My Coaching Philosophy: Fix your course to a star
Leonardo wrote: “Fix your course to a star and you can navigate through any storm.” In other words, clarify your purpose and values and align them with your goals and strategies. This was the Maestro’s strategy for dealing with the extraordinary change and turmoil of his time. Now, the 7 Da Vinci Principles as expressed in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci serve as a guide to help you align around your star.
Curiosità – An insatiable quest for knowledge and continuous improvement
Every worthwhile quest begins by asking valuable questions. We begin coaching with curiosity about your most important issues and ideal outcomes. Frequently, clients experience a breakthrough in the first few sessions as they reformulate and gain insight into their critical concerns.
Dimostrazione – Learning from experience. Thinking for yourself.
I’m dedicated to helping you think independently and creatively. You’ll discover an expanded ability for objective, critical thinking and an enhanced capacity to consider different perspectives. We will question assumptions that may be limiting your progress and help you discover your own authentic wisdom.
Sensazione – Sharpening the senses. Mindfulness.
Mindfulness, expressed through present-centered, empathic listening, is at the heart of my approach to coaching.
Sfumato – Embracing ambiguity, uncertainty and change.
Learning to embrace ambiguity and endure confusion is a key to creative leadership, more than ever, leaders need to know how to stay centered and project confidence in the midst of uncertainty. My clients often report that they are able to shift out of long-held patterns of anxiety and turn that energy into enthusiasm for growth and change.
Arte/Scienza – Whole-brain thinking.
The path out of uncertainty requires patience and an understanding of the rhythms of the creative process. Viable solutions are characterized by an integration of logic and intuition. You will discover this balance and apply it in the search for solutions to your most pressing challenges.
Corporalità – Body-mind fitness, managing energy, cultivating balance and poise.
One of my life passions is helping clients transform the energy of stress into fuel for high performance. We will work together to optimize your well-being and raise your baseline of creative energy.
Connessione – Systems thinking. Seeing the big picture and the detail.
I’m dedicated to helping you define and accomplish your goals in the most efficient and intelligent way. We will reframe personal and professional challenges and make new connections in order to get specific desired results. You'll discover a balance between seeing the big picture of your purpose, values and long-term goals and the tasks you must focus on every day.
The Passaic High School wrestling team contended regularly for championships in New Jersey and in 1968 I was the top junior varsity 123-pound grappler. Making the varsity wouldn’t be an option that year as that slot was held by the state champion, who practiced a variety of devastating moves on me every day. This was valuable training, not just in humility, but also, as I would come to understand years later, learning to lose is the key to learning to win, and once you really understand that, the key to winning in life is to optimize your learning from all your experience.
Anyway, we were getting ready for a match against the nearby town of Lodi when the coach came to me and said, “You are wrestling varsity tomorrow—at 142.” Our best wrestler at 142 lbs was injured, and based on the resilience I had developed through getting thrashed on a daily basis by the state champ it was the consensus that I might have a better shot of surviving at 142 than the junior varsity wrestlers at 130, 136 or 142.
In the locker room right before the match, it was easy to imagine what Christians in the Roman Coliseum felt like before becoming lion chow. As I finished putting on the scarlet singlet and slid my knee pads into place the coach came by and looked me in the eyes. This was well before the first “Rocky” movie so I guess he didn’t have any good role models for inspirational speeches because all he said was: “Don’t get pinned!”
The next thing I remember was the feeling of wearing the varsity jacket while standing in the line-up at the 142-pound position as the referee walked along to check that our nails were cut short enough. The feeling is memorable because the jacket was way too big-like a tent! When my name was called for the match to begin, I walked out to the center of the mat, shook hands with my opponent, and most of what happened thereafter remains a blur, but the home crowd was cheering continuously, and at the end of the match the referee raised both of our hands. Not only did I not get pinned, I had earned a draw.
This seemed like a success given the expectations set by my coach but as I reflected on the match it slowly dawned on me that I could’ve won. Thus, a seed was planted that generated what has turned out to be a lifelong interest in how coaches help us set expectations for ourselves and how those expectations can either limit or unleash our potential.
This led me to study Psychology as an undergraduate at Clark University, followed by 3 years of intensive training to become a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, the performance coaching methodology taught at the Juilliard School of Performing Arts and the Royal Academies of Music and Drama, whilst simultaneously completing a Master’s thesis on “Psycho-physical Re-education” (1978). The thesis became my first book BodyLearning, (1981) and it includes stories of learning how to learn, and to coach, juggling, martial arts, singing, swimming, public speaking and writing. Around the same time, I trained as a coach of Tim Gallwey’s Inner Game with Sir John Whitmore in London, and then became the first Master Teacher of Tony Buzan’s Mental Literacy program (1982).
Shortly thereafter, I began offering executive and life coaching, and have worked with many extraordinary clients over the years. My vision has always been to leverage the power of business to promote human flourishing by helping aspiring conscious leaders set expectations that unleash human potential, instead of being pinned down by habitual, conventional thinking.