Written by: Abigail Stason, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In this post-COVID global economy and modern world, we are facing challenges we’ve never seen before. Our operating model no longer supports us in meeting today's and tomorrow's demands. There is an opportunity to take personal and collective responsibility and raise the skill level of our humanity. The invitation is to shift from coach to facilitator.
What is a coach anyway?
We are most familiar with the term coach in the sports arena. Crucial distinctions exist regarding why coaching doesn’t transfer from sports to leadership and humanity today.
In sports, ALL roles are established and don't change. The rules and regulations of sports stay the same and rarely change. The field/court is standardized – no matter where you play.
Very little of this is true in companies today, especially technology companies.
Imagine a sporting event where the roles, rules, fields, and game itself constantly change throughout the event. And the players are changing too! This is what human beings and leaders have to navigate. By now, you get it and are asking: what’s the alternative?
Here is a role for you: be a facilitator.
To consciously facilitate means to make it easier or less difficult. There are several things to facilitate, and these start with YOU. As a human being and leader, you can facilitate the following:
1. Presence
Presence is the foundation for every situation. Invite everyone to be with whatever is in the moment – no matter what shows up. When present, we experience truth and reality instead of drama, leading to aligned action.
Investigation: Am I present or not? How can I shift back to presence?
2. Emotional Fluency
Much drama is born from repressing emotions. Emotional intelligence, to capture the wisdom in emotions, keeps us in a flow state. Without emotional fluency, fear will take hold of our brains, keeping us from intelligent discussions. We must be present with our emotions and experiences as we navigate daily circumstances and maintain resilience.
Investigation: Am I repressing my emotions? How can I use emotions to inform my intelligence?
3. Uncertainty & Ambiguity
We know that loss of control and lack of predictability are the leading causes of stress/fear/anxiety. You can facilitate ease in yourself and others amidst uncertainty and ambiguity.
Investigation: What is my relationship to uncertainty – where do I struggle, and what has supported me in the past?
4. Style Preferences
We all process the world differently and have preferred styles. This is a form of conditioning. However, presence should dictate how we show up, not our conditioning. We aren't confined to old patterns when we step back and focus on what we need to bring to a situation and how to show up.
Investigation: How can I overcome my conditioning to experience more agility?
5. Breathing & Moving
With all of the science and research available today, we have a massive opportunity to calm our limbic systems. Through effort and practice, you can consciously breathe and move to keep your energy flowing. By breathing and moving, you engage your parasympathetic nervous system, your “rest and digest” system. Oxygen will keep your brain and biology engaged.
Investigation: How can I overcome my conditioning to experience more agility?
6. Mental Strength
With a focus on mental strength, you can take inventory of strength of mind, character, and biology. Mental health is non-negotiable in our modern world, and Like everything I teach about human behavior – cultivating mental health takes skill and practice.
Investigation: How robust is my mental process, and where can I stretch myself?
What Are The Benefits Of Facilitation?
What is required is a change in context to take full responsibility for your experience. The time and energy we spend trying to “coach” others are a mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual drain. Instead, that time and energy can be spent on taking full responsibility for our career, experience, value system, work-life balance, creative expression, new projects = the list goes on and on. Imagine an environment where everyone is facilitating presence and aware of their behavior. The benefits are immense:
When focused on facilitating your experience, your ability to consciously navigate internal tension and situations that drain energy throughout the day increases.
By everyone facilitating, we no longer waste time in drama.
Facilitation leads to personal responsibility, which increases self-esteem.
By taking collective responsibility, we can spend time on productivity, innovation, and connection - learning and development.
Facilitating presence is fertile ground for accelerated growth – everyone wins.
We have the agility and efficiency necessary to pivot to meet challenging situations.
Let’s face it, the world today is a challenging place creating a bandwidth issue. Anyone can facilitate all of the time. There is a playbook for how to lead through facilitation. All that is required is to be a skillful human being. With the severe global issues, being a masterful human being is non-negotiable.
Accept the invitation to be a conscious leader and lead the way by facilitating. To learn more about how to be aware while getting things done, visit my website. Please pick up a copy of my skills book, Evolution Revolution. My online course lets you become conscious by diving into your learning and development.
Abigail Stason, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
More Master Teacher than coach, Abigail “Abby” Stason is a social activist and skill builder with 20+ years of professional experience as a leader, organizational consultant, and group facilitator. As a disrupter, Abby is committed to a new social awareness in favor of exposing outdated structures that are no longer of service, giving way to the experience of peace, freedom, and truth in the world. She is a catalyst for societal evolution. In short, she helps human beings, leaders, teams, and organizations wake up by equipping them with behavioral skills for a modern world. Abby created a conscious leadership curriculum, a series of practices that are easily accessible to everyone.
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