An Exercise to Help You Coach For Equity

When we do equity work, the question isn’t if emotions will be present, it’s if we are prepared to skillfully navigate them and support ourselves and others in learning from the wisdom emotions provide.

As with all things Transformational Coaching, you must start with yourself before you can support others. This is why participants engage in an exploration of their beliefs about emotions during our Coaching for Equity workshop. The more aware we are of our beliefs, the easier to shift those that hold us back.

An exercise: Take a few minutes to complete and reflect on this excerpt from an exercise that participants engage in during Coaching for Equity 101 that comes from The Onward Workbook. Consider how these lessons learned and beliefs held might impact your ability to thrive, and your ability to engage emotions and coach for equity.

Which of the following beliefs about feelings were you taught? To what extent do you hold these beliefs now (a little, sometimes, a lot)?: 

• Emotions don’t need to be talked about.
• There is a right way to feel in every situation.
• Telling others that I am feeling bad is a sign of weakness.
• Men shouldn’t cry.
• Negative feelings are bad and destructive.
• I can’t control the way I feel.
• If I tell other people how I feel, they won’t like me.
• If I ignore a feeling, it will go away.
• Letting others know how I feel is useless.
• Being emotional means being out of control.

An opportunity: If you want to learn how to coach for equity and are in the early stages of understanding educational inequities join us for one of our Coaching For Equity workshops.

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