Bringing Planet Earth Into Your Coaching Conversations

You might be a coach or a leader who cares deeply about the planet and its future, and you may be wondering how you can support adaptation and building resilience in the face of climate change.

Incorporating the Earth into your coaching conversations as a stakeholder or partner when it's appropriate, can be a powerful way to bring about a sense of environmental consciousness and responsibility for the individuals, organisations, and perhaps the environment you partner with.

As coaches, we can bring planet Earth in as a stakeholder at the outset of the coaching programme by contracting and agreeing with the client what is important to both parties and therefore what can be brought in or left outside of the coaching conversation, including planet Earth as stakeholder.

Below are some potential ways you as a coach or leader can assist the people you work with to bring the world into your conversations and into consciousness:

1. Explore Values and Purpose
Exploring with your client their values and purpose can assist alignment with what's deeply important to them, which they may come to consciously realise includes the health of the planet for all things living and future generations.

This means supporting clients to reflect upon the impact of their decisions on the environment together with their purpose and values to ensure decisions are ecological: good for themselves, good for others, the planet out into the far distant future.

A thorough exploration of values and purpose with our clients can support them to understand what matters most and can potentially lead to conversations about their legacy and a desire to make a positive impact beyond themselves and their lifetime. This purposeful reflection can lead to considering the planet and the future for all things living.

2. Connect with Nature
Conducting coaching in the environment can foster a deeper connection with the natural world. This can include walking or just being in natural settings. Research has shown spending time outside can lead to new perspectives and increased pro-environmental behaviours.

Using nature such as trees, water, flowers, animals - all things living - to represent how a client is experiencing their world - present or future - can be a very potent way to experience a different and empowering understanding which can lead to new decisions, action or non-action and outcomes.

3. Set Sustainable Goals
When supporting the client to set goals, we can ask questions to support the client to decide upon objectives that align with their own personal growth and success, as well as the well-being of the planet.

As a coach we can check in, challenge and/or expand our client's awareness as to whether their goals and commitments are ecological, and therefore appropriate going forward based on their own assessment through questions we can ask. For example: "How does that commitment resonate with you?” "Imagine putting your commitment into place now, how does that fit in with your ecological framework (i.e. good for self, others and the greater good)?"

In this way, the client taps into their wisdom and they are in charge of their decisions and way forward.

4. Overcoming Eco-Anxiety
Many people are feeling overwhelmed by the environmental challenges we are all currently facing. Acknowledging this anxiety and asking questions to support the client to create new perspectives and identify doable actions, rather than dwelling on fear or guilt, can assist the client to develop strategies for dealing with environmental uncertainty if the client brings this into their sessions.

Coaching can support a client to build emotional intelligence, resilience, adaptability, and capability - all important 'ingredients' to manage eco-anxiety.

5. Develop Systems Thinking
Developing systems thinking for you and your client can be powerful by asking questions for the client to consider the broader impacts of their decisions on the environment and society. For example, 'What will be the impact of putting your chosen action into place in relation to your values/ purpose/ the team/ organisation/ community/ environment/ country/ Earth?

Asking these types of questions can support the client to expand their thinking beyond their immediate system create conscious awareness about the importance and consequences of their decisions for themselves and their stakeholders including our planet: the wider system.

***

In summary, integrating discussions about the planet in coaching conversations should be done with sensitivity, respect and relevance to the individual's goals and interests. Tailoring your approach based on the client's receptiveness to climate change and their level of environmental awareness will be important, allowing the client to take charge of the focus of the conversation.

For many, personal development incorporating key stakeholders, including our foundation for existence and all things living - Planet Earth - can bring about a sense of purpose and a powerful personal development and growth journey.

Be empowered.

Jeanine and Marie

Below are five ways we can support you to make a difference:

(1) Set up a Discovery Call, to find out what you can do to make empowering change
(2) Download our "How Coaching Can Change Your Life"
(3) Sign up for our offers
(4) Connect with us on LinkedIn
(5) Forward this email to someone you believe would benefit from coaching, learn to coach, develop leadership skills and so much more

#Coach #Training #icfdohachapter #Mentoring #ICF #Supervision #Coaching #Life #Organisational #Development #Mastery #Executive #newperspectives #Change #Management #Skils #Leadership #Development #Presence #Personal #Development #Fulfilment #Team Building #MiddleEast #Australia #UK #Europe #Singapore #Asia#leadership #leaders #doha #qatar