All of us experience transitions in our lives. For many coaches, becoming a coach was itself a significant transition—a conscious move away from what we had been doing towards something that almost felt like a calling.
And as coaches, we are often invited to support clients through transitions of their own—some chosen, others unexpected. How can we help people navigate these periods with greater awareness, curiosity and confidence?
That was at the heart of our August HKICC Coaching Book Club, where our small group explored Working Identity by Professor Herminia Ibarra.
We began by reflecting on transitions in our own lives and how we actually navigated them. An interesting pattern quickly emerged: most of us didn’t wait for absolute clarity before taking action. We took a step, learned from the experience, and the action itself helped create greater clarity. That became our first big insight of the evening.
We then explored Ibarra’s idea of “possible selves.” Rather than trying to identify the one right answer to “Who should I become?”, each of us imagined three possible versions of our future selves and noticed which one sparked the most curiosity.
Through reflection and conversation, we turned that curiosity into small experiments—something each of us could actually try rather than simply think about.
Perhaps our biggest takeaway was this:
Don’t let the enormity of a transition stop you from moving. Take a step small enough that you don’t need complete certainty to take it. Then notice what you learn.
There is an important lesson here for us as coaches too. Instead of always helping clients think their way towards clarity, perhaps sometimes our role is to help them experiment their way towards it.
And if we are willing to do the same in our own lives, we can model the curiosity, courage and openness we invite from our clients.