6 The reflexive coach developer
Being reflexive means looking back on your experiences and understanding the effect you have on other people as well as recognising the reasons why you have this effect.
Being reflexive can be an important aspect of expertise for those supporting the learning and development of coaches. Lucy Moore takes up the story:
For me, being reflexive is a process of looking back on your own practices and behaviours to help you better appreciate how and why the coaches you are supporting perceive you in the way they do. It is having a heightened sense of self-awareness and understanding about your role as a coach developer – about understanding why you believe what you believe – and seeing this from the perspective of the coach. I always remember how I felt when I was being observed as a coach and being given feedback. Those experiences now shape my behaviour when I am supporting coaches. The saying goes ‘treat others as you want to be treated’ and I aspire to do so. Being reflexive increases your potential to navigate some of the power relations, opinions, beliefs and perceptions that you may encounter as a coach developer and understand these in more detail.
Reflexivity is therefore more than just being reflective. Instead, it is reaching a point of knowing why you believe what you believe about developing coaches, and projecting this in your behaviours and actions (Warren, 2011). It is about how you construct your self-identity as a coach developer and what this role means to you.
Being reflexive requires having a deep sense of self-awareness and introspection and a willingness to always question yourself and imagine your effect on others through the lens of how you would want to be treated. An important and integral part of this is recognising the distribution of power in your relationships with coaches.