Coaching to Save Lives

Ever since I was little, I have been in awe of my dad’s work. It is not his profession that dazzles me as much as his way of doing it. I grew up watching him save lives. He could ‘literally’ save the lives of people because he had invested his own life’s peak years to master a skill that enabled him to do so (he is a surgeon). But that was only on the surface. He has been saving the lives of people because he is an empathetic human being who knows how to connect to the pain and suffering of people and find ways to ease it for them, and he knows how to support people in ways that they can grow.

As I progressed on this coaching journey, I started to feel this sense of joy and relief, because I feel I have discovered yet another way of saving lives.

Coaching facilitates life-enhancing change in people, and that change can be lifesaving. Some people feel unhappy and suffocated in their life situations or work environments and are unable to see the problems or how to get out of them. Some people feel paralyzed, trapped, and lost due to crippling emotions such as fear, doubt, guilt, and insecurity. Some people are unable to recognize their true worth and potential. Coaching conversations can enable awareness, a diagnosis, that something in their lives is not quite right. And when there is diagnosis, the motivation to find the cure only gets stronger.

This process of finding the cure comes in small steps and requires patience and consistency. The brilliant inventor and futurist Buckminster Fuller provided a metaphor to understand how big transformation a result of many small changes is, known as the “trim tab” principle. A “trim tab” is a small, 15 cm wide strip of metal attached to a ship’s rudder. It is this tiny sliver of metal that is responsible for stabilizing and guiding large ships. A small shift that leads to a big transformation. An individual can also enable vast changes in his life by making just small shifts and it is the awareness of these small shifts that makes all the difference. The coach helps the client identify these small but powerful changes that can enable big meaningful transformations.

Coaches can be helpful ‘healers’ on such a journey by showing compassion, genuine care, and trust in their clients, giving them the energy and motivation to move forward and find remedies to their pains and problems. The medicine, in this case, is the different tactics, behaviors, and beliefs that the coach progresses the client towards.

While I have been on this journey to be a coach, I have thought about it again and again from this lens, coaching as a way of saving lives. Perhaps inspired by my father, informed by my life events, and fuelled by my natural desire to connect with others in meaningful ways. I have started to believe that there was always a coach in me, and that belief gives me a profound sense of confidence and joy.

Author - Mehreen Ovais