Morpheus Coaching

This short posting aims to capture what started as an impromptu piece of ‘corridor coaching’ and ended with a pretty impressive ’script’ for use with others. It has proven very useful and I used it twice in one day  last week.

The original conversation was about someone’s discomfort in writing a personal statement about herself in connection with a bid for promotion. She said that she was told as a child ‘not to boast’ and this manifests itself in a number of ways in her adulthood, one of which is a real discomfort in any behaviour she has to do that includes promoting herself or her achievements. We talked around the challenge of such a belief with regard to its effect upon promotions etc and there was little movement – UNTIL – I asked her, out of the blue, “what were you told about telling the truth?” Instantly she replied “I was told to always tell the truth”.  “From the same source” I enquired. “Yes, my father”. came the reply. “So, if you really had achieved these things it would be truthful to say so, in fact it would be less honest NOT to…” I replied. “Hmmmmm, you have a really good point” she said, going very quiet.

We explored the difference between boasting and reporting and the rest was left to her to move on with.