​LISTENING TRANSFORMS

I hit rejection and one mentor offered unsolicited advice. I rushed to get away from the pain of that conversation.  The next day a colleague sat listening to me tell the story of my pain, helping me hear myself and a way forward.  I wished that this conversation wouldn’t end.  It took me a while to understand the difference between the two encounters.  It was listening.  Listening transforms relationships, individuals, and situations.  Coaches embrace this kind of deep listening.

Listening shows up in work, as well as friendship.  Saint John Vianney demonstrated the power of listening through his life’s struggles and rejections, shared Mary Luti in this devotional. Vianney, outshining his self-doubts and frustrations through the French revolution, listened for hours to the people of his small community.  They found life in his listening.   As a coach, I celebrate his valuable example of deep listening. 

Everyone can learn to listen. Most of us fail to make time to listen deeply, despite our desires to help others and to make a difference in this world.  All of us long to be listened to.  Few of us feel we have many, if any, people who truly listen to us.  Engaging a coach can give you that place of being listened to.

Coaching’s deep listening offers space and a mirror that transforms goals, work, and life in ways that we frequently miss out on otherwise.   When was the last time you were deeply listened to?  How often do you have that opportunity?  Imagine having a regular time to be heard.  What might happen if you had someone deeply listening, helping you to leap ahead in life?
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1Mary Luti wrote of Saint John Vianney, his struggles and the power of his life of listening in this UCC devotional on June 24,2021. As a coach I saw an valuable example of deep listening.

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