Significant and Lasting Change
Heartfelt actions help people to gain a new perspective. When someone acts from the heart toward another person’s vulnerability, someone can open the possibility of a significant and lasting change (Dutton & Workman, 2011). In addition, the warmness of wholehearted actions from a compassionate person creates a connection that cultivates other people’s growth and sense of belongingness. For instance, small sustaining acts can enrich the sense of community where people can build bridges between other people’s points of view that others can stand on and ultimately provoke a lasting change. Heartfelt actions can lead to meaningful and lasting transformation.
Empathy as the Precursor for Change
Empathy skills help people to initiate the shift from judgment to compassion. When empathetic people can walk in other’s shoes, empathetic people are able to suspend judgments and bias. However, at this positive emotional stage, compassion has not been achieved yet. Empathetic people must take actions to address other people suffering to achieve compassion. Thus, empathy is the precursor for compassion (Pavlovich & Krahnke, 2012).
Transformation is not an Isolated Act
People’s goodwill fosters other people’s sense of control, productivity and self-efficacy (Grant, 2010). People who have been touched by a compassionate individual can experience enhanced sense of control because one acts with increased autonomy and more competence. Throughout this process, people also experience a higher sense of meaning, purpose and ultimately improved self-efficacy. In addition, people practice self-discovery, which leads to new learning and one’s transformation. Thus, shifting is not an isolated act, but a process of self-discovery, new learning, increased autonomy and self-control, improved self-efficacy and ultimately one’s transformation. The coaching application is presented next.
Coaching Application
In this final section, the coaching application of compassion capability as opposite to judgment is discussed. There is no doubt that compassion capability can be applied on the coach’s behaviors and on the coaching process. As an illustration, compassion can be applied on coaching process as the practice of three steps (Kanov et al., 2004); total acceptance (Marques et al., 2010); acknowledging, appraising and celebrating (Lilius et al., 2011); love and tolerance (Boyatzis et al., 2006). In the following lines, the coaching application through the lens of compassion capability is offered.
Noticing, Feeling and Responding
The three stages of compassion capability can enhance the coach’s behaviors toward the client’s agenda. Using these three compassionate acts such as noticing, feeling and responding, the coach can display an enhanced genuine concern for the client’s wellbeing, short-tem goals and long-term goals. In addition, a compassionate coach should be able to have superior and full understanding of the client’s concerns, values since compassion capability allows individuals to go above and beyond to help people. In the same vein, compassionate behaviors empower the coach to meet and exceed the client’s expectations because the compassionate coach is capable to show a genuine concern and need for serving the client. Thus, coaches with compassionate capability are able to have an enhanced desire for service and understanding of the client’s agenda.
Total Acceptance
Coaches practicing the compassion capability of total acceptance can have a whole understanding of the client as a human being. A compassionate coach should be able to demonstrate a genuine respect for the client’s learning style, culture, perceptions, professional and personal background. In addition, a compassionate coach is able to suspend judgment and able to accept the client as a whole person. For instance, the compassionate coach is able to identify the client’s strengths, weaknesses, and able to determine opportunities for new learning without judgment. Hence, total acceptance is a compassionate behavior that allows the coaches to overcome judgment.
Acknowledging, Praising and Celebrating
A compassionate coach can display positive feelings and moods to support the client during the coaching process to enhance the client’s transformation. A compassionate coach can genuinely acknowledge the client’s small wins, progress and new behaviors and new learning. In praising, the compassionate coach can display a positive feeling to reward the client for the client’s accomplishments during the coaching process. In celebrating, the compassionate coach can authentically create lightness, use humor display energy to applaud the client’s success. Thus, if the coach can display positive compassionate feelings, the coach can boost and endure the relationship between the coach and the client.
Love and Tolerance
Compassionate coaches can display love and tolerance to frankly support and truly understand the client’s wants, needs and desires. The compassionate coach can show love in the coaching process through heartfelt actions. When the compassionate coach performs heartfelt actions, the compassionate coach opens his / her heart to genuinely help the client to learn new perspectives and ultimately change. Practicing tolerance allows the compassionate coach to demonstrate serenity and patience during the interaction with the client. Consequently, love and serenity can be applied on the coaching process to enhance the relationship between the coach and the client.
Reflection
Conclusion
Compassion and judgment are two opposite perspectives. Compassion capability increases people’s desire to achieve personal transformation and change while judgment decreases people’s willingness to pursue change. This power tool can help coaches to apply compassion capability during the coaching process, and ultimately can assist the client to pursue and aim personal transformation, new learning and change. This power tool certainly presents the disadvantages of using judgment within people’s daily activities, the organization and the coaching process. It is recommended to develop new power tools on the topics of transaction versus transformation and gratitude versus blame.
References
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