Today is the last day of the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute’s July program. I was challenged on Day 1 of this program to share my writing before it ended, and in an effort to continue keeping my promises to myself - here we are. Even though I’m still trying to process where “here” even is.
Like so many of my coaching sessions this week, there is no defined topic for this post, no discernible end goal in sight. But as we practiced many times over the past 10 days, I will try to follow what has heart and meaning and pull the threads together until this tapestry of thoughts takes some kind of shape.
I joined this cohort with 15 other strangers. People across different ages, different locations, and different walks of life. On that first day I remember joining the Zoom meeting and immediately sizing everyone up in an attempt to predict who I’d connect with by the end. Some connections were obvious - folks who were roughly the same age or who matched my skin tone or who worked in similar roles. Others were not so obvious, and as the days progressed it became clear to me, as it did for all of us, that first impressions never paint the full picture of the people before us. They can never convey the full richness of our experiences or identities.
I am unexpectedly still feeling very emotional, raw from questions and conversations that cut me open and laid me bare for all to see. At the same time, I feel so much warmth and connection recalling how the people in this cohort also allowed themselves to be cracked open, creating space for us to experience the full range of human emotions - joy, sadness, fear, peace - together. There is a magic that happens when we allow ourselves to unfold and be fully present and vulnerable with another human. How else to describe it other than like an exchanging of handshakes and secrets between souls.
We all signed up for this program thinking that we were going to learn how to be effective coaches. While I have no doubt that the program has equipped us to do just that, I think more importantly it taught us how to be human. And how to be human with other humans. Because despite our perceived differences - whether religious, political, cultural, or otherwise - at the end of the day we are all human, the most powerful common denominator of them all. I’ve learned that to coach is to recognize our shared humanity, and to help unearth possibilities for collaboration, insight, and mutual growth.
I’m so grateful to have had this experience with this community, with the 15 other strangers-now-friends (and 12 faculty members!) I’ve spent the last several days with. I will carry these 10 days with me for a long time to come, as well as all of the lessons on vulnerability, empathy, and presence that came with them. ❤️