Abstract
We share real stories of pivotal moments when coaches experienced the reality of their clients shifting in some way. The experience seems to be one of mutuality—their euphoria becomes ours. We chose the title of our book, Pivoting: A Coach’s Guide to Igniting Substantial Change, to describe a topic that thoroughly captured our curiosity as researchers and riveted our attention as executive coaches. How do our clients make substantial change? What role do we play? What, if anything, do we contribute when clients alter their attitudes of mind?
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Notes
- 1.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) is a seminal work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell in which he discusses his theory of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies.
- 2.
Wilcock (2013).
- 3.
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. The new scientific paradigm is commonly referred to as a new view of the world based on findings in quantum physics, chaos theory, self-organization and complexity theory.
- 4.
As an example, research interest in the concept of intuition “has exploded across analytic philosophy in recent decades” and “is apparent across a broad swathe of academia (and perhaps beyond)” (Andow, 2015, p. 189). Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, calls intuition an experience of inner knowing (Myers, 2002).
- 5.
James (1890).
- 6.
James (1890), p. 239.
- 7.
James (1890), p. 239.
- 8.
James’ stream of thought influenced the works of well-known authors such as James Joyce’s Ulysses, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and Samuel Beckett’s Molloy.
- 9.
Keyes and Haidt (2003).
- 10.
Watkins and Mohr (2001).
- 11.
Gergen (1978).
- 12.
Gergen (1978).
- 13.
Gergen (1994).
- 14.
Watkins and Mohr (2001).
- 15.
Veltrop (2002).
- 16.
Six master coaches were involved in our research project. They are mentioned by name in the acknowledgements.
- 17.
McWilliams (2016), p. 4.
- 18.
McWilliams (2016), p. 2.
- 19.
McWilliams (2016), p. 3.
- 20.
McWilliams (2016), p. 3.
- 21.
McWilliams (2016), p. 8.
- 22.
American pragmatists include classists John Dewey, William James, George Herbert Mead and Charles Peirce, as well as neopragmatists such as Richard Rorty and third-wave pragmatists such as Joseph Margolis.
- 23.
McWilliams (2016), p. 16.
- 24.
Rorty (1999).
- 25.
Margolis (2010).
- 26.
Gadamer (1960/1997).
- 27.
Odman (1988), p. 63.
- 28.
Heidegger (1962).
- 29.
Merleau-Ponty (1962/1996).
- 30.
Scharmer (2009).
- 31.
Mezirow (1997), pp. 5–6.
- 32.
Orem, Binkert and Clancy (2007).
- 33.
McWilliams (2016), p. 1.
- 34.
Camus (1961).
- 35.
McWilliams (2016).
- 36.
Shotter (2010), p. 82.
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Clancy, A.L., Binkert, J. (2017). A Pivotal Journey. In: Pivoting. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60263-3_1
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