A Coaching Power Tool By Wendy Spalding, Career Coach, SOUTH AFRICA
Control vs. Create: Exploring Creative Responses
2020 was the year that most people were forced to relinquish control and humankind needed to adapt to a new way of living – one that was more creative in response to the COVID19 pandemic. Many people felt hopeless and experienced an inability to control events or plan ahead. A lack of control at work and at home can bring on feelings of stress, anxiety, hopelessness, and fear. Creativity is an important skill and mindset for all people in the face of exponential change. Exploring creative responses allow us to explore new opportunities.
2020 was also the year that I decided to pursue my dream of qualifying as a coach and registered with the ICA to complete the Vocational Coach Program. As a lifelong ‘Consultant’ coaching was nothing like I imagined it would be. What struck me as incredibly powerful was that Coaching is actually a creative process. Coaching facilitates collaboration and co-creation which ultimately is designed to help a client shift behaviour, perceptions and beliefs to achieve goals.
The definition of coaching given by the International Coach Federation (ICF) is that it is “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential” (ICF 2014)
Explanation: Control vs. Create
Explanation of Control
Bad leaders believe they have to project control at all times – Simon Sinek
You are afraid of surrender because you don’t want to lose control; but you never had control; all you had was anxiety – Elizabeth Gilbert
Control can be defined as exerting influence over others and one’s own behaviours, actions or environment. It can be used excessively by those who fear the unpredictable and ambiguous, feel they need to prove themselves or fear losing control. An incessant need for control may become overwhelming and exhausting, wreaking havoc on relationships, careers, and overall quality of life.
Coaching, specifically Executive Coaching, often attracts high-performers, perfectionists and A-type personalities as clients. These individuals regularly display controlling tendencies. The root of controlling behaviour is most often fear, possibly fear of failure.
These clients may be compelled to micromanage and orchestrate the actions and behaviours of others or maintain rigid rules for themselves regarding routines and order. Traditionally, these individuals are often identified as leaders in organisations.
Ideally, in the coaching process, the coach can encourage the client to identify and explore the underlying fear or emotion and understand its relation to the need for control. Clients who feel the desire to control have often been operating in this comfort zone for a long time and once they have identified the benefits of shifting to a new perspective may feel stuck with an inability to shift and change.
Identifying the underlying fear or emotion results in greater self-awareness for the client. This process of increasing self-awareness can help a person begin relinquishing the need for control. The coach works with the client to bring about awareness of alternative options. Self-awareness allows the client to feel more empowered to make alternative choices. This power tool offers a shift in perspective from Control to Create.
Explanation of Create
‘Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else has ever thought’– Albert Einstein
‘To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science’ – Albert Einstein
‘I believe the most important mission of the state is to protect the individual and make it possible for him to develop into a creative personality’ – Albert Einstein
The definition of Create as a verb is to make or produce (something): to cause (something new) to exist: to cause (a particular situation) to exist; to produce (something new) by using competencies, talents and imagination.
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), as the world’s adoption of automation increases, creativity is set to become a more important skill and mindset than ever before. Creativity is a uniquely human trait that no algorithm can replace. By working with coachees on the power tool Control vs. Create we can better prepare individuals for a future of work in which success depends on creativity.
An ability to be more creative requires an ability to play, make mistakes, learn, and be more open and agile. In order to do this in a coaching process, it is very important that the client feels safe and secure (in a non-judgemental space) and trusting of the engagement with the coach. The coaching process can encourage a client to include “play” in their work environment which provides a climate for learning and creativity.
The book, ‘Wired to Create’ explores how to develop creativity as a habit, a way of life, and a style of engaging with the world. It presents many paradoxes—mindfulness and mind wandering, openness and sensitivity, solitude and collaboration, play and seriousness, and intuition and reason—that contribute to the creative process. This requires people to open up to a deeper level of self-understanding and self-expression. It is precisely this ability to hold the self in all of its dimensional beauty that is the very core of creative achievement and creative fulfilment.
Interestingly, a review of the latest science of daydreaming has shown that mind-wandering offers very personal rewards, including creative incubation, self-awareness, future planning, reflection on the meaning of one’s experiences, and even compassion. The key to coaching is to open up the conversation to a client’s passion which can assist in bringing them closer to their goals.
The essential part of coaching, then, is to help people to learn to silence that inner voice and allow their instincts, or their subconscious, to take over.
Coaching is an inwardly focussed space which can reveal the client to themselves. Neuroscientists have discovered that inwardly focused reflection employs a different brain network than outwardly focused attention. Creativity, innovation and the generation of new ideas don’t tend to arise when our attention is fully engaged in the outside world. The capacity to be mindful and be present at the moment without distraction or judgment is a vital skill for anyone who seeks joy and fulfilment in life, it’s particularly important for individuals to be able to shift from Control to Create.
Most often creative people are not driven by conventional and controlling ways of thinking and doing. In choosing to do things differently, they accept the possibility of uncertainty and failure—but it is precisely this risk that opens up the possibility of true innovation.
Application of the Control vs. Create Power Tool in Coaching
This power tool is useful in working with executive/leadership coaching clients. The shift to a more creative mindset and leadership style is not industry-specific, nor is it one-size-fits-all. In contrast to analytical forms of leadership, where the act of problem-solving culminates in one truth, Creative Leadership presupposes that the drive for a solution to a problem or challenge can have several outcomes and is to a significant degree shaped by the leader.
The following table looks at possible ways to use coaching to address a shift in perspective from control to create.
|
Controlling Perspective |
Coaching Application |
Vs Creative Perspective |
|
Protection and control of emotions and a lack of vulnerability |
Creating Trust in the coaching conversation, enabling an emotional connection and a non-judgemental space |
Create capacity within the client for self-discovery, learning and development |
|
Anxiety and fear result in controlling behaviour and mind-set |
Creating awareness by revealing the client to themselves in order to address the advantages and disadvantages of existing beliefs, values and fears |
A deeper level of self-awareness and Emotional Intelligence |
|
Controlling behaviour |
Use of powerful questioning and direction communication. Accessing client awareness and wisdom |
New learning, habits and perspectives. Feeling empowered to make alternative choices |
|
Stuck in the current situation with no options |
Exploring purpose, passion, vision and goals and acting as the accountability partner |
Generation of new ideas and forward movement |
Control vs. Create Power Tool in Coaching
On working through this power tool, I realised that a lot of the experiences I have had on the ICA journey have required me to shift from a controlling mindset to a more creative one.
I have learnt to trust myself, the client and the coaching process. I have been on a significant learning journey mostly about myself. I have found it hard not to control the outcome of the coaching conversation. I have also learnt how difficult it is to be 100% present and mindful but yet I have seen the amazing benefits of truly connecting and creating in that space.
In peer coaching, I have had wonderful opportunities to explore and learn, feel empowered and develop a passion for the coaching profession.
References
Belsky, S.2020, Creativity will be key to competing against AI in the future workforce - here's how. (Accessed 18 Jan.2021).
Fitzpatrick, L. 2014, The Cycle of Creativity: Gestalt Coaching and the Creative Process (Accessed 15 Jan. 2021)
Kaufman, SBGregoire, C.2015, Wired to Create: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind. Perigree Books
Van Dijk, M. Davidson, G. Mecozzi, V. 2017, Characteristics of Creative Leadership. (Accessed 9 Jan. 2021)
Author unknown. 2019, Control issues (Accessed 28 Dec. 2020)