Presence-Based Coaching: Cultivating Self-Generative Leaders Through Mind, Body, and Heart

As leaders, we tend to move to the level of our training, of our practice. It’s not cerebral knowledge of what we should do that drives our actions in a crunch situation; it’s what we’ve embodied through practice and repetition.8 When we practice a habit, that’s what we come, more and more, to embody. When we practice a new behavior, first it becom

this identity-based narrative, part of his habit, fuels his sense of being overwhelmed.

THE PRODUCTS OF COACHING • Observable competency in fulfilling commitments • The capacity for self-generation • The experience of greater aliveness

That’s the work. Moment by moment. Over and over. And one day you’ll look up and see that you’re really different. That your relationship with the difficult environment has changed. It hasn’t changed. You have. The coach is orienting Carly to a purpose, a desirable future state.

“Touch your heart,” “Center,” and “Notice what’s going on with you right now” are simple and powerful reminders

Now, tell me, in that centered body, what is your request of Gary? Notice that the coach is working back and forth from somatic awareness to the external context, and that Carly’s body is a constant source of information about the situation and her response to it.

We understand life’s challenges as our personal curriculum;

what happens in you that you stop seeing the support you do have?

COACH: Carly, you’ve practiced accessing your heart. Take a moment to touch your heart and feel it. CARLY: (taking a few moments to touch, and feel, her heart, and to feel how things are different) I’m peaceful, calmer. When I touch my heart, I feel different, more relaxed. I feel more acceptance of Gary. COACH: That’s great. How is this helpful to