#116 What are your coaching bright spots and are they serving you?

I’m sure we have all heard of having ‘blind spots’ in our personal and professional lives. In coaching, 'blind spots' refer to moments where personal biases or processes interfere with professional practice. As one supervisee eloquently put it, "I would miss my supervision; I would feel like I was flying blind without it. It's not just my supervisor's eyes, but their ability to open mine."

Less often talked about are our ‘deaf spots’ and ‘dumb spots’. Ekstein (1969) introduced the concept of deaf spots, where anxiety, shame, or fear might prevent a coach from truly hearing their coachee. This can happen when the coach’s shame is triggered by something the coach has said, and they lose focus on what is said next. He also described dumb spots, representing ignorance about the coachee's experiences, for example a neurotypical coach misinterpreting their neurodivergent coachee’s lived experience.

On a brighter note, Heath and Heath (2010) highlighted 'bright spots' as successful strategies that work well. In a coaching context, focusing on a coachee’s bright spots helps them identify and replicate these strategies to achieve their goals. However, a coach's inclination to focus on their own bright spots might inadvertently lead to missing crucial signals from their coachee.

How aware are you of your blind, deaf, dumb, and in particular bright spots? Perhaps this is something to take to supervision where you can generate a new understanding of how your personal bright spot preferences might interfere with your professional practice.

References

Ekstein, R. (1969). Concerning the Teaching and Learning of Psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 17: 312-332.

Heath C. and Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to change things when change is hard, London: Random House.