Self-as-instrument: How to Integrate your Whole Self as Coach or Leader

Any Coach or Leader has countless tools, methodologies, and systems at their disposal through which they can use to support their people. While different moments or situations may call for different approaches, it is up to the Coach or Leader to create an integrated experience of support. Tapping into 'self-as-instrument' can help guide this work.

What does 'self-as-instrument' actually mean?

Self-as-instrument is an integrated way of being, wherein a person embodies their role through the collective experience. Instead of being a Coach or Leader that is using a tool or methodology, when using self-as-instrument, that tool or methodology is seamlessly integrated into the essence of how support happens.

For example, a Coach or a Leader could use the Appreciative Inquiry approach as a means of support for a Client or team member. A non-integrated approach positions this tool as something separate that the Coach or Leader is using to support and it could feel more mechanical in action. When that same Coach or Leader is utilizing self-as-instrument, the elements of Appreciative Inquiry can be used more organically, in the moment, and are threaded more seamlessly into the act of support.

This may seem subtly different, but the experience of the person being supported or developed will feel more authentic and connected to the relationship. A Coach or Leader leaning into their self-as-leader instinctively trusts their instinct and knowledge, calling very naturally upon the most relevant means of support in the moment, to create the most integrated and supported experience possible for those they lead and support.

How can you utilize your self-as-instrument?

1 - Trust your instinct and know it's already in you

First and foremost, you already utilize your 'self-as-instrument' whether you realize it or not. You have a deep power and authority in you that you already call into action to support those around you. As you build awareness you begin to deepen this connection to self that enables the means and capacity to support.

2 - Get grounded

To trust yourself is to know yourself, and to know yourself requires that you are centered and grounded. This grounding supports your capacity to call into action your diverse and broad lived experience to be able to best support in the moment. You can utilize heart, mind, and/or body exercises to cultivate grounding in your day to day.

3 - Stay curious

While grounding provides the means to tap into the deep knowledge that exists inside you, curiosity keeps you open to the ways in which you can continue to evolve yourself, as well as provides the capacity to know when support or guidance would be helpful.

4 - Grow and put that knowledge into action

Our selves are constantly evolving, and the most intentional way to evolve our capacity is to expand our knowledge. Being grounded and curious provide the foundational elements for new knowledge and personal growth to be integrated into our selves so that we may call upon them as needed.

5 - Tap into your power to solidify growth

Put your growth into practice by placing intention into utilizing new tools and concepts that you learn. To integrate this learning into your way of being and to access it as a part of your self-as-instrument, you must use it and get familiar with it. Over time you naturally call upon this newly integrated knowledge and it too becomes centrally integrated into your means of support.

Cultivating awareness around self-as-instrument allows for deeper personal growth and integration and subsequently expands your capacity to support those around you. True to the Flawed Leader vision to Grow Together, this approach taps into and honors our humanity as a means of authentically supporting those around us.