The worlds of existential and coaching may at first sight
appear to be polar opposites. Smoke-filled Parisian cafes and angst-ridden
discussions about the futility of it all might appear to have no place in the boardroom or when dealing with your own personal issues.
A new book, Existential Perspectives on Coaching, would suggest otherwise. The perspective it offers is that the existential dimension is exactly what is needed to provide depth to the process.
David Arnaud and I have written a chapter aiming to demonstrate exactly this in the realm of major life decisions.
The management literature informs us that there are 5
logical steps to decision-making
1) Understanding the situation and framing the decision-problem
2) Understanding what matters
3) Searching for options
4) Choosing the best option
5) Implementing the decision
It is helpful to work through these stages logically when making decisions. As you do so, though you may well encounter existential
concerns, often masquerading as doubts, anxieties and paradoxes.
The six existential concerns that we find most relevant to decision making
are as follows:-
1.
Emotions -including existential guilt and existential anxiety
2.
Values and Meaning
3. Freedom, Responsibility,
Facticity and Choice
4. Uncertainty
5. Sedimented beliefs, behaviour patterns
and values
6. Time and Mortality
So how can this work in practice?
Consider Susan who is
35 and contemplating whether to have
children. She tells you, her coach, that she thinks about the question every day and lurches between desperately wanting to have children and thinking she wants children, but not just yet. Her sleepless nights and news of friends' pregnancy and recent birthday bring her to see you, a coach who specializes in decision-making. Using the five steps given by the management literature will help - it provides a
logical framework, and helps her focus on her questions. What it does less well is her her deal with conflicting emotions or provide the tools for
reflection on values or other existential concerns. Our chapter goes into much more depth about how this works in practice with a case involving a career change and one about making a choice about a relationship.
To find out more, see Existential Perspectives on Coaching
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