As a Co-Active coach, I work with metaphor to help clients bring their full selves to work and life.
Sally came to coaching as she was interested in finding her next role, working on boundaries, and speaking up. And she did all these things during our time together successfully landed a new role better suited to her talents and interests.
But what was most powerful in our coaching sessions was finding the metaphor that unlocked Sally’s potential to be in the world in a way that honoured her gifts.
Before coming to coaching, when Sally engaged with stakeholders, she judged herself by others seeming confidence – other people seemed always to have the solution immediately to hand.
Outside the office, Sally is a pianist. When she plays, she feels like she is in conversation with the composer. So we played with applying this metaphor to Sally’s interactions with stakeholders, asking: What would it be like to be in conversation with stakeholders in a way that allows you to feel out when to follow the sheet music and when to improvise?
Employing this image of herself as an artist in the workplace allowed Sally to shift her perspective and recognise the value in her unique approach to life and work. Not everyone has to rush in. Some of us prefer to take our time. Sally could now see ‘staying with the music’, without the need to rush to answers, allowed for co-creation and solutions to reveal themselves.
Working with metaphor allowed Sally to discover the capabilities already within her and develop her own guiding principles for career decision making. By the end of our coaching engagement, Sally felt more confident and determined with a renewed trust in her ability to make work and life choices that were right for her.