Many coaches from our CTEDU community have been reaching out this week and asking for advice and resources on how to combat systemic racism and use coaching as a tool to increase awareness and action to heal as humanity. I want to acknowledge the deep pain our country is experiencing together with and for our black and brown sisters and brothers.
As leaders of this organization, John and I are doing our work both internally and externally, listening, processing, using our voice, and taking action to make a difference. We invite you to join us in doing the same. We are in this together.
I’ve gathered a short list of three points to lean into while coaching, as well as seven resources to increase your knowledge and awareness. We value your presence and voice. Please contribute to the conversation and share additional resources in the comments below.
Coaching, and the impact it can have on individuals and communities that choose the path of growth, is transformative. I encourage you to keep doing your own work, keep examining the edges of your comfort zones, digging deep, unpacking what is yours to unpack, fighting for what’s right, and to never stop growing.
Coaching Tools To Lean into Right Now
- Leave space for check-in, even if it takes the entire session: In challenging times sometimes having a safe space to process ideas and emotion is priceless. While you might feel pressure to run through each of the seven elements in a classic coaching session, it’s ok for Check-In to take a large section of your coaching session’s time. In an hour-long session, it’s not unusual for clients to take 30 minutes on simply processing out loud what’s on their heart and mind.
- Understand the boundaries of coaching and when it is appropriate to tie in outside resources: Coaching is designed to help clients gain clarity on what they really want and to design their lives to achieve it. While this approach applies to a myriad of situations, sometimes it’s useful to draw on outside resources and suggest books, blogs, and posts for your client to explore. Please feel free to cut and paste the resources listed below for your clients.
- Lean into the three trusts – 1)trust the client, 2) trust yourself, 3) trust the process: Coaching is centered around proactive, empathetic listening, and it’s so well-designed to support clients in tough, challenging situations, that not much modification to the coaching process needs to be made. You truly can lean into trusting your client and the coaching process—from looking at limiting and empowering perspectives to the Future-self exercise. And finally, you can trust yourself and your intuition.
Resources
“A Perspective on Racism, Humanity, and Coaching from one African American Life Coach”
CTEDU Coach Toni Holloway, MA, and CTEDU Co-Founder John Andrew Williams have an impromptu and poignant conversation. As a life coach and an African American woman, Toni Holloway offers her point-of-view on racism, humanity, and whiteness in the context of being a coach. John guides the conversation and Toni shares her honest perspective and reflections on these topics in the space of a very heightened and emotional moment in time.
“Here are 8 books on race and privilege to learn how to be a white ally”
*Embedded in the ABC News article is an interview focusing on how parents can help kids understand the protests and fight racism.
“Looking for books about racism? Experts suggest these must-read titles for adults and kids”
USA Today
The Well-Read Black Girl is a book club dedicated to black women writers.
Well-Read Black Girl
Ten Steps to Non-Optical Allyship
@mireillecharper
The Seven Circles of Whiteness
@blackandembodied
Here is an excellent resource created by the Smithsonian https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/being-antiracist
Thank you for speaking up about this, posting resources, and encouraging growth! I’m grateful to be a part of the CTEDU community and look forward to further conversations and learning around these important and absolutely necessary topics.