Creating Awareness vs. Evoking Awareness

In the past 25 years, the coaching industry has progressed and developed in some very substantial spaces. Staying current and relevant is something that the International Coaching Federation (ICF) takes with high regard. In November 2019, after combing through 2 years of research, the ICF simplified and streamlined our Core Competencies. Refining these competencies was greatly needed as it's these placeholders that shape and mold each of our client's coaching experiences.
 
After diving deep into the new version, something about the awareness rendition piqued my interest. This new, revised (now 7th) competency, Evoking Awareness, feels very client focused. Client focused in a deep digging, action oriented, eliciting insight from the inside out (internal) kind of focus, whereas the previous (8th) competency, Creating Awareness, had always felt very coach orchestrated and (external) action oriented. Coach orchestrated meaning the coach often times created the awareness with their own agenda, in attempts to elicit insight. Replacing one word creates such a powerful difference. Kudos ICF!
 
Evoking awareness highly encourages clients to go inside, go internal and spend time in their space. Spend time looking for where/how their own DNA may have contributed to this challenge. That time spent searching inside, happens in the silence we provide. Let that marinate for a moment. The time that we allow our client to spend searching internally, happens in the silence we provide.
 
The power of silence speaks louder than the words we often try and interject to fill the uncomfortable quiet. The uncomfortable is what they hire a coach for. Not to lead them, or fix them, or tell them what worked for someone else, yet to allow them, once a powerful question is asked, to rummage through their own unspoken, unacknowledged space to find the root of their challenge. That, my friends, is what happens in the silence.
 
Silence is wildly powerful! So powerful that it too was added to the revised competencies because of the integral role it plays in coaching. Silence does the heavy lifting. Silence is magical. Silence unearths some of the most deeply rooted human change. Evoking awareness is what begins the beautiful domino effect in coaching. Evoke, and then prepare for the silence.  
 
As a credentialed coach with ICF Global and a member of the ICF Michigan chapter, leveraging our core competencies encourages alignment in our industry. As we move forward as brilliant coaches, I urge you to ask the powerful questions...and then zip it. No advice. No words. Just powerful, powerful silence. Allow them to dig through their bag, through their old stories and through the collective remnants that hold so much energy for them.
 
Ask powerful questions.
Evoke their awareness.
And step back.
Silently.

Jodee Gibson, PCC