The Next 7 Habits of Highly Effective Coaches: Habit 9 – Know Thy Self

Habit 9 – Know Thy Self

Socrates’s gentle reminder “wise is he who knows himself” remains one of the hardest things to do. As coach, you need to know yourself better than anyone else. Befriending the person in the mirror may not be easy or comfortable, but it’s not until we take a good look at ourselves that we can become more congruent and effective at what we do.

Exercise: Personal Reflection

One day, at sunset, find a quiet place to sit. Have a sheet of blank paper and a pencil to hand. On the lefthand side of the sheet of paper, list your personal values. On the righthand side of the same sheet of paper, note down at least one concrete example of how you lived that value today. Come up with one example per value. Take a look at the output. How quickly did you write down your values? How easy was it to come up with the examples? What have you learned about yourself from this exercise?

For more information, see: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… Why Me? an Agile Fairytale for leveraging individual strengths and weaknesses of your team.

About This Blog Entry

The Next 7 Habits of Highly Effective Coaches is part of a mini series inspired by the style of Paul Coelho‘s “Manual of the Warrior of Light“. You can find the first 7 habits here.

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