Change agents are focused on making changes within systems. These can include changes in an organization between leaders and their teams, between different teams, between team members, or changes within an individual.
Because
no one lives in a vacuum, coaches are, essentially, always coaching or creating
changes within some type of “system” whether that’s a team, an organization, or
a person.
But,
more importantly, change agents seek to make real, meaningful changes for the
betterment of each of these systems.
Coaches
are change agents because they affect change by creating an environment where
people can be heard. Often dysfunctional systems stem from a lack of listening,
empathy, and understanding on the part of each individual in that system.
As
change agents, coaches can create changes for the better and allow systems to
function much more effectively and with increased performance by
providing these listening spaces.
Creating Real Change
As change agents, what are
some effective ways coaches can help leaders, teams, and individuals? What
approach works best to bring about real, long-lasting change?
There are several approaches that change agents
can use to create change. When coaches are change agents, they use an approach
that can create real, long-lasting changes because they are coming from a place
of empathy and reflection. A place of
non-judgement that allows for things to come to light, for introspection and
for new ideas to come forth.
Coaches help individuals and organizations to
help themselves by creating safe
spaces where individuals, leaders, and organizations
can ask the right questions without fear of judgement. They are a means by
which people can see themselves and their environment more clearly. A guide
that allows individuals, teams, and organizations to find their own paths to success.
Lighting the Way
As a coach and change agent,
you’re a partner and a guide on a journey. You are there to shedlight so that the path can become visible.
When coaches act as change agents,
they shed light on the entire system, bringing awareness on an individual
level, but also causing that awareness to permeate throughout the organization.
Guiding individuals to ask the right questions about themselves, but also to
ask the right questions in relation to team members, leaders, and the
organization itself.
When
coaches listen and individuals feel heard, they can begin to see themselves and
their relationships with every member in the system more clearly. They realize
they are part of something bigger and they understand how they fit in the
whole. This clears the way for empathy and an understanding of self and others
within the organization. And this makes room for positive change, bonding, and
growth.
This empathy and understanding facilitates
change because when individuals understand how they fit in a system and that
they are part of something, they become invested in it and its success.
Canada
Coach Academy can help you guide
individuals and organizations toward change for the better as a coach and change
agent!
