f you are reading this article, it is simply because today I felt like sharing a reflection about my work.
Not a theory about coaching. Not a technical explanation from a manual.
Just a very concrete thought, which might also be one of the simplest ways to understand what a coach does and, more specifically, what I do.
The life of a coach varies a lot.
Sometimes you sit with an executive who has to make important decisions, manage pressure, responsibilities, people, expectations and vision. In those moments, coaching can become quite a rare space: a place where you can stop, listen more carefully to what is really happening, distinguish what is urgent from what is important (which may sound obvious, but sometimes they are two very different things) and recover clarity.
Other times you meet someone who is going through a transition. Maybe there is no business topic, no major strategic decision, no performance goal, but there is a personal question, a phase of change, something that needs to be looked at with a bit more attention.
And then there are the athletes.
I continue to follow them with great pleasure, and they give me a lot of satisfaction. From the outside, it may seem that with an athlete everything revolves around the result: the race, the time, the performance, the improvement. And of course, the result matters, it would be naive to say otherwise.
But the more I work with them, the more I realise that the most interesting part is not only seeing whether they go faster, win, reach a goal or improve a performance.
The most beautiful part is seeing how they change as people.
They change in the way they listen to themselves, in the way they stay with pressure, in the way they respond to a mistake, to a bad day, to a phase where things are simply not working. They change in their relationship with limits, effort, expectations and judgement. Basically, they change the relationship they have with themselves.
Sometimes real progress is not immediately visible from the outside. It is not always a number, a time, a ranking, or a decision made more quickly. Sometimes progress is visible in the way a person starts to be different inside what they do.
For me, coaching also goes through the body.
Simply because the body often says things that the head has not yet put in order. And this is a fundamental element, actually a central one. I say this as someone who has worked with the body for 25 years, and as a Three Brains Intelligence Coach:
The head looks for clarity.
The heart looks for meaning and connection.
The gut looks for safety, courage and the possibility to act.
When these parts begin to speak to each other a little better, the way a person decides, moves, chooses, communicates and faces what is in front of them also changes.
This is true for an executive, for a person going through a personal change, and for an athlete.
The contexts are different, but the central point remains similar: before the role, before the goal, before the result, there is always a person.
And maybe one of the most fulfilling things about being a coach is exactly this: having the privilege of accompanying very different people and seeing, sometimes up close and sometimes with discretion, those small passages where they become a little more present, more solid, more true.
Not “other” than who they are, but more themselves.
So? In work, in life, in sport, before the result, there is always the person.
I simply wanted to share this.
If you would like to understand better how coaching can support you in a phase of decision, change or performance, you can contact me and tell me what you are going through. From there, we can understand together whether a first conversation in person or online makes sense.