Jane Brendgen takes up the baton from Lindsay Wittenberg in this new series of reflection columns. This issue: Vertical development coaching
In December last year I had the pleasure of delivering a masterclass for Coaching at Work: ‘The Art of Dialogue in Coaching’.
It was an enquiry into 3rd generation coaching where the coach and client meet as human companions and meaning arises in their relationship of reciprocal influence. In this approach, the role of the coach shifts from focusing on the client’s enquiry to holding an expansive field of consciousness that invites transformative insights to emerge for both parties (Braks, 2021). Vulnerability, authenticity, courage, compassion and curiosity form the bedrock of the engagement.
I spent many hours over many months reflecting on the topic of dialogue in coaching and, after watching the documentary, Albatross, the wider context for the workshop became clear. This film was written, directed and edited by Chris Jordan, an internationally acclaimed artist whose work explores the destructive power of mass consumption and humanity’s disconnect from the living world.
In the first few minutes we’re confronted with devastating photographs of dead young albatrosses, their stomachs filled with small pieces of plastic from the Pacific Ocean. I watched this 90-minute poignant masterpiece in two halves – it was too gut-wrenchingly painful to endure in one sitting. During the second half I sobbed with grief for one of these majestic birds in its final death throes.
Something shifted in me that day. It awakened a deeper sensitivity in relation to the inter-connectedness of everything and the reverence for all of life that comes with it, and for being open to how that can inform coaching.
Otto Sharmer (Sharmer & Kaufe, 2007) identifies three categories of symptoms currently manifesting in our world, related to the breakdown of systemic structures: the spiritual, social and ecological divides. We’re disconnected from ourselves, our fellow human beings and we have become separated from the beating heart of our planetary home. The questions I’ve been holding more urgently since watching the documentary are these: What am I as a human being first, and as a coach second, being called to step into? Where can I make a difference? And, how might I contribute to systemic change, in whatever scale is possible?
This has led me to a place of clarity – for now. Sharmer writes (Shamer & Jaufer, 2007): “We are currently living in a 4.0 connected complex whole eco-system. We cannot solve these 4.0 problems with a 2.0 mindset”.
Vertical development coaching is a significant part of my current work portfolio and it’s here I see I can make a difference in dialogue with my clients. This approach to coaching is founded on the principle that we as adults move through predictable stages of growth and that each of these comes with an increasingly sophisticated set of capacities that significantly impact how we relate to ourselves and interact with others, how we deal with adversity and how we manage the complexities, ambiguities and uncertainties that are part of living in this world.
I begin my work with clients using the Harthill Leadership Development Framework. This is a highly sophisticated and extensively researched psychometric tool that offers powerful insights into the client’s current specific developmental needs, facilitating a whole person growth process where cognitive, emotional, behavioural, social and ethical dimensions are included.
I’ve also started to use a framework called the Inner Development Goals (IDG), a set of five dimensions organising 23 skills and qualities of human inner growth and development aligned with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals for creating a sustainable world by 2030. Research by the IDG (https://www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org/framework) has shown that progress is nowhere near where it should be at this point in time because we, as humans, lack the inner capacities to deal with our increasingly complex environment and challenges.
The five IDG dimensions focus on Being – nurturing our relationship to ourselves and our estranged bodies; Thinking – enhancing our cognitive capacities to deal with complexity; Relating – caring for others through appreciation, empathy and compassion; Collaboration – developing trust, an inclusive mindset and intercultural competence and Acting – strengthening our confidence and courage for action in the world.
The beauty about focusing on this overarching set of capacities in coaching – explicit or implicit – is that the client’s development has both a personal and a global context. Their growth is seen as contributing to an urgently needed paradigm shift in the world, from ego-centric to eco-centric, from ‘me’ to ‘we’.
Recently, one of my vertical development clients brought a topic to the conversation that beautifully illustrates the need for this broader approach. She, a senior leader in an organisation, was triggered by a piece of company-wide communication and wanted to find a place of passionate detachment where the alchemy of clarity, balance and heart can effect transformation.
The contents of this email focused on growing financial concerns – the necessity for a hiring freeze, the regrettable need for redundancies and a clear directive to suspend pay increases until further notice. I was struck by how the message was expressed. Looking at it through a developmental lens it seemed an Achiever mindset was steering this. I had a distinct sense that these employees were regarded as resources rather than sensitive, complex human beings with needs outside of achievement and financial reward.
It left me wondering about one of the elements of the ecological divide – the inherently faulty economic principle of infinite growth in a world of finite resources that lies at the core of the capitalist system. The Achiever mindset is widely regarded as the pinnacle of Western society with its emphasis on effectiveness and goal achievement and success. It’s considered to be the dominant world view of most leaders in business and politics today (Laloux, 2014). The shadow side of it – corporate greed, over-consumption and the reckless exploitation of our planet’s precious resources and ecosystems – is leading us to the cliff edge.
At this critical juncture, where systems are breaking down at an alarming rate, it’s imperative that we – leaders, coaches, clients, humans – invest in upgrading our thinking wherever possible, from ego-centric to eco-centric. We need to compassionately recognise the foolishness and arrogance of placing ourselves above the rest of life and humbly, with vulnerability and courage, re-attune to the natural laws of life, finding our way back to our rightful place in the family of things.
References
- A J Braks, From Vanilla to Vertical Coaching: The powerful shift from developmental to transformative coaching to realise later stages in vertical leadership development, 2021. https://www.researchgate.net/publications
- F Laloux, Reinventing Organisations: A guide to creating organisations inspired by the next stage of human consciousness, Nelson Parker, 2014
- O Scharmer and K Kaufer, Leading From the Emerging Future: from ego-system to eco-system economies, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2013
- IDG Sustainable Development Goals: https://www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org/framework
- Jane Brendgen is founder of Compassionate Cultures. She is an executive coach specialising in authentic leadership, adult development and therapeutic coaching. She is a mindfulness supervisor. * http://bit.ly/3EN7bpp