THE LIFE LAB
Trigger point
Coaching in action
In their final session together, the award-winning coach Kim Morgan learns a lesson in empathy versus objectivity, as she guides her client Jackie* towards a life of more meaning
Session three...
After the previous session I’d had with Jackie, I met with my coaching supervisor. Jackie’s announcement of her big, life-changing plans had thrown me, and I had lost my objectivity and the non-judgemental approach that a coach should have. My supervisor asked me just one question: ‘What part of you, or your own history, was triggered when you heard Jackie’s plan?’ The question stopped me in my tracks. Until that point, I hadn’t made the obvious connection with an impetuous decision I had made years ago, which hadn’t turned out well.
IMAGES: GETTY IMAGES; SHUTTERSTOCK. * NAME HAS BEEN CHANGED
My supervisor then gave me two questions to reflect on in my own time:
● If you could go back in time and erase that experience, would you?
● What have you learned because of that experience?