So far this year I have worked with school teachers, corporate managers and first-time geospatial leaders. And they all have something in common.
They already have the capacity to lead and to coach – they just don’t know it yet.
Because their head is getting in the way.
Much of my work as a coach and facilitator is about providing a calm and reassuring presence. It opens a space for you to tap into your own resources. This person-centred approach is at the heart of everything I do.
In the words of Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge, it allows you to “step into your own greatness.”
There is just one problem.
Ever since the 18th century heralded the age of rational thought, we have neglected an important part of our human intelligence. As the neuroscientist and psychiatrist Ian McGilchrist famously wrote, Western societies have become overly dominated by left-brain analytical modes of thinking.
And this is precisely what’s getting in the way: our tendency to over-intellectualise everything.
I know it from personal experience. As a former PhD geoscientist I’ve spent my life living in my head. Most of us do. It wasn’t until I trained as a coach that I had to reacquaint myself with the wisdom held in the rest of my body.
Our bodies have developed an extraordinary power honed over a lifetime of experiences and millennia of evolution. They hold our senses, our gut instinct, our lived experience, our embodied wisdom. It’s the kind of tacit knowledge that allows carpenters to think with their hands.
Therefore my role as a coach and facilitator is to not to help you get smarter. Your brain is smart enough as it is.
It’s about creating the space for you to see and trust yourself – your instincts, your hidden skills, your ability to connect with others, your capacity to figure things out as you go along.
Because, like a tree in a forest, you are already good enough as you are.
You just need the space to grow, so you can step into your own greatness.
Thank you for reading. Like all my posts, I wrote this post without AI.
True Horizon Coaching 