Leaders understand that the key to meeting challenges lies in the development and empowerment of themselves and their staff in order to achieve results and meet the objectives of their department or organization.

Shadow Coaching can be an essential element in growing effective leadership. Shadow Coaching is a key tool in creating and renewing leadership and supporting cultural change within organizations.

While there is no single definition of Shadow Coaching, it can be described as a process designed to assist executives in improving their competence to attain results and contribute to the organization's success. It is a process undertaken with compassion and appreciation for the unique contribution that each executive has to offer in their respective context.

This type of coaching is ideally suited to organizational leaders who must make decisions and act adaptively in intense work environments.

“Perspective is both the angle you see yourself and your life from as well as the viewing height. The higher the perspective, the clearer the view. A Shadow Coach helps you increase your perspective by helping you see what you're not paying attention to, bring your ‘Shadows’ to the light in a safe environment, by asking illuminating questions, introducing paradoxes, and co-creating stimulating arenas and environments that will expand your thinking, as your world unfolds.” - Donna Karlin

Nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it, nor as horrible. Intangibles such as fantasies, beliefs, ideas and concepts may last and influence the choices we make in our lives. You can help shift how people think; how they see themselves and how they view the world. That is how you can be a catalyst for change in the world. Master the skills you need to get beyond your own limitations and help transform lives, leaders and the organizations and communities they serve. Make it safe for people to reveal, identify and embrace their shadows and become all of who they are.

There is a shadow-like energy that exists which is mostly hidden from the conscious mind yet contributes to the overall shape of one's personality. According to Carl Jung, the shadow is that part of the personality one chooses not to see. Usually something one is ashamed of, the shadow is comprised of whatever one cannot accept in one’s idea of oneself. Not being integrated or even acknowledged by conscious mind, the shadow sits and waits in the unconscious. If it's not acknowledged, it doesn't disappear, it goes under the surface, continuing to influence the person. The solution is not to repress the client's shadow but to shine a light on it, help them acknowledge it and learn to incorporate it into daily life. If not acknowledged, the shadow will take on a life of its own and block critical energy. However, once one starts to acknowledge their shadows, integration begins and incredible positive energy returns.

Coaching a client around their shadows allows that energy to be accepted and bring a greater balance to their lives. The shadow must be neither repressed nor fully exploited but, through coaching, transform it into appropriate channels, and bring it into balance with the conscious personality. Sometimes it is not the darker aspects of the unconscious but the very best parts, the hidden talents and strengths that emerge. Acknowledging the presence of previously unrealized gifts takes courage as, integrating them demands a change in lifestyle. Through Laser Coaching®, we will shine a light on these unconscious gifts, helping clients create change by choice and evolve into their level of excellence.

Our work is to help clients find the balance between the conscious and unconscious, shadows and light.Shadow Coaching involves observing and intervening in the ways people act and intervening to assist them to take full advantage of their talent and competencies in a given field. The Shadow Coach observes how individuals construct interpretations about their ways of being which are then reflected through their language and actions. It also works with emerging shadow personalities and helps the client embrace and accept their ‘shadow’ personalities as a vital and valid part of their character. Through the Shadow Coaching approach, the coach assists the coachee to become aware of these interpretations and how they can be changed. Personal performance feedback comes from real-time first-hand observation with focus on the difference between stated objectives and actual behavior. With that information, coachees identify choices between what they want and what they are currently doing and implement change accordingly.

Shadow Coaching empowers people to accomplish more than they think possible and to take responsibility for their own actions. It is a self-generating and self-sustaining learning method that promotes and supports cultural change within the organization.

Like other disciplines, Shadow Coaching has a rigorous ethical framework. The essence of this framework is that while Shadow Coaches are able to generate powerful interpretations from which coachees can benefit, the coach does not hold the truth about what is best, and always works within the emotional and physical space of the coachee.

Within a larger context or group setting, the Shadow Coaching model is used to maximize the success and efficacy of organizations at the group level. This encompasses individual excellence within the global perspective of building a cohesive, effective team to meet organizational responsibilities, and become ‘centres of excellence’.

Using this methodology, solutions and strategies are created to help participants learn how to attract, develop, support and sustain organizational leaders, thereby building leadership capacity overall within the organization.