Effective Partnership With Others Starts With Our Own Work.

An Empower World reflection inspired by Empower World's Coaching and Leadership Podcast conversation with executive and leadership coach Karen Ledger, "Effective Partnership With Others Starts With Our Own Work."

Coaching is an intimate practice. The depth available in any partnership is inseparable from the depth you have cultivated within yourself. No framework or qualification can substitute for the wisdom created through your personal inner work. Coaching is not something you apply; it is something you embody. Who you are informs how you listen, what you sense, and what you dare to speak.

When you have not explored your own internal landscape, it shows. You avoid certain topics. You avoid or make light of the moments that invite exploring - the moments that create unease or strong emotions. You rush to reassure when discomfort arises. You unconsciously steer the people you work with away from places you have not yet been yourself. Your personal areas of growth can quietly become the boundaries of the work.

Empower World believes doing our own work is something we in the 'helping' profession must take responsibility for. And by doing so, it enhances the quality of the conversations we have with our reflective partners.

Karen Ledger, executive and leadership coach says: “We need to experience what our clients experience, and we need to be in the places and dare to go to the places that they’re daring to go to.”

This is not about having the answers, but about cultivating the self-awareness and courage required to accompany others on their learning journey with authenticity, steadiness and care.

Karen also shares: “There's always work that we… can be paying attention to, whether that's in groups, you know, in supervision with our peers, or with our supervisors.” 

And like Karen, Empower World believes that when we engage and invest in these spaces and places, this is where ongoing development and growth can happen: not as remediation, but as a responsibility in supporting ourselves, and therefore, the people we partner with.

Doing your own work means developing a relationship with your inner world. It means noticing your triggers, your patterns of judgment, and your need to be liked or to get it right. It means recognising where you over-function, rescue, withdraw or collude with your reflective partner's stories.

This kind of self-awareness is an essential practice for all coaches. It is built through supervision, reflection, feedback, therapy, coaching, and a willingness to be challenged. The more familiar you are with your own inner terrain, the steadier you become when a coaching partner meets theirs.

People can feel whether you are able to stay present when emotions intensify, when silence stretches, or when uncertainty enters the room. When you have done your own work, you are less reactive. You listen more deeply. You stay curious rather than defensive. You invite challenges without urgency and hold discomfort without rushing to resolve it.

Inviting your coaching partners to stretch themselves out of their comfort zone, or questioning long-held stories, or sitting with discomfort requires honesty about whether you are doing the same for yourself. Your credibility does not come from having answers; it comes from being in and doing the work yourself.

When you continue to learn, reflect and be shaped by your own learning 'edges', you give silent permission for others to do likewise - to expand awareness - and with greater awareness open up new choices and experiences. As Karen describes: "There's no greater gift than being aware, is there, of who we are and how we function in the world.”

Coaching is a relational practice. The quality of the partnership is inseparable from your inner life. If you want reflective partners to go deeper, stay longer, and engage more honestly - begin by turning inward. Do the work and keep doing it. Your presence will speak before you ever ask a question.

A final thought: where might your own unexamined 'edges' be shaping - or limiting - the depth you invite in your coaching partnerships, and what support will help you continue doing that work?

Be Empowered

www.empower-world.com

You can hear the full conversation with Podcast guest Karen Ledger on the Empower World Coaching and Leadership Podcast Episode 248 - via the podcast links below:

YouTube: ------ https://bit.ly/YT-Podcast-EP-248

Direct Link: ---- https://bit.ly/Podcast-EP-248

Spotify: ------- https://bit.ly/SP-Podcast-EP-248

iTunes: -------- https://bit.ly/IT-Podcast-EP-248

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