Our clients (and we as professional coaches) must be thinkers and feelers. They (and we) must be attuned to sensations and the accompanying sense of reality; while also being attuned to an intuitive side and the accompanying sense of both history and vision. Our clients and we as professional coaches must acknowledge both feminine (anima) and masculine (animus) sources of energy, while honoring the power and guidance provided by the primal (archetypal) images inherent in our societal and collective unconscious.
The Ironic Dynamics in Contemporary Leadership
To illustrate the brief analysis I have just offered, I will provide two brief case studies of clients with whom I have worked as a coach in recent years. Both of these client/leaders have had to come to terms with specific ironic conditions in their own lives as leaders (and as human beings).
Kristen
The first leader, whom I will call Kristen, serves as senior vice president and regional director of a major health care system operating in the United States. I will call this system, HealthForce. Kristen is operating in a very conservative system that has recently faced the challenge of major change and reform (as do all health care system in the United States during this decade). Over the past fifteen years Kristen has been a force for change at Healthforce (the irony associated with the name of the organization does not go unnoticed by Kristen). Yet, to have much of an influence in Healthforce, Kristen has also served as an effective administrator and as a force for coherence and stability inside her region. She is greatly admired and supported by the CEO and COO of Healthforce (and still is the only woman operating in a senior vice president role in this system).
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