Coach Andrea

Coach Andrea’s Intro

Inspiration, insight, intuition? Are you the type of leader who regularly listens to information that comes to you in this manner?  This week’s Tip by Simon Tyler reminds us that there is a wealth of guidance that can be gleaned by tapping into your own wisdom.

Quote of the Week

“Success is really about being ready for the good opportunities that come before you. It’s not to have a detailed plan of everything that you’re going to do. You can’t plan innovation or inspiration, but you can be ready for it, and when you see it, you can jump on it.”

~ Eric Schmidt

The Perfect Consultant

By Simon Tyler

Whatever your life, career or business situation, input from a valued, experienced, knowledgeable consultant will always be welcomed.

But who is that consultant, where do they reside, how can you contact them, and would they be willing to consult on your situation?

The answers to these questions lie closer than you would think.

The potential perfect consultant to you and your circumstance is… you!

Potentially.

Inspiration comes from within. Insight, from within. Investigation, introspection, inklings, invention, influence, incentive, and most pertinently, intuition, all from within.

Warning – a consultant who is negative, asks poor questions, or simply spouts opinions is soon ignored and their advice given little or no consideration. If this is your current version of personal consulting then it is no wonder you find yourself unfulfilled, searching the world for better, more accurate and reliable advice.

The Perfect Consultant (you) may well require some skill evolution. Here’s one upgrade idea that will have incredible impact on the consultant’s performance:

Upgrade the consultant’s question

Many of our self-posed questions begin with “Why…”. This provokes a “…because…” response, and rarely leads to new or creative input. Stop whying!

Actively begin your self-posed questions with “What…” or “How could…”. These questions create space for your brain to source its own answers (i.e. inspirationally, intuitively – from within).

For example, after any encounter, event or situation that went well or badly, ask:

• “What could this teach me?”
• “What do I want to do with this outcome?”
• “How could I use this event to help me?”

Ask the questions and allow the ‘in-consultant’ to respond. For best effect, make notes of his or her suggestions and review later.

Good luck and keep it simple.

Simon Tyler is one of the world’s leading business coaches. His work simplifies the lives of business leaders and owners. He is an incisive consultant, inspirational writer, provocative public speaker and master facilitator. To learn more about Simon, visit http://simontyler.com.

Coaching Call To Action

What will you do this week to develop your inner guidance? I am reading the book The Art of Intuition: Cultivating your Inner Wisdom by Sophy Burnham.  She gives exercises and step-by-step instructions to guide you to develop your own intuitive powers.

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

Like Michael Neill, as a coach, I am expected to ask “great” questions that facilitate “aha” moments when you are able to “see something about yourself, your work, or your life in a whole new way”.  Early in my coaching career, I had a list of these great questions in a notebook in front of me for my coaching calls.  I busily scanned them during the call so that I would be ready with the one that would make the difference and create a shift for my client.  I was more present to my list, worrying about which one was right, than listening to my client.  After 13 years of coaching I find that listening, being present and trusting myself are the keys to providing the question my client most needs to shift their thinking.

Michael Neill’s article provides some ideas on how to prepare for “insights” on your own.

Quote of the Week

“During [these] periods of relaxation after concentrated intellectual activity, the intuitive mind seems to take over and can produce the sudden clarifying insights which give so much joy and delight.”
~ Fritjof Capra

Chasing Butterflies

A couple of years ago, my family and I visited the Boston Science museum and spent some time in their wonderful butterfly garden.  While there is much to see and do inside, the highlight of the visit is the chance to have a butterfly land on your hand, head, or shoulder.

What made the visit fascinating was noticing the different strategies people employed in an attempt to get the butterflies to land on them.  Some people would chase the butterflies around the garden, perhaps in hopes of catching one and placing it on their shoulder long enough for a picture to be snapped and a memory to be created.  Others seemed to be determined to get through the garden as pure observers, without ever having to touch or be touched by what it was they were observing.

The most successful group by far were those who did their best to become a part of the environment – that is, to stand relatively still in and amongst the flowers and enjoy the beauty all around them while waiting for a butterfly to grace them with a landing.

The nature of the transformative coaching work that I do is based on facilitating insights – those wonderful “aha” moments when you are able to see something about yourself, your work, or your life in a whole new way.  People often call these “light bulb moments”, because we see things in a new light that allows us to handle them with greater ease and grace than we could even moments before.

These are the insights which let us see straight through our problems until suddenly, we know what to do and our next action becomes crystal clear. Metaphorically, they’re the moments where the “snake” becomes a piece of rope and the “Wicked Witch of the West” goes back to just being an annoying neighbor named Almira Gulch.

In the years I’ve been doing this work, I’ve noticed that insights are a lot like butterflies -  while there are things you can do to make them more or less likely, it’s ultimately not up to us when they land.

• If you try to chase them through meditations, exercises, brainstorming, and other forms of “figuring it all out”, the activity in your head seems as likely to scare them away as draw them near.
• If you try to ignore your own wisdom and only learn through books, teachers, and other forms of other people’s insight, you are very likely to succeed – at confusing yourself in a myriad of conflicting ideas about what it “really” takes to be happy and successful.
• If you are willing to simply enjoy spending time “in the garden” – the quiet, reflective state of mind that occurs naturally for most of us while standing in the shower, watching the sunset, or lying in bed on a weekend morning, insights will often show up and land with a grace that takes us straight into a quiet knowing and a deeper feeling.

Sometimes it’s hard not to chase after a butterfly, especially when the answers you’re seeking seem to always be just out of reach.  But as Franz Kafka said, no doubt in a moment of quiet contemplation:

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do mot even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

Copyright 2010 Michael Neill, author of ‘You Can Have What You Want’. All rights reserved – read more tips at http://www.geniuscatalyst.com.

Coaching Call to Action

This week take note of what activities (or non-activities) bring forth insights for you.

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