Coaching Metaphor Sponges

Coaching Metaphor by Fabian Buckley Sponges 

Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera meaning pore bearer, are a basal Metazoa animal clade as a sister of the Diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive, or circulatory systems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes. (Cited Wikipedia)

A sea sponge living and dead both serve a purpose during its life span on earth and I will explain both functions briefly as my metaphor for coaching.

A living sponge as explained above is a living creature that is very versatile and can adapt and evolve to its environment and needs. As a coach, we are required to be like this in order to get the best results from the coachee’s journey, by changing when we are required and versatile to know which coaching tools to use in different circumstances in order to nudge the coachee into finding the solutions on their own. They also do not have a nervous system and this also represents the coach's ability to stop our human tendencies which many a time gets in the way of our non-judgmental, problem solver, and feeling responsible during our coaching sessions with our coachees.

The pores are the spaces that the coachee has which are sacred and should be allowed to expand when required and at times stretch them when they require to be stretched to help them grow. We also know not to stretch them too much or we could break them as some coachees are more fragile than others, so we have to know our boundaries and stay within those agreed contract settings and ensure we maintain confidentiality or they will not trust us as their coaches.

Keeping a constant water flow, bringing with it food, oxygen and in the process of removing waste, a coach needs to keep a constant flow of powerful questions, raising the awareness of the coachee so they can focus on the areas where they need to work on within their journey and removing certain obstacles or barriers in their lives in the form of waste.  

A dead sponge unlike many other living creatures has multiple uses, and can still serve an important role. This is a continuation of this relationship between the coach and their coachee.  The task of a coach is to help the coachee absorb as much of what they want to achieve through the process of slightly squeezing them so they can absorb more of what they trying to gain in the form of a liquid.

The coachee comes to us dry with their expectations to grow, reach their potential, and come empty.

We don't do the work for them as this is their responsibility and we as the coach cannot absorb anything for them, they have to do this on their own. We place them in the liquid which is their goal and we slowly squeeze them by asking them powerful questions.

If we squeeze them too hard, we can damage the sponge, which is something that we as coaches do not want to do. We squeeze them too soft and they lose very little liquid at a time which means they grow but very slowly.

We have to be careful to ensure the sponge stays as germ-free as possible to ensure they don't attract germs through their learning process. I can imagine watching the sponge growing as we introduce more clean water to them and watch them expand to their full potential. If we don't keep squeezing them, they will have stagnant water inside of them and they will get mildew inside and outside of themselves.

This is why it's our function to ensure enough pressure is kept on them to ensure constant progress through each coaching session and follow-up session with them.

This takes out all the efforts which we have worked with them over their coaching sessions and removes the valuable time and efforts which they have put into themselves.

We want them to achieve their greatest potential and absorb as much greatness as possible.

Let us allow our exceptional sponges to grow to their full potential, that they can become both living and later dead sponges serving a purpose even in death, as they still function in their own productive ways.

Their "death" is not the end and merely a new purpose by serving others in need, to possibly become a coach to others, cleaning and helping others remove the mess and dirt within other's lives, to become the shiny and clean utensil they can be in the world.

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