Our form of mind plays a role in each of our impressions and decisions, which of course means that giving thought to a client's form of mind can improve a coach's ability to be helpful. Most coaches have a style and approach that are better suited to some forms of mind than others.
No matter what approach a coach might take--a targeted approach or a psychologically spacious approach, it can be helpful to understand the various forms of mind the client might have, the benefits of coaching that client might experience, and the particular coaching challenges the pair might face together. With this focus, a coach and a client can together explore the client's growth edge, that space where the client reaches the edge of her current capacities. With a focus on that edge, the coach and the client can create more powerful and helpful working relationships.
Coaching and the Self-Sovereign Mind
The collaboration between a leader who sees the world through a self-sovereign form of mind and a coach can be both difficult and extraordinarily rewarding. Those who see the world mostly through their self-sovereign form of mind can bring an unusual level of clarity and certainty about what needs to happen next. Because ideas of cause and effect are so tightly drawn, these leaders are unaffected by the nuances that might concern others.
The key thing to remember about the self-sovereign mind is that its focus may seem narrow: on what that person experiences or thinks directly. This person can have control over his own impulses and desires, which means that he can see them without acting on them. He cannot gain a distance on his own psychology or, for that matter, anyone else's.
This means that people with this mind can seem unreflective; in fact, in many ways they do not reflect, because they cannot gain enough distance from their own thinking in order to reflect upon it.
People with self-sovereign minds may be among the most difficult coaching clients. Most coaching strategies are developed for those who have socialized or self-authored minds; a coach might try strategy after strategy and find that they all fall flat. Yet, because of the demands of the modern adult world ask for sensemaking beyond the self-sovereign mind, developmental coaching is an important and valuable gift for these clients. The most helpful skills are those that support the client in taking on new perspectives.
The major developmental challenge for a person with a self-sovereign mind is to get a window into his own mind and emotions---and then to use that window to begin to imagine the inner workings of others.
Change your mind before trying to change others.
It might be that one of the most important minds to change about what is possible during a coaching conversation is the coach's mind. For example, if a client seems captured inside her own perspective, a coach might want to get her to take the perspective of an important other. A developmentally appropriate task might be to get the client to take notes--capturing direct quotes when possible--about what the other person actually says. Then, with the coach, the client can begin to piece together the alternative perspective.
Jennifer Garvey Berger: Changing on the Job: Developing Leaders for a Complex World
John Agno: Can't Get Enough Leadership: Book Notes & Coaching Tips