MY INTEREST IN YOUR STORY

As we were wrapping up a leadership coaching conversation, the leader asked me this out of pure curiosity: “I've been doing most of the talking for the last hour... and I wonder why you would be interested in listening to me go on like that?”

This was the first time someone had asked me this question. Not because he doubted my interest, but perhaps because it is unusual to be heard deeply and with complete presence.

The question stumped me. All I could say in that moment was that I just was genuinely interested.

As I have sat with that question through the week, I still don’t have one clear answer. But here are some cues that have emerged for me:

• It brings me immense joy to share that sacred space of coaching with another human being

• ‘Listening’ is only one part of it - perhaps the more visible part. I am actually there to witness what unfolds for both of us in the space

• As every coach will affirm, what happens for the client also happens for the coach - insights, awareness, release, possibility and so on

• It has also been a full-circle moment for me. When I started out as a coach, I would sometimes hesitate to probe too deeply into someone’s personal space. Today, I find myself trusting my intuition far more - allowing it to guide me wherever the exploration needs to go

And perhaps, at the deepest level, I am interested because every human being carries a world within them. To be invited into that world, even briefly, feels deeply sacred to me.

So yes, I am very, very interested in ‘listening’ to you.

Or perhaps more accurately - in being fully present to you in that sacred space we co-create as equals.