CAREER/LIFECOACHING 115
Richard Strozzi-Heckler
T
he body is central to my coaching practice. When I say “body,” I use the
term in the somatic sense of the word, which from the ancient Greek
means the living body in its wholeness. This is not the sleek, airbrushed body
on magazine covers or the Cartesian notion of body as beast of burden that
ferries a disembodied mind to its intellectual appointments. Nor is it the me-
chanical, physiological body of modern medicine or the religious formula of
flesh as sin. The body, in the somatic sense, expresses our history, commit-
ments, dignity, authenticity, identity, roles, moral strength, moods, and aspira-
tions as a unique quality of aliveness we call the “self.” In this interpretation,
the body and the self are indistinguishable. In my coaching, I work with the
self, the whole person, through the body. I ask my clients to commit to prac-
tices that allow them to embody new skills and behaviors; this is entirely dif-
ferent from having an insight or a cognitive understanding.
I work with the premise that the self is the leader ’s primary source of
power. I have seen time and time again that who one is as a person, that is,
the self that one is, ultimately becomes the deciding factor in success as an
exemplary leader. Clearly, intellectual capacity and specific technical skills
matter, but they do not alone make a powerful, effective leader. When I
speak about the cultivation of an authentic self, I’m not referring to self-
esteem training, personality development, or self-improvement seminars.
These are processes where one may feel better about oneself, but they may
not necessarily lead to new actions or improved performance. Working
through the body, I coach executives and senior management toward a lead-
ership self that fulfills both business and personal commitments. They often
feel more confident and self-assured through the somatic coaching, but the
goal is not so much a psychological state as becoming someone who can take
actions that were previously unavailable to them.
Richard Strozzi-Heckler, PhD, is President of Strozzi In-
stitute, The Center for Leadership and Mastery. He has a
PhD in psychology and a sixth-degree black belt in
aikido, and is the author of six books including the na-
tional bestseller, In Search of the Warrior Spirit.He wa s
profiled on the front page of the Wa l l S t r eet Journalfor
the leadership program he developed for the United
States Marine Corps. He can be reached by phone at
(707) 778-6505, by e-mail at [email protected], or via the Internet at
http://www.strozziinstitute.com.