
It’s a constant dance. Together, we co-create meaning, insights and actions – often leading to powerful lightbulb moments.
Neither leadership nor coaching is something we learn from a book. Nobody learns to swim on dry land – at some point, we have to jump in the water. We must cross a threshold. There’s a paradox in that we won’t feel “ready” for it until we have done it. It comes down to a leap of faith.
We experiment. We experience. We reflect and make sense of things. From this we learn and experiment some more. And so the cycle continues.
In other words, we continually learn by doing.
It’s called the Experiential Learning Cycle, first described in the 1980s by the American psychologist David Kolb. It’s how we learn. And it’s probably why we can’t remember much of what we learned at school!
So what did I learn in the past two weeks?
I learned to trust things to become clear in the moment, despite not knowing everything that there is to know. Because I never will.
Even if I memorised a whole library of books on coaching and leadership, it would make no difference to that moment.
Because when we approach the dance of co-creation with a curious learning mindset, everything will become clear as the moment unfolds.
Because I am good enough, and so are you. We are learning, and learning never ends. A perpetual cycle of doing and sense-making.
The journey continues…
(Obligatory learning pic attached, about to be trashed by a wave!)
True Horizon Coaching 