What Influences Me and My Coaching by Charles Abelmann

Reflections on My Executive Coaching?

????????????Some executive coaching clients ask what influences me as a coach. I often share my experience working with a coach when at the World Bank and when managing the coaching practice at the World Bank. I saw how it helped me and others reach their goals through reflection. In my own coaching work, I keep seeing how reflection and new awareness help my clients achieve a goal for a session or make progress toward the larger goals they have set. There is something powerful that can be accomplished when there is trust based on unconditional positive regard for the client. Questioning for insight is powerful.??I hold back on my views unless asked or unless I ask the client if I can share a perspective. I am careful to name when I shift from being a coach to possibly advising. It is also critical in coaching not to ask leading questions and create the space for the client to reveal what they see as important to them.??

????????????I was fortunate to have the time to reflect on my leadership positions while working toward my BCC and ICF certifications for executive coaching. I did extensive coaching and also benefitted from working with a diverse range of coaches. During this time, I also went back to read some of the works I had read in graduate school with a new perspective. I went back to the work of Donald?Sch?n which had influenced some of my early work on understanding educators views on accountability and also influenced the work I did at the World Bank on leadership development.??His work and that of Ronald Heifetz I often used when I led of private and public schools to support adult learning associated with change processes.??I also have been influenced by the work of Martin Seligman and positive psychology by focusing on making the most of strengths. Sch?n worked closely with Chris Argis as a colleague at MIT. They are known for their work on double-loop learning and reflection-in-action. Sch?n was trained as philosopher and his own doctoral work was on John Dewey and pragmatism. Dewey and his wife Alice started the Laboratory Schools at the University of Chicago where I was the Director and he is well known for the phrase “learning by doing.”??Dewey also valued reflection as part of the learning cycle. I have always been interested in Dewey and the tenets of progressive education and see relevance to coaching.??My own 4th?grade science grade teacher, Roger Fenn, attended the Lab School in 1900 when Dewey was experimenting with hands-on education. Fenn was careful to let us discover answers by the experiences he created and the questions he asked.?Our own experiences act as “apprenticeships of observation” (Dan Lortie) that influence our perception of our own learning and work with others. Lortie like Sch?n, shows the importance of self-awareness in knowing why we act as we do and challenging limiting beliefs. While coaching, I rarely discuss theory or what might be influencing the questions that emerge to me to ask in the moment. I do my own reflections between client sessions to be sure I stay focused on their growth and their goals. I remain focused on awareness, growth and insight and know my own professional work, and training as coach influence my approach to coaching.?

Double-loop Learning and Theories in Use

????????????Donald Schon’s work on learning systems with Chris Argyris argues that people have mental maps with regard to how to act in situations. This involves the way they plan, implement and review their actions. These maps guide people’s actions rather than the theories they explicitly espouse about the actions. We can have an espoused theory we might tell ourselves or others and then we have theories in use which is what we actually do. I find this distinction really useful in coaching as one hears stories from a client and by asking questions reflection occurs where a client starts to see this distinction even if ever naming it.??A coach can help a client move from what Schon and Argyris call single-loop learning to double-loop learning by the questions they ask and giving time and space for refection.?The insights often come from the client. The same ideas influence my directing of documentary films. The image is above is of an artist in Cuba where I am documenting his story and his beliefs through his words and art.

????????????The notions of reflection-in-action, and reflection-on-action are central to Donald Schon’s book?The Reflective Practitioner?(1983). The former is sometimes described as how we think on our feet. It involves looking to our experiences, connecting with our feelings, and attending to our theories in use. It entails building new understandings to inform our actions in the situation that is unfolding. A coach can help a client to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in reviewing a situation or considering an action.??When a client reflects on the phenomenon, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behavior, new insights can unfold. The act of reflecting-on-action enables a client to spend time exploring why they acted as they did. Clients often describe how they think on their feet, and as coach one can hear how they use repertoire of images, metaphors and theories. As an executive coach, I find the ability to draw upon and expand such metaphors and images can allow for a client to have new and different ways of framing a situation that is useful to further reflection discovering useful and usable insights. As a coach, I continue to think about learning and growth models and welcome partnering with clients to help them achieve their goals. Executive coaching is neither therapy or consulting. It is a learning approach that expands self-awareness. I aim to create a safe and thought provoking creative process to help clients maximize personal and professional goals.?I welcome complimentary initial consultation calls to see if working with me as an executive coach and thought partner is something you might want to pursue.?https://www.abelmannandassociates.com

Argyris, M. and Sch?n, D. (1974)?Theory in Practice. Increasing professional effectiveness, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.?

Dewey, J. (1933)?How We Think, New York: D. C. Heath.

Lortie, C. D. (1975)?School Teacher: A Sociological Study. University of Chicago Press.?

Sch?n, D. (1983)?The Reflective Practitioner. How professionals think in action, London: Temple Smith. Sch?n, D. (1987)?Educating the Reflective Practitioner, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.