Coaching for Transformation

Three Essentials of Lasting Change

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We speak of change with astonishing ease. Change populates keynote speeches, boardroom strategy decks, and New Year’s resolutions scribbled onto café napkins. And yet, anyone who has earnestly attempted to change, whether in the quiet corners of one’s private life or the bustling corridors of an organization, knows that transformation rarely arrives on command. It is not a switch to be flipped but a process to be engaged, one that requires careful attention, discernment, and courage.

Courageous, discerning change is rarely done in isolation. A coach is a partner who helps individuals claim their agency, clarify what matters, and take meaningful steps toward their goals. Coaches can serve a crucial role in the change process.

Genuine change, or transformation, is not wrapped up in platitudes or a ‘fake-it-’til-you-make-it’ approach. Intentional transformation is a deliberate, iterative process that honors one’s complexity, innate capacity for growth, and individual agency. When intentional transformation happens, whether in specific behavior or on a foundational identity level, it always goes through three phases: Awareness, Ownership, and Action.

These are not novel concepts in themselves, but it is the depth of engagement with each — and the interrelationship between — that distinguishes fleeting adjustments from profound, enduring transformation.

Let us examine each in turn: