We know that what the coach reflects can be very useful for the coaching client, as long as it is used judiciously and professionally.<\/p>\n
Let us reflect together on how to polish one's own mirror, in order to\u00a0accompany<\/em>\u00a0The project is increasingly handcrafted to others, on the path of their reflection and commitment.<\/p>\n I share here, from my experience, some metaphors of different types of mirrors in relation to the task of the executive coach:<\/p>\n Empty mirror, no judgement:<\/strong>\u00a0I reflect the coachee's words exactly as he\/she said them, with the same tone of voice, punctuation and corporeality. The coachee recognises himself, there is nothing for him to object to or react to. When you stop looking at yourself in the mirror, the mirror holds no judgement of you: it is\u00a0an empty mirror...of judgement<\/em>.<\/p>\n The empty mirror, in the book of the Tao, also relates to providing a space for things to manifest. Accompaniment offers a similar space for the client to contribute reflections and explore new ideas without the imposition of other opinions.<\/p>\n The \u00abdouble mirror\u00bb<\/strong>\u00a0stresses the importance of reflecting not only the client's present, but also their commitment and vision for the future. I do not coach the person but the challenge.<\/p>\n This combination guides the client towards sustainable personal and professional growth to achieve their goals.<\/p>\n The magic mirror:<\/strong>\u00a0the coach can be seen as a magic mirror that not only reveals the client's outer appearance but also their inner strengths and hidden potential, providing a transformative perspective. The coach explores the hidden commitment to consistency, between what the client says and does. In my experience, it is the mirror that most surprises the client. This mirror reveals the radical difference between commitment, good intentions and wishful thinking.<\/p>\n I reflect my internal mirror: I add a word, an interpretation, a metaphor said by the coachee before, showing a contradiction, contrasting what he\/she says now with what he\/she has shared a while before.<\/p>\n The rear-view mirror:<\/strong>\u00a0similar to that of a car. The coach helps the client to reflect on some aspect of his or her past, examining experiences and lessons learned in order to make new decisions. For example, extrapolating positive experiences to gain strength from the new, and negative ones to learn from. (Caution: coaching is never about the past, coaching is about accompanying the client to\u00a0designing the future<\/em>).<\/p>\n The magnifying mirror:<\/strong>\u00a0Like a magnifying glass, the coach magnifies the client's skills and achievements, highlighting their successes to build confidence and motivation. He may focus on a possible aspect of improvement, sometimes with shared humour (e.g. Then your tombstone will say...) He may also amplify something the client sees as a flaw, or an inadequate adaptation, or a shadow. In other words, enlarging the shadow so that he\/she laughs at him\/herself. In short, the coach seeks to accept imperfection,\u00a0de-dramatising<\/em>\u00a0what happens.<\/p>\n The mirror of the character:<\/strong>\u00a0the character is that which we are \u201crepresenting\u201d today, constructed some time ago with the multiple mirrors of our environment. When the coachee becomes aware that he can take control of his life, new possibilities open up. He\/she assumes that until now he\/she was letting himself\/herself go, repeating an old character that is now dysfunctional with his\/her new commitments (e.g.: what character am I and what character do I choose to be from now on?)<\/p>\n I usually play with my coachees to\u00a0retiring with gratitude<\/em>\u00a0the old character and welcome the one I choose for my future.<\/p>\n *Read also EEC's hotel for old characters<\/p>\n The Alice in Wonderland Mirror:<\/strong> Similar to Alice's mirror, the coach can open doors to new perspectives and possibilities, challenging some of the client's limited perceptions and encouraging exploration. The statement in a conversation with their mirror witness opens up new worlds of possibility.<\/p>\n The shape-shifting mirror: like a shape-shifting mirror in an amusement park, the coach can adapt to various situations and communication styles to meet the client's individual needs. (Example:\u00a0invite reinterpretation of beliefs<\/em>\u00a0from other perspectives, exploring vulnerability as power rather than weakness).<\/p>\n A dressing room with 15 mirrors:<\/strong>\u00a0What if you had a dressing room with 15 mirrors to look at yourself from every angle?<\/p>\n When we co-create tasks with the coachee to seek meaningful feedback among their relationships we are doing nothing more than\u00a0multiply<\/em> mirrors in which to look. By having more mirrors, it is possible not to overestimate only some of them.<\/p>\n The mirror of the system:<\/strong>\u00a0If you look too closely in a mirror, you will see only yourself. If you move away from the mirror you will see interactions and interrelationships in the systems of which you are a part: family, work, rules, commitments. When the mirror moves away from the client to show other actors involved, who had not been taken into account, possibilities of pending or incomplete conversations with other actors appear. How is your family included in your next project? What other alternatives are you seeing for your team besides the one you are choosing?<\/p>\n The trap consists of using the mirror as a weapon against the coachee: if what I see of the client, I say it as a\u00a0certainty<\/em>, I transform the mirror into a trial.<\/p>\n The coach assumes that the look he gives in his mirror is subjective and assumes responsibility for what he brings, without assigning any criteria of truth to it.<\/p>\n All this is the 50% of the mirror task, the other 50% is a simple question: does it work for you, does it work for you, does it make sense to you, how do you see it?<\/p>\n Feedback without validation or mirroring without validation is again a judgement of certainty to be avoided.<\/p>\n I hope these resources have piqued your curiosity and enabled you to amplify your presence as a coach in multiple mirrors, in the service of better accompanying and serving your clients.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We know that what a coach reflects can be very useful for their coaching client, provided it is used with discernment and professionalism. Let's reflect together on how to polish our own mirror, to accompany others ever more artfully on their path of reflection and commitment. I share here from [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[595],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34173,"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28860\/revisions\/34173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escuelacoaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is the trap a coach must avoid?<\/h2>\n