The Reframe: Leadership Coaching to Gain Perspective
Our mental frames shape how we see the world.
How we each see the world is a combination of: our beliefs about how the world works + our own lived experiences + what we feel to be true about our own perceptions, and social feedback.
All of this happens in a nanosecond.
In coaching, a common tool used to gain perspective on a challenge or question is The Reframe. When your coach asks you to take another perspective, this is The Reframe in action.
There are three domains where the reframe can be utilized effectively to reveal new insights.
The time shift: “Imagine this scenario from the perspective of one year from now..”
The persona shift: “Step into (X person’s shoes)…what is the most pressing concern from their vantage point.”
The emotional shift: “What would be different if this situation was not charged with (x emotion).”
The Reframe is not intended to talk you out of your experience, nor minimize it. The Reframe is a strategy to help you gain distance, new insight, and most importantly, options. We can get stuck in limited thinking when we hold on to a single perspective. The practice of The Reframe is a way to hover above and around a situation in order to identify options in moving forward.
Next time you feel stuck, practice The Reframe through time/persona/emotion and see what is revealed for you!
