Catherine Fourmond
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

I love this leadership question Carlos! I’ve been asking myself similar questions lately as I’m getting my feet wet practicing integral coaching. If I may, let me share what came up for me as I was reading your beautiful, comprehensive post, and let me know if any of this resonates.

For me, in any relationship, we are first and foremost people, actual real humans. We simply are persons connecting toward a common vision. I usually find it helpful to speak from my truth, being transparent like you say, about what is happening for me in this particular conversation at this particular time, and offer the space for the relationship to unfold. This gives the other person the chance to meet me with their skills and experience, based on their particular understanding of what’s happening or what’s needed. One question comes to mind: what would be the most helpful for the person to know about me or the situation, so that they can show up in their fullness?

We naturally tend to take on different roles like the manager, the coach or the friend to try to avoid showing up as a whole human person (with our unique makeup, greatness and flaws), because it puts us in a vulnerable state at times, and also because we are conditioned to show up as a particular role. When in conversations, I highly respect being seen as a person, before I’m seen as an employee, a friend or a client. These roles, however, like any other roles such as a brother, partner, wife, dad, teacher, mentor, etc… are very useful when we need to convey a particular message from a specific point of view. They give us and the other person a sort of shared legitimate lense through which we interact. Each of these roles have a different mix of responsibilities and duties. Calling out which hat we’re putting on at this very minute, helps provide the safety and transparency to connect and align on something important, while safeguarding the integrity of the relationship on the human level.

And when we add to that a little bit of our heartfelt presence to the connection and conversation, we find ourselves leading from the heart, as a whole person. This way of relating, especially when leading, may sound naïve to some, but I believe it to be a worthwhile dream to pursue and practice.

    Catherine Fourmond

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    Authenticity is the safety net of transformation.