Coaching for Change, How to Unlock what Underlies to Unleash your Potential
Applying Arabic Linguistics in the Transformative Space for Individuals’ and Organisations’ Change Journey
Jul 2, 2020
In the era of VUCA, volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, (W. Bennis, B. Nanus, 1987) individuals and organisations are looking for solutions to the interaction of these elements. In this article, some thoughts are given on how change can be cultivated to thrive in a safe coaching space.
New Lens for Diving into the Ocean of Self
The Mind, Heart, Soul, Body, and Ego are components of our inner system. There are psychodynamics ‘cognitions, behaviors, feelings, emotions’ that interact among them. In Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBC), the focus in the current issues is emotional and logical. To change how we feel about these issues, we have to change how we think of them and vice versa. For example, thinking of the worst when taking risks causes anxiety of the unknown, but shifting the mind to interpret risk as an opportunity can remove fear from the scenario. If we have negative emotions about a person, we will have distorted thinking and biases perceiving about him/her. As a result, our interpretation of their actions and reactions is infected by our inner attitudes, and this affects the lenses through which we see the world. They are linked, and their interconnection colours our life. So, to understand ourselves, CBC looks at three levels of thoughts for self-understanding:
1. Negative automatic thoughts ‘NAT’: these are like an auto-reply, pop-up answers that keep repeating the same theme. They are vital signals and not for judging or projecting, but end with answers or advices, e.g. a client says, 15 minutes into the first session: ‘This isn’t going to work: I don’t feel any better.’
2. Underlying assumptions: these are statements about pre-conditions (e.g., ‘I’m nothing unless I’m loved’);
3. Core Beliefs: these are the source of the other layers, and are shaped in the early learning years (e.g., ‘I’m hopeless’).
Hence, it is important to observe these signals, such as NAT, through words to understand what they mean to the coachee, and how he/she is interpreting ‘their subjective construction of reality’ and how that shapes their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. In the Arabic language, there is an interesting synchronicity between our thinking and our saying. Speak, means ‘nataqa ??????’ and ‘Mantiq ??????’ means diction, enunciation, eloquence, and the other is logic. They both come from the same root, ‘ nutq ????’, pronunciation.
Do you Speak my Language?
Part of what coaching for change is working on is to have an internal conversation, to speak up and to unlock. The aim here is to have alternative viewpoints. Starting with the word, ‘Change’, one of its synonyms is ‘alter.’ If we go back to the dictionary, ‘alter’ is to change in character or composition, typically in a comparatively small but significant way (Oxford). It starts from the beginning, how we interpret the change in a different way. With this view, we are looking wider than a personality into character, and with continuous small improvements or movements. That is what coaching for change does; it is changing without change by revealing a person’s true self, by ‘doing new things,’ making new connections, and retelling our stories.’
Back to the Arabic language. It has twenty-eight letters, with three diacritical marks. There are more than twelve million unique words, and some words have more than three interpretations, depending on the context. The word ‘al-‘Ayn ???????’, for example, has over fifty meanings; the eye, letter ? ‘ain in Arabic, notable, water, fountainhead, money, value, capital asset, an object of material, a man’s outfit, the evil eye, scout, prime of something, mesh, etc.
This rich pool of words enriches a playful mind with a negative capability, not to jump into an answer or a conclusion and to keep reflecting on digging profoundly. That is how the transformative space empowers the coachee to align words, thoughts and actions. What are the words that emerge from the clients? How were they interpreted in their minds? Are there more precise words? And how did they interpret and interact with their inner-system? It is a circle of reflection, becoming larger and wider every time and which can also make the implicit explicit.
The Lack of Opportunities for Change Models
Sometimes, just having the best trainers, top assessments, or most expensive model of change is not the formula for success. In the Arabic context, there are some limitations of depending on psychometrics alone. For example:
- Missed Puzzle: For 720-degree-feedback, there might be critical players among friends and the family who do not speak English, so a big part of the picture will be missing.
