From a polystatic perspective, the error-detection signals we generate in our body provide a somatic level (and Emotional) corrective to the cognitively based appraisal. It is important to keep in mind, as professional coaches, that a critical role is played by the amygdala. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that the amygdala may rely on the valence (intentions) of the person or event creating change in the environment, as well as the person’s or event’s strength and level of activity. Detected changes may lead one to conclude that good, strong, and active things are happening in one’s environment. At the psychosocial level, we adjust our planned actions based on predictions and anticipations regarding the probable success of these actions. The Cognitive Element of the polystatic process is engaged (operating primarily in the prefrontal cortex).
Heuristics, Appreciation, and Coaching
As a professional coach, we can help our client reflect on their assumptions, avoid “knee-jerk” heuristics, and slow down their thinking. This assistance is particularly important as it focuses on the function of anticipation, which serves as the backbone of the polystatic process. Human beings live not in the current moment but in the moment that is anticipated in the immediate future. We must “lean into the future” as we navigate our world, and we must “learn into the future.” The three domains of anticipation (behavior, cognition, and emotions) are all available to the influential work of a professional coach as they help their client lean and learn into their immediate future. Both energy and information are brought to the fore through the coaching of anticipation.
The concept of Appreciation emerged during the early years of this century in association with a positive psychological perspective. As related to the process of anticipation, an appreciative perspective refers, first, to the assumption that our body is always accurate in response to anticipation; it is our mind that messes things up. Rather than try to change our body (though the injection of a mood-altering drug), we must change our mind by focusing on our behavior, our cognition and/or the emotions that produce or are influenced by our behavior and thoughts (cognition).
We are leaning and learning into the future when we make accurate anticipations of the near future, which enables our body to be effective in doing what it is supposed to do. Appreciation refers, secondly, to the identification and full appreciation of an appropriate and valid anticipation that leads to an adaptive response. We “catch ourselves getting it right” rather than dwelling on the times when our anticipation is inaccurate. As a coach, we should help our client identify and appreciate the moments when they got their anticipation right.
As professional coaches, we should keep in mind that our body and mind together produce emotions (the primary energizing agency). Furthermore, we rely on our psychosocial template to generate information (the second critical agency). This information, in turn, helps us validate and/or modify our emotions. Professional coaches can assist their clients in identifying and tracing out the nature of their emotional reactions to specific settings and specific actions they have taken. While emotions come from our past and linger in our present-day psyche, they can provide invaluable guidance regarding the most desirable state of our near future. With our assistance, a coaching client can “feel” into their future, accompanying their leaning and learning into this future.
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