Developmental Distinctions
I had a recent whole-body insight as I was talking to a colleague about how I tend make a distinction between the Presence-Based Coaching that is a business, and the Presence-Based Coaching that is “the work.” Many of you will recognize this distinction and intertwined expression of growth from our PBC principles of Being and Doing.
There are many challenges that PBC the business is facing these days. The business is operating within a current climate of uncertainty on many levels (economic, political, social, environmental, to name a few). The business is also facing a slew of new coaches putting their shingles out there; I’m referring to those who are not trained in any specific coaching methodology and are entering the field with a statement such as: “Oh, I’ve always coached people.” The business is also witnessing a mass of new coach training businesses coming online post covid, most of which are claiming unrealistic results, such as: “learn coaching in 6 weeks and earn a six-figure income.”
In response to these contextual changes, PBC the business has updated our website to be clearer about what we offer while refreshing it’s look and feel; we are upping our social media messaging and overall marketing game; we are offering no interest payment plans to our participants. These all fall into what we might call Doing level challenges and solutions. This is how our current business environment is unfolding and what we are (ahem) “doing” to respond to these new conditions on the ground.
I can tease out this Doing level from how I view the “work” of PBC. The inner change work we teach to our coaches and offer to our clients is the Being level of PBC.
The work is located inside us: who we are learning to be as coaching practitioners that supports our clients to meet their coaching goals through their own Being.
What I saw in that moment of insight was a new perspective emerge before my very eyes. That Presence-Based Coaching itself has embodied these Being and Doing levels — as a business container (Doing) that holds the “work” of PBC (Being). This may seem obvious to you who know our work, yet it was a revelation to me in terms of the changing and challenging environments in which we now operate. And this new view sparked a fresh perception of how to hold what’s happening now, and a new understanding how to approach and work with it.
Further, I got a felt sense of the resiliency of the work of PBC, the Being level. In particular, what is happening in the Doing level may feel overwhelming and out of control, but what’s called for in the Being level of the PBC work itself is actually the catalyst for our individual and collective growth. For the work’s continued evolution as it moves with the challenges on the Doing level. An invitation to evolve to meet these challenges. That feels like a resourced and positive opportunity, rather than an overwhelming one. It’s the good kind of stretch that we ask our clients to face – somewhat edgy, yet with it a sense of rightness and inner feel of knowing, even certainty that this is what’s next for me. Not about the details of what needs to grow, but that the work itself needs its own kind of development.
And of course, the PBC work itself has always been iterative, and has evolved from the emerging interests of the founder and faculty, and from the students who come to learn about coaching, who offer their ideas about what else is needed. I have made it a practice to listen carefully to this feedback loop, which interestingly includes the land we are honored to teach on and with, as well as help steward. It is this sense of place that supported this work’s birth in the first place and that continues to hold our work of inner change and development.
The impact that we ultimately embody is based in both levels of development, the Being and the Doing, the inner and outer focus. It is these inexplicably linked threads of DNA of development that shepherds the growth of us as coaches and as humans, and of PBC itself. Both the coach and the client sit at the edges of their own and each other’s development where these developmental distinctions are at play. Both of these strands of interwoven wholeness need attention if there is to be real transformational change. Not only change in broadening skillsets (the horizontal) but freedom from limiting mindsets with an overall approach that includes presence, healing from outgrown patterns, and a big picture worldview of care and service (the vertical).
What’s needed now, especially these days, is paying attention to both the Being and Doing levels, our inherent love for the aliveness of this PBC work, with perhaps now, an added emphasis on where the work itself wants to go and grow.
We have long talked about the different tracks that make up our Presence-Based Coaching and Leadership training. I’m speaking here of two concurrent paths of development that take place in parallel. One journey is about the “Doing” as a coach or leader. This refers to the process of learning the specific skills, mindsets, and competencies in order to deliver a coaching or leadership conversation to a client or team that is competent and effective. The second journey is about the “Being” of a coach or leader. This involves practicing the cultivation of your own presence as a practitioner, as well as supporting your clients or team to become more present as well.
We have discovered over the years that both of these journeys of Doing and Being are inextricably linked and mutually reinforcing. They occur simultaneously, even though one aspect might be focused on at any one time. Picture the double-helix strand of DNA
For example, in the journey of Doing, we (and our clients and teams) may begin to realize that we have some default strategies, patterns and behaviors in life, and in work. These are what we call habits, and they have served us well so far…until they don’t! These automatic ways of interpreting our world are often what is driving our coaching or leadership moves underneath the water line. We may notice that these habits are not always the most effective response to the situation at hand. We may sometimes find ourselves in reaction, feeling triggered by something that’s occurring outside of us. These reactions can push us to take less than skillful actions, that we may even regret later. Think sending that email in anger to a colleague without cooling off a bit first.
Over time, there are many milestones and certifications along the way that indicate a certain level of mastery has been achieved in both journeys. These milestones are often awarded to us as coaches, based on a demonstration of our abilities that meet the client’s needs around their stated coaching outcomes. And as leaders, we are rewarded for leading functional teams that produce important organizational results.
I consider both journeys to be lifelong. There is really not a final destination to developing your skills and your presence. I’m using the “and” here intentionally. Both tracks are significant, and often most powerful when coupled together. Especially in these times, let’s continue to grow both our Doing and our Being. We can offer our presence and share the gifts that we’ve been given. And from that place, as Doug used to say, we can “do the work that’s ours to do.”
