5: We are Verbs, not Nouns

As coaches, it is tempting to try to consolidate our understanding of our clients’ feelings, motivations, and actions into a few tidy labels. This labeling process acts as a type of convenient mental shorthand. It is far easier to explain complex human behavior through the use of a few simple labels, than it is to engage in the tedious task of unraveling the complex interactions that occur between leadership and organizational context.

We might look at working with clients as being similar to working with problems of chaos and complexity. At some point in our understanding of a complex issue, after having done the work required to explore key variables and phenomena, we are able to state what is going on in a simplified manner. We in fact, “codify” or “label” the patterns we see through our own direct experience and observation. The danger comes when we simplify before understanding the nature of the complex issue we are facing.