So much of what we do in the coaching field is centered around our outward actions and the techniques we use with our clients. Today’s show, however, turns the focus inward on you: the coach. We’re taking an honest look at the internal aspects of what we know about ourselves.
Dr. Pamela McLean is CEO and Co-founder of The Hudson Institute of Coaching, which is known as one of the leading coach training organizations in the US over the last 30 years. Pamela is the author of two dynamic books, The Completely Revised Handbook of Coaching (2012) and Self as Coach, Self as Leader (2019), which is the focus of our conversation today. We’re taking a deep dive into the internal landscape of the coach, as it’s important for us to look inward as coaches by managing our experiences and our concept of the world. We’ll be discussing Pamela’s Six Dimensions of Self as Coach and the valuable concepts we can use in our work with leaders.
Show Highlights:
- How Pamela came into the field of coaching because of her late husband, Frederick Hudson
- Why she co-founded The Hudson Institute
- Why Pamela wrote a book on the internal landscape of a coach
- The importance of knowing who you are as a coach
- How Pamela built the framework for the book, highlighting skills-based competencies
- The roles that story and script play in the coaching framework
- The concept of using self as an instrument
- The way Pamela learned to slow down to partner with her husband during his bout with Alzheimer’s
- Finding ways to connect with the client–at their speed
- The role of coach supervision
- The Six Dimensions of Self as Coach:
- Presence
- Empathy
- Feelings
- Boundaries and systems
- Embodiment
- Courage
- How a coach can find their center and their calibration
- How to stay in your own “garden”
- Why it takes the other five dimensions to support us in being courageous
- The responsibility of coaches to have a basic understanding of psychological dimensions
- The beauty that is the complications of human beings and the sacred space of coaching
Resources:
The Completely Revised Handbook of Coaching (2012) by Dr. Pamela McLean