Focus:

• ● Be Different
• ● Being focused
• ● Dives below the surface
• ● Gets to essence
• ● Space of shadow and light
• ● Illuminates one 's 'inner operating system '

Intent: To explore new ways of being and what it takes to embody them. Premise: An expanded or shifted way of being generates the desired results and outcomes.

What is Transformational Coaching?

Transformation has become a popular term in business, leadership, and coaching circles. Unfortunately, when a word is used so freely, we often lose touch with its true meaning and use it to describe something it is not. This can happen when the words 'change ' and 'transformation ' are used interchangeably.

We make changes all the time to the way we look, think, feel, and act. If we have intentionally set about on a course of action to learn or grow - to communicate better, to manage our emotions more effectively, to be a better friend or partner - we have likely grown and changed, but have we necessarily transformed? All transformation is change, but not all change is transformation.

In simple terms, transformational coaching is focused on enabling self-actualization. Far more than 'options-strategy-action ' to attain goals or clarity or to get better at something, transformational coaching dives deep into an individual 's psyche, focusing on who that person is and desires to become. Transformational coaching is therefore an ontological approach because it is about 'being ' rather than 'doing '.

(Definition: Ontological - Relating to metaphysics dealing with the nature of 'BEING’.)

Transactional vs. Transformational Coaching

This understanding highlights a key distinction between transactional and transformational coaching approaches: each has a very difficult fundamental premise. Transactional coaching rests on the premise that a person will uncover what they need to and move forward in meaningful ways based on their existing way of being. In other words, nothing needs to be explored nor shifted at the level of being in order for desired outcomes to be achieved.

Transformational coaching, on the other hand, rests on the premise that an expanded or shifted way of being - and the higher-order thoughts, perceptions, and energies available therein - is necessary to uncover what is needed.

The great transformational coaching question is therefore, "Who do you choose to be?" and what makes the process 'transformational ' is the learning and doing of what it takes to grow into the embodiment of that choice in being.

People will still bring their personal goals, objectives, and high dreams to the table in transformational coaching conversations; however both coach and client are aware that those function as the context for the deeper dive within, and are not the end game in themselves. The driving question remains grounded in a choice in being: Who do I need to be in order for my goals or dreams to become a reality? The 'becoming ' process is the transformational path, and the end game is the embodiment of higher than realized levels of existence.

To facilitate this process, a transformational coach supports people to dive below the surface and immerse themselves in self-exploration, to examine their beliefs, images, and

interpretations about who they are and their purpose and place in this world - it is all of these which give rise to their existing way of being, and examining them sheds light on why people experience life as they do.

It 's a Deep Dive into Your "Operating System"

From a coaching client it requires the willingness to face shadowy fears and beliefs in order to become free or patterns of thought and emotion that have held them captive for a lifetime. Change then happens at the core level of mind, within the person 's internal operating system, and when the person grows significantly at this level it creates the impetus for equally significant shifts in their behaviors, choices, and emotions.

Over time, real transformation occurs, and the necessary thoughts, attitudes, and actions which function to bring envisioned goals into existence will arise organically, as an expression of the fulfillment of their higher nature.

Transformational coaches can and will coach transactionally at times; inevitably there will be times when it is desirable to think or act in a more transactional manner. However, the transformational coach 's role is to maintain focus on the growth potentials of the deeper realm, and encourage exploration of being as precursor to taking action. Being is paramount to doing, and doing flows from being.

It 's Not So Easy As People Think

No matter what anyone says, this is no straightforward thing to do. Clarity-strategy-action can help create an intellectual awareness around the limiting belief and, at best, point to a solution for it, but it will not facilitate actual realizing of the belief.

Transactional coaching reaches its limits here because an intellect-based approach is never the vehicle for healing limiting beliefs, which is what it means to release those mental and emotional bonds, and to live into the experience of seli-actualization. What is needed is a sustainable shift at the level of being, which requires a transformational approach.

The intent of transformational coaching is to get to the essence, to the heart of the matter, to explore the ground of being. This is a space of light and shadow, of fear and joy, of limitations and grand possibilities. All coaching techniques foster self-awareness, but transformational coaching goes beyond that - it enables people to attend to the structures which underlie their sense of self (who they believe they are) and then, through an exploration of being, to assume higher than realized levels of existence (who they desire to be).