I got a hammock and shared the news with a friend happily “I always wanted one”. She asked "Where do you put it?” I replied quickly “My patio”. She said with a sorry voice “You have no privacy, then”.  

Guess what? When I lay on the hammock, I feel like I am on the beach. I can see the sky and feel the breeze. Do I care about privacy on the beach? :)

My friend has a subjective truth - when you lay on the hammock, you need privacy. She projected her subjective truth to me as THE truth (objective truth) without thinking if that’s true for me.

How many times in our life did we project our subjective truth to others and expected them to see it as THE truth? We probably told our kids many truths we believed and they found out it’s not THE truth when they grow older. For example, we probably told them “if I can do it, you can do it" without thinking it could be not true.

Only when we can differentiate between a subjective truth and an objective truth, we can have clarity.

Life with clarity is a good one!

Leaders with clarity are the ones who can inpsire their people to do extraordinary things!

In “Clear Leadership”, Gervase R. Bushe shared four leadership skills. 1. Aware Self – the ability of observing and knowing one’s own experience; 2. Descriptive Self – the ability to describe one’s own experience so that others empathize with it; 3. Curious Self – the ability of getting others to describe their experience; 4. Appreciate Self – the ability to find the best in people and processes. A person who has these four skills can provide leadership when they do something that helps a group or organization to achieve its goals or increase its effectiveness.

Interesting enough, I have seen those four skills as the key skills for an effective coach.  I have been very intentionally working on mastering them. I can listen and hear my clients only when I master self awareness. I can understand my client’s experience only when I master the skill of reframing and curiosity with clarity. I can coach my clients to tab into their potential and eliminate interferences only when I master self awareness and  appreciative creativity and conversations.

Being an effective coach is like being an effective leader. My leadership coaching training has made me to be a stronger leader. It’s really interesting to see the relatedness between the two.