COACHING LIFE-WORK BALANCE
Alain Cardon, MCC-ACTC (ICF)
Executive, team & organizational systemic coach, author-25 books, coach trainer/supervisor, keynote speaker.
This short description of a systemic-coaching life-coaching approach may offer food for thought on what may be an excellent way to approach many apparently very different and sometimes opposing coaching issues.
The larger executive team coaching and organizational coaching approach first presented here is almost coïncidental with the main focus of this article. It is not its main point of focus. The story presented below concerns more directly the one-on-one coaching process with an organization's CEO that is often undertaken on the side, or parallel to, a larger organzation-wide process.
A few words on a possible larger backdrow : often contracted by a CEO, a company may decide to roll out a much larger systemic organizational-coaching process. In our experience, those are generally focused both on developing top-management culture and on streamlining operational processes for better measurable results. Such an emerging company-wide systemic coaching program often unfolds in alternating phases that involve differently sized groups. For example,the process may start with just the top twenty key players including the whole executive team. The second phase may then involve complete teams including all top 90 managers. The third phase may only concern the executive team. Next may concern another 90-participant organizational-coaching event. Thus the process may gradually unfold over several years, in alternating rhythms, focusing zeach time on different developemental issues.
In obvious support of such systemic organizational-development processes, the main sponsors are usually the CEOs. As such, these also generally follow an individual-coaching process focused both
Note that when the accompanying coach is truly systemic, there is no need to draw a firm boundary between professional realms such as strategy, finance, people-growth, team-development on the one hand, and private life that may concern family, sports, health, spirituality, on the other. Systemic coaching clients contract to indifferently work on both.
Obviously, to modify any equilibrium or pattern in one dimension such as at work will automatically affect the other, in this case private life. Likewise, and this is often a blessing, any personal development or change undertaken by an individual at home very easily mirrors into equivalent professional changes at this individual's place of work. Even extremely minor behavioral evolutions integrated by CEOs at home rapidly have a very powerful mirroring and modeling effect within their respective organizations. This is not to be taken lightly!
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To be sure for any person, the same life paradigm applies to both realms. When things turn negative, both realms often simultaneously display equally important existential consequences. In systemic coaching, all our patterns usually concern fundamental human challenges and joys that emerge both in work and at home. These issues everyone faces in the course of a lifetine. They can never be well perceived through too narrowing or segmented a perspective.
In fact, deep systemic coaching work with CEOs usually allow for a free flowing conversation that can often innocently slip from home to health to work at the drop of a dime. The work also becomes even more inclusive when systemic coaches also briefly share their own personal and professional resonating patterns, always all too related to their client’s work. This becomes powerful.
There is an important effect of such a inclusive coaching approach focused on parallel patterns that emerge at work, at home and at play. Most CEOs paradoxically use much more of their minds at work even when they are at home, and more of the hearts at home even when they are at work. They probably use more of their guts, in health and sports, where their bodies are most concerned.
Systemic coaching constantly slips from one of these realms to another, revealing similar patterns, finding deeper life values that concern all, developing strategies that evolves all life areas together, for the better, and at the same pace. Very gradually as a consequence of such a systemic process, CEOs often naturally start to bring much more heart to work, more more mind to home, and much more gutso all over.
This fundamental re-equilibrium process is in fact the best way to develop deep and sustainable life-work balance for leaders and their companies.
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