International Coach Federation

What does creativity have to do with coaching?

 

Is it about creative people coaching others, coaching creative people or is there more to it?

Coaching has the ability of making visible the invisible. It helps navigate the fog to reveal the essence and what might be really important. It filters the noises to make the melody clear, or, if you prefer, it helps to go through the thickness of the trees to get to that space of understanding and clarity the client is looking for.

“The ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form”, this is not the definition of coaching, but one of the definitions of creativity. Sound familiar?

Some people have powerful imaginations and use vibrant images as they describe things.

As coaches we support our clients to navigate their situations, reveal what’s relevant, look from different perspectives, see things with new eyes, create a new story, have new hopes and energy emerge, and make new connections.

We do this by offering space for the client to explore.

When we think of space we might think of a white endless open space with no boundaries. Our client might see their situation as a shape with boundaries that constrain the movement inside.

As coaches we’ll ask questions and look at that shape, we may notice boundaries / edges and look at it from inside, we might move outside, we might push the walls down and go beyond, we might consider a different furniture, more windows, new colours, clients might realize that who is around them might see that shape as a cube or a cylinder or even as an irregular blob.

Of course we might come to understand that for a client a shape may not be important. We might decide that it’s too constraining or too broad and all they need is a different brush to paint with or find a horse or rocket ship to completely change the setting and the perspective.

Helping clients to explore their space opens possibilities. 

Is the space as you want it to be? If the space was ‘just right’ what would be different? What would you notice?

A client might not use all this figurative language, however what we described as part of the interaction with the space is core to what we do as coaches. And this process is naturally very creative. 

It’s creative in the way we adapt to our client’s language and way of thinking and processing. Adaptability, so strongly developed in coaching, is in fact creativity.

Enhancing visual language, playing with the images and metaphors used by the client, the way they move in the physical space, creativity finds many ways to connect to coaching. 

Think about how you take notes - have you ever drawn a star, a smile, an arrow? Well then, you, coach, are indeed creative!

We believe that the link between coaching and creativity is constant. It’s ever present and the more awareness you can bring to this the more impact you can create for your clients.

 

Would you like to experiment and explore with us a bit more of this creativity you already have?

Here is a chance to:

 

author: Federica Bosk


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