A participant shared this during a coaching workshop that I facilitated for a group of educational leaders last week. It reminded me of a story: A boy was observing a caterpillar struggle to push through a tiny hole in the cocoon to become a butterfly. Feeling sorry for the caterpillar, the boy cut the cocoon open to make the hole bigger. The butterfly emerged. But, it would never fly. Turns out, the struggle to break free is a natural process that forces fluid from the butt

Reflections about authenticity (like this CNA article ) always resonate with me. Authenticity is a topic that is close to my heart but one that I couldn't articulate very clearly until I started on my journey to become a professional coach. As I coached others and as others coached me, I became clearer about what authenticity looks like and why it matters. It all began with this question - who am I? It is a question that we don’t often ask ourselves because we assume we know

"It's not how good you are now; it's how good you're going to be that really matters," says Atul Gawande, American surgeon, writer and public health researcher. Watch this Ted Talk where he tells his own story of how having a coach helped him to become a better surgeon and how we can all become better versions of ourselves by having a coach.