This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Coaching With "Whatever It Takes". You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
What does W.I.T. Coaching Really Mean?
I deliberately chose the name W.I.T. (Whatever It Takes) to describe my approach to coaching for several reasons that I think might be useful for you to know.
First of all, the word WIT conveys the natural smile in my voice that seeks to encourage others to find and utilize their own sense of humor. Over and over again I have found gentle humor in myself and clients to be indispensable for maintaining optimism and perspective, especially in the face of adversity. Stefan Klein, in The Science of Mind, a book I have found stimulating on many levels, talks about the positive physiological changes that occur when we simply smile. When we go further and actually develop thoughts that focus on a humorous facet of a difficult situation, we promote the growth of new brain cells and stimulate powerful endorphins.
I want to clearly distinguish what I’m referring to here: not true tragedy but rather what most of us are faced with daily–situations that are “Hopeless but Not Serious,” as Paul Watzlawick calls them in his insightful book–that is, ineffectual ways of thinking and the deleterious effects they have on us.
WIT also refers to “native wit” or intuitive intelligence, another quality I help clients identify in themselves and use to greater advantage than they have It’s surprising how many times people do not recognize their own gifts and skills. It’s always a pleasure to “see” light bulbs go off when recognition occurs. (”See” is metaphorical since I do most coaching over the phone; but the change I can hear in someone’s voice is equivalent to seeing their eyes light up.)
Finally, WIT is an acronym for Whatever It Takes, a statement of determination and the willingness to develop a vision and then find practical ways to make it happen over time. Tom Wolfe called this The Right Stuff, remember? As Stefan Klein says about happiness, success, and other good things: we human beings don’t always focus on them naturally. We’re still watching for that tiger at the mouth of the cave.
That’s why people often benefit from coaching. It can help them retrain their brains to better profit from the every-growing body of knowledge coming from research in Neuroscience and Positive Psychology. This research is exciting in many ways.
For example, it suggests that we can develop new abilities, no matter how old we are. The aging brain is not a dying brain!
It also offers us a different kind of mirror for our sense of self, one where we can more clearly identify our innate strengths and then practice using them in novel ways. This has been shown to dramatically increase a sense of competence and well-being.
A popular magazine that you might enjoy reading to learn more about these ideas is Scientific American Mind, which has well-written articles that will keep you up to date on recent findings from brain/mind research. I love reading about new ideas and using them for my clients’ benefit as well as my own.
That is, I’m also committed to doing Whatever It Takes to be the best coach I can be for the people I have the honor to work with.
Posted by October 20th, 2007
Comments (2)
June 13th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Your approach is very interesting. Are you the one who formulated this technique?
-Jan
June 15th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Yes, it comes out of many years of working with people. They tell me that my approach inspires their spirits while it also offers specific steps to get where they want to go. I keep finding new ideas to bring in from all the exciting research being done. Life is definitely a work in progress for me.