- Right to Left brains: Some assessments might give an opposite result depending on if you are doing it in English or Arabic. Could that be because of the influence of writing from right to left, or something else?
- Blind-spot Bias: “Implicit Associations” is an assessment to explore “Blindspot: Hidden Biases” about Arabs and Muslims. The questions are designed to distinguish names that are likely to belong to Arabs and Muslims, rather than people of other nationalities or religions. The names reflect Asian and Muslim names and a few Arabic names. Therefore, the blind-spot was not able to figure out the biases from the beginning.
This is where the Change Agent has a role, in coaching or consulting for being receptive, open, and recognising all the signals and insights. One of the fundamental concepts of The Executive Master in Change is ‘self as an instrument.’ It is the capacity to live the experience in the “here and now” in service of understanding and working with a client’s system. It is about ‘learn how to be and not to do.’
The Bule Oceans of One Self
To be a pioneer leader in the market needs the courage to move beyond just solving problems that we know how to solve, and more than to learn how to solve what we do not know how to solve it. It means to be patient, to observe the unseen, the underlying, and unspoken.
Leaders in the Arabic context can benefit from the ocean of the twelve million words in their mother tongue. It can bring new possibilities and options, and move them from the casual taking of decisions to a vast range of choices. This can lead to new products, design thinking, sustainable and genuine growth. It opens new windows for new models of creativity and innovations.
Individuals and organisations are like a pond of water. If it is disturbed, the soil at the bottom of the pond rises and prevents vision. In the transformative space, safe and brave, they can do nothing, just step away from being busy in business into reflections, calmness, and inward exploration. Initiate an intra-conversation, and now, they can hear themselves and observe their interaction. 'AHA' moments will emerge and evoke the authentic and true self. Hence, words, thoughts, and behaviors will align with their real identity and character in a meaningful way. It could bring a new lens of diversity, that it should place locally to spread it globally.
Starting the Voyage to Change
The mystery in this voyage is that it is digging inwardly, with interconnectivity between the inward and the outward. It starts once you stop thinking of others and take the responsibility to change. In the transformative space, there is no judging, projecting, or blaming. There are mentalizing, empathizing, and an honest intention to support. We all have emotions, and there is no need to mask them. Some research studies[1] ‘have found that between 25 and 50 percent of those seeking coaching have clinically significant levels of anxiety, stress or depression’ and these emotional problems are likely to interfere with coaching.[2]
In conclusion, Coaching for Change is an open transformative and receptive space for rational and emotional points to be heard without judging, criticising, or labeling. In the transformative space, the more the coachee lets go, the more the flow flows. Rumi said: ‘These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.’
[1] Baggini, J. (2009) Should You Judge This Book By Its Cover? 100 Fresh Takes on Familiar Sayings and Quotations. London: Granta.
[2] Dryden, W. (2011) Dealing with Clients’ Emotional Problems in Life Coaching. Hove: Routledge.
References:
(Burke & Noumair, Organization Development: a Process of Learning and Changing 2015)
Ibarra, H. (2004). Working identity: unconventional strategies for reinventing your career. Boston (Mass.): Harvard Business School Press.
Vries, M. F. K. D. (2014). Doing Nothing and Nothing to Do: The Hidden Value of Empty Time and Boredom. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2432964
Kets de Vries, Manfred F. R. (2016). Erik Van De Loo, The art of listening, Coach and couch: the psychology of making better leaders. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pat Le Riche, Practicing Observation in Shadowing: Curriculum Innovation and Learning Outcomes in the BA Social Work – 2005
Marcus Weeks - Heads Up Psychology-DK CHILDREN (2014
Michael Neenan - Cognitive Behavioural Coaching_ Distinctive Features-Routledge (2018)
EQPC 2018
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EQPC (EQ Practitioner Certification) | United Arab Emirates, Dec 2018 | Expired | Jayne Morrison | |
UEQ 2019
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UEQ (Unlocking EQ) | United States, Mar 2019 | Expired | Muhammad Noman |