One of the good things about being a coach is that it constantly gives me an opportunity to review and work on my undesirable habits. While coaching clients, I need to listen to the coachee with attention, thought and intent so as to understand from his language the sources of his energy and passion. But there are also times when I may notice a habit which could come in the way of his success, but before I bring it to his notice, I tend to stop myself and reflect - am I a victim of it too?
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| Coaching sessions set me thinking |
Quite, in fact, like the story told about Gandhiji. It seems a lady once approached him and asked Gandhiji to advise her young son about overcoming his fondness for sweets. Gandhiji looked thoughtful and then requested the lady to come to again the following week whence he would advise her son. The following week when the woman turned up with her son, Gandhiji took the child aside and explained to him all about the ill effects of being addicted to sweets. At this, the lady enquired curiously, “Bapu, why did you not tell him the same thing the last time we met you?”
“Because,” he replied, “Till last week, I too loved sweets, I worked on myself during all of the week to get rid of the habit, so that I could advise your son with honesty!”
Just as in the case of Gandhiji, I too have had to work on several of my own habits so that I could coach clients to work on theirs with some degree of integrity. As a result, I am now more in control of my temper; I tend to be a better listener, and I have become a lot more empathetic. And just in case you don’t believe me, all the above happen to be the observations of my wife!
All these improvements are encouraging imrovements in my Emotional Intelligence(EI), a topic on which have been spending a lot of time researching
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