The effective and successful coach embodies the concept of shugyo, what Strozzi-Heckler (2007) has identified as the achievement of a level of maturity that generates positive emotional states and manages dissonance. In embracing and realizing this embodied self-cultivation, the coach activates a resonance with the client that engenders vibrant and exhilarating learning possibilities. The striving for shugyo is revealed by ongoing practices for self-mastery—practices which serve commitments beyond one’s self.  We posit that those who are identified as high potential and high performance clients are in fact striving for shugyo. They wish to develop their own mastery for the sake of the larger calling that their organization is working to serve. The coach and client who engage in the exhilarating demands of high potential and high performance coaching will need to address the substance and relevance of courage to learning, success, and possibility.  Learning and development herald change, and change evokes strong resistance. The courage to learn must be met by coaches who are striving to bring out greatness in their clients, and who can support the intensity of their clients’ learning experiences.  To be truly authentic, challenging, and supportive with each other in the coaching engagement requires risk, and risk can only be taken where and when courage is available.

Organizational coaching is complex. It requires a corresponding complex “requisite variety” from the coach—multiple facets of being human and of being effective in the practice of one’s skills. The perception of possibility that the coaching engagement allows serves to enhance commitment and investment from the high potential and high performance client. The work of the coach is to guide this high potential or high performance client through the terrain of possibilities. In such a setting, the high potential of the coaching engagement is likely to evolve into high performance for both the coach and client, where the successes that come to the client ultimately affect the success of the organization.

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This article was initially published in the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations and is available (with graphics) as a download below.