Two Tools Are Better Than One: Mindfulness and Developmental Coaching for Leaders

Through developmental coaching, an increasing clarity into meaning-making systems develops as the coach probes for entry points or doorways into the client’s view of her world—including  thoughts, feelings, emotions, bodily sensations, core values, and sense of identity—which allow the client to begin to identify the stories she has adopted (Garvey Berger, 2012). In this way, viewing her world and the choices available to her from a larger perspective, reveals the possibility of becoming something today’s leaders dealing with increasing complexity need to be—“self-authoring” (Coughlin, 2015). The leverage provided by combining mindfulness meditation practice and developmental coaching facilitates movement from the socialized self that is subject to the opinions and desires of others, to the self-authoring self as the client begins to recognize her own self-authoring voice (Garvey Berger, p. 22).

To push the metaphor a bit further, in moving beyond the self-authored form of mind toward the self-transformational form of mind for example, mindfulness could be seen as the lever arm and developmental coaching as the fulcrum; when coach and client are fully invested in the coaching relationship and committed to a practice of mindfulness meditation, they accelerate insight from a bigger lens perspective. Thus, mindfulness, at whatever structure of mind the client is in, cultivates increasing familiarity with her inner narrative and reveals the extent to which it is habitual, scattered, and discursive. Concurrently, developmental coaching invites the client to explore her “growth edge”—the space where she reaches the edge of her current meaning-making capacity (Garvey Berger, p. 74)—and question the assumptions and potential blind spots hidden within that narrative.

The ability to direct and sustain one’s own attention, together with inquisitive introspection, begins to loosen fixed mindsets, enhancing self-awareness and self-knowledge and creating fertile ground for transformative growth. The collaborative effort between coach and client can trigger fresh perspectives for both and foster openness to further assimilating self-awareness and self-knowledge.